BACK in the early Nineties, when I was a cub reporter on a weekly newspaper, I was invited to see a new boy band playing a gig at what was then Maestro’s nightclub in Bradford.

“They’re going to be huge,” gushed the PR girl on the other end of the ‘phone. “We’d love you to come backstage afterwards and interview them.”

I’d never heard of them, and wasn’t enthusiastic about giving up an evening to watch some awful group singing pop tosh to a handful of teenagers. I muttered an excuse about being busy that night, and offered it around our little newsroom. The other reporters grimaced and shook their heads.

Six months later that boy band nobody had heard of were on Top of the Pops. They were called Take That. And, just as their PR girl predicted, they became pretty huge.

Fast forward 25 years and I’m sitting within a few feet of Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald at a press conference launching the UK tour of their new musical, The Band. It took place at Manchester’s O2 Apollo, where Take That played their first ever gig in 1992.

“It feels emotional being back here, where it all began,” said Howard, recalling the band’s early days. I thought of those five lads starting out, playing smalltown venues and plugging themselves to anyone who’d listen.

They went on to become one of our biggest bands of all time, with 15 No.1 singles and seven No.1 albums in the UK, selling over 45 million records, winning six Ivor Novellos and eight Brit awards. Internationally they had 54 No.1 hits and 35 No.1 albums.

Tickets for their show, The Band, went on sale on Monday and within the first two hours the box office took £2 million - making it the fastest selling theatre tour ever. It comes to Bradford for two weeks in October.

Note to self: never turn down an opportunity to interview an up-and-coming band. You never know who they might become.

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