The Ultimate Tour

The Ultimate Tour

Tour by Take That
Start date	April 23, 2006
End date	June 28, 2006
Legs	2
Number of shows	32
Box office	US $29.4 million ($34.51 in 2016 dollars)[1]
Take That concert chronology

The Ultimate Tour (also known as The Greatest Hits Tour) was a reunion tour by British pop group, Take That. The tour, featuring four of the original members of the group Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange and Mark Owen; ran for a total of 32 shows in Britain and Ireland. Sugababes were the supporting act for that year. Each member of the band received £1,500,000 from the tour after tax.

History

The Ultimate Tour was the first time that Take That had performed together since they split in 1996. The show featured all the original members of the group, except Robbie Williams who quit the group in 1995. At a press conference in London on November 25, 2005 the group front man Gary Barlow announced: "Thanks for giving us the last 10 years off but unfortunately the rumours are true. Take That are going back on tour."^[2] The news came after renewed interest in the group after a televised documentary proved to be a ratings success and their album Never Forget – The Ultimate Collection peaked at #2 in the UK Albums Chart. The tour was originally scheduled to be an 11 date arena tour but after they sold out within 30 minutes of going on sale,^[3] more dates were immediately added as promoters doubled the number of shows. The group sold 275,000 tickets in the space of under 3 hours,^[3] ironically making it the second fastest tour of 2005 behind former member Robbie Williams' solo tour.^[2] Such was the level of interest in the tour, promoters were forced to add further dates to the tour, this time in Stadium venues. Dates at the new Wembley Stadium, Etihad Stadium in Manchester and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff were all announced. When Wembley Stadium sold out in just 30 minutes,^[4] further more dates at Wembley and Manchester were announced. In March 2006, the dates at Wembley Stadium were re-scheduled to the National Bowl in Milton Keynes due to the delay in the construction of Wembley Stadium.^[5]

Supporting acts

The main support act for The Ultimate Tour was British soul singer, Beverley Knight. Knight was originally scheduled to perform only on the arena dates of the tour, but proved so popular with audiences that she was invited to play the stadium shows as well. As well as playing her own set, Knight provided backing vocals for Take That during "Once You've Tasted Love" and gave a spoken introduction to "Relight My Fire", as well as singing Lulu's vocals from the same song at the arena shows. At the stadium dates, Lulu performed her own vocals for "Relight My Fire" and Knight only performed the introduction. Knight also appeared during the finale song, "Never Forget". The other support act for the five British stadium dates at the end of the tour was British girl group Sugababes, and the singer Lulu made a guest appearance during Take That's show to sing her part on "Relight My Fire". The Pussycat Dolls supported the band upon their return to Ireland and the very last date of the tour.

Setlist

1. "Band Manufactured Opening - O Verona"
2. "Once You've Tasted Love" (Featuring Beverly Knight)
3. "Pray"
4. "Today I've Lost You"
5. "Why Can't I Wake Up With You?"
6. "It Only Takes A Minute"
7. "Babe"
8. "Everything Changes"
9. "A Million Love Songs"
10. "The Beatles Medley"
11. "How Deep Is Your Love?"
12. "Love Ain't Here Anymore"
13. "Apache 2006"
14. "Sure"
15. "Relight My Fire" (Featuring Beverley Knight & Lulu)
16. "Let It Rain"
17. "Back For Good"
18. "Could It Be Magic"
19. "Never Forget"

Tour dates

Date	City	Country	Venue
23 April 2006	Newcastle	England	Metro Radio Arena
24 April 2006
26 April 2006	Birmingham		National Exhibition Centre
27 April 2006
28 April 2006
30 April 2006	Glasgow	Scotland	Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre
1 May 2006
2 May 2006	Sheffield	England	Hallam FM Arena
4 May 2006	Manchester		Manchester Evening News Arena
5 May 2006
6 May 2006
8 May 2006	London		Wembley Arena
9 May 2006
10 May 2006
12 May 2006	Dublin	Ireland	Point Theatre
13 May 2006
14 May 2006	Belfast	Northern Ireland	Odyssey Arena
16 May 2006	Birmingham	England	National Exhibition Centre
17 May 2006
18 May 2006	Sheffield		Hallam FM Arena
20 May 2006	Manchester		Manchester Evening News Arena
21 May 2006
22 May 2006
24 May 2006	London		Wembley Arena
25 May 2006
26 May 2006
17 June 2006	Manchester	England	Etihad Stadium
18 June 2006
21 June 2006	Cardiff	Wales	Millennium Stadium
24 June 2006	Milton Keynes	England	National Bowl
25 June 2006
28 June 2006	Dublin	Ireland	RDS Arena

Box office score data

Venue	City	Tickets Sold / Available	Gross Revenue
Metro Radio Arena	Newcastle	19,087 / 19,087 (100%)	$1,215,514
National Exhibition Centre	Birmingham	57,007 / 57,007 (100%)	$3,640,386
Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre	Glasgow	17,385 / 17,385 (100%)	$1,125,259
Hallam FM Arena	Sheffield	22,933 / 22,933 (100%)	$735,654
Evening News Arena	Manchester	85,823 / 85,823 (100%)	$5,421,153
Wembley Arena	London	66,276 / 66,276 (100%)	$4,186,671
Etihad Stadium	Manchester	112,292 / 112,292 (100%)	$7,493,888
Millennium Stadium	Cardiff	55,675 / 55,675 (100%)	$3,710,832
RDS Arena	Dublin	27,526 / 30,000 (92%)	$1,919,916
TOTAL		464,004 / 466,478 (99%)	$29,449,273

DVD release

The concert recorded at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester was released in a limited-edition package, alongside a live CD containing five unreleased live recordings.

References

1. Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
2. "Entertainment | Take That confirm a reunion tour". BBC News. 2005-11-25. Retrieved 2014-06-05.
3. "Entertainment | Wembley Stadium beckons Take That". BBC News. 2005-12-12. Retrieved 2014-06-05.
4. "Entertainment | Take That Wembley gig sells out". BBC News. 2005-12-16. Retrieved 2014-06-05.
5. "Entertainment | Stadium delay hits Wembley gigs". BBC News. 2006-03-31. Retrieved 2014-06-05.