Take That have announced that they will play Croke Park next summer, as part of a major tour for the group.

According to promoters MCD, the concert will take place on 13 June 2009, subject to licence.

During their Irish date, which is part of the 'Take That Present The Circus Live - Summer 2009' tour, the group will be joined by special guests The Script.
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Take That stars Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, Howard Donald and Jason Orange have also announced eight concert dates in the UK.

Tickets for the group's Croke Park concert, priced from €59.50 to €79.50, will go on sale on 6 November next at 8am from usual outlets nationwide.

Photograph: The Irish Times
INTERVIEW: Take That are all grown up - one of them has already hit 40 - but, as they prepare for a tour that will take in Croke Park next summer, they haven't forgotten how to turn on their boyish charm or belt out their brand of boy-band pop, they tell Fiona McCann

WHAT WOULD DRIVE a handful of hacks to board a flight to London in the early morning, pile out of Heathrow airport into the back of a taxi, crawl through city traffic to a posh hotel where they will spend less than an hour, climb into a taxi back to Heathrow and take off for Dublin again? Fifteen minutes with Take That is what. Or 14 minutes and 22 seconds, to be precise. It may not sound like long, but it only takes a minute, girl.

Despite the hype and the flurry of jealous messages from friends when they found out about my upcoming assignation at the Soho Hotel, and the whole jetting-across-the-water-for-a-quarter-of-an-hour thing, nothing has quite prepared me for the moment when I come face to face with the biggest pop sensations of the Nineties - and now the Noughties, too.

Walking - or, more precisely, being escorted by a gaggle of female minders - into their spacious hotel room, it becomes clear that this is not the tete-a-tete I had been expecting. With managers, assistants, PR people and journalists abounding, it is initially hard to even spot the talent in the throng. It takes me more than a minute to realise that the boyish figure hovering to my left as I was swept through the room was none other than a delightfully self-effacing Mark Owen being squeezed into the bathroom by the entering entourage. Small and smiling under a pushed-back fedora, he introduces himself almost abashedly, as if he and I are spectators rather than participants in this bizarre media circus.

By then the piercing blue eyes of Howard Donald have swum into focus, as he and Jason Orange bear loftily down, all chiselled of jaw and shiny of teeth. Gary Barlow is suddenly before me, too, as the crowds part and, one by one, the four pop princes shake hands and smile their dazzling, money-raking smiles while asking after my health in the most incongruously unglamorous Mancunian accents. "All right, yeah?" More than all right, thank you, Messrs Pop Legends.

There's a lot of milling around the ludicrously large hotel room until, after a very obliging photo shoot with me, the foursome split, with Howard and Jason retiring to the sofas for one interview. I'm corralled into another corner with Gary and Mark - or, given that they're now all grown up, Barlow and Owen - though both look remarkably fresh-faced and boyish, as if being a member of the quintessential boy band comes with a Peter Pan ticket to an age-free existence.

They may be older, with Mark the baby of the band, at 36, while Grandpa Howard has already hit 40, but they're raring to go, having just announced a stadium tour to promote their next album, The Circus , an apt title considering the furore that seems to follow them even into hotel rooms. "I don't want us to lose that," says Barlow when I mention that they may have outgrown the boy-band title. "It makes me feel young," Owen chips in, adding that it'll "all be over" the day they lose their defining epithet. "It has come up, but we keep sort of patting it back down," he says, laughing and gesturing over his shoulder as if to keep the years at bay.

The tour includes a hotly anticipated Croke Park appearance, which the two lads proudly announce will be their biggest show. "It's going to be a gig and a half," Owen says with glee, clearly unconcerned about the physical demands of such an undertaking. "In the old days we used to do backflips to Gary singing A Million Love Songs ," he says. "Now we've found a way to move only when required."

