Ahead of their big opening night, Take That’s Gary, Howard and Mark took the time for a catch-up with the MEN about bringing back The Circus, deciding what to change, and why coming back to Manchester is “always special”
17:14, 01 Jun 2026
Take That’s Howard, Gary and Mark chat to the MEN’s Dianne Bourne before their big Circus Live show return at the weekend(Image: PR pics)
Fresh from eight weeks of rehearsals, Take That’s Howard Donald, Gary Barlow and Mark Owen have now kicked off their epic reboot of The Circus Live Tour in triumphant style. The band’s current trio line-up are once again staging the spectacular show, which will head to Manchester for four huge homecoming shows in June and July.
It was the fastest selling tour ever when the original went on sale back in 2009, and coming back for 2026 Take That will perform to thousands more fans at 17 stadium dates across the UK over the coming five weeks.
The hottest topic of conversation among fans has been what changes have been made for the 2026 reboot – and having watched it all unfold on opening night, I can confirm it remains an absolute spectacular with acrobats, trapeze artists, marching bands, fire, rain and glitter bombs.
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Although when the MEN caught up with the guys, just hours before their opening night in Southampton at the weekend, they admitted there were still a few nerves as they prepared to stage the new version of a show that has already gone down in history.
Take That’s Howard, Gary and Mark are relighting the fire on their new Circus Live 2026 tour(Image: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Take That)
Gary said: “You think about your lifetime, you don’t open that many tours, so it’s a big night, with a million things going through our heads, a million notes.”
Howard added: “There’s always nerves, we’re all individual in what we might say, but there’s always nerves of it being the first night, we always take things down to the wire right before the first show”. As if on cue, we heard workers bashing away on the set, and Gary chipped in: “I can still hear the saw in the background!”
So how DID they decide what to change and what not to change about this absolute beast of a show? Fans with tickets to the upcoming shows including four huge homecoming nights in Manchester will discover that it does not deviate far from the setlist of the original.
Indeed the main changes in the set are mostly explained by the absence of Jason Orange on this tour – he was a big part of the original, but his solo of Wooden Boat and How Did it Come To This (on which he sang lead vocals) have been taken out, while new song You’re A Superstar is the big newie to the setlist, as well as Mark taking centrestage with Babe.
Mark performs Babe on the opening weekend of Circus Live(Image: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Take That)
Mark said: “It’s been an interesting journey, because initially when we first talked about it we thought ‘oh maybe we’ll change this song for this song, switch this up a little bit’, but the further we got into working through the show we started to realise you can’t do that, you can’t mess with it really, there was a reason it worked the first time. There was no point in changing it for the sake of changing it.
“People who come for the first time will come and have a great night, and people who’ve come and seen it before will be like ‘oh god, I don’t remember this bit..” Even us up on stage I’m like we don’t remember it being this big, it’s huge.”
He added: “It really feels like we’re part of something special.”
Special is indeed one of the words to sum up this show. And what does it mean for the band, which first formed as young lads in Manchester back in 1990, to still have such a huge following with fans flying in from across the world for these shows?
Mark says it “feels like they’re part of something special”(Image: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Take That)
Well, Gary had a special message to all Take That fans out there.
He smiled: “If you’d have said to us you’re going to be together for 35 years you guys, but not just to be together for 35 years but for the audience to still be here with us, it’s just unbelievable. We always want to say thank you for sticking with us.
“And our way of saying thank you is this – what we’re doing. We’ve been hard at work the past eight weeks getting this ready, and it’s going to be spectacular.”
For diehard fans, the tour reboot has meant camping outside for hours and hours, some overnight, to ensure they are first through the doors at each show. And Howard revealed to the MEN that the band were so moved by the scenes of fans camping outside St Mary’s Stadium for the opening night of Southampton, he did try to wangle for them to come in and watch the dress rehearsal.
Thousands of fans have been eagerly awaiting the new Circus Live shows(Image: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Take That)
Howard said: “We saw them outside, I had no idea that the guys had all pitched up their tents, we said to security ‘please can we get them in for the dress run’, it was my idea obviously. We thought there was only 40 people, but when they counted them there was 150 people and the problem was we couldn’t bring them in because we didn’t have enough security on, for safety for everybody we couldn’t let them in, it was a real shame.”
After their opening weekend of The Circus, winning rave reviews from critics and fans alike, the band now head over to Coventry for the next three gigs on the tour, it’s then on to Sunderland, Glasgow and Cardiff, before Manchester gets its turn with four huge homecoming shows at the Etihad Stadium.
When I mention this, Manchester United fan Howard can’t resist joking: “Is it the Etihad? I thought it was Old Trafford, damn!”
Howard leads the drummer band on Never Forget(Image: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Take That)
Every night must be special on a tour like this, I say. But is there an extra frisson to return to the north? Particularly for Mancunians Howard and Mark?
Mark, from Oldham, said: “We get to see all our families, it’s always a beautiful thing,” before Howard chipped in: “guest lists are always the biggest.”
Mark laughed: “I saw your guest list the other day Howard, it looks pretty big, pretty complicated!”
Gary added: “I always think when you launch a tour and go to London, they were always the big nights. But Manchester for us is our London, when we get there, it always feels like a really big, special night. It’s coming home, isn’t it?”
The elephant is just magical(Image: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Take That)
With 40 performers on stage with the lads, and a stage spectacular that includes the simply mind-bogglingly brilliant 30ft elephant that they “ride” through the crowds, I point out there are few other bands putting on a show of this scale.
Gary laughs: “Let’s hope not! Competition is not something we like.”
He added: “Do you know what, it’s a lot of fun this show as well – for us! “There’s so much to do, so much to think about, but so much unusual stuff as well.
“We’re putting our make-up on and being clowns for two songs, then Relight… there’s so much costume, it’s a real event. I’m really looking forward to it.
“We’ve always resisted repeating a tour because we felt it wouldn’t be challenging, inspiring or exciting – how wrong we were.”
Howard and Mark even unicycle in the show(Image: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Take That)
Mark added: “You realise that everybody has their show, we have our show, but all the crew they have their own cues to hit. It feels like a real community.”
“We want to put on a show, we know this show holds a lot of good memories in a lot of peoples hearts and minds, we want to put something on that is worthy of that, worthy of the audience coming to see. I think we’re still fine tuning a little bit but we’re all really excited.”
Take That head to Manchester’s Etihad Stadium on June 19, 20 and 21, and then will return for the final night on July 1.