The Circus (Take That album)
Encyclopedia
The Circus is the fifth studio album from the British pop band Take That
. The album was released on 1 December 2008.
album, also titled Circus
, released on the same day. The band's manager claimed the album's title choice was a coincidence, and that Take That had worked 'months in advance' and would not be changing the title. Take That released their first single from the album, "Greatest Day
", on 24 November 2008, which peaked at number 1 in the UK. The second single "Up All Night
" was released on 2 March 2009 and peaked at number 14. The third single "The Garden
", was released in Germany, the Netherlands
and Australia on 20 March 2009, though it also peaked at number 97 in the UK on download sales. The video for the song was shot at the Greenwich Maritime Museum, South London
. The fourth single to be taken from the album, "Said It All", was released in June 2009 and peaked at number 9 in the UK. "Hold Up a Light" was the fifth and final single taken from the album, released to promote Take That
's first live album The Greatest Day – Take That Presents: The Circus Live
.
said: "Like its predecessor, The Circus boasts one killer track. Hit single Greatest Day is as pop-perfect now as Patience was back in 2006." Yahoo! Music UK
stated that "as with its predecessor Beautiful World, The Circus possesses well crafted pop songs, with faultless production". Orange said: "An album of measured, mature songwriting by all four, it is by far their best".
The Sunday Times
stated that "The Circus will, no doubt, achieve similar sales, with songs as propulsive and swollen with giant choruses as The Garden, Greatest Day, Said It All and the apparently Amy Winehouse-referencing "How Did It Come to This". The Times
said "Take That's return is the gold standard: a hugely successful second coming from a band determined not to fritter away their reserves of goodwill."
" in 2009. The tour became the fastest selling tour in UK history selling £35m of tickets in one day (600,000 in less than 5 hours),
beating the previous record set by Michael Jackson
for his Bad World Tour
in 1987 (though Jackson reclaimed the record soon after when he announced his residency at the O2 Arena in London shortly before his death).
The Script
have been confirmed to be special guests at their upcoming performance at Croke Park
. Take That also presented their own TV show Take That Come To Town, a variety show where they performed some of their biggest hits and new material from The Circus, which aired on 7 December 2008 on ITV
.
To launch the album's release in Paris, the band performed at a lavish nightclub exclusively for the first time in 12 years in the city on 2 December 2008. The performance included acrobats, trapeze artists, stilt-walkers and jugglers, all in keeping with the circus theme.
The album reached number one in Ireland and the UK with The Circus selling 133,000 copies on its first day of release in the UK. In the United Kingdom
, the album sold 306,000 copies (going platinum) in the first four days of release, making The Circus the fastest-selling album of the year. The album reached the top of the UK album charts on 7 December 2008 with total first-week sales of 432,490, the third highest opening sales week in UK history. The album debuted at #3 on the Irish Albums Chart
and a week later rose to #1. On Friday 19 December 2008, the album had sold 1 million copies sold by its 19th day in UK shops, making it the second fastest album in the UK to reach 1 million copies, behind Oasis
's Be Here Now in 1997. The album stayed on top of the UK albums chart for 5 weeks and became one of the biggest selling albums of 2008 in the UK. The album has been certified double platinum in Europe (including the UK and Ireland) for sales in excess of two million copies, and was the 27th best-selling album worldwide in 2008 according to the IFPI. It is also currently the second biggest selling boyband record ever in the UK, behind the album's predecessor Beautiful World. The album has currently spent 73 weeks ( 1 year five months and one week) on the UK Top 100 Albums chart.
Take That
Take That are a British five-piece vocal pop group comprising Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Robbie Williams. Barlow acts as the lead singer and primary songwriter...
. The album was released on 1 December 2008.
Album information
In the United Kingdom, the album was released in direct (albeit unintentional) competition to the new Britney SpearsBritney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
album, also titled Circus
Circus (Britney Spears album)
Circus is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Britney Spears. The album was first released on November 28, 2008 by Jive Records. Spears started work on the album in early 2008 with a range of producers including long-time producers Bloodshy & Avant and Danja...
