Stadium of Light, Sunderland
31/05/11
Take That. What comes to mind when you read these words? An old boy band trying their luck with their now older, disposable-income-holding fans? No, no. It should be – true showmen. I headed to Sunderland to watch the newly reformed fivesome strut their stuff to an average nightly crowd of 55,000 and all I can say is this: WOW. Believe me, they did not disappoint. Yes, they are older and the grey hair is coming through, but all this was forgotten after the first song ‘Rule the World’.
The first set was the old four faithfuls, Jason, Howard, Mark and Gary and they came on to sing five of their recent hits including ‘Shine’ and ‘Greatest Day’. The initial reaction was that we’d been duped, where was Robbie? And then on the big screen, he appeared, ‘trapped’. Then there was a great explosion and on he jumped, stumbling slightly, but getting up to bask in the thousands of screaming fans. He had the entire audience in the palm of his hand when he sang his first song ‘Let Me Entertain You’, moving on to ‘Rock DJ’, ‘Come Undone’ and finally, the most famous, ‘Angels’.
The show, less gimmicky than The Circus Live in 2009, was still a sight to behold. They five reunited to sing smash-hit ‘The Flood’, giving the crowd what they had come to see: the boys all back together again. At times it felt as if it was a ‘let’s humour Robbie’ night, with Gary taking a back seat (as he did throughout the Progress album) but, nevertheless, the camaraderie grew and grew through hits such as ‘Kidz’ (accompanied by a real-life chess game) and the new single (and my favourite) ‘Love Love’. The night was rounded off with the fivesome toasting the crowd with wine (but milk for Robbie and Mark, jokes!) and acoustic renditions of ‘Pray’, ‘Babe’ and ‘A Million Love Songs’.
The night drew to a close on the crowd favourite ‘Never Forget’, and everybody’s hands were in the air. It was an unforgettable and unmissable night. The boys are definitely ‘Back For Good’!