Scruffy Mark Pic Spam with Added Barlowen Content

[przed]

I've been accumulating pics for yet another Take That pic spam, and I thought the occasion of the release of their latest video wouldn't be a bad time to finally do it. Especially since the video contains scruffy!Mark, and the pic spam is all about Mark and his occasional scruffiness.

First, have the video, for When We Were Young:

And in case the embed doesn't work, here's the direct link: http://youtu.be/MlVw6eGpY5g

This video is just gorgeous. It was shot in black and white in Wembley stadium after their concert dates last week, and has the five of them spread out through the debris-strewn stadium until they finally, gloriously, come together at the end. There is hugging, there is hand-holding, and since the song is pretty much about what they went through in their youth as part of the band, it's all very poignant.

Here's a shot of Mark, behind the scenes at the video shoot:

I adore this pic. He's got a bit of scruff happening, which I find lovely, but I also like how he looks a bit harder than he usually does here. It's an interesting change from his usual public persona, which is much sunnier.

This is a more usual look for Mark, taken at one of the dates on the current concert tour:

Not only is he not generally scruffy, but he's usually the smiling, cheerful one. In public, at least. And I do love him when he's all freshly scrubbed.

But I also have to admit that I like him scruffy. (I do like the scruffy ones, from Sean Bean and Boromir to Howard and Jason in TT. Also, there's the Sweetie to consider. *g*) So what follows is an appreciation of scruffy!Mark, roughly in order of increasing scruffiness.

First up are a couple of slightly scruffy pics. Even in his thirties, Mark seems to be the sort of bloke who has to really work at growing any sort of beard whatsoever, so quite often his scruffiness is of the rather wispy sort. Which makes him more adorable, in my books. Slightly scruffy Mark, exhibit one:


And exhibit two:


There's a slight bit more scruffiness in this next one, and also some indication of Mark's clothes horse tendencies. He's the member of the band most concerned with fashion, and occasionally will act as the unofficial stylist for the band. (When they re-united, Mark was the one who bought Vogue and did his research and picked the suits they wore to the premiere screening of the documentary that brought them back together.)


The next two are from the video for Up All Night. In the video, the band are a sort of street urchin version of themselves, playing at a street party for the Queen's jubilee. It's a charming video, and Mark is approaching the apex of his scruffiness here:


Scruffy hair, scruffy beard, scruffy leather jacket, and half-finger gloves. ::sigh::


Here's the link to the video, because it really is charming: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gzDFf0M-N4

And here he is in rehearsals for (I think) the Beautiful World tour:

Again, there's a high scruff quotient, plus it's one of those times where he clearly just throws him into the music, and I love him for that.

But this pic, this one, is the one I love best, and the reason I wanted to do this pic spam in the first place.

I don't have a date for it, but it looks like it's from the wilderness years, when he'd gone solo. There's just something about the self-satisfied scruffiness he's exhibiting here that I love. Plus there's that shirt/blouse. Mark is a small bloke and tends to the flamboyant, and has been known to wear clothes from the women's end of the shop. This is clearly one of those times, and it's another thing I love him for.
(ETA: nevermind68 says this is from the Concert for Diana, and that TT were there.)

As I was pulling the pics together for this, I started noticing there were rather a lot of Barlowen pics that fit the brief. This was interesting, since if I had to pick a pairing for Mark, it would be Willowen, not Barlowen. And yet he and Gary are so adorable together in these shots, I decided they had to get their own section of the pic spam.

First up is one from the Stardust premiere, with Mark looking ridiculously happy and Gary looking just slightly possessive.


This is from the same premiere, and I love that here they both look ready to commit mischief.


Another mischievous!Mark pic, with the added bonus of one of the hats he's rather famous for these days:


And one final Barlowen pic. Mark's not scruffy here at all (though he does have the hat) but I had to include this because it is utterly adorable. And one of those many TT moments that it is just darn difficult to explain without the slash.

Comments

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

That is one great vid and song actually, so I am going to bite - tell me Oh Take That Wise One, is it off a recent CD that I could get hold of?

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

*unable to resist answering, accompanied by cackling sounds*
*enjoys pimping Take That*
*a lot*

It's one of the tracks on the 2008 album 'The Circus':
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Circus_(Take_That_album)
The other singles were
- 'Greatest Day' (http://youtu.be/zHzMLGH1Rfs)

- 'Said it All'


- 'The Garden'


-'Hold up a Light'


Did I mention I like pimping Take That? *sheepish chuckle*

*runs away*

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

Hey, thank you - it was rather lovely to sit back and watch all that..

[przed.livejournal.com]

Or if you mean the first video, it is from their latest CD, Progressed. (As opposed to Progress, which came out last fall, and it also utterly fab. As a bonus, Progressed also contains everything off Progress, so if you get it you, unlike me, will not be buying a bunch of songs twice. Not that I really begrudge doing it.)

::rubs hands gleefully at the thought of pulling another mate into the TT madness::

[przed.livejournal.com]

Okay, now that I've got some more time, here's the details on Progressed:

The song that hooked me on the madness is Kidz, from the initial Progress release. Here's the video, which is a crazy scifi, time travelling, steampunk thing of wonder:


And if the embed fails, here's the direct link: http://youtu.be/jlapv48d7VQ

The last single, before When We Were Young, was Love Love, which was used for the end credits of the X-Men movie. Except in North America. (No, I'm not bitter; why do you ask. :-/ ) Here's the X-Men/TT video for it:


And the direct link: http://youtu.be/qIkFY6TFvc8

And for the funny, also from Progress, here's the Take That boys running an "audition" for a TT cover band, and ending up with the like of the Little Britain blokes and Catherine Tate. Plus, the song is too much fun:


And the direct link:
http://youtu.be/7YSxb7lP78Y

I got my copies of both Progress and Progressed as iTunes downloads. Amazon UK also has it, here

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you hon for all that! I'd definitley like to get my hands on the songs on that CD, but I'll have to wait until I'm abroad next. iTunes downloads doesn't allow that stuff here - I have hadpirited back and forth with both Amazon UK and iTunes about this nonsense - and Amazon won't export a lot of music CDs out of Europe.

I do appreciate the nice visuals, though:-)