, released on the same day. The band's manager claimed the album's title choice was a coincidence, and that Take That had worked 'months in advance' and would not be changing the title. Take That released their first single from the album, "Greatest Day
Greatest Day (Take That song)
"Greatest Day" is the lead single taken from British pop group Take That's fifth studio album, The Circus.-Song information:"Greatest Day" was written by Take That themselves and was produced by John Shanks. The song was written and recorded at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill and was mixed in Los...
", on 24 November 2008, which peaked at number 1 in the UK. The second single "Up All Night
Up All Night (Take That song)
"Up All Night" is the second single from British group Take That's fifth studio album, The Circus.-Song information:Released on 2 March 2009, it was the second single from the album The Circus. The single was only released in the UK and Ireland. The band performed "Up All Night" on Ant and Dec's...
" was released on 2 March 2009 and peaked at number 14. The third single "The Garden
The Garden (Take That song)
"The Garden" is the third single from British group Take That's fifth studio album, The Circus.-Song information:Released on 20 March 2009, it is the third single from the album The Circus. It's B-Side is 84, the same B-Side of their preceding single Up All Night, and is sung by Jason Orange...
", was released in Germany, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and Australia on 20 March 2009, though it also peaked at number 97 in the UK on download sales. The video for the song was shot at the Greenwich Maritime Museum, South London
South London
South London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...
. The fourth single to be taken from the album, "Said It All", was released in June 2009 and peaked at number 9 in the UK. "Hold Up a Light" was the fifth and final single taken from the album, released to promote Take That
Take That
Take That are a British five-piece vocal pop group comprising Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Robbie Williams. Barlow acts as the lead singer and primary songwriter...
's first live album The Greatest Day – Take That Presents: The Circus Live
The Greatest Day (Take That album)
The album was received well, with positive reviews by The Sun, BBC News and The Daily Mail. The Sun called the album "exciting, different, with the distinct style of live music"...
.
Critical reception
BBC Music said: "A stunning album, Take That are the vintage champagne of pop fizzing with playful bubbles and happily maturing with age". The Daily Mirror stated that "they bring a fallible human quality to an album which is all about gilding their strong bond with their original fans." The Sunday MercurySunday Mercury
Sunday Mercury is a Sunday tabloid published in Birmingham, UK, and owned by Trinity Mirror.The first editor was John Turner Fearon , who left the Dublin-based Freeman's Journal to take up the position...
said: "Like its predecessor, The Circus boasts one killer track. Hit single Greatest Day is as pop-perfect now as Patience was back in 2006." Yahoo! Music UK
Yahoo! Music
Yahoo! Music, owned by Yahoo!, is the provider of a variety of music services, including Internet radio, music videos, news, artist information, and original programming...
stated that "as with its predecessor Beautiful World, The Circus possesses well crafted pop songs, with faultless production". Orange said: "An album of measured, mature songwriting by all four, it is by far their best".
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
stated that "The Circus will, no doubt, achieve similar sales, with songs as propulsive and swollen with giant choruses as The Garden, Greatest Day, Said It All and the apparently Amy Winehouse-referencing "How Did It Come to This". The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
said "Take That's return is the gold standard: a hugely successful second coming from a band determined not to fritter away their reserves of goodwill."
Promotion
Following the release of the album, Take That announced plans for a stadium tour titled "Take That Present: The Circus LiveTake That Present: The Circus Live
Take That Presents: The Circus Live is a concert tour by reunited British boyband, Take That. The tour promoted their fifth studio album, The Circus. The tour began on 5 June 2009 in Sunderland and finished on 5 July 2009 at London's Wembley Stadium. The Circus Live is Take That's biggest tour to...
" in 2009. The tour became the fastest selling tour in UK history selling £35m of tickets in one day (600,000 in less than 5 hours),
beating the previous record set by Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
for his Bad World Tour
Bad World Tour
The Bad World Tour was the first solo concert tour by American megasuperstar Michael Jackson that visited Japan, Australia, the United States and Europe. Sponsored by Pepsi and spanning 16 months, the tour included 123 concerts to 4.4 million fans across 15 countries...
in 1987 (though Jackson reclaimed the record soon after when he announced his residency at the O2 Arena in London shortly before his death).
