last thoughts on Take That and the comeback of comebacks

I recognise it’s stretching a bit to do 3 postings around the subject of dropping my family off and collecting them later from a Take That concert. But hey if I’m going to do these 50 postings in December than I need to extract juice from anywhere. I was reflecting during the long drive home how incredible has been the turn around in the fortunes of TT. They were huge of course as one of the early boy bands and then when Robbie left the slide started and within a year or so they’d decided to split. I think that was around 1996. Then they just disappeared.

Every so often you’d see articles on whatever happened to … the boys from TT? Gary’s solo career bombed and by all accounts spent a lot of time in a purple haze. Howard was doing some DJing and quite successfully I think, Mark featured on Celebrity BB didn’t he having done nothing in years and Jason, well who knows? Meanwhile their erstwhile bandmember Robbie could do no wrong and was probably the biggest star on the planet. But the other guys just spent 8/9 years in the wilderness; their 15 minutes of fame not just over but forgotten.

Then what happened? Robbie’s fame began to wane, a documentary about all the guys getting together again seemed to touch a nerve of interest (even though Robbie famously didn’t turn up in the final scenes to effect the reunion). That was around 2005 and within a year or so a Greatest Hits album was released, the guys did re-form minus Robbie who was by now rapidly becoming yesterday’s news and a new album was recorded and major tour announced. Since then they’ve not looked back and if anything are bigger than ever. It’s an amazing recovery really, probably the most successful of all time and all the more striking because the usual reunions tend to be so humdrum. Even bands like the Police have failed to re-light the fire like TT.

And Robbie? Who knows where he’s at and I don’t care. I’m just fascinated by the success of the TT thing because they were dead and buried. There have been other comebacks but can you think of a bigger phenomenom than this? Please don’t tell me the Spice Girls because that’ll sure end in tears. I can think of people like Chris Evans who seemed to burn brightly in the Radio/TV skies but became over-exposed and utterly boorish before disappearing (with his remaining millions). He came back as a Radio 2 DJ and has been a revelation since. But it’s not quite as stellar. Bruce Forsyth was away with the fairies on the golf course and a forgotten old time comic and game show presenter when he reappeared on Strictly Dancing and it’s turned, inexplicably, into a major TV success. Jason Donovan, Tony Blackburn, Joe Pasquale, Kerry Katona and several other have-beens and never-had its have all had their careers re-invigorated by appearances on I’m a Celeb or Celebrity BB. Old Blue Eyes did more final tours than anyone but his class never did completely go away did it?

No I can’t think of a comeback more comprehensive than TT’s. Gary’s still a bit of a prick and the rest of the lads are really only there as backing singers to him but hey, it bloody works as a package. Now they model for M&S. Can you think of a bigger example or more welcome perhaps or one that should have happened but never did or more tellingly the comeback that really shouldn’t have been attempted. Ha! now there’s a challenge.

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