My bedroom was covered in them. Even before I’d bought my first bra, the baby pink painted walls were peeling under the weight of a hundred double page spreads, ripped from the centre of Smash Hi
ts. They all bore that cocky Robbie smile, or the baby-faced charm of little Mark. Occasionally, I’d see fit to bless Barlow with a knob of blue-tack behind his podgy face, although Jason and Howard would struggle to get a look-in through the Ronan Keating collection, naturally.
The boy-bands of the nineties are the ones us girls still cherish, long after the singles we skipped to on our walkmans made the jump from worn out cassette tape to iPod. For many, their music and pin-up poses inspired acts of love and obsession long before any real boys came onto the scene (and into our bedrooms).
We love them for the memories. The essence of every schoolgirl fantasy was that floppy-haired, leather-clad crooner who sang our every hormone-induced emotion in the key of complete understanding. And although it’s a well kept secret amongst the twenty-something female population, there’s still nothing quite like a five-piece line up of testosterone, belting a ballad in beautiful harmony to get us all hot and bothered. Oh, only if they leave the matching white vests at home this time, clearly.
Just as Take That stole our hearts as the unlikely lads from Manchester, who became Britain’s answer to New Kids on the Block, they broke them too. When they split in 1996 the Samaritans had to set up a hotline for distraught fans to vent their anguish, and some of us were so upset we had to take a day off school, (ahem). Not a very considerate time to cause such inner turmoil, really - most of their teenage fan club were half way through our GCSE’s at the time. From then on, instead of even trying to solve Pythagoras’ theories, we expressed our wounded souls by covering our maths books with the infamous TT emblem, surrounded by smudged and broken biro hearts.
Sorry Buddy Holly, but when Jason, Howard, Gary, Mark and Robbie announced a parting of ways, that was the day the music died.
So how does it feel, ten years later, to relive the whole ordeal? A few months ago, the teens we used to be, pulled away from the pushchairs, let go of the lawsuits and skipped from the supermarkets in glee as we felt our hardened hearts soften slightly. We stopped still in our twenty-something tracks and felt that familiar yet repressed rush run right through us. Was it true? Could it be? Take That are back? Back for good, perhaps.
Well no, not quite. And admittedly they’ve lost a Robbie along the road, but back they are, and long enough to get us all waving lighters, digging out the t-shirts and dusting off the albums we surrendered to storage the day our lives were shattered. It’s been ten years, but all is forgiven. As they re-form for a long-awaited tour, the fabulous four can still relight our fire and burn a hole in our wallets. But just how much has changed since that fateful day? And ten years down the line, as the band members set up a crèche for their own kids at their impending gigs, how do their fans remember the Take That of old? We asked them ourselves…
Gemma R has some brilliant memories of her favourite band: “I am in the 'I Found Heaven' video, dancing about in a black and white checked bikini. It was filmed on the Isle of Wight when I was 16 (although it's supposed to look like Spain). My friend Jacey's mum (Jacey’s also in it) was visiting the gym at the hotel they were staying and overheard the manager saying they needed two girls, so 
she suggested us. We went the next day to see if they wanted to use us, and they did…
“We spent two days on the beach with them filming the video and I have a letter from Mark, sent after they left, saying he missed us. And a pic of me and Gary hugging on the trampolines!”
Alistair, a man clearly troubled by the bands’ success, remembers our favourite five for a different reason: “I thought their music was really bad and none of them could sing.”
Oh dear - perhaps he was made to sit through one concert broadcast too many when the football was on elsewhere? He goes on: “Apparently, in rehearsals, one of them had to stop [dancing] because it was too much for him and he needed a week off… Rather than Take That, maybe it should be Take Them Away and let their mothers look after them.”
