CATT Member Melissa Gonzalez:my encounter with TT at Electric Lady Studios on March 2014
Thanks to Our Melissa for her Great Account of Several Days in NYC meeting the Take That Boys)
TAKE THAT IN NEW YORK CITY 2014 - A Meeting Worth W
aiting!
It was a Sunday night, March 9th. I was going thr
ough my email as usual at a
friend’s apartment in the Upper West Side of New York
City. Everyday our American
fan-club team keeps us up to speed with the goings-on o
f Take That. Best believe they
really
keep us on our toes with what our guys are up to! That
night, we got a link from
our team. The heading was pretty clear to me:
Take That stars Gary Barlow and Mark Owen are weigh
ed down with cases as they touch down in
New York City
www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2577580/Gary-Barlow-Mark-Owen-
weighed-cases-touch-New-York-City.html
I distinctly remember reading a tweet from Gary Barlow
responding to an American
Thatter that he’ll be in the US soon before that art
icle was written. Gary’s PA has
confirmed that he’ll be in town for about 10 days. At
last! After 20 years of being a
devotee, Take That weren’t going to be outta my reach l
ike always. It was my moment
to make it my mission to become the latest addition of t
he many die-hard US Thatters to
have met them in person.
March 11th
- It was Tuesday morning. I got a Facebook message from
a reliable lead
that pointed me to the possible location to spot Gar
y and Mark: Electric Lady Studios.
Any raging Thatter like myself would know that it’s the sa
me recording studio where the
group recorded the albums
Progress
and
Progressed.
I’m stoked to see them follow the
footsteps of my other music heroes KISS and The Strokes wh
o’ve recorded their
albums in that same studio as well. Take That have offici
ally joined the league of music
greats whom have created their music in the legendary reco
rding studio built by Jimi
Hendrix. But let’s cut to brass tacks here: I needed to ge
t to Electric Lady immediately!
I arrived to the West Village where Electric Lady was loca
ted at about 11am. The
weather was quite favorable after a hard, long-ass win
ter we’ve suffered in the US this
year. As soon as I reached the studio, a rather short guy w
ith sunglasses wearing a red
quilted jacket was crossing the street headed towards my dir
ection. Based on the
paparazzi photos from that Daily Mail article, I instan
tly recognized him as
MARK
OWEN
. I got excited but managed to maintain my cool simult
aneously.
“Hi Mark!” I exclaimed, “I’m a huge fan of yours”.
“Yeah, you have the badge to prove it.” He responded af
ter noticing my TT logo pin on
the lapel of my jacket.
Of course, knowing TT were in town I wore that pin for
a reason and it worked!
I got my picture taken with Mark and later gave me his a
utograph. We chit-chatted for a
while and I asked him what brought him to New York.
“The sun, it’s so beautiful.” he said. Mark has this hab
it of covering up the band’s
activities by making a witty remark. I went along with it
and told him, “Well, you’re lucky
because the weather was terrible over here”. Later I aske
d him for a hug, thanked him,
******************************************************************************
and to send Gary my regards as he entered to the studio.
Little did I know, Gary wasn’t
in the studio just yet. Still I waited on him as if he’
d come out somehow.
In less than 30 minutes, the door of the studio opened
and I started to assume it was
Gary. It was just some random dude that came out. Behind
him, however, was a tall,
gorgeously built, rugged-looking guy wearing a white
T-shirt who I didn’t expect to turn
up...it was
HOWARD DONALD
!
This was unfathomable. Howard had recently wrapped up a
DJ gig in Switzerland
during the weekend. He must’ve arrived to NY on Monday p
erhaps. I felt privileged to
be the first to know that Howard was in town, too. Is
was a bonus: 3 for the price of 2!
He stepped out for a coffee and cigarette break and cha
tted with me at the same time. I
couldn’t help but be nervous and shaky around. Howard to
ld me to chill out and gave
me the assurance that he won’t bite.
“How did you know we were here?”, he asked.
“Uh...word of mouth?”, I responded as to not disclose deta
iled information while in
shock. Based on my response, Howard reacted in a way that he
had already known
how I figured out the band’s location. I can thank my fe
llow US Thatters for their
resourcefulness!
