Reviews

But nostalgia, as Jason Donovan, Rick Astley and the rest of the Here And Now crowd, will only get you so far and it is something which Take That, judging by tonight’s show, are very aware of.

From the opening, a sweeping film through time and space that ended with the four appearing behind podiums – making a Beautiful World address of the surging Reach Out – to the finale, a rip-roaring Pray, with its 'hoping that I’ll be a part of you again someday' refrain, the message was clear; the past is behind us, now it’s time for the future.

Take That (c) Shirlaine Forrest

In-between were two hours of fun and frolics that hammered home why they deserve that future. Eschewing the safety of singalongs, they based their set on their new songs; the results were generally good, with the recent singles in particular sounding all the better for a live outing.

Take That (c) Shirlaine Forrest

Indeed, it was the Mark-fronted Shine and Gary’s heartbreaker, I’d Wait For Life, that provided two of the major highlights; the former packed all the Busby Berkeley style dance and glamour of its video into its live take, while the latter gave a genuine moment of thoughtful emotion amongst all the glitz and laughter.

And there really was plenty to laugh at, for all the right reasons. Part of Take That’s charm has always been their honest humour and though their band chats felt creakily staged, Mark’s decision to try out his high energy ‘Take That And Party’ era dancing and Howard’s reference to their podiums as "thingummyjigs" were anything but.

Unsurprisingly, there was still plenty of room for the old tunes, though interestingly, using a formula so successfully honed by Kylie, several of them were given pretty radical makeovers.

Take That (c) Shirlaine Forrest

It Only Takes A Minute transported itself to a strip joint, complete with pole dancing from Howard and Jason; a slowed tempo Could It Be Magic gave Gary his Elton John piano moment, surrounded by dancers, rose petals and all manner of fabulous miscellanea; and Give Good Feeling went nu-rave, in a move that seemed at once both ridiculous and somehow perfect.

Of course, the show was not without its cracks. Taking lead showed the severe limitations of Howard’s voice, Mark’s other Beautiful World lead, Hold On, offered up only a chance for a quick trip to the bar, and the decision to make their brilliant black backing soloist, Lloyd Wade, take a Baron Samedi role in a poorly conceived voodoo set piece for Relight My Fire was uncomfortably questionable to say the least.

Still, despite such things, Take That’s future is assured. The Beautiful World show may not be as good as last year’s comeback but in fairness, it never could have been; that was about joyfully wallowing in the past, this was about starting out down a new road and as first steps go, it was a huge one.