Travelling up there was no problem - easy peasy, Shoeburyness to West Ham then on the Jubilee Line to North Greenwich. Good job I checked because John said we needed to get on the DLR from Limehouse, and this would have been totally wrong!
Anyway, on to the show. Firstly I have to say what amazing seats we had. Although it was 3rd row to the left side of the stage, they were staggered in such a way that there was no-one in front of us. We were literally a few feet from the barrier which went all the way around the stage.
The first support act was a singer called Tim Daniel, an unknown artist who was promoting his first album. His music was inoffensive and quite catchy at the time, but then instantly forgettable. Next up was Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who was on stage for half an hour. I recognised most of the songs and she ended with Groovejet (the one she featured on with Spiller) followed by Murder on the Dancefloor. There was nothing wrong with her performance but I couldn't have sat through an entire gig of hers.
Fifteen minutes later, Gary, Howard, Mark and Jason arrived on stage to rapturous applause. This is what we had been waiting for! The show was absolutely amazing - they performed most of their hits and as it was the Beautiful World tour, quite a few from the album. These are the songs as far as I can remember (I may have forgotten a couple - Al, help me out!), in no particular order:
Beautiful World
I'd wait for life
Relight my fire
Reach out
Patience
Back for good
Could it be magic
It only takes a minute
Rule the world
Sure
Wooden boat
Everything changes
Never forget
Shine
Pray
Looking back on it I can't believe they left out 'A Million Love Songs', 'How Deep is your love' and 'Love ain't here anymore'. However, they are all ballads, so maybe it was better to keep most of the show uptempo. I know Mark said he sang 'Babe' in their last tour and wasn't going to do it this time.
The stage sets, lighting, dancers and effects were brilliant. You couldn't fault any of it; it was pure entertainment and the guys were such pros. When they stood at our side of the stage, they were literally about 10-12 feet away and looked straight down at us smiling and waving. So surreal being that close.
During 'Relight my fire', flames ignited all around the stage and it was intensely hot. The guys had special gear on which allowed certain parts of their bodies to catch on fire - I think it was Jason's shoe, possibly Howard's leg (?) and Mark's hat but unfortunately Gary's arm didn't catch alight.
Half way through the show, they walked across a bridge onto a small circular stage in the middle of the arena where they performed for approximately 15 minutes. Al and I felt hard done by after paying so much to be up the front but I suppose that's being a bit selfish! One of the best moments for me was when the guys returned from that stage to the main one, coming through the audience and through a barrier a few feet away from us. I managed to stroke Howard's arm and when I held out my hand to Mark he shook it. Gary and Jason had entered the other side of the stage.
As you may have seen, Gary has lost an awful lot of weight which meant he had no difficulty doing the dance routines. However, it made me chuckle because when watching his facial expressions during the routines, you could still see that he doesn't particularly enjoy doing it. Bless!
'Never Forget' was fantastic. A great sing-a-long song in its own right and of course, you have to do the arm raising thing, but the effects they used were very clever indeed. They guys were on some sort of treadmill but no matter how hard I try, I really can't explain the rest of it. Perhaps the 6th pic below will help a little but you really had to be there to understand it properly. They said goodnight after this one but you just knew there would be an encore. Sure enough, they returned to complete the night with 'Shine' and 'Pray', two of my all time faves. No frills, just the four of them side by side doing what they do best. Magnificent!
One dampener on the evening was a 'jobsworth' security guard who looked little more than 17 years old. For half the show, fans were told to stay in front of their seats but as it went on, the entire centre barrier had bodies hanging over it. Al and I did the same but were ushered back. Some people in our area returned to the barrier and were not told to move - it was totally unfair and inconsistent. However, we still had a fabulous night - it was over far too quickly though; we could've done it all over again. Thanks for your company girlie! I do hope it's not Take That's last ever tour (as indicated on the night) coz I'm certainly up for it again!
I managed to take quite a few photos and these are a selection of the best ones.
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