Take That kicked off their Circus Tour in Sunderland on 5th June. This tour has cost £10 million to put on the road and will see them play to over 1 million fans, in 7 cities across the UK and Ireland, throughout 21 dates at some of the biggest stadiums in the country. Billed as their biggest, best and most extravagant tour in their history I travelled from Manchester to the Ricoh Stadium in Coventry on Monday 8th June to see the tour for my own eyes.

To say I was excited would be an understatement; I had been waiting for this day since tickets went on sale on 31st October 08. Travelling down the M6 with my friend and our tour mascot ‘Gary the Bear’ we passed the time listening to……….what else Take That.

Arriving in Coventry and walking to the stadium the atmosphere was building, street lamps around the stadium had signs on welcoming Take That to town. The merchandise stands outside the ground, housed in tents to look like bigtops were selling merchandise to the thousands of fans happy to pay out for souvenirs of the tour.

We had standing tickets on the pitch and were lucky enough to get a spot within 8ft of the b-stage at the back of the pitch. The main stage was at one end and the b-stage about ¾ of the way back, both linked by a walk way. At 8.30pm mist started to descend slightly over the stages and performers/dancers dressed as cloud people carrying big bunches of brightly coloured balloons made their way from the main stage to the b-stage. The performers gathered in the centre of the b-stage and as the music rose and the first bar of Greatest Day was played the balloons were released into the sky to reveal Take That!

The concert was amazing from start to finish; they did a full 2 hour set of new and old hits. When they sang Back For Good they had rain pouring on them, the effect was spectacular. The main bit for me though was when they sang The Garden and a huge mechanical elephant rose from underneath the b-stage, Take That stood on the top of the elephant and it walked to the main stage, a sight that had to be seen to be believed and an effect never before attempted in a live concert.

Once on the main stage they performed hits including Shine, The Circus and Wooden Boat, before dressing up as clowns and on unicycles making their way back to the b-stage to perform some of the old classics, complete with original dance moves, including dropping their pants! Relight My Fire was another huge production involving circus acts, dancers and fire. The anthem that is Take That – Never Forget was amazing and included 20 plus performers dressed in circus attire and playing drums around their necks, the sight was amazing.

Hold Up A Light was brilliant, the sky and stage being turned into lots of colours and everyone on the main stage dancing onto the b-stage where the elephant once again rose. The final song was Rule The World and lights were aimed into the sky to look like stars and fireworks went off over the stage.

They never stopped for 2 hours and I wondered how they would better the Beautiful World Tour, but they have. They have once again raised the barrier for a pop concert and attempted what others haven’t. Having a cast of over 40 performers on stage with them at various times was brilliant and you got a show rather than just a concert.

This tour is the best by far, pushing the boundaries of live performances and Take That really do Rule The World. Next stop on The Circus tour for me is Manchester on 23rd June and I can’t wait to see it all again.

There has been much speculation for some time now as to whether Britney Spears will get to take her boys on her upcoming concert tour, but it has been confirmed that the boys are allowed to travel with her, but at a cost.

A document has been signed by both Britney’s father, Jamie Spears and her ex-hubby, K-Fed , but what’s in it for Kevin Federline? Money of course! The only way that Kevin will allow the boys to travel with Britney on tour. 

Britney will get to take her little boys with her on tour but of course it will cost her, and the question i know your all dying to be answered is, but how much? $5,000 a week!  So Federline is once again cashing in on his ex-wife.

Jayden James and Sean Preston will follow Britney to New Jersey, New Orleans and Los Angeles. Britney will have to commute back and forth from each location during the tour, and she is also renting houses in New Jersey and New Orleans for Kevin if he wants to come along for the ride. Kevin Federline will receive the $5K whether he goes to visit or not!

This agreement has also caused other changes in the couples parenting agreements, Britney gets the kids 3 days and nights a week, which basically makes child custody 50/50 now. Finally is seems things are working out for Britney, her personal life and her career is slowly getting back on track, good for her!

Britain’s Got Talent hits TV screens in April for another series trying to find the most talented person in Britain. Filming for the auditions started in Manchester at the Lowry Theatre on Tuesday 13^th January for 3 days. I was there on Wednesday 14^th in the audience to witness some of the most least talented people and some that weren’t too bad, although I don’t think I saw the winner.

Tickets didn’t guarantee entry so together with my friend we joined the queue in the cold Manchester weather at 9.45am (doors should have opened at 11.15am). Talking to others in the queue I found out that the first people to arrive had travelled from Liverpool and been there since 7.30am to guarantee they got in. The queue grew rapidly all morning with people of all ages, I think the oldest I saw was the granny behind me who had even come with a fold up stool to sit on, she looked about 80. In front of me was Cliff Richards biggest fan with her concert t-shirt and diary who’d been to each series of BGT and spoke like she knew Simon personally!! At 11am the cameras outside the theatre rolled and we were asked to shout ‘Welcome to Manchester’ and ‘Manchester has talent’, as is the case with those who want their 10 seconds of fame there was lots of hands in the air and screaming. It was good fun for the first few takes, but after what felt 20 takes of this I was beginning to grow ever so slightly bored and was losing the feeling in my feet due to the cold.

Doors should have opened at 11.15am but things appeared to be running behind schedule. The judges arrived one by one, each in their own car and were greeted by the usual screams from the crowd. Being just under 5”4 and in flat shoes I couldn’t see a thing so I had no idea who was arriving, but did manage to judge from other people that Piers Morgan arrived first followed by new judge Kelly Brooke and finally Amanda Holden….I can only assume Simon Cowell was already in the theatre.

Finally at 12pm we were shown in and directed to our seats, we ended up on the 2^nd row of the circle behind where the judges were in the stalls. Ant and Dec came on stage to introduce themselves and I got more excited about seeing them than I did about the rest of the day. I love Ant and Dec, can’t beat them. The judges were introduced to everyone before taking their seats and I have to admit there is something about Simon Cowell that makes you very drawn to him and I’m not sure what it is.

We saw 19 acts perform which ranged from a woman with 3 dogs who were very talented but the same couldn’t be said about the owner to an 80 year old granny in her purple dress and suspenders who was virtually deaf! Her singing and dancing were awful and needless to say she got 4 buzzes off the judges. We had a cheerleading squad, street dancers, guitar players, a Kylie impersonator who was nothing like Kylie in looks or dress; her silver boots would have had the fashion police on full alert. My favourite for comedy value was the Scary Elvis who mimed to a backing track which had been adapted to make the singing sound ‘scary’ and he just pranced around the stage in an Elvis suite and Halloween mask. Those that went through to the next round included a puppet show and a Street Dance Team.

Besides seeing the acts it was really amusing watching the activity in between acts whilst they got the stage ready with whatever props and mics were required. Simon had his make-up re-touched up in nearly every break and someone would run on with an espresso for him whilst he checked messages on his mobile phone. He was more high maintenance than the women. Glasses of water would be topped up so they constantly looked full in the takes and someone would re-adjust Amanda’s hair.

Audience participation played a big part in the day as we were the 5th judge! We were told if we liked an act to clap, shout, scream and dance or do all 4! If we didn’t like an act we had to shout ‘off, off, off’. It was good fun getting involved and after a while I even forgot about the camera swinging across the audience in the circle.

Small things please me so I got giddy on noticing the souvenir stand during the interval and got myself a Britain’s Got Talent mug. Overall a fantastic day and experience and I’ll be applying for tickets again next year.