Take That and Party

Picture this: it’s 1990, and I’m four or five years old in primary school. This new band comes on the scene, not really this kind of music because all I’ve ever heard before is my dad’s soft rock played on his record player. I’d seen this new band on the TV, and their crop tops were dancing around, and it became a bit of a craze. I remember being in the dinner hall and they were pretending to faint into my lunch box when somebody mentioned the name Robbie. Today I’m going to be talking about Take That! Take That and Party was the first album I ever bought or had bought for me. I remember my parents taking me into Music Zone in Leigh, and I bought the cassette, and I think I still have it somewhere, actually. It will be in the garage under my bed. I’m fairly certain that, the bit with Could It Be Magic on, it’s probably wearing quite thin, if not completely worn out, because that was the song that I was absolutely obsessed with. I remember the video for that, the wild dancing and bare chests. Thinking back, that’s something a lot of bands weren’t doing then, and it’s when the sort of teenage heartthrobs came about. A lot of girls were attracted to that kind of thing, and a lot of guys were attracted to that kind of thing as well, so they were popular amongst everyone. Of course, there were other boy bands that came after that, but none were ever actually as big as Take That were in the 90s. After the first album, my love with them sort of started to fall to the wayside. I did like a few songs after that, but it was mainly the first album for me. I like the dancey pop melodies more than anything. I do remember the day that Take That split. I’m sure that I saw it in the newspaper headline. It might have even been News of the World, but the thing I remember the most about it is how much it affected a lot of the young girls. There were people crying, and there were people who were absolutely heartbroken that Take That was splitting up. It’s absolutely crazy because it’s just nothing. They weren’t dying; they were just splitting up.

Anyway, it didn’t bother me that much by this point. I still liked them, but I wasn’t a super fan. When they got back together and they brought out the newer stuff, which was a lot more grown up, it wasn’t really my kind of thing, with the exception of “Shine,” which is an absolute banger. I mean, I could listen to them and I wouldn’t turn them off if they came on, but they weren’t sort of my favourite songs at the time.

However, I did develop a weird liking of Gary Barlow. I’m not sure why. He was the underdog, really. He was the really unattractive one in the beginning. I remember him wearing a white tank top with little frosted-tip hairstyles, and yeah, poor lad didn’t have any fans, really. As I said to Adam yesterday, he’s like a fine wine. He’s aged well, and he’s obviously always been the most talented, so he wrote the songs and he did the majority of the singing. 

Anyway, the other thing that never really died was my absolute love of the song “Relight My Fire,” which I’m fairly certain is probably my favourite song ever, along with Pulp’s “Common People.” I’m not ashamed to admit that sometimes I will drive to work, which is, I think, a 30-mile trip, and I will just listen to that song on repeat and not any other song. I won’t get bored at all, and that’s fine. In fact writing this now I’m on the fourth play through. I will seek that autism diagnosis soon, I promise. 

So last year, when it was my birthday, Adam got me tickets for Take That this year, and I was so excited. I’ve never actually seen them before, and I was really excited. I knew they’d perform some of the old songs, and although it’s just Gary, Mark, and Howard now (it was obviously never going to be Robbie, and I think Jason left quite a few years ago), it was still going to be a really good show. I’d been told that it was the Circus. The Circus. I’m like, what is the Circus? I thought the Circus was an album. It was, but apparently in 2009, when they did the Circus tour, they did it like a big circus, and it was going to be that again. I was quite excited, but I didn’t realise that it was like an actual circus and people dressed up in circus-themed until the day before. I hadn’t really planned my outfit. I have so many circus accessories because I collect acrylic jewellery and handbags and things, so I literally spent the night before getting out all of my acrylic circus accessories and bags and chatting to my neighbour, who was also going to, to sort of ask her which ones I should wear. I made a decision, and I wore my Lucy and Yak jumpsuit, which has got coloured spots on it, because I thought that was kinda circus-y, and I sort of waved my hair. I was happy. 

We decided to drive to the outskirts of Manchester and get a taxi to the Etihad rather than drive to the Etihad and get stuck in a lot of traffic, not be able to park, etc., or be completely reliant on public transport, or get a taxi from ours costing the earth. 

Our seats were quite high. Initially, the steward set me up on the wrong side, and then, on our row, there were no seats available. My seat should have been at the other end, and obviously I couldn’t get to the other end because everything was full. It turns out that somebody was sat in our seats, so I’m panicking. I had to go all the way back down. None of them would help me because they couldn’t leave their post, and then, when I went back up to the other side, Adam had already gone up and noticed that somebody was sat in our seats.

Bearing in mind that I was literally paralysed two months ago, I’d now just climbed up two enormous sets of stairs, so I was really overwhelmed and knackered, out of breath, red raw on my face. Not the great start that I was hoping for, but I had a little drink of my Pepsi and calmed down, and everything was okay. I was just waiting for Take That to start. Adam had already looked up the setlist before we set off, but I’d asked him not to tell me, and I’d guessed it was either going to be Greatest Day because obviously we’re on the Greatest Day of Our Lives, or Could It Be Magic because it’s the Circus. And now I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, but let’s just say I’m very rarely wrong. I was so overwhelmed when they first came on that I couldn’t help myself. I just ended up tearing up. I tried to hide it because I don’t like getting emotional in front of people, but I was bawling like an excited school girl. 

I was expecting the dancing to be pretty crappy, but actually it was really good for 3 guys in their 50’s and the backing acts were really good too. Every minute was more exciting than the last and they got to a bit where they all put clown makeup on while singing a slow song I wasn’t familiar with. Little did I know this was the build up to the best part of the show for me! The first album megamix! Those clowns really could move. The crowd loved every second. 

Then we got to see the guys take on their own circus tricks with unicycles and tiny bikes which ended with the best rendition of Take That and Party. It’s still in my head. It was perfect. 

Later the performance got quite interesting with a giant dark ringmaster for the Relight My Fire finale before the encore. 

I decided I didn’t need to see Rule The World so we legged it out to get a taxi before everyone else which worked. We were home and back in bed by midnight. 

I’d had such a great night and I’ve had Take That on a loop since I got home. I’ve not stopped talking about it. Not stopped thinking about it.

I NEED TO SEE THAT CLOWN MEGAMIX AGAIN. 

And could it be magic? No it’s Ticketmaster. Gary, Mark, Howard, thank you for relighting my fire. It only took a minute to prove everything changes but you and now I want you back for good! I’ll see you next week!