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Take That’s This Life On Tour nears 1m sales

The band's manager Chris Dempsey speaks to IQ as the group prepare to visit new markets on the 2024 world trek

By Gordon Masson on 17 Apr 2024

Take That opened their tour at Utilita Arena Sheffield on 13 April


image © Dave Hogan / Hogan Media Ltd / Shutterstock

Take That manager Chris Dempsey has given IQ the lowdown on the group’s successful return to touring with one of the biggest outings of their career.

The trio – Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen – kicked off the This Life On Tour at Sheffield’s Utilita Arena on 13 April, following a prolonged period of rehearsals at LH2 near London, with more than 80 shows scheduled before the end of 2024.

“There are a whole maelstrom of emotions on the opening night of a big tour – nerves, anticipation, anxiety – but there was also a nice degree of confidence as well, and a really feel good vibe in the camp ahead of the show, so it was a good weekend and a great first couple of shows,” says YMU’s Dempsey.

“As you know Take That shows are very production heavy, with many creatives feeding into an overarching concept. But this time the development of the music and the production went hand in hand, meaning we spent longer in LH2 than we would have normally, before having four or five days in the arena in Sheffield ahead of time, as well. I think everyone preferred that way of developing the show, rather than get the setlist down in a rehearsal studio, then bringing in the production to fit around it.”

“They had the biggest domestic album of last year; and now they have the biggest selling UK artist tour this year”

With This Life hitting both indoor arenas and outdoor stadiums on its 41 UK dates, the scale of that production is set to change across the 15 British cities the tour is visiting between now and June, before it then heads to continental Europe.

“When I sat down with the boys just over a year ago, and we were all talking about what success would look like, they really had a desire to get out to some new markets, as well as some markets that they’ve not been to a decade or more,” says Dempsey, noting that a number of those destinations are yet to be announced.

“In the UK, Take That probably can’t get too much bigger, so they’re just overjoyed that they get to go and put these big shows into arenas and stadiums. But internationally, we’re going to go to some new places and there will be different kinds of shows that we’ll do there, because the boys still have that ambition and drive. That’s the exciting thing: they’re in their 50s and they had the biggest domestic album of last year; and now they have the biggest selling UK artist tour this year with 700,000 tickets sold.

“They’re also doing their own festival in Malta, which is exciting, so on the international front we’ve got an exciting year ahead of us.”

With 700,000 tickets sold for the UK leg alone, Dempsey notes that total tour sales are closing in on one million tickets

With UTA taking over agency duties for the band last year, Dempsey says the choice of which new markets they should include on the tour, which will visit Australasia and Asia later this year, was helped by fan data from those territories.

“If you’re going to go to new places, you need some data to give you a level of comfort, and to try to evaluate that opportunity,” he notes. “But sometimes data doesn’t cover everything, and it might boil down to the enthusiasm of a local promoter, or simply if we can make something work routing wise.”

Among the highlights on the current UK tour leg will be six nights at The O2 in London, seven dates at the new Co-op Live arena in Manchester, and they become the first band to play four nights at Leeds’ first direct arena. The tour comes off the back of their ninth studio album, This Life, which was the biggest-selling album from a UK artist in 2023.

Noting that the band’s fanbase continues to evolve, Dempsey reports that the early shows have seen many fans bringing along their kids. “And I think I’ve seen more blokes at the shows as well. But there are definitely a lot of young people, so it’s a real range – the real original fans from the 90s; and the people who discovered the band from when they reformed in 2006 – they’re bringing their kids, they’re bringing their parents, they’re bringing their husbands, so it’s pretty broad.”

With 700,000 tickets sold for the UK leg alone, Dempsey notes that total tour sales are closing in on one million tickets. “Let’s see how we go, but Europe sales are strong. On the last European tour, for example, we didn’t play any shows in Spain, and now we’re playing seven. Germany has been incredible; Ireland is stronger than ever with two arenas and three big outdoors; we did a show in Denmark last summer, and now we’re doing two this summer.”

He adds: “This tour shows the sort of level of ambition and commitment that Gary, Howard and Mark still have. They’re going to playing over 80 shows this year, which is the most amount they’ve ever done in their career, and they’re still looking to grow the fanbase in new markets. Now we just have to go out and deliver on that.”

 


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