Barlow is quick to step in and give a less self-deprecating reason for any changes in how they perform. "The design of the show is different," he says. "The new material is not really music you dance to, so you come up with a new flavour." A new flavour so, and new music to boot, but doesn't it feel different being on the road now, compared with touring as the teenagers they were when it all began, almost 20 years ago? "It does feel different," says Barlow. "The first time round I don't know about everyone else, but I was very blase to it all. I sort of took it for granted a bit." He strikes a serious, almost reverent tone. "This time round I just feel quite privileged."

You can see why, given how things have turned around for this Manchester foursome. After huge success as a five-piece boy band, producing a string of number ones and stealing the hearts of a generation of teenage girls, it all seemed to go a bit Pete Tong for Take That, with the departure of Robbie Williams precipitating the break-up of the band in 1996. While Williams rocketed to superstardom, attempts at solo careers by Barlow and Owen did not lead to similar world domination, though they did clock up a few chart-topping singles, something Donald didn't manage with his own solo effort, while Orange, like a good lad, went back to college instead. It seemed that, apart from occasional requests for comment on reported tiffs with Williams, the other members of Take That were to be consigned to the also-ran pop pile.

That all changed in 2006, when, 10 years after their split, the foursome reunited for an 11-date arena tour to promote a greatest-hits album and bravely took to the stage without their famous fifth member. The fans couldn't get enough. Buoyed by their touring success, Take That got together for a whole new album, Beautiful World, which sold more than two and a half million copies in the UK alone, making it their most successful record to date.

With a new album, and some seriously catchy new tunes, such as Patience and Shine, to promote, Take That hit the road again. "I had the best time ever," Barlow says of the Beautiful World tour. "There wasn't one show that I went on and thought, oh no, we've got to do this again." His only regret was that they didn't play Dublin, a point that leads to some confusion as Owen interjects: "Have you finished the point?" I wave my Dictaphone back in his direction. "Not if you want to chip in," I answer politely, not wanting Owen to feel he didn't get his share of the 15 minutes. "No, but have you finished the point?" I'm not sure if he's thick or just plain rude, so I make it clear that I will stay on the point if he really wants to make one himself. He turns in equal confusion to Barlow: "It is called the Point, isn't it?" Oops. We all have a grand old laugh as he kindly explains that the reason Dublin was overlooked last time was because the closure of the Point left them without a suitable venue. This time, Take That make clear, there will be no such oversight.

They're so disarmingly polite in covering my gaffe that I have to keep reminding myself that I'm talking to sex symbols. "I keep reminding my wife about that," Barlow laughs when I mention that many would consider them such. "I tell her: 'Eh, I'm a sex symbol. Just remember that, girl.' But she will not have it." Owen is equally self- effacing. "I keep mentioning that I got best haircut of the 1993 Smash Hits tour," he says, which apparently gets him nowhere with his other half. "When we get home it's all back to normal."

Back to normal for Owen involves pottering down to the studio at the end of his garden, where he "tinkers around" with songwriting, or heading into the studio to work with his colleagues, where, he assures me, they write the songs collaboratively. Given that songwriting is not a pastime generally associated with a manufactured boy band, the fact that the band members had any input at all always provided Take That with a credibility lacked by some of their peers. Still, it is only since the band's reunion that each member has got a songwriting credit; Barlow had been the only one cited in their previous incarnation. There's a concerted effort now to show that things are different this time around. "We're four people in this band, so when we go and record an album it's not one or two people recording, it's the whole band in there, and there's some part of everybody on every song," says Barlow diplomatically. Owen's version of how The Circus evolved is a little more revealing. "There were a couple of keyboards and a couple of guitars, and we were all on different parts, getting different chords, trying to be heard and get our ideas across," he says.

Wait a minute: they play instruments? What kind of boy band is this? One like no other, according to Barlow. "I really do feel that where we are right now, no one else has ever been before," he says without self-consciousness.

