OK, I admit it, I'm a HUGE 'Take That' fan - and I'm 33 years old. So when I found myself at a press conference with the lads sitting less than 6ft away, to say I was ecstatic is something of an understatement. And I wasn't the only journalist in the room who had goosebumps...
'Take That' were Britain's biggest boy band, with over 10 million album sales. They ruled the airwaves in the early '90s and launched the international superstar that is Robbie Williams. But little Robbie left the band in the summer of 1995, leaving band-mates Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange and Mark Owen to struggle on alone, and the boys never recovered their former glory. 'Take That' split a few months later, much to the despair of female teenage fans (and 20-somethings too!).
The boys released a greatest hits album on 14 November, and it seems that we never forgot 'Take That' - a recent ITV documentary about the band attracted over six million viewers. So when the renuion tour was announced, grown women across the country ran to their underwear drawers to find their laciest knickers to throw on stage - and there's one Celebrity Editor who's going to be flinging her bra, too!
When did you decide to go on tour?
Gary: Last night!
Mark: We did have a little chat last night. It's something that we talked about a little bit during the week we were together doing promotion for the album, and looked at the logistics of it and thought whether we were all up for it.
I think we've kind of been up and down, to be honest, over the last couple of weeks – the decision's been shall we do it, shall we not? But you know, we're not getting any younger, that's the truth – I do think though, if we don't do it now, we probably never could, and could never put on the kind of show that we're proud of. We were proud of the old shows, it was a big spectacle, so it's kind of now or never for all of us.
Gary: We feel really amazed at how the album's gone, and because the interest and the support's been so great, it means we can play places like this. I think we all agreed from very early on that unless we could go back on stage and do an unbelievable show, like I think we were renowned for, we wouldn't be doing it.
Would you have liked to have Robbie with you?
Gary: We would definitely have loved that, but we do respect that's not going to happen – Rob's got his own deal going on right now and we obviously wish him the best with that, but we've found the demand is there as a four-piece, we've gigged before as a four-piece and we're going to do it again.
Mark: We can't afford Robbie anyway! The door's always open for Robbie, if ever he's bored one day and we're on the road and he's sat at home and he wants to come and sing a song, he's more than welcome to do that – we'll have a spare mic ready for him backstage.
Has Robbie given you his blessing for the tour?
Jason: Yeah, he's absolutely given us his blessing. I think Robbie's in a place – I don't like speaking too much on his behalf – but he's in a place where he's comfortable with himself, his own career. I should imagine he might have experienced delight for us, but he might be a bit wistful as well. I don't know, like I said, I didn't speak to him much, but he's cool, this won't offend him, he won't be upset about it.
Times have changed, who do you think you'll appeal to now?
Mark: We've grown up, we were all young guys when we were in the band. Everybody's grown up and maybe for three weeks, four weeks, however long the tour turns out to be, really it'll just be a bit of fun – for the people who come along we'll try our best to entertain and maybe bring back some memories, and hopefully it'll be a great evening for everyone, a good energy and a good atmosphere, that's what we'll be looking for.
Your shows were very energetic, can we expect to see the hot dance routines this time round?
Mark: Last week we sat and watched some of the videos because we thought that might help us with our decision and I was exhausted watching them!
Gary: You smoked a packet of fags watching them!
Howard: My knees have gone as well…
Mark: We're probably going to go into rehearsals February sometime, and we really don't know, we're going to go in there and give it the best. I've promised the lads I'll cut down on the cigarettes, and we're going to go in there and see how we feel.
We were saying the other day, you know, if 'Relight My Fire' started, or one of the songs started, we might just naturally come back, we might start start throwing ourselves on the floor and doing a few headspins! One thing we're sure of is we're going to put on a great show – how we're going to put that show together is something now that we'll start discussing.
We're not under any illusions that we are a bit older. After the premiere last week (of the ITV documentary), we all went clubbing afterwards and halfway through one song I was exhausted! So I think I've probably go the most work to do.
Gary: I've been to pop concerts over the last few years and I just don't think people get value for money any more, and I think we always tried to give everybody value for money and that's what we're going to do again.
Jason: Robbie and Madonna are the big entertainers, there's not much else out there. Then again, I've not got my finger on the music pulse at the moment – I'm not slagging anybody off, let's get that straight!
How much did the money have to do with it?
Gary: We've seen all the rumours [the gossip was the lads were offered £1 million each] and we're asking questions! I don't know if you've seen any of our live shows, usually what happens is there is a lot of money involved, so usually by the end of the tour we've spent so much on the live show, we owe money. We'll see if that's the case this time.
Jason: Money's an important factor, it's a consideration.
Will there be a new album out after the tour?
Gary: It's been so hard getting to this point, that to even predict another album, this seems like the biggest mountain we've got to climb at the moment – I think, take one thing at a time.
Will anyone be joining you on tour, like Lulu?
Gary: That's a good question actually, I was thinking about that last night. I think we'll ask, definitely.
Is there anything worrying about going on tour again?
Howard: For me the rehearsals, they're always quite hard and strenuous, and obviously we have to see what our fitness is like as well. When we did the last tour they were very physically demanding and I'm 37 now.
Howard, it was quite a traumatic time for you when Take That split up, are you reliving any of those emotions?
Howard: I think it all happened very quickly when we split up in '96, I think with all the promotion and everything that 'Take That' were doing at the time, I couldn't really sort my head out, and that's how I felt, I had a mad 10 minutes. But now I know where my life's at – 10 years on I won't have those kind of feelings any more.
It took a full year to sink in that we'd actually split up, kind of not knowing what you're going to do in the future, it's very daunting, to be together for six years and working every day and then all of a sudden not. It's like a relationship that's split apart, quite a traumatic experience. And I was kind of like lost. This time round, we all know where we're at, we've all got our own lives. I'm happy now.
2006 tour dates:
24 April - Newcastle Arena
27, 28 April - Birmingham NEC
30 April - Glasgow SECC
2 May - Sheffield Arena
5, 6 May - Manchester MEN Arena
8, 9 May - London Wembley Arena
12 May - Dublin Point
14 May - Belfast Odyssey
New dates added
17 June - Manchester Stadium
21 June - Cardiff Millenium Stadium
24 June - Wembley Stadium
Tickets go on sale from 9am on Friday 2 December. Available from www.ticketmaster.co.uk
