HAVE been invited to the church of Take That – and, boy, am I ready to Pray.
More than three decades after they first started, Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald are treated like gods by their loyal disciples, 700,000 of whom have bought tickets for the 41-date This Life tour, with nearly all gigs sold out in minutes.
It’s a feat that isn’t half bad for three men in their fifties who have spent the past 34 years dodging flying bras faster than Victoria’s Secret could sell them.
“You can never count your chickens when you put on a tour for sale — you just don’t know which way it’s going to go,” Howard tells me, as I join them in Sheffield’s Utilita Arena ahead of their first night on Saturday.
“We’re absolutely amazed that we’ve still got people out there, and around the world.
“It’s just incredible that most of it has sold out.”
Gary adds: “That is our audience, they are so committed. We feel very lucky.
“A lot of our fans have been with us for 34 years. Those early shows . . . they’ve been there and they have followed us ever since.”
It’s the band’s first tour in five years, and while this is their 13th tour — this time celebrating their ninth No1 album This Life — fans lucky to bag a ticket will never have seen anything like this.
From an enormous ticker-tape blizzard as they kick off the set with Keep Your Head Up, with a wind machine so strong it almost ripped Mark’s ‘skort’ clean off, to water fountains that mimic the Bellagio hotel’s famous displays in Las Vegas, the two-hour set is electric and takes fans on a nostalgic trip to treasure.
The staging is spectacular, with 100ft screens and two huge sets of revolving stairs, which, thanks to their dance moves, see Gary, Mark and Howard give Fred Astaire run for his money.
It’s the first time since their 1993 The Party tour that the group have appeared alone on stage, without their band or dancers front and centre.
“We are almost tearing up all the old shows for now, and that’s a bit scary,” says Mark.
“But it feels like the right time for a new challenge.
“There are a lot of firsts happening with this show. A white stage, no cast — it feels like the right time to do this.”
The group are clearly in the best shape of their lives, with Mark revealing Gary and Howard hit the gym hard to get their bodies ready for the physically draining shows.
“Believe me, our legs are blooming tired,” says Howard of running up and down the stairs all night.
“You should see the size of my calves.”
The steps, Gary explains, represent their journey, and during the set the group take their fans on a trip of a lifetime, from their first ever No1 single, Pray, to the moment Robbie Williams quit the band in 1995.
Have Robbie or Jason Orange, who left Take That in 2014, been in touch to wish them luck, I ask.
“Actually, no,” Gary says with a smile. “But there’s still time.”
Away from the group, who have landed 20 UK top ten singles, including 12 No1s, since they began, Gary and Mark have enjoyed success as solo artists but it’s on this tour that Howard really comes into his own.
For the first time ever he performs his song, Speak Without Words, which he wrote for his own solo album which he never released.
Given the reaction of the crowd, who lapped up every note of the soulful track, I wouldn’t be surprised if Howard strikes out on a solo career when the This Life tour wraps at the end of this year.
“For a long time I felt that I was hiding underneath a rock, scared or nervous that my work would be scrutinised,” Howard recalled during an interview ahead of the first night.
“I believe the way we do it now — where we individually do what we want to musically, have a break and be who we want to be — has allowed me to write in a way that’s true to me.
“I feel at the ripe old age of 56 I’ve had the chance to spread my wings musically and become the writer I’ve always been.”
Back to the bangers on stage, the trio mark the next period of Take That history with The Flood and Patience, before Greatest Day sees them changing into jazzy Joseph-style jackets — which were brought in as a last-minute costume addition on Saturday morning — and marching across a huge walkway erected over the length of the arena.
More than 90 minutes in, and neither Gary, Mark nor Howard show a glimmer of fatigue, even as huge flames shoot up into the roof of the arena as they perform their 1993 classic — and my favourite — Relight My Fire.
The heat from the flames, which lick at their heels as they run up and down the stairs, is so fierce that my face starts to burn from 50 metres away, so they must be positively melting.
But if they are struggling, you would never know it.
A fourth outfit change sees them reappearing in all-white costumes — complete with crowns, naturally — and they head down into the audience to greet their fans.
Their angel-like garb makes total sense, given their deity-like status among hard-line fans, with one woman gripping on to Gary like she had hold of a winning Euro- millions ticket.
Finishing on a high with Never Forget and Rule The World, they head backstage where the celebrations have already begun.
“Gaz has brought some wine with him,” says Mark, as I ask them if they will be celebrating by hitting the bar after they have closed the show.
“I have got wine and cheese,” Gary chimes in with a smile.
