Take That - Manchester Stadium - June 4, 2011

Love them or hate them - and, come on, who really hates them these days - you can’t deny that Take That put on an absolutely spectacular show. They proved that last time with The Circus tour, wowing audiences with fireworks and a giant mechanical elephant. It all begged the question - where can you really go from there? Well, you could spend a rumoured £15million on the next one, welcome back the missing fifth member, and include a giant robot! Obviously.

At the City of Manchester Stadium last weekend, the home crowd welcomes them - and their temperamental robot named Om - with open arms, after a stellar supporting turn from the Pet Shop Boys. That’s one hell of a support band.

The main event opens simply, with Gary, Mark, Jason and Howard stepping onto the stage to sing five of the tracks they’ve released since their phenomenally successful return as a foursome. Though the rain pours down, their set-pieces and innate ability to make the largest stadium feel like an intimate venue ensures that not one of us focuses on the weather. It does piss it down though - good old Manchester.

Then, it’s time for the lost boy to return. Robbie appears on the big screen with his bandmates to a crackle of excitement and barrage of screams, before practically free-falling out of the screen onto the stage to sing five of his own solo hits. Instead of feeling like a show within a show, it all fits in remarkably well, with Robbie hanging off a contraption that swings out over the crowd, allowing him to bathe in all the adulation he needs before the rest of the lads return.

We could hardly believe we were seeing it - all five members back together in concert. Sure, they’ve been all over the telly and in magazines, but it’s not the same as seeing them all up there interacting and singing the old classics like they were never apart. The reunited five sing The Flood, following that with lots larking around, bum-patting, and a bit of dancing, patching up around 55,000 broken once-teenage hearts in the process.

With a wall of water, giant chess game, dancers, fireworks, aerialists, enormous purple caterpillar, fireballs, and huge robot... a lesser band could have got lost among the spectacle, but there were constant reminders that the reason they’re so well-loved by the nation these days is their heart and genuine delight to be back.

Even when it all goes wrong momentarily, with grins and stifled laughs coming from the stage, it’s fantastic  - Om captures Howard in a mechanical failure, and the’s left stranded on his hands in the middle of the stadium until a ladder can be fetched to get him down. Still, no-nonsense “Captain Barlow” takes control of the situation and steers the other boys through their mirth until it’s all plain-sailing again. He’ll be good on The X Factor, we reckon.

The scripted “ad-libs” sound fresh, funny, genuine and warm, always poking fun at themselves: Robbie’s superinjunction-themed song in the middle of his solo set was updated to reference new revelations about “sex injections” - and his banter with Jason contained the following wry exchange:

“When Rob left the band...” “No, Jay, I was sacked...” “Left the band...” “Was sacked.”

It wouldn’t work if they didn’t seem to be having such a damn good time. We all lap up the oldies: A Million Love Songs, Back for Good, Pray, Babe and Everything Changes, while the newer tracks from Progress have everyone on their feet dancing.

After a surprisingly genius inclusion of Robbie’s No Regrets, the boys walk through the crowd from the centre of the stadium to the stage, shaking hands and collecting gifts along the way. Mark and Robbie are particularly covered in hats, sunglasses and scarves as they take their final bow, and they all look exhausted but happy.

It’s uncertain if we’ll see the band back together on tour again as a five-piece after this one, but even if we don’t, the show is a masterpiece of how to balance spectacle, massive choruses, and heart. Yeah, I’m gushing, deal with it.