Friday 30 October 2009

Take That: Doubt their own talents


Take That - who have earned millions since they reformed in 2005 - say they often get disheartened by their writing and are constantly questioning their own abilities. Jason Orange said: “I’m the most negative in the band, asking, ‘Can we do it better?’ all the time. If what we are doing is good enough I always question.”His bandmate Mark Owen added: “Sometimes one of us has to go down a certain path with an idea before we all decide it’s s**t.”However, Howard Donald says the group perform better as a unit now as Gary Barlow is no longer the sole songwriter. He explained in the ‘Take That Presents: The Circus Live’ DVD: “We’ve got a much bigger friendship now that we ever did. “Gary used to write everything at such a rate we were always catching up.”Mark - who had two top 10 singles in the UK chart after the band split in 1996 – admits his own input in the band would be better if he could remember his dreams.He explained: “I write great songs in my sleep. I sing lyrics into my phone. “When I wake up in the morning it’s just me mumbling and falling asleep - but when I’m dreaming I hear all the string arrangements.”

Saturday 24 October 2009

Tattoo and backs X Factor twins John and Edward to win the show, Robbie Williams gets Take That tribute


Robbie Williams sent a particular message out to his former Take That bandmate Gary Barlow during his first full concert for three years.
The singer also shocked fans by backing cocky X Factor contestants the Grimes twins to win the gig as he performed to a sell out crowd in London, setting a world record in the process.
Williams took to the stage to open this year's BBC Electric Proms and paid tribute to Barlow, who is mourning the death of his father.
"About 14 months ago we all got together one night and I got a new best mate... Gary," he said. "I'm sending my love to you - I know it's been a tough week."
The star told the audience he got a Take That tattoo as a tribute to the boy band which launched his career.
He explained that he was inspired to have the artwork put on his arm after enjoying a get-together with Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange and Mark Owen.
Williams added: "But when I showed it to them, they all said in unison: 'you d**k!"'
He opened the show at north London's trendy Roundhouse venue last night with new single Bodies.
Appearing emotional, he said: "You nearly made me cry then, but then I realised it's not The X Factor."
Williams, who appeared on the ITV1 show earlier this month, revealed he was a fan of twins John and Edward Grimes.
"Go for the twins," he told the crowd, who responded with deafening boos.
But he insisted: "John and Edward all the way."
Williams meanwhile dedicated new track Won't Do That to actress girlfriend Ayda Field.
The gig was watched by celebrities including radio DJ Fearne Cotton and singer Will Young.
Later the cheeky singer appeared to hold back tears as he revealed his hit Feel was his auntie's favourite song, saying: "I'm sure she's looking down now."
But he then deadpanned: "She's not dead she's just condescending!"
Last night's performance set a world record for the most simultaneous cinematic screenings of a live concert.
The show was screened in more than 250 cinemas across 23 countries, meaning tens of thousands of the singer's fans across Europe watched the show as it happened.
Williams, who is at number two in the singles charts and was accompanied by a string section, horn section and a full band, is no stranger to setting records. He last did so in 2006 when his epic Close Encounters tour sold 1.6 million tickets in a day.
Guinness World Records editor-in-chief Craig Glenday said: "It's been a few years since we've seen Robbie in the record books so it's great to see him back on stage and breaking records."

Monday 12 October 2009

Go live Take That


Take That have confirmed the full details of him live album and DVD their forthcoming.
Entitled "The Greatest Day" and "The Circus Live At Wembley Stadium" respectively, both packages feature a bonus disk.
This will include recordings in session at world famous London studio Abbey Road, collecting material from their last two albums.
Interviews with Mark Owen, Jason Orange, Howard Donald and Gary Barlow will also feature.
"The Greatest Day", out on November 30, and "The Circus Live…", due a week earlier, bring together material from across the pop act's career.