So does he resent the comparisons with other boy bands, such as our own Westlife and Boyzone? "I'm really good friends with Ronan [ Keating], so there's no rivalry at all between me and him," he says immediately. "I don't think any of us feel any of that at all." It's all happy families in the boy-band world, then, with even Williams included after he and Barlow finally put their 11-year stand-off behind them at a recent meeting in Los Angeles. Are they really back to good friends again after all that public acrimony? "You know what? We are," says Barlow. "We spent a lot of time with him when we were out in LA. I probably met him five or six times. I had an e-mail from him last night. We played him the album, actually, and he loved it; he really loved it." Owen chips in again with an impish grin: "He had to say that, though. We were all stood around him."

It will be for the fans to judge come November 24th, when the first single, Greatest Day , is released, followed by the album The Circus on December 1st.

Barlow has managed a separate top-10 hit through his collaboration with the comedian Peter Kay on the winning song for the spoof reality show Britain's Got the Pop Factor and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ic e. "I had a lot of fun," says Barlow. "He e-mailed me all these lyrics, and I just made it into a song . . . I didn't know he was going to do a single. I thought it was just for the show."

My time is almost up, with Donald and Orange, who have wound up their own interview, teasing their band mates for rattling on. Barlow makes an unequivocal gesture to shut them up as Owen finishes his point about how even a multimillion-making pop band can't ignore the changing economic climate. "You can definitely feel what's going on," he says, while admitting his own privileged position. This time around, he insists, Take That have their feet firmly on the ground. "When we were young we didn't really know the rest of the world. This time I think we're going to a public who's not that whole world apart from us." Which is hard to believe as a PR person approaches to say, in no uncertain terms, that my 15 minutes with fame is up. Yet Owen is clear that he does not take any of it for granted. "It's the best job," he says with a sincere, infectious enthusiasm.

It's clear that Take That are having the time of their lives - and won't be pulling another disappearing act any time soon. With a tour and a new album on the way, and the key to eternal youth - or at least some damn fine anti-wrinkle cream - in their possession, it's easy to believe that Take That, the kings of the catchy pop tune, are back for good.

• Take That play Croke Park, Dublin, on Saturday, June 13th

© 2008 The Irish Times
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By Jane Last

Saturday June 13 2009

ALMOST 80,000 Take That fans will descend upon the city centre tonight as their idols play Croke Park.

And the band have promised their legions of Irish followers a night they will never forget.

The Croke Park concert represents the biggest gig on Take That's Circus Tour.

Not surprisingly, the 'manband' have left nothing to chance and were heard tuning up in Croke Park last night ahead of giving a perfect performance to their Irish fans tonight.

Speaking ahead of the Dublin concert, Gary Barlow said their performance in front of more than 75,000 fans is "a real highlight" of their tour.

"It's one thing to get back together and be successful in Britain, but to have a sold-out gig in Croke Park is amazing.

promise

"We really have been counting down the days to this one and we'll put on one heck of a show," he promised.

Despite having played countless concerts, Gary admitted they were a little nervous about their Croke Park gig.

"The nerves are always there, we will be bricking it, but it's all good in the lead-up to a gig like this," he said.

More than 300 people will be working backstage at the concert to ensure one of the largest stage productions Ireland has ever seen goes off without a hitch.

The band have also flown in their families and close friends.

A source said: "Organisers have set up a special area backstage for family and friends.

"There's no way Take That would want their nearest and dearest to miss this.

http://www.herald.ie/enterta....09.html

If pop comebacks are doomed to fail, then Take That have got some explaining to do. Not content with rising from the dead in 2006, even after Robbie Williams refused to rejoin the 1990s boy band that was his alma mater, Take That have gone from strength to strength, releasing two hugely successful albums of new material, getting their songs on Morrisons ads and their faces all over M&S billboards.

This year they have entered the record books with the fastest-selling tour to date: a cool one million fans will see their heroes perform live this summer on a tour rumoured to cost £10 million to stage. So exactly who are all these diehard devotees, who never lost the faith during those cruel years when it looked as if Britain’s best-loved boy band would stay in pop’s dumper for ever? I’ve come to the Ricoh Arena in Coventry to find out.

