Take That: The Fannish Anniversary Pic Spam

[przed]

In the usual course of things, I'd have no idea exactly when I fell for a certain fandom. In the case of Take That, however, and thanks to the wonder of LJ, I can track it down to a half hour window. So I can say with complete certainty that it was one year ago today that I fell for TT.

It all started because the lovely halotolerant posted a link to TT's performance of Kidz at last year's Brits. A performance that I'd seen and really liked, so I responded to her post. And she proceeded to lure me in with a potted history of the band and lovely videos of pretty boys.

It took a little bit to take. Here's Exhibit A, a comment I made just as I was about to go over the precipice:


Oh, the naiveté. Even the Sweetie knows their names now.

But then Halo sent me a link to this video, of Mark Owen singing Back for Good with Robbie Williams at Robbie's big Knebworth gig.

It is not the tightest musical performance ever—they barely rehearsed, and as Halo has pointed out they both sing the harmony bits on the chorus because that's the way they learned it back in the day—but it is utterly delectable. The way Rob looks fondly at Mark, and Mark returns the look with complete adoration, is unbelievable, ground zero for some very lovely slashy thoughts on my part.

And here's my comment after I'd watched the video and my brain had exploded:


I haven't looked back.

To celebrate this fannish anniversary, I thought I'd put together an insanely long pic spam of the pretty British boys and men who make up TT, because they're very pretty. And because I wanted to.


First, some group shots…

'90s Puppy Pile:


Serious Young Men


The boys with Hobbit Hair. Well, everyone but Gary.


You gotta love a band that are totally willing to do a photo shoot on a bed together


Fashion plate boys. I love Mark looking all serious here.


In their time traveller gear from the Kidz video.


Okay, next, have some individual shots of the boys.

I'm not the hugest Gary Barlow fan, but I'm rather fond of his gormless look here:


I have no idea of the context for this, but who can resist Gary and Muppets!


Baby!Robbie and his cheeky grin


Older and with more tattoos, but the grin remains the same.


One of the many reasons I love this band is I can simultaneously indulge in my love of footie and TT.


Jason looking particularly lush.


And here in his steampunk gear.


Going purely by looks, Howard is probably my favourite.


I love this shot, because it's one of those times that his blue eyes are brilliantly piercing.


As usual, I may have gone a bit nuts with the Mark pics. I make no apologies.

Shirtless Baby!Mark.


Shirtless, serious Baby!Mark. On a bed.


Wilderness years era Mark, looking androgynous and gorgeous.


Mark playing footie. (The fact that he's rather good at footie is just icing on a lovely cake.)


Mark in one of his hats. (I love Mark in his hats. Well, except for the one that looks like a dead cat on his head. We shall not speak of that one.)


Mark rehearsing Kidz for the Progress tour. This is probably my all-time favourite pic of Mark. I love the confidence in his stance, and the way it embodies the fightiness that is a large part of why I love him.


Let's end with a few pics of the various pairings in the band, shall we?

While there is literally no combination of the boys that doesn't show up at some point, getting a good Howard/Robbie pic was difficult. This is a scan from the Take One book.


I love the expression on Gary's face as he looks at Howard here.


More Gary/Howard.


Gary and Mark in the '90s, sharing a hot tub. As you do.


Gary and Mark now, still rather adorable together.


Robbie and Gary back in the day.


And Robbie and Gary now, all acrimony forgiven.


Mark sprawled all over Jason in the '90s.


Grown up Mark and Jason looking suave.


Robbie with Jason.


And Robbie and Jason sharing a moment on stage.


Mark and Howard being adorable goofs.


And Howard sprawled all over Mark. (I may have a story near completion inspired by this pic.)


I've posted this before, but I think it bears pulling out again. Howard and Jason. Oh, boys. (Whenever anyone questions the whole RPS thing, this is the pic I pull out. Because just LOOK AT THEM!)


Howard and Jason being adorable together, just before the '90s break up.


Footie!Willowen! Mark and Robbie being adorable in football gear. It seriously doesn't get better than that.


Oh, wait, this is even better, the best Willowen pic in existence. My god, they are beyond adorable together.


And finally my personal OT3, Howard all over Mark whilst Jay looks on.


