On 8th June 2015, after minimal sleep, I hopped on board a rather early train from Brighton to London to see my favourite band live at the O2 arena. It had been four long years since I last saw Take That, then a five-piece and performing to a sold-out Wembley Stadium, on their Progress tour. Evidently much has changed since then. Despite minor apprehension due to the inescapable fact that my second favourite member Jason Orange would not be onstage and sleep deprivation, I was exceptionally excited.

Much had changed for me too since 2011’s Progress Tour. Last time I had seen the boys, I was sixteen years old, had just finished sitting my GCSE’s, attended the tour with a friend I’m no longer in touch with and was positioned towards the back of Wembley Stadium. Four years on, I am now an adult (eek!) and a university student. I had a great time at Progress Live but being so far away, I spent most of it in envy of those standing close to the stage, particularly when the guys went and said goodbye to audience members during ‘Eight Letters’. I also spent far too much of the show absorbed in taking photos and videos and not being in the moment. Unfortunately, we were also surrounded by utter fools. Nobody stood until Rob came on, the family in front kept looking at each other in horror every time Rob swore (I know, they evidently weren’t familiar with Rob’s stage persona…), I got a dirty look for practically hyperventilating when the boys came onstage, the couple next to us spent 90% of the concert snogging and those behind appeared to just be there for a day out. So when it came to seeing Take That on their next tour, I vowed to do things completely differently. And that, I did.

For this tour, I decided to go with full-on, die-hard Thatters like myself. I am lucky enough to have many friends who also love Take That but not quite to the same level as me. So this time I went with Kim & Andy – two of my favourite people on Twitter, two amazing friends and two people with a mutual appreciation of the boys. It was my first time going with Thatters and I plan to continue to do so in future! Eight hours of queueing passed amazingly quickly with them both aided by multiple trips to the toilet, to see other friends, purchasing tea and buying merchandise. The second difference this time was that for the first time I was not going to be high up in the venue. I was not going to be at the back. I was not going to be surrounded by people merely at the show for a night out. I was going to be standing. And not only standing but in the front pit! FINALLY! I’d always been apprehensive about doing so before, mainly because of being an Olympic worrier fearing needing the loo or not having enough water or feeling rammed in by everybody. But after my experience at Progress I craved to be around other Thatters – people who are actually familiar with all songs, lyrics and share my levels of excitement. Plus as we all had quite a shock with Jason’s departure, I learnt to take nothing for granted when it comes to Take That and vowed to experience the tour from as close as possible to the stage. I’ve never met any of the boys so to be in the pits and be so close to them was a dream come true.

Come 6:15pm and we were lined up like cattle by the turnstiles. There’d been around fifty people queueing in front of us so we had no idea how close we’d be able to get to the stage but remained optimistic, overall. Thankfully, the system was fair and nobody felt the need to sprint into the arena. We were let in in order and we managed to get three rows from the front! I was utterly mesmerised. To go from being towards the back of Wembley Stadium to three rows away from the stage in the O2 Arena was a dream come true.

Ella Henderson was an incredible support act. Take That’s choice of support act is always spot on and I’ve seen some amazing artists over the years – Beverley Knight, Gary Go and Lady Gaga, just to name a few. Despite liking the The Pet Shop Boys’ material, I was utterly bored throughout their set opening the Progress tour. Ella, on the other hand, bought class, sophistication and fun to the O2 Arena. Despite being familiar with many songs from her album, I wasn’t exactly able to sing along much but still had an awesome time and her thirty-five minute set whizzed by. I wore my tacky fluorescent yellow hat for her set which appeared to get her attention! I shared a couple of little moments with her where she smiled at me, particularly during my favourite of hers, ‘Rockets’ which no-one else knew but I was able to sing along to. Her voice is absolutely incredible and I wish her all the success in the world, I really do. I’m so glad she’s already had a number one single and album. She truly deserves it.