He asked me if I’d seen any of their live shows. I said tha
t I’d only seen just one: the
Progress Live tour (if only I could’ve afford to see the r
est of their other shows). Howard
said that of all the tours they’ve done recently, he enj
oyed doing The Circus Live tour
the most. The most memorable part of our chat that’s be
en stuck in my brain to this day
is when he had the nerve to ask for my age. I assumed he m
eant something else ‘cos it
was a little hard to make out what he was saying due to
his lisp. Either that or I was still
nervous around him!
“I know it’s wrong to ask a woman’s age, but I’m just curi
ous.”, said Howard.
“I’m...still in my 20s.”, I replied nervously and hesitantl
y.
After ending that nerve-wracking (not to mention slight
ly awkward) chat, he finally gave
me his autograph and we took a couple of selfies togethe
r. He also gave a long hug
which to my belief was his way to ease up my nerves after he
claiming to me that he’s
“normal”. We said our thank yous and goodbyes and he wa
lked back into the studio.
20 minutes later
GARY BARLOW
, Mr. OBE himself, walked his way up to Electric Lady.
My time with him was pretty the same as Mark. As he gave me
his autograph, I got to
tell him things like seeing TT live only once,
Sinc
e I
S
aw You Last
is his best solo album
yet, and “Requiem” is my favorite song. At the same time,
I noticed Gary was admiring
my pin collection on my jacket (perhaps my TT pin) and told
him a little bit about them.
To end things off I got a selfie with him, thanked him
, and he made his way inside
Electric Lady with his PA.
Assuming Jason Orange would also show up, I stuck around for
another hour...but no
dice! Besides, I had appointment at 1pm so I couldn’t w
ait any longer after that.
After the appointment, I bumped into R&B star Kennet
h “Babyface” Edmonds at a
rehearsal studio near Times Square. I know it’s not a r
elevant part of the story, but
when I mentioned it on my Facebook people started to t
hink that I met him at Electric
*********************************************************************************
Lady assuming he was collaborating with TT on their upcom
ing album. I wanna clarify
that the rumor is
f
alse
! That unexpected encounter happened by chance.
During lunchtime, I found the time to post the picture
s of me and Mark, Howard, and
Gary on my FB. Eventually, knowing the guys will be in to
wn for the next few days I
came back later on at night if they’d all step out the st
udio. I waited for about 2-3 hours.
It was getting cold and late, I couldn’t take it anymor
e. I headed back home.
When I got back home, I glanced at my emails as well as my
FB. It was the first time
that I saw countless friend requests in regards to the ho
nor of being the first US Thatter
to have met them this year!
March 14th
- The word got out that 3 of Take That where in NYC.
Other local Thatters
sought their opportunity of meeting them after I did
(if you read this, you know who you
are!). According to the other lucky fans who met them, Jaso
n wasn’t in town because he
was in the UK. Oh well, at least I’ve met him back in 20
11 the day after TT’s show in
Holland. He didn’t want his picture taken that day. Qui
te typical of Jason! Regardless, I
decided to take a stab at meeting the guys again.
It was about 11am or so the moment I came back to Electr
ic Lady Studios. I spotted
another Thatter waiting outside: Dana, who was one o
f the extras in Gary Barlow’s
Let
Me Go
video. We got acquainted as we waited for the TT guys t
o show up. Dana had
already met them a couple of days after I did.
Gary was the first to arrive. Dana and I took pictures of
him with us. I got to tell Gary
that TT have South American following (I happen to be
from Colombia). He said that he
and the rest of TT want to go to South America. I hop
e you Latina Thatters are reading
this! They didn’t leave us out of the picture.
Howard followed shortly. He instantly recognized me and
Dana. Howard managed to
take a brief crash course of German from Dana (she’s fro
m Germany) in preparation for
his second gig as TV judge for Germany’s
Got To Da
nc
e.
I, too, took the advantage in
giving some language courses in Spanish. I told Howard
he’s gorgeous in Spanish and
he said, “I don’t know what that means but it sounds ni
ce”.
Mark was the last the arrive to Electric Lady. Dana and I
each took our pictures with
him. I told Mark that every TT fan from both North &
South America send their love to
the band. He told me to say “hello” back to them (cue you
r screaming!).
