Gary Barlow review – impossible not to love pop’s embarrassing dad

Hydro, Glasgow
Christmas collides with the roaring 20s in the Take That singer's arena tour, featuring showgirls, sleighs and confetti cannon. It's a festive delight

Dressed in a cherry-red suit and accompanied by six sequinned showgirls complete with burlesque feathered fans, the greatest showman of British talent-show pop and cringe dad dancing, Gary Barlow, appears on stage as if magicked out of thin air. A brass band launches into the showtune-inspired Who's Driving This Thing and the Take That singer is off, tap dancing down the stairs, clicking his fingers and doing his best impression of an exuberant music hall emcee.

The roaring 20s are the production's obvious inspiration and an early run of tracks from the 2020 album Music Made By Humans is given the big band treatment as Barlow leans into theatrics. The autobiographical song Live Those Years Again, which recalls Take That's early years, is embellished with corny choreography. For the next three minutes let's relive those years," Barlow croons, holding up three fingers, while the line, My appetite for singing slowly dies, replaced by an appetite for pies" features a comic belly rub.