“But we’re responsible now. It’ll be early to bed for us.”
With 39 more shows to go in the coming weeks, after they played their second sell-out night in Sheffield yesterday, I’m not surprised they are saving their energy for their performances.
I needed a lie down after- wards just from watching it.
GARY has gone viral thanks to a video posted on social media earlier this month, in which he told fans from his vineyard: “This is my idea of a very nice day out.”
The frontman, who launched his organic wine range in 2021, included a long pause as he tried to push the stop button to end the recording, which sparked a TikTok trend.
But it wasn’t just Take That fans jumping to create memes, with Olly Murs, who is on tour with the group, posting his own spoof version, where he pretended Gary was strangling him and picking his nose instead of ending the video.
“Gary has got such a good sense of humour,” says Olly as we catch up in his dressing room.
“I asked him if he’d seen it and he told me he thinks the videos are so funny.
“He is selling merchandise now too. It’s brilliant.”
Joining Take That on the tour was an offer Olly said he could not refuse.
Fans were in for a treat as he smashed through a 45-minute set with some of his catchiest hits including Troublemaker, Wrapped Up and Dance With Me Tonight.
Of being on tour, Olly adds: “The atmosphere backstage is brilliant.
“Gary was telling me earlier that at some point in the tour they do a quiz night, a bingo night, I’ll be getting involved in all of that.
“Me and Howard were going to try to watch the Manchester United game together, but his wife is here so he doesn’t think he’ll be able to.
“Everything is feeling great.
“Me, Gary and Howard were chatting, and so much of my career I had woven in and out of their music.
“When I watched their dress rehearsal, some of their songs took me back to when I wasn’t famous and I was chasing that dream.
“To be on the tour was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down.”
THE LIBERTINES celebrated topping the charts for the first time in 20 years by playing a poolside gig on the roof of London’s Soho House White City on Friday.
But despite their encouragement, the band’s rock’n’roll fans have clearly grown up, as none of them followed the group’s pleas to chuck themselves in the pool fully clothed.
During the set, hours after their record All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade went to No1, Pete Doherty told the audience: “Guys, we got to No1 today . . . There’s a slice of cake for the first person who jumps in fully clothed.”
And there was two very special people in the crowd, his baby daughter Billie-May, along with his musician wife Katia De Vidas.
Co-frontman Carl Barat added: “We are really proud.”
WEDNESDAY: LULU’s Champagne For Lulu tour – which is being dubbed her final live gigs – culminates with a headline concert at the London Palladium.
The show celebrates her 60 years in showbiz and she has promised there will be special guests on the night. Exciting.
THURSDAY: Keep your fingers crossed for Team Sun at the Press Awards, where myself, my colleague Clemmie Moodie and former Bizarre Editor Simon Boyle are all up for Showbiz Reporter of the Year.
I’ll let you know how we get on.
FRIDAY: It will inevitably become the fastest-selling album of the year when Taylor Swift drops her 11th studio record, The Tortured Poets Department, on which she is expected to take aim at her British ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn.
Something tells me he won’t be tuning in.
SUNDAY: Golden Globe winner Ruth Wilson and ex-Doctor Who Christopher Eccleston are among the stars running the London Marathon.
Romesh Ranganathan will also be pounding the pavements for mental health charity Calm.
NO DOUBT staged their long-awaited comeback on Saturday night at Coachella – but they looked so good I could barely believe a day had gone past since they were last on stage.
The group, who hadn’t performed together since 2015, rocked through their biggest hits in an energetic set, which included a guest appearance from super-fan Olivia Rodrigo.
She joined Gwen Stefani and the group to sing their 2000 hit Bathwater.
During the show, Gwen bounced around on stage in the California desert and even did ten press-ups before belting out I’m Just A Girl.
I’m hoping they do a few performances here in the UK now they’re back together, as it has been far too long.
Gwen could give me some fitness tips while she’s at it.
SHE has had one of the biggest years of her career with a massive single featuring in hit film Saltburn.
So how did Murder On The Dancefloor star Sophie Ellis-Bexter choose to celebrate her 45th birthday last Wednesday?
By playing mini golf.
That wasn’t quite the glitzy bash I’d expected.
I’ve learned she hired out the Junkyard Golf Club in Camden for the evening and had a DJ as well as a fancy cake complete with huge sparklers.
Sophie shared the party with her husband, The Feeling’s bass player Richard Jones, who also turned 45 earlier this month.
The attraction costs just £12 for a round of golf, so I doubt the bash broke the bank, despite the fact she must have pocketed a small fortune this year.
