Take That

Take That

For the Take That Musical see Never Forget

Take That are an English pop boy band consisting of members Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange and Mark Owen. After success in the 1990s as a five person act (including Robbie Williams), a reformed four man version of the band achieved new success in the 2000s without Williams. Formed by Nigel Martin Smith in Manchester in 1990, Take That sold more than 30 million records between 1991-1996. Between the band's first single release in 1991 and their breakup in 1996, the BBC described Take That as "the most successful British band since The Beatles in the UK, beloved of young and old alike". Take That's dance-oriented pop tunes and soulful ballads dominated the UK charts in the first half of the 1990s, spawning two of the best selling albums of the decade with Everything Changes (which was nominated for the 1994 Mercury Prize) and Greatest Hits 1996, and according to All Music Guide, "at this time were giant superstars in Europe with the main question about them not being about whether they could get a hit single, but how many and which would make it to number one".

The band split in 1996, but after a 2005 documentary and the release of a greatest hits album, they announced a 2006 tour around the United Kingdom, entitled The Ultimate Tour. On May 9 2006, it was announced that Take That were set to record their first studio album in over 10 years. They then went onto produce another sellout tour in 2007, which garnered positive reviews from critics, and is to date their highest selling tour and one of the biggest tours in UK history.

History

Success (1990–1995)

The bands breakthrough single was a cover of the 1970s Tavares hit It Only Takes A Minute, which peaked at number seven on the UK Singles Chart. This success was followed by the track I Found Heaven, then by the first Barlow ballad A Million Love Songs - both top 20 hits. Their cover of the Barry Manilow disco hit Could It Be Magic gave them their biggest hit to date, peaking at number 3 in the UK. Their first album, Take That & Party, was released in 1992, and included all the hit singles to date.

1993 saw the release of Take That's most successful original album Everything Changes, based on Barlow's original material. It spawned four UK number one singles - their first number one Pray, Relight My Fire, Babe (beaten to Christmas number one by Mr Blobby), and the title track Everything Changes. The fifth single "Love Ain't Here Anymore" reached number three on the UK charts. Everything Changes saw the band gain international success, but failed to crack the US market where an exclusive remix Love Ain't Here Anymore (U.S. Version) gained little success.

The band's 1995 album Nobody Else, was launched with the release of Sure, which reached number one on the UK Charts. Their second release became their biggest hit single (and only US Chart entry), Back for Good, which reached number one in 16 countries around the globe and to date has been covered 89 times. Never Forget was the final single off the Nobody Else album. The album was also noted for its cover which was a parody of the cover of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band cover sleeve.

Departure of Williams and break-up (1995–1996)

In July 1995, Robbie Williams left the group and was photographed by the press partying with British band Oasis at Glastonbury. Take That continued to promote the album Nobody Else as a four piece, scoring a further hit single and fan favorite Never Forget (subsequently released as a single in a Jim Steinman remix version) and completing the Nobody Else Tour in July 1995.

On 13 February 1996, Take That announced that they were disbanding. This was followed by the Greatest Hits compilation in 1996, which contained a new recording, a cover of The Bee Gees How Deep Is Your Love. The single went on to become what appeared to be the band's final U.K. number one.

Careers outside Take That

Gary Barlow

Barlow recorded a solo album, Open Road (1997). Five singles were released from the album, with the first two — Forever Love and Love Won't Wait (written by Madonna) —both reaching number 1 on the UK singles chart. His second album, Twelve Months, Eleven Days, was less successful. Two singles were released: Stronger, which reached #16, and For All That You Want, which reached #24. Barlow was then dropped from his label just before he was due to release a third single Lie To Me. He later set up a studio in his Cheshire home and began writing and producing records for the likes of Atomic Kitten, Donny Osmond, Blue and Delta Goodrem.

Robbie Williams

Main article: Robbie Williams

Mark Owen

Owen has released three solo albums to date - Green Man, In Your Own Time and How the Mighty Fall. He had three top 5 singles from these albums; Child, Clementine and Four Minute Warning. He has toured extensively in Europe and the UK, and visited Japan in early 2006, where he has secured a publishing deal. Mark Owen also won Celebrity Big Brother in 2002. Marks third album How The Mighty Fall was released under his own label Sedna Records.

Howard Donald

Donald developed his songwriting skills, and tried to land himself a solo record deal after the band split. However, he returned to his DJ-roots, and went on to become a successful DJ playing mostly in the UK and Germany. Howard is well known in Germany as 'Herr Winklestieken' for his amazing stamina as a DJ. He is also one of the owners of the production company Sonic Fly.

Jason Orange

Orange ventured into acting with two roles; a DJ drug dealer Brent Moyer in Lynda La Plante's Killer Net (shown on UK Channel 4 and now on DVD) and a theatre role in the play Gob which was performed at the King's Head Theatre, London. He also travelled the world and went back to college to study sociology and psychology.

