If you're looking for Magic judging stuff, stop reading now.
I'm back from my Take That holiday. I had a good time; the show was everything I expected and more, and I got to behave like a silly teenager.
For once, my flights were not delayed at all. I arrived in Aalborg, checked into my hotel, grabbed a few snacks from a nearby shop and went straight to the venue. There I found five queues, separated by metal barriers, and a few dozen people camping out. They had blankets, sleeping bags, camping chairs, drinks and snacks. Some of them were dressed like they were going on a snowmobile safari. I picked a spot in a queue behind a very loud group of Danish girls; they had beer...and Smirnoff Ice...and rum. They were talking non-stop in Danish and I could only understand a few song names here and there. In the next line, there was a strange lady wearing a German army jacket and denim Hammer pants, trying to do the dance routine to Pray.
After an hour or two I got bored, so I talked to the loud, drunk Danes, who were absolutely shocked that I'd come all the way from Finland for a concert. They were even more shocked when I confessed that I was also going to two other concerts. And they were the ones with camping chairs, go figure.
The doors opened at 6 pm and after a brief security check, we were allowed in the concert hall. I got a good spot in the second row and prepared to stand there for the next four hours. It's a good thing I have some experience in the standing-around game. The support act came on around 7:30. It was Jamie Scott and the Town, and he was quite good. He did a few of his own songs, which were quite catchy guitarry pop songs, and a cover of Lily Allen's "Smile". The band includes a cello player and Jamie is a cutie with a nice voice, so how could I possibly hate them? I'll definitely look up the album at some point. The audience in all three concerts seemed to love Jamie.
Take That came on sometime after 8 pm. It was kind of surreal to actually see them that close, to hear Gary sing live, and to see that weird chemistry they have with each other.
Take That shows are not just about four guys singing and dancing on stage; there's costume changes, props, scenery and supporting "artistes". When they do "Relight My Fire", there's always pyrotechnics on stage: this time, they actually set the band on fire - Jason's shoe was burning, Gary had flames on his coat sleeve, and Mark's hat was on fire (Howard, who was recovering from his injury, was not on stage for this number). The opening song was performed from political rally-type podiums, with the appropriate gesturing and some confetti raining from the ceiling. For the next song, the podiums transformed into, umm, lap dance booths. But it wasn't just the scantily clad dancer girls doing the lap dances, the guys did them as well.
Here's a crappy cameraphone picture from the show - does not include lapdancing.There was a B-stage, which was another smaller stage closer to the middle of the hall. The supporting cast appeared there at certain points of the show to set up the next song, and the guys performed some songs there, including a new version of Could It Be Magic, a song that Robbie Williams used to sing when he was in the band. This new, slow, different version was sung by Gary and it really banished the ghost of Robbie. I only wish I could have heard it without having several people trying to yell the Robbie version in my ear.
The next morning, I had breakfast and then went for a walk to get rid of my headache. The hotel and venue were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so I walked to the venue again. There were already some people camping there - security had let them take their sleeping bags inside the venue. I went back to the hotel for a few hours, but since I couldn't get an internet connection on my laptop, I decided to go to the venue and join the campers. I took a lunch with me, and a newspaper to sit on. The weather was much colder than the previous day, but I was quite comfortable. The queues started filling up much later than on the previous day, but during the show the crowd was just as loud. Thanks to the camping, I got a spot in the first row.
On Sunday morning I packed up my stuff and took a flight to Copenhagen. Again, I went straight to the hotel and then to the venue, where I found about thirty people in the queue. The same people who camped out in Aalborg were at the top of the queue; I later found out that they'd travelled here overnight and had camped out since 6 am. Just in case you think I'm crazy, I want to point out that I'm nowhere near the worst. Just before the doors opened, it started snowing and two weird old guys showed up to collect empty bottles. One of them accepted a half-eaten hotdog from someone in the queue. He then rummaged through all the trash on the ground, found a sandwich and offered it to the other bottle guy, who politely refused.
The security at this venue was not very good. They didn't even look at my ticket or the contents of my bag. Apparently they just trusted that I'd picked the right door (there were two, one for standard tickets and one for the "front of stage" tickets) and stamped my hand. I ended up in the second row this time. This show was just a little bit better than the first two, maybe because it was the last one of the European part of the tour and guys seemed to be putting in a little bit of an extra effort. Now that I knew the show I was able to concentrate on specific things and notice stuff that I'd missed before.
That was my crazy weekend in Denmark. I'm probably not supposed to have this kind of fun at my age, but I don't care. I'll probably do it again if I get the chance.
