Progress Live Squee Pic Spam

[przed]

Friday, after a mere seven day wait, the Take That Progress Live Blu-Ray landed on my desk. It was going to be a busy weekend, and I should have crashed early, but I couldn't wait to see this:



I have got to love a fandom where this is our canon. *g*

Needless to say, it's a brilliant concert, and I enjoyed it immensely. And I couldn't resist putting together a massive pic spam of some of my favourite pics from the tour.


First, some solo pics of all the boys, starting with Captain Barlow.


Robbie!


Howard in the ticker tape storm.


Jason gets two pics, to make up for the dearth of him in the Making of doc.


Smiley!Jason.


I may have gone a bit nuts with the pics of Mark. I make no apologies.

First, Adorable!Mark.


Serious!Mark during Kidz, which is without a doubt the best set piece they have ever staged.


Bass-playing!Mark during Underground Machine, my second favourite number of the concert. (Mark, Jason and Howard do Tai Chi!)


Posing!Mark in his wacky Shine outfit.


Caterpillar-riding!Mark. Because all pop stars need a giant pink caterpillar to ride.


There were no pairing preference that went unsatisfied during the show. And I've got photographic proof of most of them.

Robbie and the Captain. Awwww.


Howard and Mark.


Robbie carrying Jason. (Alas, on DVD night there was no carrying, but there was lifting.)


Barlowen!


Howard and Jason in troubadour mode during Shine.


Willowen!


More Willowen, because who can resist that smile?


But in the end, it's about all of the boys being together.


Group hug!

Comments

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

SCREAM \o/

SO PRETTY *g* Oh, oh, oh so fabulous, indeed it is (ahem, the words 'preaching' and 'choir' probably come to mind with you and me sharing thoughts on this topic but hey ho *g*)

Did you see the Howard/Mark handholding at the end? So sweet! And I love that just about every pairing/combo got their moment - oh boys *g* But honestly, for all I love the Kidz sequence to pieces and love every single combo possible, the sheer HAPPINESS of Mark and Robbie when they're
together is what I find loveliest (and by extension the OT5 moments). Fifteen years later, they're puppies who adore each other again, and it's just ridiculously sweet *g*

ETA: That gif is just the best gif ever *watcheswatcheswatches* I randomly had Madonna's 'Don't Tell Me' on in the background and it makes the best accompaniment ever *g*

[przed.livejournal.com]

\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/

Yep, I would indeed by the choir, but it's such an awesome sermon I'll listen to it any time. *g*

I love the Howard/Mark hand holding. I nearly used a pic of that, but I love the one I went with even more. (I somehow have missed the Mark/Jason kiss in the Making of so far. Oh no, I'll just have to watch it again. And again.) But yes, the utter joy of Robbie and most especially Mark make it completely, ridiculously sweet. The moment I went over completely to the TT RPS-side was when you sent me the link to Robbie and Mark at Knebworth. Adoration doesn't begin to describe how they look at each other.

That gif is just...words fail me. And of course I had to go play the video of Don't Tell Me with the gif running, and it is totally the best accompaniment ever.

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

With all the people I see a lot of in RL (who were initially slightly 'Um, why the whole Take That thing? How interesting can it be?') I showed them Mark and Robbie at Knebworth... And they all pretty much went 'Wow, OK, I see there's a lot more going on here than some random manufactured band reuniting for money' *g*

[przed.livejournal.com]

Soooo much more than a random manufactured band reuniting for the money. (I had to go back and watch the Knebworth clip again, and it still gets to me.)

I'm also still bitter that it's not on the bloody Knebworth DVD.

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

It IS on the DVD - that's where the youtube footage is from! *g* It's part of the special features - you have to play a rather silly 'game' the premise of which is 'devil!Robbie has infiltrated backstage, use the controller to shoot devil!Robbie but avoid shooting angel!Robbie' (paging Dr Freud, ahem) and when you 'shoot' him correctly you get various bits of footage and when you *win* and have killed Devil!Robbie you get him and Mark snuggling... (still paging Dr Freud). I don't have the DVD to hand to remind me which disc or exactly what menu option it is but I think it might be actually called 'games' on disc 2

[przed.livejournal.com]

OMG! You mean I've been watching crappy YT footage when I could have been watching the DVD?!! Drat. (I did pull out my Knebworth discs after you sent me the YT link, but I didn't think to look for easter eggs or games. Silly me.)

I know what I'll be doing this evening after Le Ros goes to bed. *g*

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!!

Why don't I have a Mark/Robbie icon?

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Very welcome *g* and now you'll have a lovely quality source for the Mark/Robbie vid that, I know and fully appreciate you may not ever have time to make, but I know you must want to in your heart because seriously, EPIC ROMANCE *g*

I have about 100 'favourite things' about that footage, but one of them is that - if you listen carefully - you can hear that both of them are singing *harmony* rather than melody, because they're just singing what they learnt to sing with Gary (and as you will recall from 'Feel', they didn't exactly over-rehearse).

Why don't you have a Mark/Robbie icon?

[przed.livejournal.com]

and now you'll have a lovely quality source for the Mark/Robbie vid that, I know and fully appreciate you may not ever have time to make, but I know you must want to in your heart because seriously, EPIC ROMANCE *g*

Such footage may have just been ripped to my vidding machine because I will make that vid!

