First one for my international friends :) Once again I state that the following is merely a translation of what was written ages ago. My views may have developed since then, my knowledge deepened...

original date of publishing: 19.5.2010 12:10

How it all began...

So this is the beginning of the blog series about Take That. As a strt I will give you no information. If you know Take That already, you don’t need it. If you don’t know them, you will get to know the band gradually, as I will guide you through my journey of getting to know them. So here comes part one: Introduction. With double helping of music! and moving pictures as well! :P

Let me think (ouch! ), it all started a few months ago, sometime in the autumn I’d say, when I spent my long and boring evenings on youtube watching all sorts of films you can find there. And that was when I saw Stardust. The quality of the videos was very poor, but the film in itself very nice and at the end I heard the breathtaking song called Rule The World. That song really moved me that night. I listened to it for a few days, then somewhat forgot about it... I remember that once I was shopping at Tesco and suddenly I heard something familiar and lovely from that annoying radio of theirs... I couldn’t recall what it was, but after a while I got it, it was Rule The World from Stardust :)

The next step must have been... a “music Tuesday” or something like that on youtube (we’ve skipped forward to the very recent past). On my home page or somewhere in the featured videos, I spotted the music video to Up All Night. Right, the title said it was “Take That”, but that didn’t ring any bells. It caught my eye, because it looked somewhat “oldies” and “British” and I’m a sucker for both, so I clicked on it. And that was it :) It had this kind of “oldies sound” and lovely atmosphere... nice melody, lyrics delivered with great energy and veeeeery nice backing vocals. The harmony is so beautiful and natural, I just cannot resist and have to sing along :) There’s something about the song that reminds me of the Beatles... Anyway, here it is. Enjoy :)

This happened in the evening or maybe later in the night... and I’ve eagerly watched through several more music videos that were in the related clips: Rule The World again, Patience, Shine and Greatest Day. Actually, now that I think of it, it couldn’t have been a music Tuesday. It must have been a Sunday, because the following day was Monday. I played Greatest Day in the morning and up to now I wonder how a song that is not very complicated in itself, more like the opposite, how it can be so so full of energy!!! For a bit I had a problem with the way Gary changes the register of his voice and I thought there’s one point where it was just a tiiiiiiiny bit off (to my inexperienced ear). Whatever then, it makes it more authentic. (Today my ears are used to the song so much that I don’t even notice.) The music video is very simple as well, some might even say it’s cheesy. What can you do: sunset and skyscrapers in LA :) But it worked for me. One more thing I’d like to say about it... It’s a thing I’ve recently noticed with a few other songs, that you can sort of reverse them and imagine they’re not about a relationship between a man and a woman, but between me and God. And then the song is much more nicer :) Check out the bit around 2:17 :) That’s what made me think about it... not un-similar to what you can see at worship concerts ;)

So that was Monday, the beginning of one of the worst weeks I’ve ever had. Mentally, I mean. My mind was a mess :X But that’s a different story. Apart from that, at the beginning of that week I asked myself a question: Take That... hmm... Who are these guys? And by the end of it I had an answer.

Stay tuned! More of my Take That adventure to come!

God save the Queen! God save all of you!

 

P.S. Warning: There will be a lot of youtube here. That’s just the way it is: this website plays a very important part in my musical life. Nothing I can do about it. And if you’re under the impression that I’m slightly addicted to it, you’re probably right. Don’t worry, I know about it and I’m working on it ;)