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The Ultimate Tour was the first proper content of theirs I'd seen (I'd caught and quite enjoyed the videos of Patience and Shine but didn't pay a huge amount of attention) - I happened to see bits of it on TV around the time the BW DVD came out and I saw the emotion and the drama and the EPIC mantouching and ran out that day to get the full length DVD! And never looked back... *g* I was amazed how raw and real they were prepared to be - all I really knew about them was that Robbie had left and that Gary Barlow was the epitome of uncool and I hadn't expected any of that to be addressed in any way. I was also unprepared for how simply *good* they would be as performers and the chemistry and obvious affection between them. I moved onto Gary's book and For the Record and got utterly drawn in *g*

The shadow of 'the manager' hangs heavy over their reminiscences of the early days; one of the most important points in Gary's book is when he realises that his relationship with their manager was vastly different to the other three's, and makes his decision to support them in breaking away.