How much did we want them back for good? That was the question on everyone’s lips. And I can fairly much say, we wanted them back a lot, seriously… As a tender nine year old when they were first around, I had a lot of childhood memories of them, mainly my friend trying to teach me (unsuccessfully) what each of them were called based on her Smash Hits stickers on her pencil case. Back then, I didn’t really see the hype, to me they were just another boy group. Now, however, things have changed… I don’t know what exactly is was; maybe the nostalgia, maybe I didn’t mind screaming my lungs out, or maybe I wasn’t embarrassed about loving the pure poptasticness of the whole affair.

The venue was the Millennium (O2) Dome in London, and what a venue it is. I must admit that I haven’t actually been in there before, but I was suitably impressed by the space-age feel to the place, full of really futuristic colours and architecture. After a few drinks in the over-priced O2 lounge, we headed into the hall to be greeted by Sophie-Ellis Bextor belting out her numbers. As a warm-up act, this was amazing, I got the impression that about half the audience would have been happy just to have seen this performance, but the best was yet to come.

Take That burst onto the stage amid videos of planets (the whole concert had this as the theme), and tore straight into their hits. The crowd went wild as classic song after classic song was played, and it was fantastic to see that these men really were talented singers and musicians (although this is based on my karaoke efforts over the weekend). They played a delightful mix of songs from their most recent album and from their older stuff. The crowd was a mixed old bunch, about 5 girls to every guy, predominantly late-20s with the occasional new fan in there – bless their looks of confusion when the rest of the spectators sang all of the old songs word perfectly! The show was excellent; fast-moving, great lights/laser effects, brilliant use of the additional circular stage in the centre of the dome and great choreography – for late 30 year olds they sure can move (break-dancing and all!) The boys certainly showed that they have a place in the current pop scene.

After, what was for many in the audience, an emotionally draining two hour set, the show wound up with encores of new and old songs - “Shine” and “Pray”. If you have got tickets for one of their shows, you are very much in for a treat, and if you haven’t, maybe have a look around for some - I can’t recommend this highly enough as an excellent night’s entertainment.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 6th, 2007 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Urban Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.