Take That's Howard Donald has opened up about the band's Circus Live tour coming to an end, 17 years after the original tour became the quickest-selling in history. The singer shared a heartfelt social media post with his fans, contemplating the mammoth tour.
The Circus Live revival
This summer, the band resurrected their unforgettable Circus Live tour 17 years since their final performance. The tour initially hit the stage back in 2009 and smashed records as the quickest-selling tour in history, shifting more than 600,000 tickets in less than five hours. The tour also drew over one million supporters to the sold-out performances throughout the UK and Ireland.
The Circus Live 2026 tour saw Howard, Gary Barlow and Mark Owen revive the spectacular with fire-breathers, stilt-walkers, clowns, acrobats, tap dancers, and a 30 foot tall mechanical elephant.
'Die a happy man'
Posting snaps from recent months, the father-of-four said that he would 'die a happy man' knowing he had brought happiness and memorable music to his devoted fans throughout the band's career. He wrote: 'It's taken me time to process the events of the last three months and my head has been in different places, so here goes.. Forgive me if it's all over the place, and my English sucks! PTB (post tour blues) is a thing and takes a while to disappear for some of us (especially me) takes a hold of you and your body craves to move and doesn't want to stop performing even though your body hurts and your throat is done!'
'You crave the hotels, travel and cities along the way and crave being away from the energy of your children, but at the same time love when they come on our. We are well looked after by our Linda! But the reality is, after a tour, your body goes into a coma and says, "Don't you date, stretch, dance, or lift anything!"'
Post-tour blues
'You also have to go back into full parent mode when you are slightly depressed about the tour finishing. The end is never a nice thing to look forward to because your brain goes, "Why can't I have more, more, more rather than ending something on top?" The love, energy and pure excitement on the faces in the crowd is hard to shake and stays etched into your brain when you close your eyes at night.'
'You run through the routines and the show in your mind, and look at the time, thinking this is what I would be doing now! The rush of being out of breath and sweating coming off stage!'
'What a drug! There will never be a show as good as this one, but we will always give a great, creative show that people will always love!'
