Robbie Williams reunites with Take That for virtual concert during lockdown

Take That fans will be hoping he’s back for good after Robbie Williams reunited with the band for a virtual charity concert.

Williams, who famously left the group in 1995, joined Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald as they each performed from their own homes during the coronavirus lockdown.

Take That – without Jason Orange who left the band in 2014 – opened with singles Greatest Day and Shine, before being joined by Williams for the rest of the set, which included Back For Good, The Flood, Pray and Never Forget for their rousing finale.

Performing with the group for the first time in two years, Williams said the show was “less weird than standing in front of 80,000 people”.

Frontman Barlow led the lockdown concert from his home studio, which he had kitted out with keyboards and microphones, while Owen appeared to be in the midst of decorating and sang from his garage.

For the band’s 90s track Pray, which involves a famed choreographed dance routine, the group were backed by green screens with projections of glitter balls, animals and crowds, while Donald wore a crown for Never Forget.

In between tracks, the group talked about new skills they had learnt during the lockdown, with former X Factor judge Barlow saying he had picked up the guitar, while Donald said he had been reading more than ever before.

The charity stream was hosted by the animated character Aleksandr Orlov, voiced by Alan Partridge actor Simon Greenall, from comparethemeerkat.com – the site which was hosting the concert on its YouTube page.

While the performance was available to everyone, customers of Compare The Market were able to access two more songs – Everything Changes and Rule The World.

Orlov ribbed Donald during the concert, telling him he had the “least rock and roll name in the history of music”.

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Money raised from the performance will donated to Nordoff Robbins, a music therapy charity, and Crew Nation, an organisation for crew workers.

The last time the group sang together was in 2018, when the boys reunited for a performance of Shine at the X Factor live final, where Williams was a judge.

Next week from Monday to Thursday, Dermot Murnaghan will be hosting After the Pandemic: Our New World – a series of special live programmes about what our world will be like once the pandemic is over.

We’ll be joined by some of the biggest names from the worlds of culture, politics, economics, science and technology. And you can take part too.

If you’d like to be in our virtual audience – from your own home – and put questions to the experts, email afterthepandemic@sky.uk

(c) Sky News 2020: Robbie Williams reunites with Take That for virtual concert during lockdown