Take That mania... for Em that is, it was a night of westerns for Chris.

We were up early today, packed and with the car Sue and Patrick once again kindly lent us, on our way to Coventry. It was only a 2 hour drive, nothing to a couple of Aussies who happen to like a decent road trip, so we were there in plenty of time. We checked into our hotel, which thankfully we were able to score for a 60% discount (you wouldn’t want to pay full price for this place, bit of a dive really) found some pub grub next door before Chris drove me to the concert. I swear to you, in all honesty, I have no fingernails left. I was so nervous about this concert that I couldn’t stop biting them. Gates opened at 4pm; we got there about bang on time. If concert going in Australia has taught me anything, it’s get there early, so I did (if my back up chick and fellow thater lover Ashe had been with me we’d have been there well earlier though planning our back stage admittance…) I first purchased a wee bit of merchandise, then took a quick look at the essentials (where is the water stand, and most important, where are the loos and how many are there?) before dashing out to the arena only to find… THAT THERE WAS STANDING RIGHT AT THE FRONT! Well, I did this mad dash waddle (my equivalent to running) to the front and stood my ground. No one, no matter who they were going to move me from this position, it was amazing! Ashe and I have strategized for years of how we were going to achieve this goal, and here I was living it out, I only wished she were there with me. Oh well, the day will come I’m sure (we’ve planned it long enough) I stood there quite patiently as the crowd grew and the clouds set in, I crossed all my fingers and toes that it wouldn’t rain and then concentrated on watching the support acts, Gary Go (?) and then The Script, both were quite good, but I wasn’t there for them, they were just a hindrance to the main act for me! After the script left the stage I felt a large drop fall on me, I closed my eyes and wished REALLY hard for the rain to go away, but it didn’t. Instead it POURED down, and I mean completely and utterly chucked it. I was totally drenched to the bone within 30 seconds, the rain was so heavy and the drops so fat, no one had any escape. A lady beside me had brought an umbrella, she allowed me, along with her friend to seek shelter under it, but it was no use, then another 2 ladies joined us under it, so it was a little tight and really, honestly, no good despite this ladies sweet and kind intentions. We all huddled under the brollie, rain running off our noses, me wringing my jacket arms out, and asked aloud “do you suppose the lads will go on?” And to be honest, I wouldn’t have blamed them, or been surprised if they hadn’t, but just as we were contemplating this horrid thought, a clown came out, and then another, then some more, all carrying balloons… it was starting!! We screamed, and so it began. The tour is called “The Circus” (after their new album title) hence the opening involving clowns and other circus performers, it was amazing with all the different props, acts and performances.

Take That sprung out from the middle of the arena (there is a long cat walk out there and a stage middle of the ground) the place erupted, it was just amazing and I can’t remember when I last screamed so loud. I sound like a star struck teenager I know, but this has been a life long desire so I was making the very very most of it! The lads (Gary, Mark, Howard and Jason) sang all the old school songs, the new stuff and they were all brilliant. They then rode an elephant, yes; you read right, an elephant to the main stage where I was now only a matter of meters from them…I had to remind myself to breathe now. I’d love to be able to tell you in detail the set they played, the clothes they wore, how they all looked, what was said etc, but I don’t think I could fit so much on the blog and more to the point, I don’t think some of you would be really all that interested, but if you want to know, then let me know and I can fill you in with every last minute detail. Let me just tell you the high lights though:

• Howard’s arms.
• Howard and Jason riding unicycles
• Mark riding a unicycle with the aid of two acrobats as he is too little to hop on one himself
• Gary not even attempting the unicycle and instead riding a trike – hysterical.
• The elephant
• The old school melody
• Never Forget
• Shine
• Mark trying to be a ‘scary’ lion tamer. He is not scary, and though he tries bless him, he is not a lion tamer. He is way too sweet.
• Did I mention Howards arms?

So, as you may have gathered I quite took a liking to Howard, which is strange as I always have been loyal to Gary, but in person all I can say about Howard is … PWHOAR!!!!! Still, my loyalty is too Gary.

The concert finished too soon for my liking but I ran out as soon as I could as I realized that to pick me up poor old Chris would have to go through hell. There were over 40,000 people there so traffic was going to be difficult to say the least. As I walked out I saw the neon lights of the 24 hour Tesco off in the distance, bless them. I arranged with Chris to pick me up from here thinking it would be easier, and to a degree it was, but it still took him an hour to make the 5 mile drive, it was CRAZY! Traffic was stand still so it took awhile, but it was okay, we were expecting it and as I was still on a high poor Chris got the run down of EVERY last detail of the event from a very excited me.

Last but not least I have to say that I just loved the way that, despite the fact it was POURING with rain TT still came on stage, did amazing, full on performances and not once had any cover for themselves either, they got just as drenched as everyone else and they just laughed and encouraged everyone to dance in the rain. They are most certainly not divas, the only thing they did mention was that they wouldn’t be using hair product in the rain again as it stung very badly when it ran into their eyes.

So, I had an amazing, great time and Chris bless him, the wonderful, patient husband he is, waited back at the hotel for me to call and relaxed by reading and watching old western movies (it was the only thing on the telly, we only had one channel!)

written by  Chris and Emily on June 10, 2009 from Coventry, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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