How do you manage that your concerts don’t look like the concerts 10 years ago?

Gary Barlow (laughs): Cause we are not looking like 10 years ago…fortunately! Also we are not only playing our old songs, but new material too. Apart from that: It isn’t sufficent just to sit there and to showcase oneself. We want the audience to go overboard and we are trying to guide the people through all kinds of feelings. When we get off the stage totally exhausted, it was a good show for us.

What’s the difference, when you are together on stage nowadays?

Mark Owen: The biggest difference is that we are more creative now. When we play a concert these days, it’s a complete other feeling. You are feeling the moment, it wasn’t like that back then. We are more solid now, the whole show is it actually.

Jason Orange: A lot of is happing inside your head too. When I did a concert 15 years ago, I kept on talking to myself through out the whole show, how brilliant I was. I was a show-off, almost a exhibitionist. (laughs) “Look up to me, I’m a popstar!” God, we did everything to make the girls scream. And it felt so natural, it was totally okay back then. But now we are moving towards the audience and we enjoy the pleasure of our fans. Probably we were honest to our fans for the first time during the reunion tour.

I told a female friend of mine, that you are together as a band again, that you are recording a new album and that you will go on tour once again. She said: “They can’t do that! Not after I almost cried out my eyes for more than one year – should I go through it once again as a grown-up?” When you recorded “Beautiful World” for what did you fear more: for the work together with the “old” band mates or for the reactions of the “old” following?

Gary Barlow: I would say for the second one. We were pretty afraid of the reactions. Maybe the memory is better than the reality. Howard comes up with it constantly, for example. We left them. We were on top, the crowd still wanted us, when we decided to split up. We quit with a No. 1! Surely when we came back we risked our reputation. We put it all on the line. Why did we take those risks? But I think, if we weren’t able to bring something good with us, we wouldn’t come back.

Your album “Beautiful World” hit it big. Were you stunned by the prompt success?

Mark Owen: When you are recording an album, you want the people to like what you do. And I had high hopes, that the people would like it. I expected to sell 200 pieces of “Beautiful World” – I’m just talking in relations right now. But we sold 1.000 pieces, if you know, what I mean. I’m proud of this album.

Howie D. : I’m proud of making the album on our own. Actually, it was the first time, that we all contributed all the same. I really honour Gary’s songwriting – but I have no problem to take our old golden records off the wall in order to make room for “Beautiful World”. This album is giving me more self confidence and self esteem than any album we made before.

How much did marketing experts, sales figures and decisions taken by people outside the band influence Take That back then? I mean, I’m sure you had to do things, which you probably didn’t want to do!?

Gary Barlow: Yeah, you can say that again! We had to do a lot of things during those days, which we didn’t do voluntarily. I would say about 70 per cent of our actions and decisions were taken by our former manager. He controlled, manipulated and intervened; but Howard said it before, the great thing is: We are the bosses now! I didn’t come back to get told what to do.

Let me have an example for these “things”…..

Gary Barlow (thinks about it briefly): I can’t remember something concrete at the moment. However wouldn’t it be better to let bygones be bygones?

I understand. Is there more pressure nowadays?

Gary Barlow: No, it’s easier these days.

Howie D.: Somehow I have the feeling that we never had a chance to make decisions. To decide about photo shootings, interviews like this one and about everything affecting the future is simply great.
Gary Barlow: Maybe it wasn’t that bad, that someone guided us back then. Of course we had to gain a lot of experiences. Now we are doing it for so long, everything we haven’t seen yet, isn’t mostly worth seeing.

After getting the offer to make the new album, who was the most reluctant one?

Mark Owen: You can’t put it that way. We got an offer to make the album and we were all in the same boat. We got a certain amount of money for the record deal and put it on a banking account. We didn’t touch it, started the recording and made an agreement: If only one of us disagreed with everything produced so far, we would stop and pay the money back to the record company. Luckily it never happened.

Jason Orange: When we got the offer, we were in an extraordinary situation. We weren’t and aren’t in need of making the album to get money. In addition the record company was taking a certain risk too. Bad music, a bad comeback album would have ruined our reputation.

Do you remember you first reaction when Robbie Williams released “No regrets”? When he explained the meaning of the song, in which he settles a score with Take That?

Gary Barlow (wrinkles his nose and folds his arms): I only heard this song two years ago. Never heard it before. I didn’t live in England back then. (thinks briefly) Well, it’s Robbies story, very dramatic. But it’s a good song and I can understand the perspective.

Jason Orange: The first time when I heard the song I was jealous. I thought, it must be a real relief for Robbie. I was jealous because I still wasn’t able to feel relieved.

Mark Owen: He got rid of us, he separated from us.

Jason Orange: Yeah, but I wasn’t able to do that at that time. Although when I talk to him now - and we hear from eachother almost every week - I have the feeling, that he wasn’t able to get completely rid of Take That then. Back then, at times we didn’t talk to eachother, I saw him perfoming it on TV and simply thought: Congratulations!

Let’s summarize: Actually you are back together because you just couldn’t separate from Take That and you didn’t sing a song like “No Regrets”?

Gary Barlow: Yeah – it’s weird, isn’t it?