Last week
my Mum and I took a little moment of madness after seeing footage of Take
That's first show of their UK tour on ITV's This Morning. The TV footage of their opening night convinced us to phone the venue's box office and see if there were any tickets
left for one of the Glasgow gigs. We were pleasantly surprised when we soon discovered that there were in fact tickets still available for the third show of the
tour on Thursday 30th April 2015 at The SSE Hydro Arena in
Glasgow!
We
arrived at the venue with plenty of time to spare so that we could pick up our
last minute tickets from the box office. Fortunately, we arrived after the arena
doors were opened-standing outside in the cold didn't
sound so appealing!
At any
of my previous visits to The Hydro I have always been seated in the accessible/wheelchair
seating on the ground level. However, on this occasion we were seated in the wheelchair area on the second floor and had no idea what
exactly to expect. Both my
Mum and I were extremely impressed with both the assistance I recieved and seating we
were designated. Due to the nature of the show, sitting on the second level
gave us a fabulous view of every angle on the entire stage. Had we been seated
on the ground level we'd not have seen the show in as much detail.
At
around half past seven the show began with Take That's support act, 2012 X
Factor contestant Ella Henderson. She performed a set of songs featured on her
debut album Chapter One. This included songs such as Glow and Ghost both
of which have been pretty successful here in the UK. After hearing her sing live, I have to say
that Ella has a really strong and impressive voice.
Around
an hour later, at eight thirty the lights dimmed after a short interval
and the show began. It all started with the dancers on stage; there was so
much going on from every angle. Some of the dancers were sporting what I would
describe as Inspector Gadget type jackets and hats. A threesome in
matching apparel appeared out of nowhere, marching their way round the long
walk way connecting stage A and B. Loud cheers from the audience surrounding the stage filled the air,
so my guess was that it was actually Take That themselves! As they reached the part of the
walkway nearest to where my Mum and I were seated, they literally walked
down into the floor below them and disappeared! I couldn't quite
believe my eyes!
Before I
knew it they reappeared dressed in colourful suits from behind a raised block
on the main stage. Within a short period of time the colour scheme within the
staging and dancers outfits had transformed from cold blue tones to a
carnival of colours! Bursting into the first track "I Like It" from
their latest album the show had well and truly begun. The opening song was then
followed by "Love Love", "Greatest Day" and another of
their recent tracks "Get Ready For It" where flames were seen
shooting up from the stage throughout the chorus. My goodness! You could really
feel the heat from the fire! One could only begin to imagine the
heat on stage.
After a
couple more songs "Hold Up The Light" and "Patience" came
what I personally would describe as probably my favourite part of the entire
show. The performance of "The Garden" was simply breath-taking and
magical! During the song a large curtain was pulled round the walkway and audience in the
middle (I'm not very good at describing what the stage looked like but
hopefully the photos will make a little more sense!). Using a projector
silhouettes were projected onto the curtain to create a shadow puppet show
which was stunning and extremely clever! The curtains were then pulled back to
reveal the most amazing underwater scene. There were huge fluorescent jellyfish
bobbing up and down as well as underwater plants in many different
shapes and sizes swaying as if they really were under the sea. You
really had to be there in person to fully experience the magic, let's just say
that it was completely out of this world!
Next in
line was "Up All Night", "Said It All" and a cover of Barry
Manilow's "Could It Be Magic" which started as a ballad but quickly
escalated into an upbeat, dance track which had everyone dancing. During
"Let In The Sun" a huge globe soared through the air above the
audience's heads to the second stage where it was lowered within reach of the
cast/dancers. Each dancer produced glowing panels from boxes which they
attached to the globe. A gymnast got inside the "sun" and performed a
spectacular routine as the globe was slowly lifted back into the air. Once
reaching its peak point sparks came flying out of it as it gracefully spun
round and around. This was another of the many reasons why this show was so
spectacular.
"Affirmation"
started with Howard standing on a raised tier playing a single electric drum pad (I think that's what it's called) and was soon joined by Gary and Mark on either
side. All three were dressed in what looked like a cross between a raincoat
(like the ones worn in the film Singing In The Rain) and a white doctors coat. As the song
ended and 'The Flood" soon began the coats made a little more sense. The
room darkened there was a thunderstorm consisting of both loud rumbles and
flashes of lightning. Their coats came alive, with an 'electrical'
image projected onto them. Pretty cool! The choir seated on stage pulled out
umbrellas as it actually began to rain right there on stage!
"Flaws"
another of the tracks featured on Take That's latest album came next. The
performance I witnessed during this song was extremely powerful and full of
emotion. As Gary Barlow took place on lead vocals both Mark Owen and
Howard Donald poured every ounce of their energy into an
absolutely breath-taking piece of choreography. It was simply stunning.
Within
minutes we were then transported to China in "Relight My
Fire". There was a Chinese Geisha, warriors and even a Chinese dragon! A
set of three stools were then brought out for a more intimate setting as they
introduced their backing band and proceeded to perform "Back For
Good" followed by "Pray" which gave the audience a
flashback to the 90s with those classic Take That dance moves.
Another
highlight for me personally, was during a song named "Portrait" where
the band climbed aboard a bike and pedalled up into the air. For the duration
of the song they soared through the sky above the audience heads whilst waving
to their fans. I have never seen anything like this done before at a concert-it
was so cool! It also meant that people like my Mum and I who were seated on either
the second or third floor got a closer view of the band.
A performance
of their recent hit "These Days" came next before the audience
were treated to "Rule The World" a track they released back
in 2006 for the soundtrack of a film named Stardust. Again, this was
another atmospheric performance as the audience slowly waved their phones in
their air at the band's request. As I gazed around the room there
were what looked liked hundreds of tiny stars twinkling in the night sky. I can
only imagine just how beautiful that must be
standing there on stage.
The
final two songs "Shine" and "Never Forget" were real
crowd-pleasers. I don't think there was one person sitting still in the
audience, even the event staff were dancing!
Take
That most definitely put on an incredible show; within the space of just over
two hours so much happened. I would urge anyone out there to go catch one of
their shows-you'll not be disappointed!
