Take That paid tribute to their hometown crowd as their Progress tour called in a rainy Manchester tonight (June 4).

The band's performance was the second night of their residency at the City Of Manchester Stadium. Bringing all five members back together on stage for the first time in fifteen years, the gig reduced many members of the audience to tears.

"It's so good to be home and see the family," Howard Donald said as Take That kicked off the gig without Robbie Williams.

"We're coping with a very slippy stage here, so if any body falls just laugh."

Beginning their performance with 'Rule The World', Donald, Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Jason Orange led the 55,000-strong crowd in non-stop sing a longs.

Their five-song segment ended with 'Shine', which saw Chinese Dragon inspired human caterpillar. As the four-piece departed the stage, it was left to Williams to take over - and the Stoke star burst through a video screen into his hit, 'Let Me Entertain You'.

The singer, who also paid tribute to the Manchester crowd, went on to play 'Rock DJ' and 'Come Undone', before concluding with fan favourite, 'Angels'. When Williams returned it was alongside the rest of his band mates in the rafters of their impressive 60m wide stage set, which was cradled by a huge steel man.

Kicking off with comeback single 'The Flood', the reunited  five-piece wowed fans with songs from recent album 'Progress' as backing dancers dangled on the rainy backdrop. All five then gathered around a piano for a medley of some of their greatest hits, including 'Everything Changes', 'Back For Good', 'Pray' and 'Babe'.

It was then down to the star of Take That's stage production, a mechanical robot called Om, to take centre stage as it crawled towards the centre of the stadium carrying all five band members.

Not even a mechanical failure, which left Owen and Donald stranded in it's palms, dented the spirits of the crowd as the five-piece sang 'Never Forget'.

"Even with a stage crew of 300, sometimes things breakdown," Barlow said to huge cheers.

Take That concluded their performance with 'Relight My Fire' and 'Eight Letters'.

Take That setlist:

RULE THE WORLD
GREATEST DAY
HOLD UP A LIGHT
PATIENCE
SHINE
LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU
ROCK DJ
COME UNDONE
FEEL
ANGELS
THE FLOOD
SOS
UNDERGROUND MACHINE
KIDZ
PRETTY THINGS
MILLON LOVE SONGS / BABE /
EVERYTHING CHANGES/BACK FOR GOOD
PRAY
LOVE LOVE
NEVER FORGET
NO REGRETS
RELIGHT MY FIRE
EIGHT LETTERS

Before Take That took to the stage, tour support act the Pet Shop Boys played a greatest hits set, which included their smash hits 'Go West' and 'West End Girls'.

Take That continue their residency, before moving onto Cardiff, Glasgow and London. For more details, check out Gigwise Gig Tickets.