Those of you keeping score during my interminable Now! marathon will remember that when Take That reformed in the mid-’00s, I dubbed them ‘Fake That’ in a fit of pique because they’d had the temerity to reform without my childhood favourite, Robbie Williams.
Fake That became Take That again in 2010 when Robbie Williams rejoined them for an anniversary album, and then became ‘Fake That version II’ in 2015 when they relaunched as a three-piece with just Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, and Howard Donald, though I didn’t mind that lineup as much as the first Fake That lineup.
In Edinburgh last week, I saw this advert on the side of a bus:
…and now I’m a bit confused and unnerved. It’s Take That with original members missing (in this case Jason Orange), but Robbie Williams is not one of them. Is it still Fake That, given that I started using that term to express my annoyance at the lack of Robbie? I am not sure I will ever be able to answer this question.