Hmmm, could it be that men in general disapprove of our boy-band devotions? One guy who prefers to remain anonymous said: “I am going to the concert next month, but I’m not sure I want to advertise it”, and Adam D from Norfolk said: “The day they split up is right up there with England winning the World Cup and me winning the under 9s running race! That said, my girlfriend is a fan and is now going to Milton Keynes to see them.” Poor Adam, eh. He can run but he can’t hide. If she’s anything like the rest of us, he’ll be hearing all about it for months.
Siobhan from Cheshire had a close encounter of the Owen kind on the streets of London not so long ago: “I had just run across the road to get my friends and I a taxi when he stopped me. I didn't realise who he was. He was very short and had a hat on. Anyway, he asked me for directions to The Havana Bar, so I explained that it was alright but the better place to go at that time of night was Crazy Larry's as it was really cheesy and, quote, “You get to dance to cheesy tunes such as Abba, Take That and Robbie Williams", at which point Mark Owen took his cap off and I realised who it was and what I had said...
“Trying not to be star struck I apologised for my last comment and said “Oh, can I just say hi and I loved Take That more than Robbie!”, at which point he said he’d better go to Havana Bar anyway. I remained cool for all of 10 seconds and then ran across the road, screaming.”
Siobhan’s now removed her foot from her mouth and is off to Milton Keynes on June 24 with four good North West of England girls to catch the concert. Although her friend Beck is unimpressed at the change in venue: “We’ll have to bring a large catapult to launch giant pants at the Barlow…”
Sarah M from London definitely won’t be in pant-launching range from any of the lads this summer. She preferred to root for ‘the other side’: “I don't quite know why, but Take That fans became East 17 enemies and vice versa. Sad as it is - we used to congregate outside the homes of Tony Mortimer, Brian Harvey and Terry Coldwell on a weekly basis down in sunny Walthamstow and basically slag off all the Take That fans.”
She continues, “I think East 17 appealed more to the 'street type southern' base, whereas Take That seemed to ha
ve more of a 'pure and wholesome Northern base'…. I clearly remember a very cold weekday morning, standing outside the Top Of the Pops studio with both East 17 and Take That fans (both were on that day) and having a shouting match with the 'enemies' to see who could chant their bands’ name the loudest!”
Daniela, a photographer soon to be snapping the band at Wembley, remembers her best friend Carla’s obsession throughout their school days: “She made it into the Spalding Gazette for being the town’s number one Take That fan. There was a picture of her (along with a pointless article) sat on her bed, surrounded by what could have been Take That wallpaper.”
So how does she feel about being at the front of this year’s hottest concert with a camera? “I’m more intrigued to see what all the fuss is about, they were so famous for such a long time and I never ever had a slightest interest in supporting them as a fan. I left that up to my friends… They look like four old men to me now, but even if they were 80 I bet their tickets would still sell out.”
It seems that whether we loved or loathed them, or whether they touched us only through the actions of our friends, Take That and their fellow boy-band charmers played a part in most of our teenage years. And as the stadiums heave with the fans of yesteryear, who never quite forgot the way their hearts throbbed in anticipation of the same close contact all those years ago, we’ll search out our favourite face and disregard the wrinkles. And of course, it’ll only take a minute (girl) to fall in love all over again. - By Becky Wicks
To book Take That tickets for Milton Keynes hit here
PS: 
smooth bouquet of bone and hoof) and you’ve mastered the ascent of the twisty rope bridge and rung the little bell so many times the attendant thinks he’s got tinnitus. In fact, you’re now so practiced at turning a bin-bag into a poncho it’s like watching superman in a phone box at the first sign of rain. 
lofty and much sought after position as number one theme park ride (as chosen by me) with the simple accolade of being officially the scariest rollercoaster in the world. This 39-year-old ride takes you swooping 95 feet into a natural ravine at 55 mph, which is pretty scary in itself. Add to that the fact that in-keeping with its vintage this ride has no seat dividers, no head restraints, none of your wussy over-the-shoulder safety harnesses - in fact there is just a traditional lap-bar and some serious willpower between you and the bottom of the ravine. 
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