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Take That Chats With Glam Adelaide Ahead of Tonight’s SA Performance

Interview by Elle Whyatt

I couldn’t be more excited. I’ve been waiting for over ten years for this week to come. Take That are back in Australia and performing in Adelaide on Monday night at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre and I’M PUMPED.

In 1995 I was 18 years old. My little sister begged me to drive her the 2 hour round-trip to see Take That in concert at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. I told her, if she paid for the ticket, I’d take her. I wasn’t the biggest fan, but I knew all the songs and I got to see Gary, Mark, Howard and Jason. Well that night, something changed inside me.

Fast forward 22 years later and Take That have made their highly anticipated return to Australia, and I was able to have a chat to Mark Owen about their national tour.

Reforming 12 years ago, the band has had incredible success with record-breaking sold-out stadium tours. They’ve released 5 studio albums, reconnected with Robbie Williams on their Progress Tour and along the way, lost a member, with Jason Orange departing the band in 2014.

When they reformed in 2005 after a successful documentary aired in the UK about the band, I found myself falling in love with Take That. Like that guy in high school who I quite liked, but didn’t take that much notice of, then, 10 years later, I realised I was actually in love with him.

So when I spoke to Mark Owen today, I was keen not to let on about my obsession with the band over the past 12 years! Like any good fan though, I wanted to know how they went about choosing their set list for the tour. Mark happily obliged. “It’s really important the song choice, we were aware that we hadn’t been here for 22 years, so we wanted a good mix of songs, old and new”.

So the mix of old 90’s favourites including Pray, Back for Good and Relight My Fire will be great to re-live, but the best songs, in my opinion, written in the past 12 years, will feature also – and I’m so excited for Adelaide to hear them.

I wanted to know if my favourite song, Pray, would have the accompanying dance moves (Circa 1994). “It’s harder to sing Pray with NOT doing the dance”, Mark explains. “Our bodies just mould into the moves automatically, we throw in some classic moves for everyone”.

I asked how they enjoyed Perth, the city was first stop on their tour. “It was great to get started in Perth, the crowd was wonderful last night, we weren’t sure what to expect, but I think we managed to get the right songs into the mix, so we had a great time and the crowd seemed to enjoy it”.

Enjoy it? They loved it! The crowd were on their feet the entire night. A mix of old and new songs will be sure to keep us dancing on Monday night here in Adelaide.

Mark continues. “We love audiences in all shapes and sizes to be honest, we’ve been very fortunate to play some really big places to huge crowds but we played a gig the other week for 100 people and we just loved it”.

When I asked how times had changed performing since the 90’s Mark said “Yes, the crowd used to take their (cigarette) lighters, I remember that, now it’s all a sea of phone lights”.

For me, I will enjoy singing along to all my favourite songs, knowing that nostalgia isn’t the only reason why I enjoy Take That. They are professional singer-songwriters, and arguably, one of the most successful boy bands in the world. Their songs will make you dance, cry and dance some more!

After telling them we had wonderful beaches here and to enjoy Adelaide’s hot weather (its forecast for 37 degrees on the day of the SA concert), Howard interrupted the interview to ask, “Where is Porpoise Spit from Muriel’s Wedding?” I laughed, assuming he was joking and I explained I’m not sure there is such a place, and offered up a couple of local beaches. “OK, but we’ve just got to be careful of the sharks don’t we? We are looking forward to being in Adelaide, we’re really pleased to be here”.

Before I hang up the phone, Mark tells me his daughter told him to look out for snakes. I tell him it’s not the snakes he needs to be worried about, it’s the spiders. “In all honesty, should I be checking under my bed or duvet for red back spiders?” I tell him, “Probably, but if your hotel room is a few floors up, you should be fine. They don’t like to climb high”. “Did you hear that boys?” he says to Gary and Howard, “we need to check under our beds!”

Take That still have some tickets available for their show Monday, 13th November at the Entertainment Centre, and the ever-fabulous Danni Minogue will be supporting. Tickets at Ticketek.

Photos by Adrian Thomson

Originally published on November 12th

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