Take That, Robbie! We're Back For Good

From boys to men, the band relights the fire in NZ!

 

When Woman’s Day meets the chart-topping boy band Take That at the Manchester Opera House on the opening night of their new musical The Band, it’s almost as if the lads are back at the height of their early ’90s heyday.

There are fans everywhere – including famous follower Graham Norton – hoping to score a selfie with Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald, the three men who make up the group’s line-up after the departures of pop icon Robbie Williams and, more recently, Jason Orange. It’s pandemonium.

After smashing chart records and winning the hearts of millions of teenage girls with hits like “Back for Good”, “Pray” and “Relight My Fire”, the band originally called it a day in 1996, shortly after ejecting Robbie for his drug abuse.

Of that tumultuous time, Gary, 46, the group’s lead singer, main songwriter and driving force, recalls, “I felt like I’d barely had an adult life by the time I was 25. I’d worked since I was 11, playing thousands of gigs before I joined Take That when I was 19, then this rollercoaster starts. You get thrown off at the end and life begins.”

However, a decade after the headline-grabbing split, the group reformed for a string of sold-out stadium tours and best-selling albums. And, give or take the odd band member, they have been going strong ever since.