Take That Adorableness, and a Short Howard/Jason Pic Spam

[przed]

Last week, I ended up devouring Gary Barlow's autobiography in record time. (Yes, I've gone completely overboard on the Take That thing. Let's just accept that and move on.) Gary's story is a fascinating one - halotolerant has pointed out it's a perfect classical narrative, going from success and hubris to nemesis to redemption,- but what's even better for my money is the glimpses it offers of the emotional life of the band.

The moment in the book I keep coming back to, over and over, is one that takes place after their reunion press conference, and focuses on Howard and Jason, who seem to have become my fave Take That RPS pairing:

We came off stage, did a few one-to-one interviews and then went backstage to our room. Suddenly the security guys began clearing everyone out of our room – Howard was on his knees, crying, he was overwhelmed by it all. Jay sat hugging him, looking white as a ghost, and Mark, who had seemed the least fazed by the press, looked as worried as I felt.

Wow. I mean… just wow.

Three sentences, but there's so much there. Howard losing it, and Jay protecting him. Mark and Gary worrying over them. And the security guys, who've mostly been with them all from the start, since they were kids, instinctively acting to protect them all. Can I hear a big Awwwww.

Pretty much all of my slash pairings up until now have been stoic secret agent types. If I read, let alone wrote, a story with one of 'em weeping in his partner's arms, I'd consider it way over the top. But with these guys, it's actually happened. And it's incredibly sweet.

I don't think I'm going to lose my taste for the stoic ones, but I have to say, having guys be this out in the open about their emotions, and about looking after each other, is actually kind of refreshing.

In celebration of my discovery of Howard/Jason, here are a few pics of their awesomeness, roughly in order of increasing slashiness.

During the Beautiful World tour, clearly having a ball and enjoying being close to each other.


They just look like they're having too much fun here. And they're wonderfully scruffy, which is always a good thing, IMO. *g*


Jason hugging Howard backstage during the Beautiful World tour. This is during the period where Howard couldn't perform because he'd broken a rib on stage and given himself a pneumothorax, so he spends each concert making notes for the other blokes, and being all proud of Jason doing a solo song. (Real life h/c! How can I resist!)


I can't entirely explain why, but I just love this pic. I think it's the ease they clearly have around each other.


I'm trying to explain this without the slash. Trying, and failing I might add. Oh, boys. *g*


This is the pic I took my icon from, because it's just adorable. And as a bonus, it puts me in mind of Halo's utterly awesome story, The Insomnia Decades, where Jay falling asleep on Howard's shoulder is a key plot point.

Comments

[anniina85.livejournal.com]

That "Blisfully tortured" feel is all over his lyrics, so it can't be a coincidence, it must really mean something. Like he's bit of a masochist, in an emotional sense... Like the story behind "What you want from me". Emma goes away for a few days and the first thing he thinks about is whether she would come back and not wanna be with him anymore. As he said himself, the fear was coming from his insecurity.

I like how you described Robbie/Mark and Robbie Gary. Intensity vs playfulness and stability, sounds very true! With Barlowen I also get that sense of certain stability, maybe that's what both Robbie and Mark seek from Gary, someone to rely on. A solid shoulder, in Mark's words ;) It's obvious Gary is looking after Mark a bit. I also love how Gary often has this amused smile on his face when Mark says or does something silly or random. He's not laughing with him, he's laughing at him, but in a loving and caring way LOL! Apart from the certain protectiveness, it seems that's Gary has really enjoyed having Mark as a writing partner during the OT4 times, meaning that he doesn't have to do all the writing alone anymore and can bounce on ideas with someone. (Howard and Jay's contribution has of course been extremely important as well)

Btw, have you seen that interview the boys did on radio 1 last october/november time? Imo it's the best interview they've done during the Progress era. It's all five of them + it's soooooo funny :D
Part one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOu-m20ts4Y

"when I finally got hold of For the Record I expected big revelations from Mark about how Rob leaving the band affected him. And then there was...virtually nothing. Which first I found frustrating, but on further reflection becomes very interesting." You're right. It actually says quite a lot that says basically nothing about how he felt back then. Obviously he was not ready to do so, at least not for a camera...

