Take That Live

Logo_Take_That

Regular readers of the blog may recall that I am a huge Take That fan. After booking the tickets for Take That back in April, I made a Take That CD for the car which contains nearly 50 of their songs including my 5 favourite Take That songs. That is the only music I have listened to in my car ever since.

A good friend of mine who is originally from the UK wanted to go to the concert and of course so did I, so we made plans. I booked the tickets something like 5 days earlier than everyone else could buy them via a Telstra offer, I forget the exact details. Because the concert was in Sydney which is a couple of hours drive from here, we booked a hotel in Parramatta.

Then life went on but with the added bonus of knowing November 17th 2017 would be Take That Day. I last saw Take That live in concert on the 25th of September 1995, so it has been a long wait for me. My friend lived in the UK until 6 years ago. She was lucky enough to go to a lot of their concerts there. On Thursday I prepared with a manicure –

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We headed up to Sydney around midday on Friday, planning an early burger at Grill’d and a stop at Gelato Messina which was very close to the hotel. So close I could see it from our hotel room window. I feel like this was a secret message to me. ;)

For anyone who is not living in Sydney, the transport system can be terrifying. I grew up in Adelaide where things were relatively simple, there were only 4 train lines and all you had to worry about is what platform your train is leaving from and does it stop at your station.

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I did some research beforehand and all my research told me we had to go to Lidcombe but when we checked in we asked to make sure and we were told it was Strathfield we needed to change trains at. When we got to the train station we could not see anyone to ask, so we went with the information we’d been given at the hotel but it was wrong. Lucky we had gone early, even with this diversion we made it to Qudos Bank Area with miles of time to spare and plenty of time to purchase merchandise.

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I saw this hoodie on Twitter some months ago, a fan had posted a photo of it. I loved it and asked how much it had been – 70 pounds was the answer. Currently that should make it around $122AUD – I was expecting it to be somewhere around $150. But it was $100, so I bought it. And they had a lovely sparkly diamante band logo tee shirt which I bought and immediately went to the bathroom and changed into it. Because I love sparkly things and I love that logo.

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Then we headed to our seats, which were super duper excellent. It was the weirdest thing, because I had an aisle seat and there were maybe 6 seats on our side of the aisle, then it went into a large section of people on the other side. Exactly like you see at the right hand side of the above photo, people, then a large dark space which is the aisle.

Our side was all people who booked early the same as we did, so I guess you would call us the “super fans”. On the other side of the aisle were people who were not super fans like we were. Some of them remained in their seats for the entire show and did not appear to sing along at all.

On our side of the aisle, there was a LOT of dancing, singing, and even occasional screaming when our favourite band member ventured over to our side of the stage. I did not sit down in my seat once after the band took to the stage, nor did my friend.

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Fitbit was not quite sure what to make of all this. I would dearly love to know what songs were playing when I did 12 minutes of outdoor biking.

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There’s my favourite, Mark Owen. Not only were we close to the boys themselves but also to the video screen so we had a great view of everything. One thing I love about these lads, they are not scared to sparkle and sequin it up.

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I believe Sam from The Annoyed Thyroid was somewhere in the above photo. She was meant to see Take That in Newcastle, only that concert was cancelled. I hope you had just as great a time as we did!

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And we did have a most excellent time both at the concert, back at the hotel where we indulged in some pink champagne before bedtime to celebrate our happy evening and then a lovely buffet breakfast the next morning. We then dropped into Costco and IKEA on our way home, because that is how we roll.

Take That, travel

5 Much Loved Take That Songs

take that manchester award

Edited to add – I wrote this post last week. Take That are originally from Manchester and they are actually scheduled to play at Manchester Arena this upcoming weekend. They hold the record for the most concerts performed at that venue. Those concerts will likely be cancelled in light of the terror attack there and rightly so. I imagine security will be increased at concerts world wide as a result. What a horrible thing to happen, especially to children and teenagers who were likely to be fans of the musician playing there.

Since my recent Take That post, I have been thinking.. what do I consider my favourite Take That songs? The answer is not at all simple. There are so many songs over so many years. Take That music is generally very sing-a-long-able which is one reason why it is so popular in the UK where everyone goes to the pub and music plays and people sing along. Many of the songs have sections that do not have lyrics as we know them but things like oh oh oh oh oh (These Days) or ba ba ba ba (Portrait)

Two songs which have always been very popular as wedding first dance songs are – Greatest Day and Rule The World which also appeared in the movie Stardust. Rule the world is very popular for fireworks too because of the lyrics.

My current most favourite song is Let In The Sun – a catchy uplifting tune which is basically about picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, and getting on with it when things are Not Great.

