Cat62

I agree, if they are selling such tickets it's important that they are very clear about the location and that the tickets are sold at a much lower cost. Sometimes you see tickets being sold with the description "restricted view", but not for a reduced cost, which is totally wrong I think.

Thanks for the review Mybelle. It really was a great show, and as you said, better than Progress. Yeah, the intro was too long but like you, I also tried to get what was going on. About reviews: it is interesting to read other people's views of the show, not just TT fans reviews because to be honest I sometimes find (some) fans not completely trustworthy. They think everything is totally amazing :D Funny with that fan thinking that the TT concert was poor in comparison to 1D concerts. I haven't seen 1D myself but I've heard others criticize their shows for being lazy and that they don't really do anything on stage. But, again, I haven' seen them myself so I don't know if that's true or not. Wow Kath, how fab for you to get such good seats instead of the original seats you had. That's what I call great service!

Have fun jay! Looking forward to read your review.

Here is my review - sorry about the delay. Manchester Saturday 30 May. This was my first visit to Manchester, it's always nice to experience new places. We arrived in a very windy and chilly Manchester on Friday evening. We stayed at a hotel quite close to the arena, only about 7-8 minutes walk, so Saturday we first went to the arena just to check it out and to find out about the entrance etc. It was a little confusing, I think we went several laps around the arena before we were sure where the actual entrance was :D . We were seated so no queuing for us. Did some shopping and had an early dinner. We arrived at the arena at about 7.30. We had seats in the upper tier so not so close to the stage. We had a good view, but I would have liked to sit not soo high up, and to have been a little closer to the stage. But still, it was ok. The intro was a bit too long in my opinion, but I liked the music they played during the intro. Then finally TT came on stage and I loved the start with I Like It and Love Love! Such a great start! Also loved their colourful suits. I Like It has been stuck in my head ever since the show - it just won't go away! Other highlights for me included Rule The World, Never Forget, Shine, Up All Night, Relight My Fire, These Days. And Hold Up A Light - it's so good live! It was a great atmosphere and the crowd was really enthusiastic all the way through the show, singing and dancing along to most songs. Affirmation was perhaps not received with the same enthusiasm, some people went out during that song. I'm not too fond of that song either, but it was better live than on the album I think. I also found the Flood somewhat weak. And I still don't like Portrait :P I'm probably alone here by thinking this, but from III I would have loved them to do Into The Wild, I think it could have been great live. I think Flaws and the dance routine worked very well and it was a beautiful moment of the show. I agree with dylandog about the sound quality in the arena, it was pretty bad and Gary's voice sounded kind of sharp a lot of the time. Odd! All in all I really enjoyed the show and the time just passed too quickly. It was a very professional, energetic and at the same time happy and colourful show, just pure entertainment! I left the arena with a big smile on my face. You could argue that there are too much stuff going on, but it's also a joy to see such an extravagant and lavish show. I wish I could go to more than one show, it's so much stuff going on so it's impossible to take it all in at one time. Sadly the show will not be shown at cinemas here in Sweden, that would have been great. I know that Sweden is not a very good country for TT but I wonder if one reason for not showing it here is also the date for the viewing, 19 June. 19 June is Midsummer Eve, which is one of the biggest holidays/feasts here and lots of Swedes leave town to go out in the countryside. I can't see many people wanting to go and sit inside a cinema that evening. I also have to say, it's so nice to visit the U.K, people are always so friendly and polite :)

Thank you all. I had a brilliant time! I just got back home from Manchester and tomorrow it's back to work again, I will try to post my review in the coming days.

Thank you very much for the review dylandog. Good to see that you enjoyed the show :) It will be my turn this Saturday. Really looking forward to it!

I haven't watched that many tour vids yet. I've just watched short bits of some of the songs because I want to have some surprises left when I go to the show, I've seen lots of pics though. I'm too curious to completely stay away from spoilers :) Hold Up A Light is a song that at first I didn't like very much. It took quite a while before I warmed to it and now it's one of my favourite songs from the Circus album so I'm very happy it's on the setlist.

I'm a bit late, but thank you very much for the detailed review. Great reading and very interesting to get your opinion on the show and also how you perceived their different personalities. It's funny what you said about Mark looking much older in the flesh. I went to one of Mark's solo gigs in 2013 and because the gig was in this really tiny club you got to see him very close up, and like you I was also surprised by how in some way different and older he looked in real life than on TV etc. It was great that you finally could go to a TT show after being a fan for so many years :) I'm going on the 30th May in Manchester, will also try to post a review after I've got back home again. Two songs that I don't like at all are Affirmation and Portrait, so we'll see if I've changed my mind about those after the show. I'm not a big fan of Back For Good either, but I'm not expecting them to ever get rid of that one :P

I hope you had a great time! :) Looking forward to hear your view about the show.

