Take That are back for good...just ask their loyal fans

But to 350 fans who slept in the street to welcome back Take That, there was never a question over where to place their loyalties.

Keeping warm with the help of sleeping bags, woolly hats and cherished memories of swooning to Relight My Fire and Back For Good, they queued in two cities for a full 30 hours ahead of the band's appearances at the HMV store in Oxford Street, London, and later at the branch in Piccadilly, Manchester.

Thousands more joined the diehards later to cram into both stores, where Gary Barlow, Jason Orange, Howard Donald and Mark Owen were signing copies of their new album and, as it turned out, celebrating the elevation of their single Patience to the Number 1 slot. It is their first hit since How Deep Is Your Love reached Number 1 in March 1996, three weeks after they announced their split.

And if those song titles were meant to be significant, for those asleep in the damp chill of London and Manchester there need have been no questions about patience or depth of love. First into the London store were 18-year-old Jasmine Johnson and her sister, Lisa, 26, who had been queuing since 6am on Sunday.

Their efforts were rewarded when the band presented them with two huge bouquets of flowers and kisses all round. 'It was a dream come true,' said Jasmine. 'It was pretty cold and the night time was quite bad. We slept on crushed cardboard boxes lined with binbags, and had thick sleeping bags and blankets.

'But when Take That gave us the flowers it made it all worthwhile. We got a kiss from them and our photos taken with them - it was just amazing.'

They said the experience had made them determined to follow their heroes to all their future gigs, despite the absence of one member, a certain Robbie Williams.

Take That took the world of pop music by storm between 1992 and their split in 1996, becoming the biggest-selling UK act since the Beatles with more than 25million record sales.

The four band members, minus Williams, revealed they were reforming at the end of last year and their Ultimate Tour sold out within minutes of tickets going on sale.

The new album, Beautiful World, released yesterday, is also tipped to reach Number 1.