Lost in Music

What happens when you dance like no-ones watching

Me and Take That have history.

When they arrived on the scene I was in my twenties and like most young women I enjoyed this band of 5 delicious men singing and dancing for our delight. I watched them change their slightly cringy dance routines into something more sophisticated. Their love songs touched my heart and I watched their trials and tribulations play out across the media when Robbie left the band

They were always a warm and comforting soundtrack, gently playing in the background. My son was born to Robbie Williams “Angels” and even though he wasn’t in the band then - he was inextricably linked to Take That who were woven into our family tapestry with bright and bold threads.

Years later, the boys were to play 3 nights at our local AO Arena. I pestered my husband and asked if we could go. He looked at me, rolled his eyes and said “it’ll be full of women”.

“So? You love women! You work with about 40 of them! You were brought up by women!” I gave him my best puppy dog eyes and he said…. “fine. I will take one for the team”.

It was the usual Ticket Master melee - booking opens Friday 9am. I duly waited by the phone I think? It might have been computer but it was 2006 and things were different then. Twenty years! Twenty years!! it can’t be….but it is.

The upshot was I couldn’t get tickets. Sold out.

I was gutted. I phoned hub at work who sympathised and said the right thing. “I bet he doesn’t even care”. I thought and went off to meet a friend for coffee.

Just as I arrived he messaged me and told me to phone him at work.

“Got em” he said.

“What?”

“Two tickets to Take That”

“What? HOW!!! I did squeal in the middle of the High Street but I felt it perfectly justifiable.

Turns out someone’s daughter at the office worked for Ticket Master and had a secret number to get through. He’d phoned, got through and managed to get two tickets! Simple.

So in 2006 me and hub went to the Arena, sat in our seats. Nice views at the side. And I sang my head off to Take That with 1000’s of other woman and a few good men and had a lovely time. But the piece de resistance….

During the opening of my favourite song in the darkness a weird bridge of light appeared and the boys started walking across it, culminating in them stopping on a previously hidden stage just in front of us.

I was in raptures. This beautiful song “Rule the World” sung in front of me and I was lost, soooo lost in the moment. Then I caught hub’s eye and he honestly looked at me like he had given me the world. HE was so happy because he’d made it happen for me.

Fast forward 20 years.

A friend messaged me last week. “I’ve got a spare ticket for Take That, no pressure but just wondered if you wanted to come”

My reply: “DON’T GIVE THAT TICKET TO ANYONE ELSE - IT’S MINE”

So last Wednesday, I was on a tram into town with my friends and their son, this time to a football ground - the club being the one where my husband, his dad and grandad all had season tickets. The ground I had visited several times. I hadn’t even realised the gig was there. And then I discovered our seats were in the same stand and quite close to where my husband used to sit. I felt the universe was just giving me little nudges, reminders that maybe just maybe, he was watching me (like he’d done in 2006) and whilst he couldn’t be with me in person this time, he’d be there in spirit.

There were so many surprises that made it the most magical of nights. I hadn’t realised but we were in the posh seats with our own bar and loos - (we girls like these things!! Trust me). Another band I really like, The Script were the support act so my singing and dancing started early as I shimmied to Danny’s delicious Irish voice. Another love song I adore is “The Man who can’t be moved”. Oh it’s divine! And honestly having heard that I felt if that was all there was I’d have been happy.

But no, there was more - so much more. Hot air balloons, trapeze artists, fire eaters (It was the Circus Tour after all), together with multiple costume changes, fireworks and an enormous mechanical elephant who came out of the ground spraying the crowd with water from his trunk!

It was non-stop, bright, vibrant and that was without the songs.

They just kept coming and coming - and I sang and danced like no-one was watching. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so present at a gig. My mind has been so full these past 3 years, so weighed down with worry I had forgotten what it was like to put it down. I didn’t think of anything as I danced, I just watched in awe as the scenery around me morphed and changed like magic with hundreds of production staff working tirelessly making things happen to tease the imagination.

I was like a child at the fairground, my eyes darting round taking it all in.

At one point a cannon fired a raft of blue ticker tape into the air which scattered all around us. We leapt about trying to grab a tiny piece of paper just for the fun of it. A piece drifted between me and the lady next to me - we had been dancing in unison all evening like we had been unconsciously choreographed. We had bonded in movement and without words. Our bodies had done the talking with the occasional nod of recognition as certain songs arose in our awareness “Could it be Magic” - huge smiles, “A million love songs”…a so romantic.

The tiny piece of blue ticker tape continued to drift, it was just above our heads and we reached for it. Both of our hands closed around it together. I had hold but she held my hand. I pushed the piece of tape into her hands. She looked at me like I’d given her the world. It was worth nothing. It was nothing but a piece of tape. But there was something special in that brief moment that made both of us happy. My friend witnessed this and said “that was a lovely thing to do” like I’d given the woman a £50 note. Next minute she was on the floor scrabbling about and emerged with a piece of blue ticker tape that she put in my hands. This is nothing but it’s also everything. It’s just how we connect with others in so many different ways, through songs, movement and through tiny seemingly innocuous gestures which make your heart swell because in that moment, someone sees you and conveys without words “you matter”.

The last song of the evening came and we speculated as to what it could be. We both thought “Back for Good”.

Gary said can everyone put your cameras on for this.

The night sky twinkled with a thousand phone stars and Rule the World began to play - Gary’s voice warm and loving.

And in that moment I knew my husband was near, our song was playing, I remembered his eyes when he gave me the world previously and I knew that nothing else mattered. I heard…

You light the skies, up above me
A star, so bright, you blind me, yeah
Don’t close your eyes
Don’t fade away, don’t fade away, oh

Yeah, you and me, we can ride on a star
If you stay with me, girl
We can rule the world
Yeah, you and me, we can light up the sky
If you stay by my side
We can rule the world

I was lost in music.

And it was the most beautiful place to be.

The biggest thanks to my special friends A, P and J for making this night happen, for dancing and singing with me, laughing at my over zealous enthusiasm and transporting me there physically and also mentally - to one of the most wonderful places ever.

Spotify links to songs if you are interested.