Dana and I left Electric Lady feeling like the luckiest w
omen alive. Dana, on the other
hand, gets the kudos for not only meeting TT but to hav
e appeared on Gary Barlow’s
video. But from my perspective, I felt like I’ve hit the
jackpot!
March 15th
- After viewing the unprecedented and unexpected amou
nt of friend
requests on Facebook, Italian Thatter Melania, from Bal
timore, was amongst the many
to ask for my help in meeting the 3/4ths of Take That.
She also asked me to accompany
her in meeting the guys since she was too shy to meet the
m herself. At first, I wasn’t
sure if I was game enough to do it since I felt that I
may annoy the guys by making yet
another appearance. Melania convinced me otherwise. So
I agreed to join her at
Electric Lady Studios for moral support in a way.
*****************************************************************************
Before I went back to Electric Lady, I made time to get
the guys a few presents as a
way to say thank you for coming to New York City. I got the
m keychains that replicated
NYC license plates with their names on them. There wer
en’t any with Howard’s name
on it, so I got him a NYC keychain with an ‘H’ on it.
I met Melania outside Electric Lady at around 11am and
we started to get acquainted
with one another. I noticed there was a guy waiting ou
tside and I didn't think twice
whether he was a Thatter too (there aren’t too many m
ale Thatters in the US). At one
point, the guy overheard our conversations about Take That
. His name is Chris from
Hong Kong. He said he came to New York for his birthday
in hopes of meeting TT.
Chris said that it’s because of me that he knew of the
band’s whereabouts. But
seriously, he oughta thank the sources who gave me TT’s loca
tion, I can’t take credit for
that. Two more fans arrived to the scene; Angel, an Ame
rican, and Usha of Nigerian-
British origin. All of us were meeting for the first t
ime.
Right about noon, we all saw Howard and Mark crossing t
he street heading somewhere
before going to Electric Lady. Minutes later, they arrive
d and greeted every single one
of us. I handed Howard and Mark their presents and than
ked me for them. I also gave
Howard Jason’s keychain and asked him to give it to him if h
e ever got to see him
(since those two are so tight). Howard noticed that da
y I was wearing a pair of
S
tar
Wars
leggings and said he liked them. He also liked my black ca
t beanie hat I wore the
last time I saw him. I got the impression Howard digs my
sense of style! When I wore
the
S
tar Wars
leggings that day, he said that one of his daughters is
into
S
tar Wars
(I’m
assuming it’s Lola). That’s great! It’s just tells me I’m
not the only chick who’s into Sci-Fi
franchises. I told him I’m into
S
tar Wars
too. No joke! I really am.
Gary got dropped off by a black van to the studio. “The
lead singer is here, everyone!”,
he said with his usual British wit and charm. The rest of
the fans greeted Gary and I
gave his keychain.
“You know, it’s good that this has the spelling of my nam
e right because here they spell
it with two ‘R’s”. He said to me.
“Yeah, I made sure they’d get it right!”, I responded.
Chris asked me to take a picture of him with Gary while G
ary was showing off his new
keychain I gave him.
The three members of Take That thanked us for coming out
and see them as they
walked inside the studio. Naturally, we were all in a st
ate of shock. I suggested that we
should all celebrate the occasion by having lunch togethe
r. We were still too elated and
shaky to get our grub on.
***********************************************************************
I honestly gotta say that I’m thankful to be a part of su
ch an excellent community of
Thatters. Thank you to the
CATT TakeThat US Fans
crew for being so resourceful and
helpful for keeping us US Thatters on our toes on our
guys wherever they are. This
experience wasn’t possible without y’all!
Dana, Melania, Chris, Angel, Usha
- it’s been a pleasure meeting all of you on this
crazy ride of a lifetime and for sharing it together.
To all other Thatters wherever you are who haven’t seen
TT, let alone met them -
don’t give up hope! I’ve been in your shoes once. I’ve pr
ayed so many times to see TT
and I never lost faith that I’d see them one day. It w
as about a 20 year wait for me to to
have that happen. You can’t just wait for that to happ
en, you have to make it happen
too!
J
ust have a b
i
t of Pat
i
e
nc
e.
You might get lucky!
Melissa (Proud US/Colombian Thatter since 1992)