Take That!

A friend recently said that if Take That were playing in her front garden she would draw the blinds and turn up the telly! I would’ve agreed with her up until a few years ago when I – along with thousands of others - became a Take That convert.

When the group reformed in 2005, I was amongst the cynics who thought this bunch of old dogs would regurgitate their old tricks and, therefore, not appeal to the likes of me. I didn’t like them first time around and couldn’t understand the mass hysteria that followed the departure of Robbie Williams and subsequent break-up of this manufactured boy band. However, many moons later and here I am, knackered but happy, after jumping up and down in amongst a crowd of 50,000 other folk at the Take That concert in Hampden last night.

It didn’t quite match the stage show of their last tour back in 2009, but it was still a brilliant night’s entertainment. And, I felt quite with it when I did the phone thing. You know the thing I mean? You raise your phone in the air either to take photos or videos of the heads of the folk in front of you, or you raise your phone in the air after having phoned someone to let them hear what they’re missing (which is usually all the folk standing beside you that are singing loudly and out of key), or you raise your phone in the air for no other reason than because everyone else is doing it.

First, I phoned Ross when ‘Hold Up A Light For Me’ came on as it’s one of ‘our’ songs. When we were at the last Take That concert (as a family), Ross and I jumped the whole way through that track – so, it was nice to think he was there with me while I was jumping through it this time around. Next, I phoned Gemma during ‘Shine’. Gemma had bought me the tickets for the concert as a special Christmas gift. We were supposed to be going together, but her job down south for the summer put paid to that. I took my pal Elaine instead and we had a fantastic time together. We made a couple of days of it by staying away overnight and we blethered non-stop (except during the songs of course) from the minute we left home till the minute we returned. Elaine and I usually catch up over lunch, but lunches are so inadequate time-wise when you’ve got so much to talk about, so a two-day blether-athon was ideal! There were obviously a few poignant moments as I would’ve loved Gemma to have been there with me too. She’s always reaching for the stars, so having her join me during ‘Shine’ seemed the most apt choice. Then, I phoned Gordon.  ‘Angels’ is one of our choir songs and we both love belting it out so I thought it would be great to have him there to harmonise with Robbie and me! However, disaster struck: ‘Call failed’ flashed up on my phone screen. I tried a few times then had to give up and make do with singing along with the rest of the 50,000 word-perfect crowd. Unfortunately, my lower harmony part was somewhat lost on them.  Lastly, I phoned home during ‘The Flood’. The song doesn’t have any significance; I just didn’t want Alex to feel left out of the phoning thingy.

So, I had a brilliant time: I’m a Take That fan and proud of it – and here’s a couple of fuzzy pictures of some phones and some heads to prove it...!




'Hold up a phone for me..'



Elaine and me, taken, of course, by phone.