The other songs guaranteed to get me moving and singing along at the moment are –

These Days – Upbeat and uplifting, like a freshly carbonated bottle of Soda Water. :)

Portrait – This song was performed in concert while the trio rode a bike above the audience and when you listen to it you can see why – this song is perfect for riding your air bike above a stadium of people. Or, the air bikes at Magic Mountain, if they still existed. That one is especially for the Adelaidians. :)

Giants – One of the newly released songs from Wonderland – I knew the guys were “back” in Australia when I heard this playing in a shop at Stockland.

I Like It – Sometimes the boys write a song with a specific purpose in mind – this song was the kick off song for their tour in 2015 so the lyrics are kind of specific to that. But I like it, anyway. :)

The one song I have never been a fan of is probably one of their most well known in Australia which is Back For Good. Over time the newer music has become more loved by me than the original music ever was. In particular I loved the albums Progress when Robbie Williams rejoined the band for an album and tour after a 15 year separation and I especially loved III which was the band with just Gary, Howard and Mark.

There was a documentary that went along with the making of Progress called Look Back, Don’t Stare, which was a really special moment for long time fans of the band, featuring behind the scenes footage of recording the Progress album and the band sorting out some of their long time personal issues with each other.

Take That have a new album out now called Wonderland and they will be touring Australia later this year.

Take That

Take That & Party

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When I began working after leaving school, I had a fair bit of disposable income. I bought myself a cheap car and put an expensive stereo system into it. My main aim at that time was to make the music loud enough that I could not hear my tone deaf friend singing in the car. I did succeed.

Each week on payday, I would drive to Castle Plaza after work and go to the music store. CDs were the format of the times, we are talking 1992-1993. I would buy enough cd’s to fill my 6 cd stacker each week, maybe two music “albums” and four singles.

One week I stumbled upon a new group I had not heard of before, an band from the UK known as “Take That”. The music shop had a super special deal – buy the CD and you got a free music video with it. The moment I bought that deal, my fate was sealed. I was to become a Forever Take That fan.

My Mother found it somewhat hilarious that it was a UK group. She had been a huge fan of the Beatles back in her day. She remembers going to Adelaide Airport to greet them. The sheer pandemonium caused by the Beatles trip to Adelaide was pretty crazy.

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I became a collector of Take That items. Whatever I could get my hands on, I would collect it. Even the dolls which as I recall were considerably Up Money as they were imported from the UK. Soon my room began to look a little.. crazy, with posters everywhere. I started to run out of wall space and had to blu-tak things to the roof.

My favourite band member was Mark Owen. This was due to the fact that he always seemed to put the most energy into his performance, especially the dancing. Any fan of the band would always have their favourite member and for many people their favourite was Robbie Williams.room1

In 1995 it was announced the band would tour Australia. I got my tickets as early as possible, I do not remember how that all came about or where I had to go to buy them. But for any self-respecting fan with disposable income aplenty, attending the concert would not be quite enough.

We planned to stay at the same hotel as the band though we had no idea which hotel it would be. Back in those days the two big 5 star hotels in town were the Hilton and the Hyatt, so we made a booking at both of them. We were there to meet the band at the airport, where they were mobbed by fans and loaded into two Toyota Tarago vans. room2

I do remember vividly that fans were thumping the vans with their fists, so hard I thought the windows would break. I did not do any thumping, in fact I remember I was pretty angry with the people who did that and the saner fans among us us told them to stop. They did not listen, though.

We raced back to the car like crazy people and took off to “follow” the band – of course miles behind them by the time we got out of the carpark. When we drove past the Hyatt, the two Taragos were out the front, so we knew where we would now be staying and cancelled our booking at the Hilton.

We were not the only fans who had this idea – in fact there were so many fans who stayed at the hotel, plus all the fans camped out the front, we were all asked to wear our room keys around our necks so they could tell we were guests and not just fans trying to sneak in.

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Here you see Gary Barlow and Howard Donald in their Tarago, taking off from the Hyatt. I’m thinking they were on the way to sound check before the concert but I really can’t recall exactly when this was taken. This was back in the days before digital cameras.

Mark Owen did get into our lift. I cannot remember anything about this moment except how shiny his hair was. I know he talked to us and asked if we were going to the concert. The rest of that lift trip is a complete blur. The concert is a complete blur.

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The only other thing I do remember is when the band went to the pool – we heard they had gone but it was closed so they could use it in peace. Our room had a view of the pool, but we were on a very high floor. Here we all are, trying to spot them.

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And here is my very blurry photo of them at the pool. I used to be able to tell you exactly who was where in this photo, now I cannot remember.

Robbie Williams went on to be the more well known artist in Australia after he left the group. The group did break up not long after he left the band and all went their separate ways. They reformed as a foursome in 2005 and went on to write and perform some excellent music much of which we never heard here in Australia. But those of us who are fans, we followed along from afar.. :)

The band recently announced they are touring Australia in November. I happen to have a good friend who lived in the UK, she has always been a fan and she had went to quite a few of their concerts.

