And still she waits; the perennial bride of our time. With extra buttons loosened and an ever shortening skirt, on show is a sordid foreplay that would normally raise a chorus of “get a room!”.

Okay, so it may not have the same ring as Burton and Taylor, or Charles and Diana say, but after another week of teasing and arousing each other (this time on the BBC’s Children in Need fundraiser) I can’t help but think Take That’s pursuit of Robbie Williams is shaping up to be the union of the age.

For 15 years it seemed ridiculous to think he would ever return, as the roguish groom led a promiscuous life in America, shacking up with Guy Chambers, EMI and all the world’s riches. Yet it turns out that the man who has everything needs something else, the thing money can’t buy.

For this is a reunion of the rarest kind – the love kind. There will be no desperate grab for cash after but a few rehearsals (Blur). There has been no crippling court case (Spandau Ballet), no addictions to bankrupt the account (Michael Jackson) or ravage the body (Jane’s Addiction). Instead, without Robbie, without the looks of youth and without the dance moves, Take That have conquered the papers, the television, the radio, the stadiums. Through music, through song-writing, through singing even, they have not only won us over, but they have won Robbie over too.

And how we are fascinated by the intrigue of it all! With tongues wagging, the will he/won’t he? debate (when we all know he will) has become our very own Nescafe romance.

Those of you who feign disinterest do not be fooled – the outcome to all this tantalising flirtation matters. This, after all, is a band that sold over 25 million records in their first incarnation alone. Their 2009 British stadium tour was the fastest selling in UK history. You may scoff at the importance of a return for the band as it was (merely a red top fancy on a quiet news day perhaps) because it’s hardly the resurrection of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the reunion of the Stone Roses or the regeneration of Talking Heads. But there is something just as important at play here, something just as historic as musical legacy.

For we are in a strange time, you and I, a period in which we are left to renew, revisit and revive. It comes down to technology, you see. Having covered so much in the first 50 years of recorded music, progress has temporarily stalled and we are no longer able to seek new ground as we once did. While the film industry explores the concepts of digital and 3D, music has no new toy to show, no future to mould.

Instead, artists will re-hash the sixties, seventies and eighties with a twist of the thirties all in one album. Our children will digest the themes of our music far more than we fed on our elders’. As a result they will be more aware, more susceptible and more inclined to witness the sounds that excited us so much.

I myself was caught in the midst of this phenomenon after the Big Cheese, a group of middle-aged men strutting around amusing themselves with Stones’ and Beatles’ covers at friends’ weddings, broke new ground earlier this year.

A bridesmaid had enjoyed a previous show, and asked if we would we play her 21st birthday party. After much umming and arghing over our set list we arrived, full of wonder at how these children would receive an aging group of amateurs and their brand of retro. Our one reassurance was that they had requested us, had seen us and wanted the same again.

On the whole they ignored us, preferring instead to grope in the garden’s outskirts and to vomit in the rest room. On reflection I’d expect no less, but in the aftermath we tried to make sense of a disheartening experience. Why did they book us, we reasoned, if they were to act so childishly?

Hiring old dudes to play old songs at your coming of age party, it seems, is far more acceptable to the youth of today than having a jazz band, or rendition of an opera, would ever have been for the flower power generation. The desire for originality is no longer the barrier it was, erected by teenagers to confuse and confound the older, squarer generation. Instead a trip to see Tina Turner, We Will Rock You or a session with Aerosmith: Guitar Hero is a thing to appreciate, a thing to make you cool and cultured amongst peers. Because of this, because of the market demands, getting back together is the mantra our wealth of disenfranchised superstars now live by. From the Pixies to the Stooges via the Backstreet Boys, the comeback tour is as much a part of the 21st century as breaking new ground was at the back end of the 20th.

And, let’s be honest, much of what we revisit will be but a pale imitation of what it once was, although we are heart-enough to make it into something worthwhile. But it is here that Take That stand out, it is for this reason we should give their story more than a dismissive wave of the hand, pop nonsense. From Lynyrd Skynyrd to Kate Bush, from ABC to Bananarama, there is a seemingly endless list of those who have returned slightly worse for wear, a little less committed and a good deal shorter of original ideas. We have not yet seen anything restored to its original make up and improved with age, nothing that has benefited from years apart. It is here Take That have become true originators, a group to raise the stakes for all those contemplating the comeback tour. For it can be done better than before, if only it is done for the right reason. A toast then; to the bride and groom!