Tuesday 22 September 2009

'won't take Calais migrants' in UK


Home Secretary Alan Johnson has denied that Britain will be forced to take migrants from the "Calais Jungle" camp which has been shut by French police.
"Reports that the UK will be forced to take illegal immigrants from the 'Jungle' are wrong," he said.
Mr Johnson said refugees should apply for security in the first EU country that they reach.
Migrant pairs say the camp closure will only shift the problem elsewhere in Europe.
The makeshift camp has replaced official centres like Sangatte as a gathering point for migrants hoping to cross to Britain.
Mr Johnson said Britain was working closely with France to prevent illegal immigration and people trafficking.
"We are working with the French not only to strengthen our shared border but that of Europe as a whole," he added.
'Part of the problem'
However, Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the Migrationwatch think tank, suggested that Britain's immigration policy was part of the problem.
"This is a welcome decision but it will not tackle the root cause of the problem, namely that Britain is regarded as a 'soft touch'.
"Why else would people be queuing up in Calais?" he added.
Sir Andrew said the government should be more serious about removing failed asylum seekers, and rule out absolutely any talk of an amnesty.
Richard Ashworth, Conservative MEP for South East England, said the decision to close the camp was long overdue, but the French government wanted to do more if the movement--- is to be resolved.
"It is now incumbent on the French government to deal with illegal immigration at the point of entry into France, and not simply funnel them through creating this sorry bottleneck along the Pas de Calais and Normandy coasts," he says.
'Repeat' warning
Refugee campaigners have welcomed the closure of the camp, but warned that the problem will shift elsewhere.
"It is quite right take it should be shut down," said Dan Hodges from the charity Refugee Action.
"But while it is possible to sweep away the camp, you can't simply sweep away the problem."
Makeshift camps sprang up in Calais following the closure of the Red Cross camp in Sangatte in 2002. Some observers fear that things will be no different this time.
"I remember seven years ago when former home secretary, David Blunkett, and the then French minister of the interior, Nicolas Sarkozy, congratulated themselves on the closure," said Keith Best of the Immigration Advisory Service.
"But the hundreds of asylum seekers merely moved to the dockside of Calais. The liquidation of the jungle will have the same transitory effect," he suggested.
Mr Best said it was very difficult to claim asylum in France, and the French were not playing their part despite obligations under the Geneva Normal.
Donna Covey, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said the closure was dealing with symptoms rather than the cause, and the big question was what happened to the migrants now.
"We hope that all the people, including the very vulnerable, like women and children on their own who are trying to get to a place of safety, are given access to an asylum system.
"This is a European wide problem which needs a solution at European level," she said.

Monday 14 September 2009

Take Doubles Title Without a Fuss to Williams Sisters


FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. Serena Williams made a exultant return to Arthur Ashe Stadium Monday afternoon, teaming with sister Venus to win the U.S. Open's women's doubles title two days after her campaign to defend her 2008 singles title ended in controversy.
The Williams sisters routed the world's top doubles team, Cara Black and Liezel Huber, 6-2, 6-2, before a sparse crowd to claim three of the season's four Grand Slam event crowds.
Venus and Serena opened 2009 by winning the Australian Open doubles title, and they crushed Black Huber in the semifinals en route to the Wimbledon crowd, as well.
But both sisters fell short of their goal in singles play. Venus lost in the fourth round to eventual champion Kim Clijsters.
Serena's ouster came two rounds later when she was assessed a point penalty on match point for her profanity laced tirade against a lineswoman who cited her for a foot fault with Clijsters two points from victory.
The foot fault handed Clijsters, who had outplayed Serena throughout, a match point.
But after getting a new ball to serve, Serena walked instead toward the lineswoman. Shaking a ball in her face, she spewed a stream of profanities and told the woman that, if she could, she would shove the ball down her throat.
Monday, before she and Venus were due to return to Ashe to compete in the women's doubles final, Serena issued an amended statement that unlike the earlier statement she issued Sunday included an apology to the lineswoman and reflected remorse for her behavior. It read:
"I need to better my press statement of yesterday, and need to make it clear as possible I need to sincerely apologize FIRST to the lines woman, Kim Clijsters, the USTA and mostly tennis fans everywhere for my inappropriate outburst. I'm a woman of great pride, faith and unity, and I admit when I'm wrong. I need to make it clear to all young people that I handled myself unsuitably and it's not the way to act win or lose, good call or bad call in any sport, in any manner.
"I like to lead by example. We all learn from experiences both good and bad, I will learn and grow from this, and be a better person as a result."
With no more than 1,000 in the stands when Serena walked on court for the doubles match, it was difficult to read much meaning into the reaction, which consisted of scattered applause and no audible disparaging remarks.