When they did a live cinema event a couple of years ago here in Australia, she asked me to go with her and of course I did, it was great. So she was the first person I spoke to as soon as I heard about the tour, and of course both of us wanted to go. I bought the tickets on pre-sale a couple of weeks ago.

So there you have my crazy teenage fan story. ;) I guess I was lucky that by the time I became a crazy teenage fan, I had my own car, I had a job, and I could afford my obsession.

Take That

Love Love

Before I even had time to sit down and put my thoughts together about the new cd from Take That they have released an awesome song which is in the new movie X-men First Class..

Like all songs with me, I wasn’t too sure about it the first time I heard it, but it is quite the addictive little tune and before long it was going round and round in my head.

Without further ado, love love. Have a listen and let me know what you think! ;)

music, Take That

Towards Progress

Surprisingly this does not refer to progress on the chicken coop we are building, but to Take That and the re-uniting of Robbie Williams to the band..

I was always a huge fan of Take That from the early days, in fact I had virtually every inch of my bedroom covered in posters, I had every video and cd and even some of the Take That dolls. I never did that when I was younger – I waited until I was almost not a teenager anymore to go through my band fan phase.

In January I was channel surfing when I found “Look back, don’t stare” – a documentary on the making of Progress which was the cd they created together. Somehow I had completely missed this entire process. I knew they were back together but I had no idea they had put the cd out yet. So color me shocked, I spent some time watching their videos on youtube and raced off to the nearest CD store the very next day to grab the cd.

I’ve got a lot to say about it and not a great deal of time right now, so this is why I am saying towards progress and not actually progress, because I will write about the album another day.

In the meantime I will like to leave you with my favourite song from the Take That foursome days. They have always done excellent sing along type songs (and so has Robbie while on his own) and this one is no exception. I firmly believe that Gary Barlow is the Elton John of our generation – an incredible song writer and singer who makes music that is unforgettable. When you team him up with the rest of the band the harmonies are very awesome indeed.

If you don’t know it, click below to see Rule The World. It is an extremely popular song for weddings in the UK for somewhat obvious reasons – however it is not the only popular wedding song belonging to them. :) Enjoy!

Take That – Rule The World

music, Take That

A song.

Do you know women who control men with sex? I know of one or few, and surprising as it is to me that anyone will shag them, sometimes men just need somewhere to put it i guess but I can think of better places. Like the fleshlight, which gets very good reviews. Or perhaps fruit. You can’t get a sexually transmitted disease from fruit, as far as I know.

So I heard a song which reminded me of a woman I know who is like that, and then I found this lovely you tube video which I thought I would share. :) The ladies will certainly like it.

music, Take That, youtube videos

Dear Robbie Williams

Not like he’ll ever be reading my blog, but on the off chance he happens to search google one day and be led here..

I was in some ways quite sad to see you go to rehab – depending on what you read, it’s either for prescription drugs or depression – but on the other hand hope that someone in the rehab you are going to might have the magic words to say that will help you be the Robbie you really want to be but more importantly the Robbie we the fans want you to be. So probably you’re asking yourself, who is the Robbie the fans want you to be?

What I (and most fans I know) want for you more than anything else in the world is for you to be happy. You’ve made a lot of us happy over the years, and it’s been a lot of years however from what I have seen, it hasn’t made *you* happy. You have spent half your life singing and performing but you don’t enjoy doing it! So I think you need to go do something that does make you happy. I’m sure you’ve got money enough that you never have to work again, if you don’t want to.

I wish I had the magic words but even if I did I wouldn’t have a chance to say them to you. So I guess what I’d like to say is thank you for music, and regardless of what you think of yourself or what you think other people think of yourself, I think you’re a good bloke.

celebrities, Take That

Morning Surprise

This morning I arrived at my desk to find this..

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A closer view for you.

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What on earth is on my desk, I hear you asking. Well, that’s Robbie Williams and Mark Owen. Yes, I have two Take That dolls. They have been an object of hilarious fun around the various houses I have lived in for some years now. Anytime I would have a party, a good friend of mine would find where the dolls were, and re-arrange them, pants around ankles, in some compromising position. Often I would not spot it until days later but whenever I did see it the end result would be me laughing until I couldn’t stand up anymore.

I don’t know why they are on my desk this morning, perhaps the other half was going through boxes or something, because I had not seen them since we left Adelaide.. But I did happen to get a couple of DVD’s when we went shopping the other day, one is Robbie Williams And Through It All which I listened to on Friday when I was making a cheesecake and it was really wonderful, and Take That The Ultimate Tour Live In Manchester which is their comeback performance on DVD. This I have not watched yet but it’s only a matter of time..

And yes, I know Take That are lame. I am well aware. But they were my Beatles, so shut the fuck up, all right? ;)

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