Take That - The Flood

Artist: Take That

Track: The Flood

Year: 2010

Director: Mat Whitecross

Genre: Pop

Main Audience: All ages

Type: Mainly performance but there are aspects of narrative

The band consists of Gary Barlow (Lead Vocalist and primary song writer), Robbie Williams (Second lead vocalist), Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Howard Donald. Take That were a massive group around the world in the 1990's, but they split in 1996 devastated the world. In there hay day they had 27 top 40 hits and 16 top 5 singles, They have 7 number 1 albums and 11 number one singles. Robbie Williams left the band in 1995 and went on to become a solo artist, he was very successful but went off the rails during is hyped career, this cause both him and his former band mates trouble. They then reformed in 2005 as a four man band (without Robbie Williams) but he then re-joined the group in 2010 for a world come back. They are the word success in a band.

The video features the five members of the band racing against another crew in specially-made five-seater Sculling boats. The band's boat is named "Progress" after the record breaking number 1 album, whilst the band wear old-fashioned white rowing kits, bearing a custom-designed Take That crest.^[1] The group are shown to be competing in a race against a younger crew and although losing the race, the group continue going past the finish line and are shown to row down the River Thames past famous London landmarks before fading away into a stormy sea. The video for the single was filmed on Dorney Lake in Buckinghamshire, which will play host to the rowing events at the 2012 Olympics.^[2]

Wikipedia 2011

The video is all based on rowing, water and 2012 Olympics as stated above. The song The Flood is about how Gary, Jason, Mark and Howard took on Robbie Williams again and they want to show that there stronger than ever and wont give up trying. On the boat it has printed on the name of their current album 'Progress', this could also signify how they aare going to do in the boat race. The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is not that related, although there is water (flood) and the reference to not giving up (giving up the boat race) it doesn't really have a deep meaning that the song has. The relationship between the visuals and the music is related, the song is quite slow moving then gradually builds tension, the video does this well. For example the part of the song where it peaks a gun shot goes off for the boat race, it is in perfect timing and from there on it creates tension.

Through out the video there are close ups of each member of the band, it is equally shared out, this is unusual for pop videos as they usually focus on the main leading vocals. Many close ups are used for the ores, handles etc, there are also many long shots of the boats and surroundings. They have tried to make Take That old fashioned with the uniform and the way they present themselves, especially the other team being younger.