Thursday 3 September 2009

After Java quake to Hundreds take refuge in tents


Hundreds of people in Cianjur, West Java, have taken refuge at emergency tents following a powerful earthquake that rocked western Java on Wednesday, Antara news agency has reported. The Muslims, who are fasting during the recently Islamic month of Ramadan, also had their pre-dawn meal and prayers at the tents on Thursday. “We are afraid to stay inside our houses and to go to the mosque,” Ipah, 58, a occupier from Cicepuk Village in Pamoyanan. Her house was badly damaged during the quake. The 7.3 magnitude quake occurred on Wednesday afternoon, sending panic crosswise the most populous island in the country. At least 35 people were killed in the disaster. The death toll is expected to rise.

Monday 24 August 2009

Study finds women to take financial risks



WASHINGTON (AP) Women with more testosterone tend to behave more like men when taking financial risks, according to a new study. "Women with higher levels of testosterone turn out to be less risk antogonistic, more willing to take risks," Luigi Zingales of the University of Chicago said in a telephone interview. Known as the male sex hormone, testosterone occurs in both men and women, but at higher levels in men. It has big been associated with fight and dominance, reduction of fear, and with risky behaviors like gambling and alcohol use.Co-author Paola Sapienza of Northwestern University noted that women in general are less likely than men to take financial risks."For example, in our sample set, 36 percent of female MBA students chose high-risk financial careers such as investment banking or trading, equivalence to 57 percent of male students. We needed to explore whether these gender changes are related to testosterone, which men have, on medium, in higher attention than women."Previous research in England showed that higher levels of testosterone seem to boost short term success at finance. Researchers there tested male traders morning and evening, and found that those with higher levels of testosterone in the morning were more likely to make an unusually big profit that day. Zingales and his team tested the testosterone levels of more than 500 MBA students males and females and asked them to choose between a guaranteed financial award or a risky lottery with a higher potential payout. Students had to choose recurrent between the lottery and a fixed payment at increasing values.In general, men had higher levels of testosterone and were more likely to choose the risky lottery than women.But it also turned out that women with higher levels of testosterone were almost seven times more likely to take risks that women with lower hormone levels.On the other hand, there was no change in risk tasking between those with comparatively low levels of testosterone 90 percent of women and 31 percent of men.In addition, the researchers found that married men and women had lower levels of testosterone than single individuals."Married people are also known to be more risk opposed than unmarried people," they noted.The research was funded by the Templeton Foundation, the Zell Center for Risk Research and the Center for Research in Security Prices and the first on Global Markets at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Sunday 23 August 2009

Take on the mantle of the next Flintoff to Broad shoulders


There was something absolutely poignant about the timing. All summer long and for a few summers before that there had been the scolding question about life after Flintoff. It cased not that for half the time during Flintoff, the man himself was never there.
His gig at Lord's in the Second Test hardly aggravated the issue. Five wickets, bowling about on one leg, and victory against Australia at Lord's for the first time in three quarters of a century. Here was the combatant being a combatant and winning the match in a theatrical advertisement whose memory will allow.
And when he was left out at Leeds dropped would not be too greatest considering the embarrassing reaction from Flintoff's factor commenting on his charge's distress and England played like patsies, the topic had fresh rapport.

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Thursday 13 August 2009

China urges world to respect Myanmar sovereignty take a look


China has desired the world to respect Myanmar's judicialsovereignty, suggesting Beijing would not back any U.N. actionagainst the junta for returning opposition leader Aung San SuuKyi into detention. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said it was
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Tuesday 11 August 2009

Ashes 2009: Players just don’t seem to learn from mistakes, says frustrated Flower


England had drop to Australia and, an hour later, head charabance Andy Flower was perked in the Headingley stands lamenting his batsmen's failure to learn the lessons of a year ago. As he spoke, his players were leaving the As he spoke, his players were leaving the dressing rooms, their bags being carried by tortoise to the car park and their compeering sponsored 4x4 vehicles lined up in a neat row.
It was like a aspect from the Raj, porters ushering the privileged class to their affectation, gleaming in the sun.
As they did so, Flower expressed his frustration at the rerunof mistakes made in the 10-wicket defeat against South Africa in 2008. 'Probably the most displeaceing thing about the first innings was the fact that 12 months ago at this ground, we played South Africa and this was a carbon copy,' he said.
'The whole feel - the types of dismissal, the types of shot that were played - were similar. Twelve months on you would like to see a little learning taking place.'
Bygone in the day, Justin Langer had laid bare how Australians regard our cricket culture.
A leaked mini-dossier on England for his former team-mates, based on his long experience of playing with and against our cricketers, announced a degree of contempt for their perceived softness.
'English cricketers are great front runners,' wrote the current Somerset captain, who also blames the disperate amount of cricket played in England.
'Because of the way they are programmed they will be up when things are going well but they will taper off very quickly if you wear them down ... it is just who they are built