There are certainly at least 100 things to love about that footage, and yeah, the fact that they're both singing harmony on the chorus is definitely one of them. (They certainly didn't over rehearse. In fact, after reading Feel, it's pretty amazing that Robbie didn't self-destruct during the Progress rehearsal period. I gotta figure Gary figured out some secret keep-Robbie-from-getting-bored-out-of-his-skull techniques to keep it all on track.) I'm also rather fond of the way Mark fits perfectly under Robbie's arm. Awwww.

I dunno, I need to find one....

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

I will make that vid
THIS MAKES ME HAPPY \o/

The footage that exists for them is just... the emotion is just so powerful...

I love the bit in the app footage where Robbie says (with a kind of slight bewilderment like he's gone through the looking glass) 'And we're, like, warming up beforehand and everything. My warm-up's usually the first three numbers...') I don't know if he has managed to find some more self-discipline, or actually rather likes being told what to do when someone in authority says he *has* to (rather like a child). Or maybe Gary just put in a rule saying only *good* rehearsing band members get to play with Markie in the evening... *g*

That said, one of the benefits of being in a band has to be that you can just do what everyone else is doing so there's less pressure (e.g. spend all of Pray seeing what Howard's doing *g*)

Re: I dunno, I need to find one....

[przed.livejournal.com]

I am formally making a commitment to produce a Mark/Robbie vid in the new year. The problem has been that I have time to either vid or write, and my writing muse has been throwing out the TT ideas faster than I can write them. But once the current batch of stories is done, I'm going to put the writing on hold and work on getting at least one TT vid done. Because, yeah, you don't often get to work with the kind of emotion those two show.

I do love when Robbie says "My warm-up's usually the first three number." Because of course it is. And it is interesting to speculate on what exactly has changed that he's managed the more disciplined regimen of a TT tour. Personally I like the only good rehearsing band members getting to play with Markie theory. *g*

And yeah, you can see how much more relaxed he is working with the band, where he doesn't have to carry every single moment with his own charisma and he can just, say, watch Howard for all of Pray. Or muck about with Mark whilst Gary is singing Eight Letters.

[przed.livejournal.com]

Isn't it fab to have good quality footage of that moment? (I can't believe I had that disk sitting on my shelf for years before I realized it was there. ::headdesk::)

[przed.livejournal.com]

I've had it favourited on YT since Halo pointed me to it, but yeah, the DVD version is sooooo much better. (And now I can put it in a vid in all its glorious awesomeness!)

[przed.livejournal.com]

It takes me forever to vid these days, but I have vowed to get cracking on it as soon as I've got my takethatslash Christmas story done.

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

Hooray I have found my purpose in life *g* *hugs you*

Seriously I have worn out that bit of the DVD *g*

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

There's an excellent picspam of it, btw, at cenea here: http://cenea.livejournal.com/74811.html#cutid1 *g*

[przed.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. Even though cenea has me friended, LJ's not letting me into that post.

However, when I was checking her pic spam tags, I did find a delicious rentboy!Markie comment fic you'd written. Wow. (Shall comment on it properly when I'm not at work. ;-)

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

Sorry, must be an old filter - it's an ancient post.

I wrote a lot of comment fic at her journal - I can't even remember which one this is so I'll be interested to be reminded *g*

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

Have the most whumped picture of Mark EVER to compensate *g* (seriously, there's a whole essay on the male gaze, objectification and something else to be written on this picture, but let's just say that that indefinable quality Markie brings is well demonstrated here...)

[przed.livejournal.com]

I think Mark Owen could be singularly responsible for overturning 20 years of feminist thought on the male gaze and objectification. Because just look at the man.

As for that pic, it's pretty whumped. But I rather think this one might be the most whumped pic of him, EVAH.


I mean, seriously, what was he thinking? What was the photographer thinking? 'Cause what I'm thinking is this calls for some serious kidnap fic.

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

I know, the level of *vulnerability* and the unsettling way that it is clearly intended to be appealing is astonishing for a male popstar. The juxtaposition of these kind of signals with the 'I am alpha provider solver of problems' that is Gary Barlow is I think a large part of what makes the Barlowen pairing so popular. And yet there's also something hypnotic about him and Robbie, in the classic 'beautiful vulnerable person falls for Bad Idea Boyfriend' mold. There's something about winning Robbie's attention that seems to make Mark look happy and relaxed and *satisfied* like nothing else...

[przed.livejournal.com]

Both in his '90s incarnation and at present, Mark does show a remarkable level of vulnerability. And quite often it is unsettling in the extreme. When you posted the whumped pic, I knew I wanted to respond with the nearly-naked-Markie-stuffed-in-a-sewer-pipe pic, but I had to go searching for it--oh, the horror--because I'd never downloaded it precisely because it is so very unsettling. It's poking around in the dark areas of the psyche, which is so very interesting in someone who is probably viewed as an uncomplicated, cheery popstar sort by some circles.

But the flip side of whumpedandvulnerable!Mark is what I actually find most interesting, and that's whumpedandscrappy!Mark. And the best moment for that is the I'd Wait for Life video:


This vid is where Mark won me over utterly and completely, the sense that he may be someone who gets knocked down, but he always comes up fighting. And that clearly extends to his personal life as well.

The two vastly different pairings are interesting as well. Of the two, I clearly am most fond of the Mark/Robbie variation, but not primarily for the 'beautiful vulnerable person falls for Bad Idea Boyfriend' aspect. I actually see Robbie as at least a vulnerable as Mark, though obviously in different ways, and that leads to you getting to play with different aspects of their strengths and weaknesses through the fic, and to have one in trouble when the other can be strong. And then when the two of them are happy and strong together, there's nothing that can beat it. ::sigh::