Howard/Jason/Mark again. I'd kill to know what they're looking at on that laptop.


And there you have it, a visual exploration of my TT love.

Comments

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

Clever but depressing. The vid, I mean! Thanks for the link! Mark is very watchable.

The only time I've ever really listened to Robbie was when he was in the Hyde Park Live8 concert in 2005. I'd been on the Make Poverty History march round Edinburgh and got home in time to collapse and watch the entire concert on TV. It was Sting who really stuck in my mind from that, though I adored him before then.

[przed.livejournal.com]

Mark's solo stuff all tends to be quite dark. Not what you'd expect from the cute and smiley one from Take That, and just one more reason why I love 'im.

Live, Robbie is a force of nature. (Even the Sweetie admits that, and he doesn't rate his music at all.) But yeah, Sting is on another level altogether. (My three favourite bands all through high school and uni were The Who, The Police, and Yes, so Sting and the boys figured very highly in my musical taste for years. And I saw their reunion tour both times they swung through Toronto.)

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

Sting was born a couple of years after me, about three streets away from my grandmother's house where I lived till I was three. Like me, he trained as a teacher. I never met him but might have seen him when he was first playing and singing (but not at all well known) in our shared birthplace, Newcastle and I was going to clubs there. Reading his biography felt somehow weird. I share your taste for The Who and The Police. For some reason I haven't heard of Yes but then it might be one of the ones that slipped through the gaps when I was busy looking elsewhere.

[przed.livejournal.com]

Your Sting connection is interesting. I can imagine reading his biography would be odd. It must have been full of places you knew well. (I'm determined to get to Newcastle some day. That's where my dad immigrated to after the war, and he spent a number of years a ship's engineer on ships out of Newcastle, and occasionally Birkenhead, before pulling up stakes again for Canada.)

Yes were one of the big prog rock groups in the '70s, but I was introduced to them in high school when they went a bit more pop and released the single Owner of a Lonely Heart. In their prog era, they were famous for doing grandiose twenty minute pieces with lots of baroque influence, which as a classical music-loving rock fan was right up my street.

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

More odd connections - my grandfather was a ship's engineer usually sailing from Newcastle or Birkenhead... He didn't retire till some time in the late 50s so I wonder whether they met?!

I must investigate Yes - sounds just right for me, too. As you'll have gathered, I'm a contemporary of Sting and the original airing of Pros; my daughter was born in 1972 so from then on my music appreciation got a bit erratic. And yes, I'm a classical music-loving rock fan too, though I do go on diversions for some other genres.

[przed.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, my dad was in Newcastle from about '46 to '56, so they might indeed have met. Cool.

You should totally give Yes a go. They're a bit bombastic, but a lot of fun. Here's a sampler.

Roundabout is one of their best known songs:


Heart of a Sunrise is one of my personal favourites:


And Owner of a Lonely Heart is when they went more pop in the '80s and actually has a music video:

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Musically interesting and more to my taste. I didn't like the ending/coda of heart of a sunrise but otherwise liked it. I almost switched off Owner of a Lonely Heart when it got onto the rooftop because that's one of my nightmares!! They're definitely a group that have never been on my radar, and thanks for the intro!

[przed.livejournal.com]

I'm always happy to inflict Yes on unsuspecting people. (They're another band the Sweetie takes issue with, though obviously for completely different reasons than TT.)

Wow, that coda to Heart of a Sunrise is very "we've listened to Sgt. Pepper's one too many times," isn't it? I'd forgotten about that. And I should apologize about the video. I'd forgotten that it squicks me a bit, though for me it's the bugs.

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

I was surprised, I think, that a band with so much that was original in their music went for such a derivative ending. Maybe it was meant as some kind of irony??

I just about coped with the bugs - there were no cockroaches or I would have switched off immediately - but the rooftop was a step too far. I remember a B/D story with a rooftop that squicked me, and I had problems with the last Sherlock season. I've come across the same thing in other shows, and books. I do suffer from vertigo so I find even on-screen or in-print representations of the idea 'difficult'!

[przed.livejournal.com]

It's time for me to give that whole album a listen again, but I think it's a combination of the coda quotes one of the other songs on the album, and they were throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the production and seeing what stuck.

My big squick is bugs, so believe me, I understand.