From the pics and videos I've seen it looks like an amazing show, a fun, happy, colourful show. Surprised that Up All Night and Affirmation made the setlist. Never thought they would do Up All Night live again (from a video from Glasgow I noted a slight lyric change though), but I'm not complaining as I do like the song :). A bit odd that they left out Higher Than Higher, as that is the next single. Would have preferred that one instead of Portrait. Anyway, really looking forward to the show in Manchester later in May. The tickets arrived a few days ago so I'm ready to go! :)

This is great! :)

I understand what you are saying, and we obviously see things quite differently :) I really hope there is more to TT, and how they make their decisions, than them trying to figure out how to best please the respective fanbase, or how to best please the biggest fanbase. But nevermind, we will probably never agree on this subject :) :o You are not really serious, are you? This is a joke, right? :blink: . I would guess that one reason for Gary getting more hatred about this than others is because his sort of sacred image or status, which his big army of fans very much help him to achieve. I mean, the pedestal some fans put him on is actually ridiculous. Back to the music: It's a shame about LITS, but this is not so bad I think.

The reason I found your comment arrogant was not becasue you said that Mark has a small fanbase. I know that. I'm not stupid or blind enough to imagine that he has a larger following than he has. Maybe I read too much into your comment, but I found it quite disrespectful and sort of diminishing (I don't know if that is the correct word to use in English?). It's like the only reason for Mark, since we are talking about him, to get permission to take a step forward from the role as one of Gary's backing singers, is to please "a few hundred fans", and not becasue he actually has something to offer.

I know that Gary many times has said that TT is his main priority. I think he has also said, not too long ago, that when he is working with TT he clears his diary from everything else. I’m sure he meant it when he said it, but situations can change, which I think they maybe are about to do now. This is not meant as criticism, not at all. I have no problem with Gary, or anyone else, having other er projects going on outside of TT. I’m just being realistic, if you have a very big workload you have to prioritize. Not even a Superman like Gary can be everywhere, or be fully committed, to 100 things at the same time ;) . I don’t know how far he has come with the other projects he has going on, like music for Eddie The Eagle, Around The World In Eighty Days, etc etc, but I imagine that all these projects are very time consuming and since these things are new territory for Gary I think that maybe they are more interesting and challenging than TT, and therfore prioritized. But this is just my personal view, and again, not meant as criticism.

I do wonder too why they even bother to release a single when they don't seem to really care about it or are prepared to put some more effort in it. If they are doing it this way it probably hadn't made a huge difference which song they had released as a single. I'm thinking of both the lack of promotion, but also the lack of a proper b-side. Maybe I'm a bad fan but I haven't bought LITS because I already have III, but had they put a new song as a b-side it would have been a different matter. I don't understand their lazyness with b-sides. As others have already said on here, I think one problem with III, or picking out singles from III, is that aside from These Days there really isn't a strong enough song to stand on its own, a song that will appeal to a wide enough audience. I'm afraid their performance of LITS at the Brits didn't really help either. I don't know what it was, but that performance wasn't so great I think. I do wonder about the future of TT. After the anniversary I wouldn't be surprised if they would call it a day as TT, or at least take a very very long break. With all the projects Gary has going on, I can't even keep track of them all, I can't see how he also would have time to, or maybe want to, make another album/tour with TT in the near future. When I read about all those projects my thought was, is TT getting too "small" for him? Like now when his priority seem to be with Finding Neverland, despite the release of LITS and the upcoming TT tour. At the time of Progress I think he said something like had not Robbie came along for that album, he would have been bored with just making another album, the four of them. I'm seeing Gary as an extremely ambitious person who thrive with new challenges, and maybe making a new TT3 album is not a big enough challenge for him? And this! Kath, I think you are absolutely right. That line ("pleasing a few hundreds of Mark's fans") is just so arrogant it's almost funny :rolleyes:

As I suspected, no concert in Sweden. I guess someone made the usual mistake and mixed up Sweden and Switzerland :rolleyes:

Still no official news about European dates but I read in Swedish media that when a reporter interviewed TT in London last week they confirmed that they will tour in Sweden in September. No dates or other details were given. If it's true, I'm curious about which city they will visit and what kind of venue it will be. I got very surprised when I read these news, I never thought they would come here for this tour. But, will have to wait and see if it really happens ;)