Another difference for this tour is I had managed to avoid most spoilers (aside from the practically unavoidable pictures of the bike!) I muted lots of people on Twitter and any time I saw anything related to the tour, I would quickly scroll past. It was so, so tricky staying away from the setlist but I am SO glad I did. Even just one look at the set-list to a show will remain engrained in my memory. The problem with this is that I will then spend the concert thinking about what’s happening next so it was utterly refreshing to go to the show and know barely a thing about it! It turned out I knew most of the setlist through people spoiling online and my own guess work but wasn’t sure of the order and forgot lots of songs so it all worked out nicely as one big surprise!

I’ll save a lot of my comment on the show itself for a review I am planning (this post is just to discuss my personal experience more than anything) but will mention a few things from a fan-boy perspective (not a professional, like I aim for the tone of my review to be!). The fifteen minute introduction absolutely blew me away. Take That have a knack for absolutely incredible tour openers, both visually and musically. I loved the music that opened the show and the way the boys came onto the stage. The set-list was fantastic, particularly the emphasis on songs from the TT4 era. It was perfect to have so many songs from The Circus album. The balance between front-stage and b-stage was also wonderful as pretty much the whole arena was catered for nicely.

The whole show was absolutely incredible but some parts were made even more so by being in the pits. Being in the left pit, just three rows from the stage, we got SO much Markie action! I love how he performs on a more intimate level, interacting with the nearby crowd. He sung to and smiled at so many people around me and I’m pretty sure he smiled and winked at me. It also meant we got to witness the ‘Flaws’ shirt lift rather close which was greatly appreciated by many 😉

The flames during ‘Get Ready For It’ were scorching but you certainly felt the full atmosphere being so close! I was also finally able to bounce properly to ‘Hold Up A Light’ (it doesn’t have the same effect when you’re in seats!). Being in the pits for the confetti explosion during ‘Greatest Day’ is also incredible, although trying not to ingest it was very tricky! I’m still leaving a trail of confetti around the house from my pockets, wallet, phone case etc (much to my mother’s annoyance…) Also, can we just discuss ‘The Garden’ for a moment?! It must have looked spectacular to anyone outside of the pit but for us inside, it was mesmerising. Having those huge curtains drawn around us made us feel completely cut off from the rest of the arena, like it was just Take That and us. It also provided some much needed cool air after the intensity of heat from the flames in ‘Get Ready For It’! It was incredible to watch the puppet show from inside the sheet-dome. Furthermore, being underneath Mark’s cape/costume during ‘Shine’ took me right back to Primary School parachute games! Looking around during ‘Rule The World’ and seeing all of the lights also blew me away, as did looking at all the arms in the air during ‘Never Forget’.

I don’t think it’s been a secret that I’ve found 2015 a challenge so far and happy days have been very few so far this year. Take That have been such a strong source of light for me (I know it’s cheesy but it’s true) and the ‘III’ era has been without a doubt the most important Take That era to me. I am feeling a lot better now but that day and evening was the most beautiful, amazing and happy day I have had this year. So much so, I decided right away that I had to book more tickets and go again! I know twice isn’t anywhere near as many times as most Thatters but it ended up being enough for me. I could just about afford it and wanted to experience it again and am so glad I did. I’ve thankfully managed to avoid the post-tour blues since seeing them for a second time and I think it’s out of my system now! Don’t get me wrong, if money was no object, I’d go and see the boys numerous times but at the same time I think going excessively would probably make it lose some of its magic. I had two AMAZING days/nights and feel satisfied now! My second date was just as spell-bounding as my first except we were able to get right next to the walk-way between main stage and b-stage. We were a little concerned about a mob of drunken people behind us but thankfully they were tamed by Take That’s arrival onstage and were relatively well-behaved for the rest of the show. I wasn’t feeling very optimistic about touching the boys because of the swarm of drunks that had closed in but Alice and I managed to barge our way through and we were able to touch them!! I cupped Gary Barlow’s upper arm (I can confirm it is rock solid -pure muscle), touched Howard Donald’s sweaty arm and Mark’s jacket! A dream come true for someone who has never ever been that close to them before.

Seeing Take That has without a doubt been my favourite part of 2015 so far and I cannot put into words how much I value their existence. I had so much fun both times and am so grateful I got to go twice. I’d also go as far to say the boys managed to surpass ‘Progress’ with this tour. It was absolutely incredible and I am so glad they have stayed together and proved all of the critics wrong.