"He's obviously a very physically demonstrative guy, and that's in a band that extraordinarily touchy." Again, very true! Have you noticed that Mark has a tendency to kind of hold on to one of the boys' arms, usually it's Gary or Robbie, when they're standing or standing up and starting to walk after an interview ec? It's quite adorable! And when they were doing the Echo awards in Germany it seemed that most of time on the red carpet Mark was either holding on to Gary's arm or hiding behind him, haha ;) And the way his face lightens up when one of them touches is beautiful to see :)

The contrast between the insecurity and maintaning his unique style is very interesting. Could you imagine any of the other boys wearing a sparkly jumpsuit on stage in front of 80 000 people?!? And apparently that suit was all Gary's fault ;)

[przed.livejournal.com]

Gary seems to look after them all. Among all the lovely bits in LBDS was Gary talking about their working method for writing. How he puts together a ton of backing tracks for them to play with so they can all bounce the different ideas around, and so he can change the track when Robbie gets bored.

He's not laughing with him, he's laughing at him, but in a loving and caring way LOL!

I think it's that he honestly enjoys Mark's take on things.

I have seen that Radio 1 interview, but watched it again anyway. It is lovely, apart from Howard being hidden from the camera most of the time. They all get equal time, and they're all clearly having a blast.

You're right. It actually says quite a lot that says basically nothing about how he felt back then.

Number one on my wish list now is for Mark to do a memoir like Gary did. That would be very interesting.

Have you noticed that Mark has a tendency to kind of hold on to one of the boys' arms, usually it's Gary or Robbie, when they're standing or standing up and starting to walk after an interview ec?

No! I hadn't noticed that. Shall have to do more research. Oh, the pain of having to watch more of their interviews. *g* I do love how his face lights up when one of the other lads gives him a bit of affection.

I thought the jumpsuit was a blast, especially considering the rest of them were in tasteful black with a little bit of sparkle. I had the jumpsuit down as pure Mark. It's funny it was Gary's fault.

[anniina85.livejournal.com]

Oh, I bet Gary desperatelly wanted OT5 to work, and that's why he made sure to have enough tracks ready so Robbie wouldn't get bored ;) Also, it's nice how he kept pushing Howard forward with his ideas, cause he knows Howard is a bit quiet and needs that little pushing. And the fact that Robbie felt the need to impress the other boys with lyrics, just shows how much he must respect the others these days.

"I think it's that he honestly enjoys Mark's take on things." That must be it. Mark can be wonderfully silly and random *g* I think it's quite funny and adorable how he often starts answering a reporter's question and ends up bubbling ages without really answering the question, LOL!

I would love to read Mark's memoirs! But I'm afraid he's too private a person to ever publish something like that.

One example of the 'arm holding' is the Brits acceptance speach. Mark keeps holding on to Robbie's arm when they're on stage/leaving it ;)

I think it was the London i-tunes vid from the Circus tour, where Mark's having a little costume fitting of the sparkly suit, and there he tels the camera that the suit was Gary's fault...with a massive smile on his face! I think Gary really enjoyed seeing him in that suit, on one of the passes they were showing Mark backstage getting ready to be lifted up stage for Hold up a light, and Gary was there too, saying how Mark had his *catsuit* on ;) Infact, all the boys seemd to enjoy the suit cause there definitely was quite a few bum slappings/gropings going on (judging from pics/youtube vids I've seen) when Mark wore that suit... ;)

[przed.livejournal.com]

I'm sure Gary did his best to make sure everything worked. I do like the way he pushes Howard forward. I also found it interesting the way he mediated when Robbie and Jason had a tiff over lyrics, pushing Jason to come up with something better if he doesn't like what Rob has.

I'm afraid you're right about Mark ever writing his memoirs. If he's that close-mouthed during interviews, he'd never write it all down. But a girl can dream. *g*

I shall have to go check out the Brits acceptance speech again. Oh, the hardship. *g*

I've only just got hold of the Circus iTunes vids, so I hadn't seen those bits now. But I just watched it, and yep, Gary is to blame. I have to say that I found the London section got me a bit teary, with them all a bit sad to have the tour over. (It's also made me very sad I won't be seeing the Progress tour live. Ah, well, next time 'round I shall deviously suggest a family vacation in England at the appropriate time.)

[anniina85.livejournal.com]

There is a little preview video of the coming tour ( I think it was sponsored by samsung), so it looks like there will be backstage vids this time as well :) I really really hope so! I love the Circus i-tunes passes so much. It's nice seeing the boys backstage, relaxed and being themselves and interacting with each other.

[przed.livejournal.com]

I found the preview this afternoon! It looks awesome, and had me once again toying with finding a way to get over for a show.

I do hope there's a lot of backstage footage. With all the concert disks, I almost like the backstage stuff better than the show. They are so lovely together.