Take that. What a band!!!!!

Hey guys. Been a while since I've done a private blog, so whilst the post-concert depression wears off finally, I can't believe I'm about to say this, but a couple of weeks ago, I went to see Take That in concert for the first time of hopefully many to come. Believe me when I say this; they were soooooo good !!!

They had Olly Murs as their support act, and I went with granny auntie Lyn and mum.

THIS BLOG DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR SOME SONGS, SO DON’T READ THIS IF YOU'RE GOING TO A SHOW AND DON’T WANT THE SET LIST, OR STAGING RUINED!!!!

Now we've got that out of the way….

Made a bracelet for the gig which said "Make this life yours" in homage to my favourite lyric from This life, which just so happened to be the motto of the show!!

So I'm gonna break down my day leading up to the gig, and how we almost didn’t get parked…

11am.

Sat in the garage (where my craft station is) excited about what was to come, finalising family bracelets for the weekend, where I went down to Worcester to see them at Cousin Carolyn's, and also made my bracelet with Take That on loud and proud on my speaker.

3:50pm

Left the house to go to the arena, picking up mum and Auntie Lyn on the way. Eek!!!

Grumpsie, as he always does, left the hospital late by accident, so I didn't end up leaving Auntie Lyn's until around 4 ish to go and pick up mum (typical men…). Luckily the traffic wasn’t that bad, and we quickly picked mum up, got to Auntie Lyn's, hopped in the van, and then got on our way. We had to detour a little bit off of the M42, but when the city was in sight, I couldn’t help but feel super super excited. Take That have been on the bucket list for around 13 years now, and it was finally happening. 11 year old me would have screamed at the thought that it was finally happening, and that granny was going to let me go :)

5:30pm

Finally got to the arena.

This is when the excitement levels started to build. But there were no disabled spaces to park in… this resulted in 1/2 an hours' worth of waiting for a space to become available. But luckily a security guard was just about to come off shift, so we nabbed that space for the time being, and got Auntie Lyn up the ramp, and to the wheelchair entrance.

6pm.

We FINALLY got in to the arena.

We sat for an hour and a bit and had a drink and some photos before going to the toilet and heading in to the arena bowl to our seats, I can't fault the arena staff at all. They were extremely helpful with the locations of our seats and how to get to them. We were literally so close to their B stage, and it was such a pinch me moment!!!! I've loved take that since I was 10 years old, and the 13 years of pestering my grandma to take me finally paid off lol.

7:25

Olly Murs took to the stage.

He was amazing!!!

He did some of his classics, like heart skips a beat, and you don’t know love.

Couldn’t have asked for a better support act.

8:35 pm

The main event

The boys took to the stage.

They opened their show with Keep your head up, which is the first song off This life, and it was such a powerful song to open with. I will never forget the roar of the arena too when they came on to the stage. It was amazing. The song was definitely a stand and record moment, compared to the rest of the set, and like aforementioned, it was such a good way to open such a great set.

Other amazing moments for me included:

Never forget:

It's a staple take that song, and I think had it not been included, some fans would have rioted. To see the whole arena with their hands in the air, and singing along was really nice. I also want to thank mum for recording for me, as I wanted a free hand so my recording didn’t go shaky. Thanks mum. Owe ya one!!!

Greatest day:

The song that took them over to their Satellite stage.

The way this was staged, and the way they didn’t fall over whilst walking over the bridge to their satellite stage is something I will forever be in awe at. Feel like I'm gonna use "the way this was staged" a lot this blog, but oh well.

The fact that the whole show was worked so amazingly, and they performed so many new, and old songs, in the 2 hours they had, was awesome to say the least!!

The amount of quick changes in this show was ridiculously awesome. In a good way too.

Suits

Capes and VR headsets

Crowns

They had it all

These days:

Hands down my favourite Take That song. Well one of two anyway.

The way it was staged was beautiful. Coming out of the virtual world back to reality… *chef's kiss*

At least that’s how I interpreted it anyway. The lyric "We've gotta live for these days" is a really poignant one for me, as its basically YOLO in a lyric. Live your life how you want to live it, and don’t let anyone tell you how to live your life.

This life:

The song before the satellite saga. The title track of the album, and the tour. And, what a song too. They got their band and crew on stage, and basically made it like a family gathering. It was nice that, not only did they recognise that their crew do a lot to make the show happen, they actually did this life with the lads, and the way that this was staged was cute.

Rule the world:

The set closer.

I actually wanted to record the whole of this song, but my storage filled up half way through the song :(.

What a song to close the night with!!!

The poignancy of the lyrics to this song, and the way that the whole arena lit up, in awesome fashion, was really awesome to see and, as Gary said, paraphrasing it slightly "Light up this arena for the loved ones that aren't with us, and have a safe journey home."

The whole arena singing along to every song, and making sure that they could be heard. This was special. Also awesome. Lost my voice temporarily the day after, but it was for a good cause. feel like i say this after every gig i go to, but this one was so amazing, i almost cried at points.

Relight my fire.

The fact that they had as much fire on that stage as they did, and didn’t burn the set at all, was amazing. I was worried at one point that it was going to accidentally catch one of the streamers that had got caught on the speakers, but amazingly it didn’t.

How would I describe this tour? Basically a 2 hour history lesson on how the band was formed, how Jason and Robbie left the band, and a run through of some of their amazing songs. I left the arena with a massive smile on my face, and this concert will be one of the ones that I will not forget for a long time. To be honest, I don't even think Becky Hill in October is going to top this. And that is saying something!!!!!! (sorry Becky!)

I'll add some pictures down below, and also link my socials (if you guys have come from my socials, hello :) )

Love you guys

Nat