Mark Owen will embark on a solo tour of the UK this Sunday, marking the first time in nearly ten years that he has toured without his Take That colleagues.
As he approaches his 50th birthday, the celebrity claims that his performances will be a “celebration of my whole career,” reflecting on his boy band beginnings, the hippy psychedelia of his solo debut record, and even his “Tom Waits phase” in 2013.
But he’s hesitant to include some Take That song in the repertoire. He chuckles, “I couldn’t play Sure because I’d have to execute the dance routines.
“The same is true of Pray. My arms rise to the side as soon as I hear the word “Pray.” “He speaks while unintentionally performing the choreography.
“The songs and the actions come together. I was unable to perform them.”
Indeed, Sure and Pray aren’t performing at the Latitude Festival in July, where Owen is speaking backstage.
His Henham Park performance suggests that his headline performances will certainly feature modern Take That oldies like Shine, Rule The World, and These Days.
They are all songs that Owen has written, which is not an accident. (At the beginning of the band, Gary Barlow was the self-appointed writer-in-chief, but in their second iteration, they became more collaborative.)
At one time in his career, he believed he couldn’t perform Take That song live. “However, after giving it some thought, I realize that I can because I scribbled on them. Everything is fine.”
Following the release of his fifth solo album, Land Of Dreams, which peaked at number five in the UK Top 40 last month, Owen is currently on tour.
It’s a sweet love letter to the pop classics he grew up listening to, from the carefree, infatuated saunter of Jenny to the smoldering fireworks of Rio.
The musician claims that the pandemic reignited his love for live music and inspired him to write the record.
After the Take That’s Odyssey tour in 2019, Owen traveled to Los Angeles, arriving just in time for Covid to trap him in a place he didn’t know.
He recalls, “We arrived, and LA closed.”
He reserved a night out at LA’s renowned open-air amphitheater, the Hollywood Bowl, as soon as things began to return to normal. Then there were more after that.
“I was using the internet to purchase my tickets, getting in my car, and waiting outside for 2.5 hours before having my piece of pizza and entering the theater. It was fantastic.”
He even made it to Coachella, where he danced with Stormzy and his daughter Willow during rapper Dave’s performance.
He beams, “That was a highlight for her. “However, we took in as much as we could. Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, Maggie Rogers, and Phoebe Bridgers.”
The singer describes becoming an audience member for the first time in 30 years as “very inspiring.”
“It was fantastic to watch the scenes where everyone bounces up and down. I felt inspired to take the stage once more.”
Because of this, Land Of Dreams was designed to be performed live. The guitar solo in Magic screams to be cranked up to 110 dB, and the chorus of You Only Want Me is as sticky as a velcro jumpsuit.
The latter song’s lyrics, “You just desire me for my fine looks,” at first glance seem to be about the price of fame.
The payoff, however, is ego-defeating and could only have been created by a father of adolescent children.
“Only when you need a ride home do you want me,”
“That’s the most important part, that’s the truth!” Owen chuckles. “What is this trend on TikTok? What it might be as opposed to what it is. The fantasy in contrast to the real world.”
In the latter stages of recording his album, Owen came up with the song, which he intended to serve as the ideal set-opener.
He claims,
“I wanted something that made me have to come out with jazz hands. “I couldn’t do it while glancing down at my shoes. Also, I was forced to move forward by it.”
Fans won’t be shocked to learn that the musician, who has always been Take That’s sensitive center, sometimes finds it difficult to be outgoing.
After all, in the 1990s, millions of girls swooned over his cherubic vulnerability. Additionally, his solo music has always been more depressing than the upbeat pop of Take That, with lyrics about lost youth, inadequacies on the individual level, and, on Four Minute Warning, the actual end of the world.
His most recent album is the same. Being Human is a tender depiction of someone who “always makes it look so simple” while he struggles, most likely with his wife Emma Ferguson.
Rio even brings up the rising cost of living, a problem the multimillionaire doesn’t face, but the gesture is still nice.
He suggests that after the pandemic, he discarded even darker, more private material.
He claims,
“I wrote a lot of songs, the majority of which you won’t hear. “To get to songs like You Only Want Me, I had to work my way through these.
“I wanted songs that made me feel like my life was moving forward and felt really positive for where I was in it—I turned 50 this year.
“My assumption is that, if everything goes according to plan, I may have two more albums in me. Possibly one or two more Take That albums. However, I’ve reached the point where I’m not thinking, “Yeah, in 20 years, I can reach that point.”
“I want to take action right away, enjoy it, and go all out. No, not in five years.”
While Take That is currently on break, a musical based on their songs will feature them on the big screen the following year.
Aisling Bea, Jayde Adams, and Amaka Okafor are among the actors who will appear in the movie Greatest Days, which centers on five best friends who reunite 25 years after having the time of their lives at a boy band concert.
The band will be based on Take That, but the members-only appear briefly.
Owen says,
“We only have, like, two scenes, so we’re the background to the girls’ lives.”
We traveled to Athens to record our portions, and the following day, we traveled to Cannes to announce the release of the film in the spring. Tom Cruise was also in attendance that day, so Cannes was crowded.
Owen wants to Take That tour once the movie is released, especially if Emily Eavis, the director of a different festival, makes a call.
He beams and says, “I would love for us to play Glastonbury as a band.” “I’ve attended Glasto four or five times as a fan. This year, [Paul] McCartney was fantastic to watch. It would therefore be nice to go back and combine work and play.
“Perhaps you could rent a caravan, perform outside on Sunday, and then travel back home in it. Yes, I would adore it.”
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