Chapter Text
The boys were busy readying themselves in the home dressing room of Manchester Stadium for the first night of the tour; the whole support team was around them making sure everything was in place. In the boys dressing room there was a sense of calm compared with outside, Howard was listening to some DJ tracks to help to keep himself relaxed, Jason was adding the finishing touches to his costume, Gary was pacing round getting worried that they would be late.
“Calm down Gary! We won't be late" Mark said while brushing his teeth.
“Why do you always brush your teeth before we perform?" Howard asked.
“You ask me this every tour; it is because I hate performing with dirty teeth." Mark replied.
"5 minutes everybody let’s get going"
All of a sudden the atmosphere changed; there was a sense of excitement as months of planning fell into place. The boys neared the entrance to the stage, there was a roar from the crowd as the countdown began.
“3, 2, 1" a cheer erupted as the boys appeared on stage from what appeared to be nowhere.
"You can dance if you like" Mark started then paused to let the audience carry on "you can sing every line of every song" the Crowd finished. Mark carried on with the song with the crowd behind him. "I'm Mark, I’m Howard I'm Jason and I'm Gary and we are Take that" they chanted together. Guitar chords started and greatest day began. As they reached "stay close to me", a confetti cannon exploded, a sea of colour filled the stadium as the confetti fluttered about on the breezes slowly making its way down onto the ground where it was picked up by fans as a memento of the day. All the old classics came out the crowd went wild and the boy started the Pray dance routine
“Are you guys ever going to get tired of that?” Jason asked after they finished.
“NO!” The crowd replied.
Old songs where mixed with new as their latest single, The City, for this all the dancers dressed up as buildings, dancing round as the song progressed the dancers become more organised. The city was tactfully followed by the garden as the mode changed and the tempo slowed a second set of dancers came on and slowly replaced the city with a beautiful countryside screen allowing for a seamless transaction from one song to the next.
The Slow and melodic theme was carried on with Said it all, it was a striped back performance that really connected with the audience as the atmosphere was full of emotion as every member of the audience connected with the lyrics. But the slow tempo didn’t last too long as the mood was lifted with the old classic relight my fire. Within minutes the crowd was clapping and singing away.
The rest of the night seemed to flash by in a second and before they knew it, it was time to say goodnight, Gary gave the famous introduction
“This is the song that brought us back after all these years” but added
“And with this it is time to say goodnight and thank you for an amazing night!”
“You have kicked of this tour with a bang, Thank you all so much for coming, we all hope you have had a brilliant night” Howard shouted.
“I will remember you all forever, Thank you for making the opening night so special” Mark said proudly.
“Thank you, thank you all so much! We really are the thank you band, but we can’t say it too much, without you we wouldn’t be here so we are eternally grateful” Jason finished before they started in Patience.
The boys left the main stage and walked along the barrier wishing goodnight to as many fans as possible and all too quickly Mark, Gary, Howard and Jason were back up on stage taking the last bow of the opening night.
The boys made their way back to the hotel, ready for the party that was to follow.
As they drew up they saw Emma, Dawn and Kate waiting outside to greet them, everyone had huge smiles on their faces. The night had gone fantastically, everyone had enjoyed themselves. All they had to do now was wait and see how well the concert went down with the media. As the boys walked into the hotel bar a huge cheer went up from all the support crew.
Gary was awake surprisingly early despite the late night he had had. The adrenalin had been pumping round his body and mixed with the nerves of waiting to see what the media would think of the tour had meant Gary had tossed and turned all night. He got out of bed, careful not to wake Dawn who was still fast asleep. He slipped into his tour hoodie, some trackies and his most comfortable trainer, he had a quick glance at the clock; it was 6oclock “perfect” he thought to himself, he loved it when there were few people around; he went out for a run to pass the time before breakfast.
Gary was still the first one at breakfast but had only been there 5 minutes when a blurry eyed Mark came and sat across the table to him. Mark yawned then said “How come you look so awake?”