Comeback

Reunion: The Ultimate Tour and Beautiful World (2005–2007)

On November 14, 2005, a new compilation of their hit singles, plus a new previously unreleased song, also made the top end of the UK charts. The new song Today I've Lost You (recorded in September 2005) was originally written as the follow up to Back for Good. On Wednesday November 16, 2005, the group got back together for the ITV documentary TAKE THAT: For The Record, in which they aired their views over the split and what they had been up to during the last 10 years. On November 25, 2005, there was an official press conference by the band announcing that the post Robbie Williams line-up were going to tour in 2006. The tour, entitled Ultimate Tour, ran from April to June 2006. The tour featured a guest appearance by British soul singer Beverley Knight, who replaced Lulu's vocals on the song Relight My Fire; although Lulu did appear during the stadium shows on Relight My Fire and Never Forget. The American girl-band Pussycat Dolls supported the group at their Dublin concert, and the Sugababes supported the group on the final five dates of the stadium leg.

On May 9 2006, Take That came back to the recorded music scene after more than ten years, signed to a music deal with Polydor Records in a deal reportedly worth £3,000,000. After a month on sale the band's comeback album Beautiful World sold over 1.5 million copies in the U.K. Unlike the band's earlier works, where the majority of their material was written by Gary Barlow, 11 of the 12 songs are co-written by the band and professional songwriters including John Shanks, Steve Robson and others with the twelfth song I'd Wait for Life being an entirely Take That composition. The come-back single Patience was released on November 20, 2006, with a special event launching it on 5 November (Bonfire Night). On 26 November Patience hit number 1 in the UK in its second week of chart entry making it the group's 9th No.1. The video for Shine, the follow-up to Patience was premiered on January 25 2007 on Channel 4, ahead of its release on February 26, 2007.

The band's success continued on February 14, 2007 when Take That performed live at the BRIT Awards ceremony at Earl's Court. Their single Patience won the Best British Single category. The third single taken from Beautiful World was I'd Wait For Life, released on June 18 2007 in the UK. However the single only reached 17 in the UK Singles Chart, falling out of the top 40 the following week. This is thought to be due to lack of promotion, as the band decided to take a pre-tour break rather than do any promotion for the single.

During 2007 Take That also wrote a song for the motion picure Stardust titled Rule the World which reached number 2 in the UK charts and went on to be the 5th biggest selling single of 2007. Meanwhile Beautiful World the album was the fourth biggest selling album of 2007. It was announced at the start of 2007 that Take That signed a record deal with American label Interscope, and would also release their album in Canada. Starting on October 11 2007, Take That began their Beautiful World Tour in Belfast. The tour included 49 shows throughout Europe and the UK and ended in Manchester on December 23, 2007.

Current and future events (2008–present)

After having an outstanding year of success in 2007, Take That received four nominations for the 2008 BRIT Awards. Nominated for Best British Group, Best British Single (Shine), Best British Album (Beautiful World) and Best Live Act, taking home the Best Live Act and the Best British Single awards.

The band are rumoured to be writing a new album due out in late 2008. However, any official information regarding this has yet to be confirmed by the band. When asked by the media if they were to release another album in 2008, band member Gary Barlow stated that the band would go on a short break, and then take it from there. However, the band have ruled out touring in 2008, after completing two consecutive sellout tours in both 2006 and 2007.

In other media

Never Forget: The Musical

• In an episode of the alternative comedy Green Wing, whilst Mac is in a coma, he is played Take That's Back for Good.
• Take That wrote and recorded the theme song Rule the World for the film Stardust directed by Matthew Vaughn, which was released in cinemas across North America and Europe in August 2007.
• In 1997 Slow Smile recorded a punky cover of Back For Good. An EMI/Virgin spokeswoman commented "Gary Barlow was caught in a moment and approved it... rather than liking it, he was staggered by it.”
• In the Only Fools And Horses episode of Mother Nature's Son, during a scene in the pub, Take That is being played in the background.
• In The Office [UK] Christmas Special, released in 2003, Back For Good is played when Dawn walks away from Tim during the climax of the series.
• Never Forget - The musical based on songs of the band, opens at the Savoy Theatre, London in May 2008.

Discography

Main article: Take That discography

The first three albums did not get a digital download release until the mid-2000s, as legal digital downloads did not exist when the albums were originally released.

Name	Notes	Sales and certifications	Charts
			UK	GER	NL	SE	SWI	AUS
Take That and Party	Released on August 17 1992 Label: BMG, RCA Formats: CD, Cassette, Vinyl, Digital download	BPI certification: 2× platinum	2	28	21	38	—	—
Everything Changes	Released on October 23 1993 Label: Arista, RCA Formats: CD, Cassette, Vinyl, Digital download	BPI certification: 3× platinum	1	4	3	27	9	—
Nobody Else	Released on May 8 1995 Label: Arista, RCA Formats: CD, Cassette, Digital download	BPI certification: 2× platinum IFPI certification: 2× platinum	1	1	1	7	1	2
Beautiful World	Released on November 27 2006 Label: Polydor Formats: CD, Digital download	UK sales: 2.2 million BPI certification: 8× platinum IFPI certification: 2× platinum	1	2	33	40	6	32

External links

• Take That TV - Official Take That Website (Polydor)
• Never Forget - Official Musical Website - Musical based on the Songs of Take That