Take That!!!
My ticket!
I've waited longer to write about the Take That show than I thought I would, but I wanted to wait until my hours on ebay had paid off. As soon as we left the arena, I said to my sister "I'm gonna have to get more tickets". Cue three days of almost constant ebaying. But at 1am this morning, I found two tickets on Buy It Now for £150 (£50 less than we were willing to pay), so I started texting my sister trying to get her to ring me back, which she eventually did, and we finally got tickets. Floor, block J, row D, so at the back, but that's fine with us, we can walk! I'm so excited now! I was literally jumping round the room when we'd got them!
So on Saturday I was just a ball of hyperness. Jane and Carol came round with Abbie and Jack as usual, we went into town (I got new jeans; size smaller =D) then went home and just sat around talking while the kids ran in circles around our house. They stayed till about 5pm, and then I got ready (new jeans and Take That tshirt, with a vest underneathe) and had some pizza (not much though, was too excited to eat). Went round to Carol's for about 6pm. She wasn't ready yet, so I played with Abbie for a bit and got called a "dweeb" by Tony,. my brother in law. Was too distracted to point out that people who still use the term "dweeb" probably aren't exactly the coolest of people. Carol came downstairs and her sister in law, Ange, came round, and then a little while later, Jane and loads of other people came round. Too many strangers for my liking, but I put up with it.
We drove to the MEN, nearly got lost, found a car park next to the arena, parked and walked round to the entrance (stopping to buy flashy things on the way!). When we got in, first stop was programmes.
Programme and flashy thing
Next up was finding the merchendise stalls and getting tshirts. There were eight of us, so there were a lot of people to squish into the already packed room where they sell the merch these days. Still, eventually we all got in there and bought whatever we wanted to buy. I got a black and red stripey tshirt and some knickers =D Everyone else seemed to get a red t-shirt made to look like a football t-shirt. Which were also pretty cool, but everyone had them.
Black and red stripey Take That t-shirt
Black Take That "It Only Takes A Minute" hotpants.
Quick trip to the toilet for people to put their new tshirts on (and they laughed at me all those years ago for getting a t-shirt when my sisters took me to see them when I was nine, but at least I didn't have to get changed in a public toilet!), and we headed off to find our seats. Around this point, we noticed that the row on our tickets was different to the row we were told when we booked the tickets (which was row D). Which pissed us off a fair bit, but there wasn't much we could do by then, so we just went and found our seats. We were right at the back, but we still had a good view.
Beverley Knight came on not long after we got settled. She really really annoys me. Everyone else was gushing about how fantastic she was, but I had people who seem to think good singing equals fitting as many notes into each word as humanly possible, which is what she does. She murdered Piece Of My Heart, and my sister went on about how amazing it was. Still, she gave me a chance to gauge how well I would be able to get pictures. Answer, not well. In the end I mostly just made videos, because they were working out a lot better.
(Most of the rest of the pictures have been edited to lighten them so you can actually see people on them, but that means quality is lost).
An unflattering picture of my sister Carol (the short one) and her sister in law, Ange, in their Take That t-shirts and with flashy things
Beverly Knight being annoying
She went away in the end, and we sat around for about 45mins before the lights went off and your ears started bleeding. Seriously, the screaming was crazy. And we were just as bad as anyone else! They had a very dramatic entrance, of course, and when they actually appeared on stage, the screams were deafening. They started with Once You've Tasted Love, which was an interesting choice with it not being one of their more upbeat songs or one of their more popular. Still, it worked pretty well. Then they did Pray, which was cool as hell. And I have a picture from that.
Doing some weird bendy dance during Pray.
When they played Everything Changes, I called Matt so he could listen, like he asked. Don't know how much he heard, but I just held out the phone for the song.
These are just a few more pictures from the first half of the show...
Dunno what song this was, but this was on some stairs. They stood on them a lot.
It Only Takes A Minute. Check out the stage!
Then what happened? Then they went out onto a second stage in the middle of the arena! It was sooo cool! They did the Beatles medley they used to do. It was seriously ace! I phoned Matt again so he could hear them play Hey Jude, because I know he really likes that song. And then they did How Deep Is Your Love on there, which was cool; they played it with just two acoustic guitars. Supposedly to make it intimate. With 15,000 people.
That's Gary and some dancer during a fucking ace Flamenco version of It Only Takes A Minute.
Just a picture of the screen while Mark was on it. I didn't bother lightening this, it didn't really make it any better. He's still hot though!
Jane wanted a picture of Howard, so this was for her, but I think it came out pretty well with them standing next to the screen.
Them walking across from the main stage to a second one above the audience.
Of course, when they used to do this second stage thing, the walk-way used to stay put next attached to the stages, and afterwards, they'd run back along it to get back to the main stage. However, this time, the walk-way lifted up and the stage lowered. And a ladder went down to the floor. And Mark announced that they "wanted to get closer to you". Oh yes. They walked back to the stage!!
Doing some kind of Beatles-esque dance *shrug*
More Beatles type stuff.
I think this one was How Deep Is Your Love, based on the guitarists, but I'm not certain.
That blob with the arrow pointing to it is Mark Owen casually walking back to the stage!!
A few song songs later, and it was time for Back For Good. So down came the rain! Oh yeah, hot men all wet. It was so good, and I got one of the better pictures during it.
=( You can't really see the rain. Still a pretty ace picture though, I think.
And then the bit everyone had been talking about. Robbie. Alas, not in person, just the hologram, but better than nothing! I tried to get a picture of the actual hologram, but it didn't turn out. I got a picture and video of the screen though, so it's not all bad. He sang the intro to Could It Be Magic which he had re-recorded for the tour, and it was cool. Didn't last as long as I'd hoped though.
Mister Williams
And then they ended on Never Forget. I was quite disappointed that the choir bits were just recordings from the original version rather than an actual choir like they had last time I saw them, but it was still cool. And no moving floors this time either. But it was still amazing. I've got a video of it, but no pictures.
And then we left. I called Matt because I was so made up, I just had to phone someone. He was quite impressed with the Hey Jude. We got a bit lost getting out of the area where the arena is, but we made it home ok.
It was such an amazing concert. Even better than last time! Like I said, the fist thing I said was that I had to get more tickets. I knew Carol was already going again, so as soon as I got home, I sent Jane a text asking if she wanted to go again. I got on ebay the next day and had a look at prices and things. We set our price originally at £60 per ticket, but that gradually rose as we realised quite how hard it would be to get tickets. In the end, we said we'd pay £100 per ticket. But the ones we've got today have come to £75 each, so that's not bad. Now I'm just so excited!
And just before I finish, as I need to get to bed, I got my ball dress on Monday! It's very dramatic with my black hair...
Obviously, you can't tell properly how it looks on the hanger, but you get the idea. And it's a 14!! Last year, I said I'd be thinner for this Ball, and I am! =)