Take That in 1993

January started with the recording of the video for Why Can't I Wake Up With You in a Chateau just outside of Paris. The band went for a new style with this video, instead of the usual dancing around, each member was filmed indiviually doing their own thing.

The rest of the month was spent doing European Promotion, Germany and Sweden were the lucky countries this time.

February began with the UK promotion for Why Can't I Wake Up With You. The band appeared on numerous TV shows and even had a change of career with Rob presenting Going Live and all the band standing in for Chris Evans on The Big Breakfast for a week.

The band won their first Brit Award (voted for by the listeners of Radio 1), Best Single of 1992 for Could It Be Magic.

Why Can't I Wake Up With You shot straight into the UK Top 40 at Number 2.

February also saw the band's first visit to the USA with a trip to New York where they played a few shows at a number of High Schools and charmed the "teen press" who put them on the covers of their magazines.

March was spent out of the UK with promotion being done in Taiwan and Japan. Once they got there that is! A slight problem with getting visas for Taiwan meant the band were under armed guard in a hotel room for a day!

April, and yet more promotion. This time in Europe. Spain, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Finland all got a taste of the Take That magic.

The Children's Royal Variety Performance was next were the band unveiled their new look!! May was the month the band recorded Pray and Rob and Mark did more presenting this time on MTV.

More awards were coming this month as the band attended the Comic Relief Red Nose Awards and picked up Top Pop Act and Top Pop Man (Mark).

Then it was back to the US for more promotion and then on to Mexico where the video for Pray was filmed and also where they also did an appearance at the Acapulco Festival.

June and it was time to record the second album. Toward the end of the month the band finally reappeared to launch the Take That: Our Story Book at Planet Hollywood. The now infamous Capital Radio Roadshow at Crystal Palace was next (28th June). Over 30,000 fans turned up to see the band perform!!

Another award was picked up this month, this time the Silver Clef for Original Talent. Probably most important for Mark was passing his driving test this month!

July saw the release of Pray (5th) which proved to be the band's biggest success to date. Gary remembers "I think we knew when we finished recording this song that we had something special". It shot straight into the UK Top 40 at Number 1 where it stayed for 5 weeks. The band were travelling to Wales to begin rehearsals for the forthcoming Summer of Love tour when the charts were announced.

July also saw the band's first Arena tour which was meant as a thank you to the fans before the main tour in November. The first show was held in Manchester at the famous G-Mex in aid of the Bryan Robson Scanner appeal. The highlights of the show were a Motown Medley complete with frilly shirts, Apache where the band seemed to have lost their marbles for a few minutes (and clothes in the case of Mark and Jason) and the world got its first glimpse of Howard's skirt.

August and the band started the month recording in a London studio and doing various UK promotion including a GMTV interview from their hotel rooms!

August saw TT playing a special show in aid of Childline. Extravaganza 94 was the show and the bill also included East 17, Sybil and Worlds Apart. TT went down a storm and over £60,000 was raised!

19 August and the band put in a surprise guest appearance at the Radio One Roadshow in Newquay. All rumours of the band appearing had been denied after fears of a repeat of the Capital Roadshow where many fans were injured in the crush to get near the band.

The band headline the Chelmsford Spectacular Festival and played to 25,000 fans which was their largest crowd to date!

The video for Relight My Fire was recorded at the end of August at the Ministry of Sound Club in London.

September saw the band out in Japan where they appeared on numerous TV shows and gave magazine interviews. This month the Take That & Party Video broke Michael Jackson's record for most week's spent at Number 1.

23 September the band were back in the UK and performed Relight My Fire on Top Of The Pops.

27 September, Relight My Fire hits the shops and went straight into Number 1, the following Sunday.

During November the band started their biggest tour to date. The Everything Changes Tour kicked off in Bournemouth and won rave reviews from critics and fans alike!! The higlights of this show were yet another glimpse of Howard's skirt, Mark's performance of Babe and who could forget Howard Travolta and Jason Newton-Orange!

The year ended once again at the Smash Hits Poll Winner Party where once again the band won everything in sight!


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