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... Still in the process of translating ;)

original date of publishing: 29. 11. 2010

Promote where you can

So let’s have another bit of one-sided news from the world of pop music :) I don’t how interesting it is for you, but for me it is immensely exciting to experience all these things around the new album. I’ve never been through this before. And I myself am surprised at what’s going with me… :) What can you do, I am a Thatter heart and soul. Luckily there’s enough of similarly afflicted individuals on the official forum with whom I can share the excitement. Back to what’s going on. I will try not deal too much with every single radio interview, but I can’t promise anything.


The new single, The Flood, was first digitally released on Sunday, 7th Nov and then physically on the following Monday. And one week later it charted on a prrrrretty cool 2nd place :) which it held even after week 2. Overcome only by JLS, for which I don’t like them. even though that song of theirs is quite nice… :D After 3 weeks in the chart The Flood dropped down to no. 6.

The album Progress was released on Monday 15th Nov and the weekend before that was a real treat for all Take That fans (especially the British ones). On Sunday night Take That made a guest appearance on X Factor (as well as Westlife and JLS. Boyband cummulation :D ) It was very special and emotional… because it was their first live performance as a five piece in 15 years. Wow… It was really something! They sang The Flood and when Rob started, his voice was shaking, there was terror in his eyes. I was watching it and I kept saying to myself: “Come on, Rob, you can do this! You’ll make it! Don’t worry!” :D … Eventually it fell off. It was beautiful how the other lads supported him and helped him to hold on. That’s what I love generally, in all musicians, when they keep eye contact on stage and take each other through the performance like that… And they all did help him, so he made it. Awww, it was really touching :’)

Take That on X Factor; L-R: Gary Barlow, Jason Orange, Mark Owen, Howard Donald, Robbie Williams

As if this wasn’t enough, on the same day, Take That’s latest documentary film was on telly. It’s called “Look Back Don’t Stare” and was made throughout the last year and it depicts how it all happened: the re-union, how they wrote the album… It’s a fly-on-the-wall documentary, meaning there were cameras there all the time, silently recording what’s going on. Well I shall get to it a little bit later ;)

On the first day it was out, the album Progress broke a 13 year-old record (Oasis) and became the fastest selling album of the century. Which only means 10 years :D But it sounds great anyway. After one week it was the no.1 album!!! :) And still is :)

Friday 19th Nov, the boys performed at the annual massive television event for Children in Need. They did The Flood, again, for quite understandably they’re plugging it where they can now. And apart from that, they sang one more song, a hit from the good old days. A very special moment again! They did Never Forget, which is a song they’ve never performed live together in 5. They recorded it back in 1995, the album was released but then Rob left, and they did the tour in 4. And in the modern times, they’ve always sang it in 4…. So now, when Rob sang the bit he sings on the record, there was a very strong reaction in the audience. Emotional!

And then they set off for a promo tour around Europe. the continent I mean. So far, they’ve been to Italy, France, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. They appear on various TV shows, they sing the Flood and keep answering the same questions over and over again. Most of it you could watch online, which was very nice :) And it’s interesting to compare the various performances of The Flood, because each of them is slightly different, in a different atmosphere… I already have my favourite. It’s from a Scandinavian talk show Skavlan, where they did the interview first and sang afterwards. In most of the other shows it was the other way round. And I think that particularly for Rob, it could have made a difference. You sing differently when you have time to find your feet, see what kind of people is around you, what’s the mood in the room etc….

Talking about Robbie, I’ll come back to “Look Back Don’t Stare” now, as I predicted earlier. I watched it online last Saturday, when it was on an Italian TV channel called Deejay (I love the internet! I’ve found places where I can watch telly from other countries! Innit fun? luv globalization :D ) … I won’t go into detail, as I did with the previous document. I’m not really in the state to do that now. But it is very nicely done, it’s a very honest insight into how things work between them, even with some difficulties that they’ve overcome together… Just as they keep mentioning in the interviews lately, today, in contrast to the 90’s, they don’t have to pretend anything. My main impression after having seen the documentary, is that me and Rob have remarkably lot in common. regarding the nerves and such… But that’s a different story. Although maybe not altogether. Point is: I have recently found my way to Rob and now I like him just as much as the other 4. hm :)


 

As for the blog, I keep struggling with what to do next and above all how to do it. It proved quite difficult to plan what songs I want to use in what article… I was thinking I could do The Circus album now, in two parts, then I’d deal with the live tours, then there are a few flashbacks to the 90’s that I have in mind. With all this in stall, it is hard to organize things, so that some of the songs are not repeated. But I guess I won’t be able to avoid that in the end. The Ultimate Tour will be the most difficult, for there is no new material in it, just the hits from the 90’s … Also, I thought it might be interesting to do some kind of a compare/contrast article on a song, seeing what it looked like originally and what they did with is 10 years after. … What do you think?

God save the Queen, God save Take That and God save all of you!