I'm still trying to decide what I really think about the album B-). It seems to depend on which mood I'm in. My favourite songs are These Days, Lovelife, I Like It, Into The Wild. After the concert at BBC Radio 2 I like Get Ready For It and Let In The Sun much better than I did before . I was a little surprised to see in the credits for III that they worked together with a Swedish songwriting duo on Higher Than Higher and also recorded it in Stockholm. Wish I had known that earlier :P

An album full of indie songs? Ok, from this I assume that A) you are not very familiar with Mark's solo work or B) you and I don't define "indie songs" in the same way. My guess is A ;) Mark's solo work is so much more than just indie. Also, if you look at the credits for both The Circus and III where Jamie Norton and Ben Mark (Mark's long time writing partners) are listed for the songs it's a big chance that Mark had a lot to do with those songs. Not so much indie there I think :P That includes These Days, which I heard in an interview, originated from Mark. I'm totally aware of the fact that most TT fans are also GB fans and I have never, or would never, suggest that Mark should be the main performer. But I do like that they all share lead vocals from time to time as that gives the music more diversity, in my opinion. Exactly! Very well said. I really enjoyed the concert on BBC R2. It was great to hear and see them together, and I thought the new songs were stronger and sounded much better live than on the record.

I'm not the biggest Robbie fan, I do like some of his older songs, but on many occassions I find him a little too much. But nevertheless I have to be honest and agree with Elisabeth that if you look at Europe, outside the UK, Robbie is much more successful and has a much bigger fanbase than TT. Here in Sweden for instance both the media, and most people, are only interested in TT if Robbie is a part of it. The reviews for the Progress tour was very telling; the real show didn't start until Robbie came on. Also, no way that TT would have sold out stadiums across Europe if Robbie had not been part of the tour. Re III not doing as well as some people expected. I'm sorry to say, but I don't think the album is that great. In my opinion it's not their best album and after These Days I had hoped for more. It's not a bad album, but I do feel that they could have done better. I can't put my finger on what, but something is lacking and I have to agree with one of the reviewers calling the album "unadventurous" and with "bland lyrics". I read some comments on here that Gary should sing most leads because that's how it's always been and that's how it was the first time round. I don't think you could compare TT of today to TT in the old days. Back then Gary was the only one writing music. That's not the case today. I think one reason for TT being so successful when they came back was because it wasn't just Gary and his backing singers/dancers. They were all more involved in the process and it felt like they were more like equals, and I think what came out of that attracted new fans. Milly said in a comment "TT is what it is because of the GB sound". This makes me wonder what you mean by "the GB sound"? Do you mean just the voice of GB or do you also mean the music? Because I think that when you listen to TT of today you can hear so much more than just "the GB sound". For example on The Circus there are lots of Mark influences in the music, and I'm not just talking about the songs he sings lead on.

Another song could be heard today; Let In The Sun. From the three songs we've heard so far I like These Days the best. I'm not so sure yet about the other two songs <_< . I've pre-ordered the deluxe album from Google Play and it says it will be available already 27 November, so hopefully I can listen to the full album already on Thursday.

I didn't get tickets in the pre-sale yesterday so I didn't have much hope of succeeding today, but I got tickets for Manchester 30 May. Very happy! :D Now I'm waiting for the European dates to be released. If they will do a show not too far away from me and at a good date I might look for tickets for that too.

I like These Days a lot. It's a very catchy, up-tempo, good mood song. I don't know about the song remdinding of 1D because I don't listen to them :P. I like the kind of disco feel the song has and the Nile Rodgers/Chic-sounding guitars that also Daft Punk/Pharrell Williams used in "Get Lucky". Also, great artwork! So much better than the ugly artwork for Progress.

So much news today! New design at takethat.com, too. Really excited to hear the new single! Read on Twitter that they will be at Chris Evans show att BBC Radio 2 (?) tomorrow morning.

I was both surprised and not surprised at the same time that Jason left TT. He seemed "off" already during Progress and not so much involved with the promotion for Progress. This year he seemed to be missing when we could read "reports" about the other guys working on the album, like in New York earlier this year. This made you suspect that something was going on. I’m really looking forward to new album and curious about what kind of sound it will have. Also curious about the tour next year, how it will be. Will they carry on as TT after this coming album and tour? My guess is that they won’t. Somehow I just can't see them going on as 3, but we'll see...