A million love songs later, and Cork is still singing along with one of the 90s biggest boy bands — although, make that ‘man band’. Take That made their Leeside debut in a sunny Musgrave Park on Thursday night and, to paraphrase a now-viral Gary Barlow TikTok quote that even adorns a t-shirt on their website, it was our idea of a very nice day out. Although reduced from their once five-piece band, the trio of Barlow, Mark Owen, and Howard Donald still command a crowd, especially one with their €11.
50 Proseccos in hand making the most of a hint of summer sun. You might assume the crowd would be filled with millennial and Gen X women who grew up with posters of the band on their walls, and you would be correct — but they brought their mams and kids with them to sing along too. After the crowd was warmed up under the midsummer sun by St Lundi, followed by X-Factor star Olly Murs, who thanked the people of Cork for stopping him in the street to congratulate him on becoming a dad, Take That took to the stage at 8.
45pm with ‘Greatest Day’. “Good evening, Cork,” Barlow boomed as he said they were thrilled to be in the Rebel County before singing ‘Giants’. He added they wanted a picture to mark their first time here, posing for a selfie with the crowd from the stage.
Their newer music seems to have been significantly chopped for the This Life On Tour stop in Cork compared to other dates on the tour, a strange choice as they finished quite early at 10.05pm, to so.