Musgrave Park review: A million love songs later, Cork still singing along to Take That  

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 some disappointment from gig-goers.

The crowd sang along to songs like ‘Pray’, ‘Everything Changes’, ‘Back For Good’, and ‘Never Forget’. 

Original Take That fans will recall their energetic music videos and the crowd was enthused to see the trio, now in their mid-50s, effortlessly reproducing choreography during ‘Pray’ that was no doubt replicated in schools, discos, and beyond 30 years ago.

Amid the anthems, their ballads did not go unappreciated. Barlow is more at home crooning behind a piano than bouncing around the stage and his renditions of ‘A Million Love Songs’ and ‘Back For Good’ had the crowd swaying in time.

They gave a nod to their break-up years before moving onto songs from their comeback album, Beautiful World, singing hits from their 00s comeback, including ‘Shine’, ‘Patience’, ‘The Flood’, and ‘Rule The World’, plus some newer tunes like ‘Windows’.

Taylor Swift might be bringing her various musical eras to Dublin next week, but Take That have three decades of music and history to dip into and this was a charming walk down memory lane, though a far cry from the sheer spectacle of their Circus Live and Progress Live stadium tours in Croke Park, Dublin in 2009 and 2011 as a four-piece and a five-piece group respectively. 

Overall, it was a cheesy, nostalgia-fuelled night and while Robbie Williams and Jason Orange have left a gap, the remaining three-fifths of the original Take That still deliver an entertaining performance.

Take That will play Malahide Castle in Dublin on Saturday before appearing at Belsonic in Belfast on Sunday.

•  Musgrave Park continues its summer series on Friday with Belters Only.