To celebrate the 50th birthday of our Captain Gary Barlow in 2021, a group of fans created a special magazine. When I was asked to write a piece about Nobody Else, the first things that came to my mind were the black fishnet tops and the army pants. God, that was so hideous ha ha!
The album Nobody Else was released in May 1995. Who could have known back then that it would be their last album as a five some. The first song on the album – Sure – was (and still is) not one of my favourites (might blame the fishnet tops), but the second – Back for Good – makes up for all of that. The fact that it hit number one in over 31 countries world wide says it all. Nobody Else marks a period in my life when I was on full fangirl mode.
I have lived in The Netherlands all my life, in the city of Maastricht in the south. Nobody Else ranked a number one position in the Album Top 100 here. But back then, when I was only twelve years old, my parents would never let me travel two to three hours to the “big cities” like Amsterdam or Rotterdam to visit a concert, let alone all by myself. Still a little trauma here… So I watched and recorded every TV show – both national and international – the boys appeared in and I bought every magazine that I could find, even if it had the tiniest little mention in it. The weekly trip to the international newsstand on Sundays was my highlight of the week.
The Nobody Else tour in 1995 only crossed the UK, Australia and Asia, so nothing to miss in The Netherlands for me. Thank God for VHS back in the days, when the shows in Earl’s Court were recorded and released as Nobody Else “the movie”. The video also contains exclusive promo videos for Back for Good, Sure and Never Forget. You should think about converting those classics to DVD. And I personally think no one would mind, if you put on those leather pants again. Provided that you leave that shirt unbuttoned too.
Never Forget, which was released in July 1995, remarked the departure of Robbie. The American release of the album therefore contains a different cover; the set with the dolls was replaced with a picture of the group without Robbie. Speaking of those dolls; of course I had to have them, but life was not always easy as an overseas fangirl back then – and still isn’t sometimes even in modern times. But in 1995 my parents finally took me to England for our summer holidays. Of course we had to visit Manchester, because I was convinced I could bump into the boys anywhere. Just like I bumped into famous Dutch singers here every day. After a long search, we finally found a Howard doll, hiding somewhere in a discount corner. Back home, we tried to get our hands on the other dolls, but since there was no online shopping, we had to do that via a postal order, which took ages. We managed to get Mark and Gary, but Robbie and Jason were already out of stock. Funny, when you think of the current members of the band. I think I had a foresight back then.
I finished my article with a personal message. Let’s hope he read it and remembers it, whenever they are planning a new tour. I’m still convinced that Maastricht has wonderful concert venues…
Should you ever feel the urge to visit the heart of Europe, just let me know.
I’d be happy to be your tour guide. Nobody Else can do that better than me.
XOXO,
Your Twisted Sister from The Netherlands