The Script
The Script (band)
The Script are an Irish alternative rock band from Dublin. Based in London after signing to Sony Label Group imprint Phonogenic, the band released their eponymous debut album in August 2008...
have been confirmed to be special guests at their upcoming performance at Croke Park
Croke Park
Croke Park in Dublin is the principal stadium and headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association , Ireland's biggest sporting organisation...
. Take That also presented their own TV show Take That Come To Town, a variety show where they performed some of their biggest hits and new material from The Circus, which aired on 7 December 2008 on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
.
To launch the album's release in Paris, the band performed at a lavish nightclub exclusively for the first time in 12 years in the city on 2 December 2008. The performance included acrobats, trapeze artists, stilt-walkers and jugglers, all in keeping with the circus theme.
Commercial reception
Prior to the official release of The Circus it was revealed that the album had broken all preorder records and had become the most preordered album of all time.The album reached number one in Ireland and the UK with The Circus selling 133,000 copies on its first day of release in the UK. In the United Kingdom
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
, the album sold 306,000 copies (going platinum) in the first four days of release, making The Circus the fastest-selling album of the year. The album reached the top of the UK album charts on 7 December 2008 with total first-week sales of 432,490, the third highest opening sales week in UK history. The album debuted at #3 on the Irish Albums Chart
Irish Albums Chart
The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically...
and a week later rose to #1. On Friday 19 December 2008, the album had sold 1 million copies sold by its 19th day in UK shops, making it the second fastest album in the UK to reach 1 million copies, behind Oasis
Oasis (band)
Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
's Be Here Now in 1997. The album stayed on top of the UK albums chart for 5 weeks and became one of the biggest selling albums of 2008 in the UK. The album has been certified double platinum in Europe (including the UK and Ireland) for sales in excess of two million copies, and was the 27th best-selling album worldwide in 2008 according to the IFPI. It is also currently the second biggest selling boyband record ever in the UK, behind the album's predecessor Beautiful World. The album has currently spent 73 weeks ( 1 year five months and one week) on the UK Top 100 Albums chart.
Track listing
- "Here" does not appear on the German and Brazilian version of the album.
Charts
| Chart (2008) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Austrian Albums Chart | 42 |
| Belgian (Flanders) Albums Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... |
94 |
| Danish Albums Chart Tracklisten Tracklisten is a Danish top 40 record chart that is presented every Thursday midnight at .The weekly Danish Singles Chart also known as Track Top-40 combines the 40 best selling tracks from legal music downloads and the sales of music singles on either CD or vinyl... |
13 |
| Dutch Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
68 |
| European Albums Chart | 5 |
| German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
14 |
| Greek Albums Chart IFPI Greece International Federation of the Phonographic Industry Greece or IFPI Greece is the Greek branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and is the official charts provider and recording sales certification body for Greece. Currently two charts are compiled, one for sales of... |
13 |
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
1 |
| Italian Albums Chart Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy.... |
32 |
| Japanese Albums Chart Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc... |
25 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart | 38 |
| Spanish Albums Chart | 27 |
| Swedish Albums Chart | 25 |
| Swiss Albums Chart Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
22 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
1 |
End-of-year charts
| Chart (2008) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
5 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
2 |
| Chart (2009) | Peak position |
| Irish Albums Chart | 17 |
| UK Albums Chart | 13 |
| Chart (2010) | Peak position |
| Irish Albums Chart | 98 |
| UK Albums Chart | 133 |
Chart procession and succession
Certifications
Release history
| Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalog number |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | 28 November 2008 | Polydor Polydor Records Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone... |
Compact Disc | B001JCDWAS |
| Deluxe Edition | B001IA46DI | |||
| United Kingdom | 1 December 2008 | Polydor | Compact Disc | 1787444 |
| Deluxe Edition | 1790124 | |||
| United States | 2 December 2008 | Universal International Universal Music Group Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations... |
Compact Disc | B001IA46D8 |
| Deluxe Edition | B001IA46DI | |||
| Japan | 3 December 2008 | Compact Disc | UICP1101 | |
| Brazil | 17 December 2008 | 602517919914 |