A Million Love Songs (and 216 seats) ... Gary Barlow’s village hall gig
PLAYING to 50,000 screaming Take That fans in stadiums around the world is all in a day’s work Gary Barlow.
But there’s nothing quite like coming home to bring you down to Earth – and so it proved for the pop star who admitted that a gig this week in the market town where he grew up ‘felt like the biggest’ of his life.
Barlow, 51, took his one-man show back to his roots in Frodsham, Cheshire, and performed on a tiny community centre stage in front of an audience of only 216.
The fact that his mother Marjorie – munching pick ’n’ mix sweets – was in the audience might have contributed to his nerves, or the expectations of local fans, who snapped up every ticket on the Frodsham leg of his UK tour within minutes.
Indeed such was their fervour that the £38.50 seats were soon trading hands for ten times as much online. A Different Stage
‘He was more nervous than usual’
details Barlow’s life to date – including his struggles with bulimia following the breakup of Take That in 1996, the still-birth of his daughter Poppy and the death of his father Colin in 2009 – and is interspersed with hits from his 32-year career.
They include A Million Love Songs, which he wrote in his bedroom in Ashton Drive, a few streets away from the community centre, aged just 15.
After the Platinum Jubilee got under way, Barlow revealed on Thursday night that one of his most vivid memories was of the Silver Jubilee in 1977, when his parents organised a street party.
Barlow said that it was then, aged just six, that he first realised the power of music to ‘make things better’ for everyone.
The audience lapped up his local references, cheering loudly each time he mentioned a shop, hairdressers or bakery.
One fan, who has seen the show several times before, said Barlow stumbled over his words occasionally and appeared ‘more nervous than usual’. They added: ‘Maybe he just wanted it to go well because it was the first in front of his local fan base.’
Super-fan Amanda Wilkins, 50, who went to Frodsham High School with Barlow, said it was ‘lovely’ of him to return to perform for the community.
She added: ‘A lot of people were disappointed that they couldn’t get tickets.’
Carla Pastore, 44, said she had been determined to get tickets for the hometown gig, despite having seen the show elsewhere nine times previously.
‘This is the smallest place that we have seen the show,’ she added. ‘To see it where he is from will make it that little bit more special. It’s going to mean a lot to him.’
Following the two-hour gig, about 30 fans waited patiently outside in the rain to catch a glimpse of their idol, who walked over and thanked them for attending.
Barlow, who is performing four gigs in the town, later tweeted: ‘What an amazing night we’ve had in Frodsham – wow – what an audience xxxx.’