'No Nerves' For Take That As Tour Kicks Off

Boy band JLS say they are convinced Take That will have no problems living up to the hype surrounding their first tour with Robbie Williams since he rejoined the band.

Speculation has been intense over what the five-piece have planned for their Progress Tour which kicks off tonight at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland.

Robbie Williams has been plagued with stage fright in recent years but JLS, who were talking at the premiere of their own concert movie, said he had shown no signs of nerves when they met up with him in LA last month.

"At the end of the day it started with the five of them and it's nice five of them have totally come back together to do this. You can never beat the original line up of Take That.

"We saw Robbie while we were in LA and he was saying that he's so excited to go back on tour with the boys," said Oritse Williams.

He added, "For us it's amazing to see a band like that as it has had so much success.

"It dispels the myth that boybands are short term and that you can have longevity."

Bandmate Aston Merrygold told Sky News: "Our hats go off to them and we aspire to be like them. I hope we're still around in 10 years."

Take That are expected on stage at 8.30pm at the Stadium of Light for their first full concert with Robbie Williams since he last toured with them in 1995.

Fans started queuing at the football ground from Thursday morning amid massive speculation over just how the band will top their last tour as a four-piece, The Circus, in 2009.

That show was so spectacular many fans questioned if the band needed Robbie to rejoin.

It was the fastest-selling in UK history and its highlights included a huge mechanical elephant, acrobats, enormous pyrotechnics and Gary Barlow peddling a go-kart.

But its sales figures have been dwarfed by the demand to see the five-piece on this year's Progress Tour.

The band will perform to more than 1.75m people over 29 shows in the UK and Ireland alone.

Their run of eight nights at Wembley Stadium has broken the record of consecutive shows set by Michael Jackson's Bad Tour.

The band has revealed little about the theme of the Progress shows other than that the scale of theatrics will be huge.

Rehearsals for the tour have taken place in a hangar in RAF Cardington in Bedfordshire in recent weeks.

Fuente: Sky News