10 years ago I was seventeen and now I’m
twenty-seven (for anyone atrocious at maths). 10 years ago I was in my last
year of school studying for my final exams and now I work full time in retail.10
years ago I was living in a country I didn’t want to live in and now I live in
a city I adore. 10 years ago, I was single, now I still am. 10 years ago I saw
my favourite band live for the first time and now I’ve seen them live forty-seven
times.
This a band called Take That. Surprise, I
quite like them, ok I love them more than about a handful of people in my life.
Take That, the Mancunian man band who’ve been around as long as I’ve been
alive(I was born 4 days before they formed). The band who have given me
friendships and memories and the best times of my life. The band who sometimes
just give me an anchor on which to tether myself when times are low. This day
ten years ago I was on my way to The 02 in London to see them live for the very
first time. I thought I loved Take That back then. And I did, I loved them the
way teenage girls love anything, ferociously and passionately, with my whole
heart and soul. I loved them with delirium and screams and mania. The love
teenage girls have could power the world with it’s energy.
I loved them back then but there’s a different
love once you’ve seen them live. And a different love once you’ve met them. And
a different love when seeing them all the time becomes your regular life. I
love Take That, but in a different way now I loved them back then. I love them now
with candour, dedication and uncomplicated adoration. I adore them, everybody
knows I adore them but I wouldn’t be as frenzied about it now, I’d like to
think.
I got into Take That back in 2006, I was
15, in school, hating it for the most part. I love learning but it took the
internet and emigrating for me to find more than a handful of people I would
consider friends.
Back when I was 17, I was hysterical. I got
banned for watching them whilst eating cos I choked like twice when they were
on the telly. My Ultimate Tour DVD was watched constantly, I listened to them
all the time. I was young and stuck in a country where no one I knew cared
about Take That.
My mum got us tickets to see them on the
Beautiful World tour in London and Manchester(at the time I asked why would we
go twice, oh past me you had no idea). I couldn’t believe I was going to be in
the same room as them. As Take That! As dirty and witty Howard, as
philosophical Jason, as the captain of the ship Gary. As foot stomping, hat
wearing, Shine singing, the most adorable and my favourite member then and now
Mark.
When I turned up to the arena and saw their
picture outside I let out such a noise my mum said she didn’t think it was
possible for humans to scream that loud. We were in the gods, Block 416, Row R
but I barely cared. I’m not sure I would have managed front row off the bat to
be quite honest. Every single one of my pictures from that night is blurry. Two
weeks later in Manchester, I was excited that I could see their shoes clearly
from my seat(block 214 in the MEN, going up in the world).
And then the next ten years happened, ten
years that seventeen year old me could never imagine. Meeting Jason on a bench,
meeting the rest of them at a signing. Thanking Mark for making my whole life
better and him going ‘Oh bless you’. Meeting Gary three times and the
reassurance of his bearhugs. Having Mark’s water bottle sitting on my bookshelf
(he threw it to me at a show, I don’t just have it). Gary having read my blog
and DMing me saying it was beautiful. Seeing them live in 9 different cities
and 15 different venues. Countless front rows, barrier runs, the solo tours and
the tv shows.
Watching Howard DJ and then running through
Manchester trying to get to the Lowry before he did, going to a football match
just to see Mark. Seeing them at Jonathan Ross and singing Happy Birthday to
Gary, seeing them at the Royal Albert Hall, watching the recording of ‘An
Evening with Take That’ and witnessing Mark ask an entire row of people what
they liked on their chips.
Endless queues, standing in the cold,
sitting in the cold, burning in the sun, drowning in the rain, freezing in the
snow. Gripping onto barrier with your mates all around you, singing your heart
out, and feeling happier than anywhere else. Ticker tape and clapping and
dancing and laughing and smiling so much your face hurts. Because look, it’s
them, they’re right in front of you, singing the songs that make your heart
beat with reverence. And oh look, they’re interacting with you. And you’re
weeping and grinning because this is your happy place and they’ve just made it
even more joyous.
Within ten years we’ve had lasers and
pole-dancing, elephants and aerialists, robots and puppets, flying cars and
human carousels. Yet the best feeling is doing the Never Forget claps or
hearing 80,000 people singing Rule the World. The boys love the spectacle, we
love the spectacle but more than anything we love that deep down joy of feeling
at home and being surrounded by love and awe.
10 years on, being front row is the norm,
grabbing their hands is the norm. I still die if any of them sing at me or wave
at me or interact with me in any way during a show. People say ‘they must know
you’ and I know they have no idea, that people have met them countless times
and they know them. But I like to think in amongst a crowd the boys would
recognise me as a familiar face.
I’ve been called all sorts in the last ten
years, crazy about summing it up. We all have but I don’t care, I know none of
us do. Because those boys make us happy and surely being happy is the most
important thing of all?
10 years on, I’ve moved country all alone,
I’ve had three jobs and lived in seven different houses. My life has taken many
a twist and turn but the boys have been my constant. Take That have saved my
life in more ways than they’ll ever know.
Seventeen year old me would be ecstatic
with my life now. Maybe not the single thing, but the whole living in London
and seeing Take That all the time thing, yes.
Ten years ago I was really just started on my Thatter journey and here I
am ten years later, so grateful for it all and so looking forward to all the
joy and fun and love and memories the future holds.