It would be wrong to say that all human life is here, because all human life is not an overweight thirtysomething with dyed blonde highlights and a deranged grin. But when the Mexican wave goes around the open-air football pitch and all you can see is a human tide of 40,000 Dorothy Perkins smock tops, it does feel as if all the happiest human lives are in attendance.

For one local fan, Deborah Leask, this is her eleventh Take That show — the 42-year-old’s husband buys her the tickets “because his life wouldn’t be worth living otherwise — would it, love?” He grins. He camped out in a sleeping bag to get these ones for the whole family, in November. “I had to take a sickie. I came down here in the car about 12 at night and there were just loads of women. They let us inside and give us a bacon sandwich and a cup of coffee in the morning. I was number 83 in the queue.”
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* Take That

* Take That: The Circus

* Forget the album, the fans just want it live

“We’re used to the camping,” his wife says, “because they are the best band in the world, incredible, I can’t put it into words.”

Everybody says the same thing — they have come because they have always loved the band and because the live shows are incredible. Nobody wants Robbie Williams back — they love him separately, but the four-piece are better off without him. He betrayed them. He’d want to be the centre of attention. He couldn’t dance like they can now. As for how they coped with the wilderness years, the fans say they never dreamt this would happen.

If all you know of Take That is that they are nice friendly chaps with nice friendly songs, it is hard to imagine what these fans mean when they say the live show is “like nothing you’ve ever seen”. But the Circus tour, named after the band’s new album, really is one. There are clowns, acrobats, tightrope walkers, a hot-air balloon, a waterfall that appears from nowhere and soaks the delighted audience, and a 30ft silver elephant that strides along a catwalk, with the four members of Take That rising up inside its mechanical belly, singing.

The band also do cartwheels and formation dances, paint their own faces as clowns, and ride unicycles (though poor old Gary Barlow needs stabilisers). It’s like Cirque de Soleil at Elton John’s summer ball crossed with the Top of the Pops Christmas special and the final of The X Factor. If Boris Johnson is still wondering how London 2012 can possibly compare with the spectacular opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, he might want to recycle Take That’s entire set.

Indeed, the ailing Government could learn a thing or two from such a united mass congregation. So it shouldn’t surprise me to find a fan who already works in politics, but it does: 29-year-old Charlotte Ritchie studied international relations to postgraduate level and is a policy director for a chamber of commerce, lobbying the Government. Her schoolfriend Kate Booth is a Birmingham solicitor, and they have been Take That obsessives since their early teens. They say that the inner circle of fans knew the boys’ addresses and phone numbers and used to hang around outside their houses. I gently point out that the police have a word for that kind of person. “Stalker,” Ritchie sighs, “I know. Once at Mark Owen’s house there were girls that pulled hairs out of Howard [Donald]’s stepdad’s head.”

I’m sorry. Did you just say, once at Mark Owen’s house there were . . . “Yes, yes, they lived near each other. And people used to take Sellotape, so when his family answered the door, you’d reach inside and get a few bits of woodchip off the wall to take home.”

The dads and husbands tonight all seem to be pretending to have come for their loved ones’ sakes. Patience, the band’s comeback song, turns out to be a huge hit with men — around the arena every bloke knows all the words. Stu Watson, 35, says that his wife, Jackie, has dragged him here. He says he loves “the Kaiser Chiefs and NME-type music, not all this boy-band crap”. But she tells us that he is lying. “He can’t get enough of it; he’s been listening to it and singing along all the way from Skegness.”

As for me, I enter the concert feeling fairly amicable towards Take That and leave furious. How can people prefer Mark to Howard when he’s clearly a god among men? Jason Orange is chiselled, Gary’s got bravado and Mark is sweet, but — oh, Howard. I wasn’t even one of those teenagers who loved the band but now I see myself rising up in the hot-air balloon with Howard. Yes, it should be, would be, definitely could be magic.

Take That play Croke Park, Dublin, tomorrow, then continue their UK tour. Details from www.takethat.com/tour

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