Saturday 25 July 2009


As Take That prepared for their first Wembley date on the Circus Tour, they had a special backstage guest to catch all the action for you!.Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles has had exclusive access to all that’s going on behind the scenes! And the footage is now live on Take That’s very own BBC Radio 1 microsite! Watch the guys take Chris on a backstage tour of Wembley – dressing room, rider, the lot at www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/takethat.

You can also listen to a full hour of highlights from tonight’s performance on the Chris Moyles Show from 9-10am on Monday. And don’t worry if you miss that, you can also listen to it on the BBC

Wednesday 15 July 2009

A Message From Take That To Their Fans

To everyone who saw us on tour…

Well, what can we say? We’ve just come to the end of some of the most incredible weeks of our lives. The tour was an even more amazing event for us than we could have possibly hoped, and a very big part of that is down to the wonderful audiences we had each night.

Thank you so, so much for all your continued support. We feel hugely privileged to have such brilliant fans and we hope you enjoyed the show as much as we enjoyed performing for you.

With all our very best wishes

Mark, Gary, Jason & Howard

Thursday 2 July 2009

Take That In London - Wembley Arena

Take That have reached the final leg of their massive UK tour and are now in London. You’ve been busy suggesting activities in the forum for when they have some spare time: here’s a selection of our favorites…

Saturday 11 April 2009

Take That reunite with Robbie Williams


Take That have reunited with former member Robbie Williams.

The boyband have "buried the hatchet" with Williams, according to the Daily Mirror.

"Rob's looking really well at the moment. We went for dinner and he was telling us he's been chilling out," Jason Orange told the newspaper.

Orange stopped short of announcing a musical reunion with his former bandmate, however.

"[He's been] writing a lot, but nothing with us," he confirmed

Orange also joked about Robbie Williams' recent obsession with aliens and UFOs.

He said: "I don’t know if it's all [Williams' new material] about UFOs, but he'll be bringing out something soon."

Robbie Williams quit Take That in 1995, before the band split for the first time in 1996. They reunited without Williams in 2005.

Saturday 14 March 2009

Take That mainman injures back

Gary Barlow training spasm ahead of mountain peak attempt
Feb 21, 2009
NME.com
Take That's Gary Barlow has injured his back during preparations to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, for charity.
The star, who this week joined Coldplay onstage in London, issued a statement through his website saying that due to a "hectic training schedule... the muscles in Gary Barlow's back have gone into spasm".
It added that the singer has been "treated appropriately" and should be able to complete the charity climb.
Barlow will attempt to join a number of stars including Girls Aloud pair Cheryl Cole and Kimberley Walsh and BBC Radio 1's tubby breakfast show host Chris Moyles in scaling the peak.

Sunday 8 February 2009

Gary Go Confirmed To Support Take That

Wednesday, 4 February
From http://www.takethat.com/news/

Take That have given little-known singer songwriter Gary Go his big break by confirming him as a support act on their UK tour.

Gary Go will be joining the band in playing to over a million people, including performances at Wembley Stadium – the venue at the end of the road where he grew up!

Take That are still yet to play a full show at Wembley Stadium, so it will be an exciting first for both. The band have been big fans of Gary Go since the middle of last year and the choice to bring him with them in June was a very personal one. They said: ‘Gary Go is a rare and talented artist with an amazing voice and inspirational songs. We all just love his passion and enthusiasm’.

Mark added: ‘I’m absolutely made up that Gary Go is touring with us and delighted to hear that things seem to be going so well for him. Go Gary, Gary Go he really is quite… wonderful’, making reference to Gary Go’s new single ‘Wonderful’, which will be released on Feb 16th.
Gary Go will open for Take That on every night over their 2009 summer tour.

Details of Take That summer tour and Take That Tickets are available at The Online Ticket Shop.