“SCREAMING pop fans had the chance to meet their idols as the chart-topping band Take That appeared in Bournemouth.”

So began a Daily Echo report on August 7, 1992, as the rising band of the day appeared at the 2CR FM roadshow on the Pier Approach.

But the screams would be even louder the following year when more than 12,000 would see them at the BIC.

Neither gig was the Take That’s first appearance in the area. According to Echo reports from the time of those sell-out BIC concerts, they had appeared a couple of years earlier as pop wannabes at Herbert Carter School.

For the 2CR FM roadshow, they were the last act in a two-hour live broadcast, promoting a new single, I Found Heaven. But the loudest screams were for It Only Takes a Minute, which had made the top five the previous month.

A little over a year later, the band were in a different league again.

The Echo reported on Saturday, November 6, 1993, that three “massive” concerts at the BIC had entertainments bosses “gearing up for life on the front line of teenage hysteria”.

The group – Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Robbie Williams – were riding high on the success of their album Everything Changes and their recent number one single Relight My Fire.

There would be 12,300 tickets for the three stage shows. The band were bringing the same stage set they would be using for their shows at Wembley.

BIC entertainments manager Rob Zuradski said his concern was for the safety of fans, who were predominantly girls aged 12-16. He was having food and drink prepared for those who arrived long before the concert to secure front-row spots.

“We have found that children queuing all day without proper food and drink is one of the biggest problems of all on occasions like this. I would appeal to fans not to come too early,” he said.

A special team was being brought from London to patrol the inside of the safety barrier between the stage and the audience. There would be more than 20 special constables, a St John Ambulance team and at least one paramedic.

“The fact is we don’t actually know what to expect,” said Mr Zuradski. “We just want to ensure that nothing will go wrong.”

The band were not made available for interviews, but the Echo’s entertainments editor, Jeremy Miles, recalled that they hadn’t always been so coy.

Two years before, Mark Owen had told the paper how excited he was to be staying in hotels, and how he had never been to London before joining the band. Jason Orange, meanwhile, had said that on a visit to Bournemouth in the summer of 1991, the band had gone to the Odeon in Westover Road to see The Fisher King.

On Monday, November 8, the day of the first BIC concert, the Echo reported that the band were under round-the-clock guard at the Dormy Hotel in Ferndown, along with 27 minders, managers and personal assistants.

Staff were denying that anyone famous was there, but some fans knew better, and dozens had been camped on the doorstep since the band arrived on Friday.

When Take That arrived at the BIC for a run-through on Sunday, there were 300 screaming girls waiting for them.

The concerts were as big as expected – as the Echo reported under the front page headline “Scream team”.

“Take That took teen mania by the throat last night and shook every last hysterical ounce of energy from a screaming, adoring 4,000-strong audience,” the paper said.

Scores of fainting girls had been pulled from the crowds and an 11-year-old was taken to hospital with a neck injury.

“Forget Bros, this bunch even made Beatlemania look tame,” the report went on.

But as Jeremy Miles pointed out, presciently: “Anyone who dismisses them as a flash-in-the-pan has another thing coming. After seeing last night’s high energy, high quality performance it is clear these lads are here to stay.”