For the last few weeks, under a covered hangar at RAF Cardington in Bedfordshire, the final rehearsals have been taking place in utmost secrecy for the pop event of 2011 – Take That’s Progress Live Tour. Sponsored by Samsung, it is the biggest stadium tour in UK and Irish history, kicking off at The Stadium Of Light in Sunderland this Friday.
Propelled by the return of Robbie Williams to the fold, it will see them perform as a five-piece for the first time since 1995 – to more than 1.75m people over 29 nights just in the UK and Ireland – including eight nights at Wembley Stadium, eclipsing the record set by Michael Jackson’s Bad tour in 1988.
It is a remarkable achievement for any band, let alone one which only returned to the live arena five years ago.
But it creates pressure, too.
In a quieter corner of the imposing shed – the biggest covered structure in the UK, originally built for airships in 1915 – sits production director Chris Vaughan, remarkably calm for someone in charge of one of the biggest tours the world has ever seen.
“I am numb from worry or excitement,” sighed Vaughan who, having been with Take That on every tour since their first in 1993, is seen as a trusted pair of hands.
“In truth it’s going phenomenally well. I feel more relaxed [than The Circus tour] at this point, even though it is twice as big scale-wise,” he admitted.
The Mayor of Bedford at one point stepped in to help Vaughan get access to the airbase where they are building the whole outdoor show under cover and away from prying eyes.
The band joined the crew for rehearsals three weeks ago. Much about the tour is shrouded in secrecy and Vaughan was tight-lipped on themes, although perhaps dropping a hint when talking about the unique engineering in designing the “bridges to Babylon”.
To give an idea of scale, Brixton Academy would “be just big enough to fit the catering crew now” explained Vaughan of The Production Office, overseeing his 225th tour in 20 years. Some 110 trucks are involved in ferrying the equipment between venues on the 27-date UK tour (36 across Europe), not to mention the crew which stands at 238 members.
Their previous tour Circus Live was acclaimed as one of the best in the UK but Vaughan said topping it was not a motivation in itself.
“The most important thing is that we shouldn’t try to better the previous tour. If we tried to, it would be contrived. We have listened to the music and tried to put on a quality show. We didn’t set out to better it, although I believe it is better. It’s an evolution.”
The show is produced by creative director and choreographer Kim Gavin who worked on Circus and whose next big event is the 2012 Olympics closing ceremony. Gavin focuses on the artistic side, working side-by-side with Vaughan who develops the financial and logistical side in tandem; much of the success is down to their tight working relationship.
There are no official figures but Gavin was rumoured to have been handed a £15m budget. The ideas came from the band and Vaughan said work started in earnest in October when he first “imagined” the tour and drew up parameters, timescales and budgets.
“These two weeks are the most stressful, honing the set design, people changing their minds, the show being tweaked. There are some extremely adventurous effects.”
Arriving at the airbase to check on rehearsals, promoter Simon Moran, who originally encouraged the band to reform for live dates in 2006, said he had the idea for “another” tour at the end of the last, Circus, long before there was any talk of Robbie rejoining.
His team at SJM handle almost everything including “dealing with venues, police, toilets, marketing... making sure it happens”.
Moran said, “This is quite beyond the aspirations of anyone really. Everything about it is big. It’s decimated any tour in the UK. We are in totally uncharted territory, in a challenging economic climate. It’s incredible really.”
Vaughan insisted that fans had been put first, and was most proud that they had gone to lengths to get rid of the delay and mixing towers in the centre of the stadiums – albeit at extra cost of hanging equipment from stadium roofs and building a mixing area into a V-stage – so that there are no sight-line obstructions. “Also the band get a view of the audience, not a medley of huts, and we can put more tickets on sale. The challenge is keeping it personal. It is important when you are running these big tours you try not to treat people as numbers and try to keep that family vibe,” he added.
What Take That fans have in store will be revealed at the end of the week. But what is clear from talking to Vaughan is that key to this event, everyone involved is trying to push the boundaries at every level of the production.
He added, “Every time you do Take That you are operating outside your comfort zone... you push yourself, but they do, too.”
MARK OWEN INTERVIEW
MW: So, the biggest stadium tour of all time... what will it be like?
A bit more technical. Even before the record was out the stage designs were coming through. The first pieces started to be built at the end of October. It’s going to be brilliant and I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved.
What do you hope to achieve?
I want to see some of the places I tour rather than just the stage.
How are rehearsals going?
Really, really well. It’s quite easy at the moment because we’re more experienced and the communication’s better. Once you’ve run it a few times you can have fun with it. There’s an excitement, but we don’t want to show that we’re excited. Sometimes you wanna run home and shout, ‘Yeah, it’s brilliant.’
Demand was 30 times higher than for Michael Jackson’s shows. How does that make you feel?
We’re like kids really; we’re all a bit excited about life and the tour and I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved. I just really hope everyone enjoys it.
Circus was a massive success – do you feel the pressure to better it?
People ask that all the time. A few weeks ago I had a pre-tour panic, which I went through for a couple of days, not much sleep, but I came through the other end. We’re confident with it now and I think the show will be brilliant.
Do you have much input as band members? How did you get involved?
We first officially set time aside to talk about the tour early last summer. We started with the setlist and the songs we wanted to play. We spent a day just talking about them before throwing ideas into a bag and putting a show together. There hasn’t been a week we haven’t had meetings or rehearsals.
How are the ideas generated?
The way we usually start with a show is looking at the songs we want to perform and think are right and then we build a show around that. There are some great songs there, we have a lot of confidence but us being us, we can’t just go and sing the songs. There are certain members of us who push the theatrics more than the others and it’s trying to find that happy medium where everybody’s comfortable.
Robbie has gone on record saying how much he dislikes touring. Have you had to persuade him?
No, we’re having to hold him back. Rob says, ‘Come on guys, let’s get on with it.’ We’ve all got enthusiasm to do a great show and that’s what we’ve always prided ourselves on.
Will you be previewing new material?
The new single Love Love. For the rest... you’ll just have to come along and see.?
What’s next for Take That?
We’ve got Love Love for the X-Men movie and we’re great X-Men fans, so that’s exciting for us. We’ve also done a few new tracks we’ve worked on.
The new single Love Love. For the rest... you’ll just have to come along and see.?
What’s next for Take That?
We’ve got Love Love for the X-Men movie and we’re great X-Men fans, so that’s exciting for us. We’ve also done a few new tracks we’ve worked on.
http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=1045296&c=1