“I went for a jog” Gary replied.
“Have you looked at the papers yet?” Mark asked.
“No, not yet I was going to wait for you guys to come down” Gary explained.
“We might as well have a look now I don’t think that Jason and Howard will surface for quite some time, they had just started a dance off when I went to bed” Mark laughed.
“I shall go get the paper then shall I?” Gary said chuckling.
Gary appeared 5 minutes later with a stack of newspapers beaming.
“It’s good news then? Mark said smiling
“Good news? It’s fucking brilliant! We’re on the front page of the sun”
“That’s amazing! Did any of them pick up on the fact that the confetti canon wasn’t powerful enough and it didn’t have enough lift so it just covered us?” Mark asked sounding worried
“No Mark they didn’t only you picked up on that!” Gary said with hint of annoyance in his voice.
“What about the fact that the dancers where not quite in time during the Garden?” Mark asked
“Mark they were all too swept up by the atmosphere to notice things like that! Even I didn’t notice that some of the dancers where out of time, not every detail has to be perfect, people don’t notice everything, most of the time they are too busy looking at you to notice the smallest detail. Some people can’t see things in that much detail. Mark sometimes you need to sit back and look at the bigger picture” The sound of annoyance in Gary’s voice grew. Mark looked hurt and grabbed the nearest newspapers and opened it in a huff.
“Mark I didn’t mean it like that! I was just trying to say that not everything has to be perfect, you need to pay more attention that went right more than what went wrong, you are always too hard on yourself” Gary said, his voice was full of remorse.
“I Know I Know, we have this discussion every time we make and album or go on tour, I do try not to worry too much and each time I say to myself not to but I just can’t as hard as I try I always pick my performance to pieces” Mark said, he was a little hurt but he knew where Gary was coming from.
Howard came down half an hour later just as Mark and Gary had finished reading all the reviews
“What are they like” Howard said nodding his head towards the papers
“There good, there really good” Gary Said “I have only read one or 2 with anything negative to say”
“Wow that is amazing I am glad everyone had a good a time is we did, it feels so good to be back performing again, nothing is better than seeing the faces of thousands of happy fans. Howard said still sounding sleepy
“Who won the dance off then?” Mark asked
“What dance off … Oh that dance off, I think it was a draw from what I remember but Jason will probably disagree” Howard started
“What will I disagree with” Jason said as he walked in running his hands through his un-brushed hair
“Who won are dance off last night!” Howard replied
“Oh that, I defiantly won that as I didn’t fall over when I did my head spin” Jason laughed
“I only fell over because you pushed me” Howard protested
“You two and your contests! Is there any day when you don’t have a contest?” Gary asked
“I don’t think so!” Howard and Jason said simultaneously.
Emma and Dawn came down for breakfast at the same time talking about what they were going to wear that night. Gary move up to create space for the girls.
“Are you two ready to come see the show tonight?” Gary asked
“Almost I just need to work out what shoes to wear” Dawn replied snuggling up to Gary.
“Hope you boys are going to live up the the expectations, we have heard a lot about it!” Emma encouraged.
“I hope we do too! We better have breakfast otherwise we will be late” Gary said
“Gary Chill we won’t be late, you are always worrying about being late, you need to relax a bit!” Mark chuckled, Gary burst into laughter
“Ok, Ok I know I just can’t help it!” Gary replied there was a glint in his eye.
“What are you two up to?” Emma Asked smiling, she loved seeing them all so happy, the boys craved performing and Mark became grumpy when he wasn’t either recording or performing. Both Jason and Howard came back with a ginormous plate of food
“Are you really going to eat all of that?” Gary asked
“NO! I’m not that much of a pig!” Jason snorted “We brought enough for you two as well!”
“You didn’t look like you were going to move to get some grub so we thought that we would bring you some over” Howard stated. They boys finished off breakfast then when back up to their rooms to prepare for the second show while Dawn and Emma went shopping.