Gig review: Take That

Published on Sunday 21 June 2009 21:59

***** HAMPDEN PARK, GLASGOW

THE circus has come to town. A 21st-century circus with 10 million of technology and stagecraft, but a circus nonetheless. The Circus Tour is a show with thrills to make awestruck kids of all ages. Did Take That think ahead to this spectacular when they named their album? Most likely.

Their entire comeback has been a shrewdly conceived blueprint for band reunions, particularly boy bands hoping to make the transition to man bands by taking their teen audiences with them and tapping into a hitherto unexploited demographic of 20-and 30-something men who always liked Back For Good but could never admit it in the playground.

Their recent albums, Beautiful World and The Circus itself, have been pitched at the adult contemporary market – both are slick, inoffensive efforts, but not lacking in insidiously hummable tunes.

The circus theme did not so much pervade the show as dictate it. Archive footage of circus performers played on the big screens in the run-up to show time, while clowns circulated with balloons.

As the quartet soaked up the ecstatic reaction, Gary Barlow's line, "Tonight this could be the greatest night of our lives", sounded a distinct possibility.

The pure pop of Could It Be Magic, Pray, and A Million Love Songs required no further embellishment than an audience banner proclaiming "The Hampden Phwoar".

In the most impressive piece of stagecraft to grace a pop arena of any year, the hydraulic elephant carried them to the main stage, which was flooded with dancing girls, trapeze artists and trampolinists.

This was indeed a contender for the Greatest Show on Earth.

&#149 A version of this review was in later editions on Saturday.