Take That

Take That has scored 28 top 40 singles, 12 of which have reached number 1, as well as having seven number 1 albums. Internationally the band have had 56 number 1 singles and 37 number 1 albums. Take That has received eight Brit Awards, winning awards for Best British Group and Best British Live Act.

In 1989, Manchester-based Nigel Martin-Smith set out to create a British male group modelled after New Kids on the Block. Martin-Smith was introduced to young singer-songwriter Gary Barlow, who had been performing in clubs since the age of 15. At 22, Howard Donald was one of the oldest to audition, Jason Orange had appeared as a breakdancer on the television programme The Hit Man and Her. Martin-Smith also selected 18-year-old bank employee Mark Owen and finally 16-year-old Robbie Williams to round out the group, which initially went by the name Kick It.

Take That released their debut single “Do What U Like” on 12th July 1991 which was a commercial failure, peaking at number 82 on the UK Singles Chart. The low-budget video for the track featured the band getting naked, showing their bare buttocks and smearing jelly over themselves, resulting in the video being banned from daytime television.

In 1992, Take That released their debut album Take That & Party which reached number two on the UK Albums Chart and stayed in the UK Top 75 album chart for 73 weeks.

Take That released “It Only Takes A Minute” in 1993 in the US attempting to break into the North American market along with a Take That breakfast cereal box.

Take That had their first UK No.1 single with “Pray” in July 1993, they went on to be the most successful British boy band of the 1990s.

In 1993, Take That had their second UK No.1 single with “Relight My Fire”. The song was written and released by Dan Hartman in 1979, where it topped the US dance charts for six weeks. The Take That version featured Scottish singer Lulu and gave her a No.1 hit nearly 30 years after her first hit in 1964.

Take That scored their first UK No.1 album with their second release Everything Changes in 1993. The album which was nominated for the 1994 Mercury Prize became the third best-selling album of 1993 in the UK.

On 25th August 1994 Take That kicked off a 36 date sold out UK tour with 3 nights at the SEC Glasgow. During the tour, the group played 9 sold-out nights at London’s Wembley Arena.

Take That had their sixth UK No.1 single in 1995 when the Gary Barlow penned “Back For Good” went to the top of the UK charts. The song sold over 300,000 copies in its first week and was also a US Top 10 hit. The song won Best British Single at the 1996 Brit Awards.

In November 1994, Williams’s drug use had escalated; he nearly had a drug overdose the night before the group was scheduled to perform at the MTV Europe Music Awards. On 17th July 1995 Robbie Williams left the group. Despite the departure of Williams, Take That completed their Nobody Else Tour as a four-piece. They later disbanded on 13 February 1996, Williams’s 22nd birthday.

On 13th February 1996 Take That split up. The biggest band of the 90s announced their demise in front of the world’s press at The Hilton in Manchester, the band had achieved 7 No.1 singles & 2 No.1 albums. They released one more single and a Greatest Hits album. Following the band’s break-up, fans were distraught and in the UK teenage girls threatened suicide and were seen lining streets in tears, to the point that telephone hotlines were set up by the UK government to deal with counselling them.

In 1996 Take That scored their eighth and last UK No.1 single (until re-forming in 2006) with their version of The Bee Gees 1977 song “How Deep Is Your Love”, (originally intended for US singer Yvonne Elliman), and used as part of the soundtrack to the film Saturday Night Fever.

On 4th April 1996, the group made their final performance on The Ivo Niehe Show on Dutch TV, playing two songs in front of a 250-strong studio audience.

In 1999, Take That’s former manager Nigel Martin Smith started a new business, as an undertaker. It was reported that he was unhappy with a service he had used so he decided to buy a local funeral firm in Manchester.

On 25th November 2005 Take That announced that they were to reform for a tour, 10 years after they split up. At a press conference in London, Gary Barlow, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Howard Donald said they would go back on tour in April 2006, but without Robbie Williams.

The reformed Take That topped the UK singles and album charts simultaneously for the first time in their career. The single “Patience” remained at number for the second week, and Beautiful World the group’s new album entered the chart at No.1.

In 2007, Take That went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with “Shine”, their 10th UK No.1 single. The song was featured in several commercials for the re-launched Morrisons supermarkets in the UK and went on to win the British Single of the Year award at the 2008 Brit Awards.

In 2014, the band recorded a seventh studio album, this time as a trio without Williams and Orange. The album, titled III, was released in November 2014 and became the band’s seventh number one. It was preceded by the single “These Days”, which became the band’s 12th number-one single in the UK.

Gary Barlow is one of the United Kingdom’s most successful songwriters, having written thirteen number-one singles (ten with Take That, two solo, one with the Robbie Williams song “Candy”) and twenty-four top-ten hits. He has received six Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, including the award for Outstanding Services to British Music. He has sold over 50 million records worldwide. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) at the 2012 Queen’s Birthday Honours for his services to the entertainment industry and charity.