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Take That and Robbie Williams start tour Take That and Robbie Williams start landmark tour
(about 3 hours later)
Take That and Robbie Williams have started a record-breaking tour of 29 stadium dates in the UK and Ireland. By Ian Youngs Entertainment reporter, BBC News
The first gig was in front of 55,000 ecstatic fans at the Stadium of Light football ground in Sunderland. Take That and Robbie Williams made pop history as they kicked off the biggest tour the UK and Ireland have seen with a euphoric gig in Sunderland.
The performance featured two different line-ups of Take That as well as a solo set in the middle from Williams. It was the first of 29 stadium gigs, with 1.8 million tickets sold, smashing the record the group set in 2009.
A total of 1.76 million tickets were sold after it was announced Williams would tour with his bandmates for the first time in 16 years. The quintet gave fans at the Stadium of Light a trip back to their original glory days with classic hits like Pray, Relight My Fire and Never Forget.
'Special moment' Williams, who last toured with the band in 1995, also performed solo material.
The show opened with the group's number two hit Rule The World, the first of five songs performed without Williams. The tour marks the culmination of the group's long-awaited and lucrative reunion.
Williams was lowered 40ft to the stage for his part of the concert, which began with the massive single Let Me Entertain You. And the return was greeted rapturously by the 54,000-strong crowd in Sunderland.
The band was reunited for real to launch into The Flood, and performed a 90s medley including the hits Babe and Back For Good. "It was absolutely amazing - everything we hoped for and more," said Dianne Roberson, 52, from Derby.
Moments earlier Jason Orange highlighted the reunion, telling the crowd: "Check this out - one, two, three, four, five." "Robbie just took his place. It was great to see him back but he didn't overshadow everybody else."
Mark Owen added: "It's a special moment, ladies and gentlemen." Williams was absent for the first five songs as his bandmates performed tracks like Greatest Day and Rule the World, which were recorded before he rejoined the band.
As the group held arms, Williams said: "Group hug." As they departed, Williams landed on stage to deliver a string of hits that represented his supremacy over his old bandmates in the late 1990s and 2000s, such as Angels, Rock DJ and Let Me Entertain You.
Tight security He also proved that he is still the most compelling showman among them, with the hyperactive dance moves and an intense party presence that became so familiar in the days when he was the undisputed king of British pop.
The reformed five-piece will play four dates in Sunderland before eight shows at the City of Manchester Stadium. That solo success has faded somewhat. Meanwhile, his bandmates are trying to maintain the momentum of their comeback. It made sense that they should rejoin forces.
They then move on to Cardiff, Dublin, Glasgow and Birmingham before a record eight nights at Wembley Stadium. So, after the typically rousing Angels, the five reunited on a platform high above the stage for their first song together, The Flood.
Michael Jackson, who played seven consecutive shows there in 1988, held the previous record. It was the first in a sequence of numbers from their latest album Progress, which was written and recorded as a five-piece.
The Progress Live tour has seen Take That break their own record for total ticket sales. Dancers suspended on wires were drenched by a waterfall as they sang, before Williams dived in slow motion onto the stage. The other four, less acrobatically, were lowered in lifts.
Their last tour, which took place in 2009 without Williams, sold 1.08 million tickets. Another four tracks from Progress followed, each with finely honed dance routines.
The set for this tour was built on an air base in Bedfordshire, where rehearsals took place amid tight security. They included a battle on a giant chess board where all the pieces had come to life. The battle was decided by a breakdancing contest between Jason Orange and Howard Donald, as Williams rapped from a high umpire's chair.
Physical spectacles and special effects are virtually obligatory in any major pop concert, and Take That's visual vignettes veered from the fantastical to the futuristic.
The connections were often hard to fathom. There were, at various times, druids with pots of incense, a giant, pipe-smoking cloth caterpillar, a lone ballerina and masked dancers swinging burning lanterns.
The centrepiece of the stage set was a 40-foot animatronic figure that slowly made its way from crouching to standing amid the crowd, presumably representing the progress of man and the band.
Classic hits
The inter-band banter felt almost as rehearsed as the dance routines.
"Fifteen years ago, Robbie left the band," Orange said at one point.
"Sacked, not left," Williams retorted in mock accusation.
The final quarter of the show was what the fans had really come to see - the five members singing the classic hits.
That segment started with Gary Barlow sitting at the piano, surrounded by his bandmates, just like the good old days.
They avoided dwelling too long on the past by rattling through some of the standards in a medley - Million Love Songs, Babe, Everything Changes and Back For Good.
Then there were full versions of Never Forget, which had 54,000 pairs of hands in the air, a fittingly feelgood Light My Fire, and Pray, including the original dance routine.
The maturing man band may be a bit less supple on the dancefloor than the well-oiled boy band of yore, but the passage of time cannot be held against them.
Otherwise, they have still got the charisma and tunes, as well as the ability to sweep their long-term fans along on an escapist nostalgia trip.
One concert-goer, Nicki Darby, 31, from Hartlepool, put the group's popularity down to the fact that Take That had been there at key moments in their fans' lives.
"They hold childhood memories," she said.
"I've got memories of growing up, living my life and getting into my 30s with them. They've been with me the whole time."