Take That
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Take That is a British pop boy band that originated in Manchester, England, in 1990 after being formed by Nigel Martin Smith. Take That sold 19 million records between the years of 1990-1996. 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 British charts in the first half of the 1990s, spawning two of the best selling albums of the decade with Everything Changes 1993 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 2006. On May 9 2006, it was announced that Take That were set to record their first studio album in over 10 years.
A stage musical is also planned for 2007. Entitled Never Forget, it follows the lives of a group of men who set up a tribute band and try to turn their lives around. The comedy drama isn't based on the lives of the band, but there are one or two nods to their famous bust-up, in which Robbie left the group.
Formation
Spring of 1990, Manchester was a city in the grip of a pop-cultural revolution that was attracting the attention of the world's media. The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays were in their pomp; The Haçienda had become the most talked-about nightclub on the planet; different music and fashion and clubbing sects were converging to create a plethora of new, baggy sounds and styles. At the same time, in a small office on a small Mancunian street called Chapel Walks, an entirely different musical enterprise was being planned. A manager called Nigel Martin-Smith had noticed that, Madchester notwithstanding, the British pop charts looked flat. There hadn't been a decent home-grown teen sensation since Bros went weird, and the only act in that field generating any excitement were US imports New Kids on the Block. So what if you took a group of amenable British boys next door, and got them to sing some proper pop, and set out to offer proper entertainment with their live gigs? The best ideas are always the simple ones.
In 1990, Martin-Smith assembled a group of five working class lads from the North West: Gary Barlow, a 19 year-old from Cheshire who had been singing and playing the organ on the northern club circuit for five years; Howard Donald, 21, a vehicle painter who also DJ'd, danced and modelled; Jason Orange, 19, a painter and decorator who had danced on a TV programme called The Hitman and Her; Mark Owen, 16, a former child model and Manchester United trialist, and Robbie Williams, a 16-year old body popper from Stoke on Trent.
You will notice that none of them were stage school trained; Gary had learned to work a crowd in the pubs, the other four by competing in break dancing and body popping competitions around Manchester. There were no bland stage-school kids here, and their performing background was, says Gary Barlow now, important. "I think it made a massive difference to us. At 17 I'd been performing in clubs where I'd have to read the crowd straight away, quickly pick a set list, and within 40-45 minutes have everyone on their feet clapping, like in Phoenix Nights. it teaches you to work a room. If you look at our shows, they are so theatrical, it's almost in cabaret in a way. That all stems from those days." They called themselves Take That ("the best of a bad bunch of ideas" says Gary, but it could have been worse - the first idea was "Kick It") and spent two years gigging with a song and dance act featuring dancey covers, Gary's own compositions, and some dubious black bondage outfits. "We learned our trade over a couple of years that way," continues Gary. "Nowadays, you'd sit down with a manager with a list of audiences you needed to hit, and you'd tick them off one by one. But at that point with us it was just guesswork."
Success
The break through single was a cover of the 70's Tavares hit "It Only Takes A Minute". With a high tempo beat and an athletic yet trendy dance video with the boys clothed in "street" gear the single reached #7 on the UK charts.
This success was then followed by the first Gary Barlow ballad "A Million Love Songs" and then by the track "I Found Heaven" - both top 20 hits, and neither, to Barlow's relief, featuring dance video backing. Their cover of the Barry Manilow and Donna Summer disco hit "Could It Be Magic" gave them their biggest hit to date, and secured them a place in the public consciousness. Their first album, Take That and Party, was released in 1992, and contained all the so far released hit singles - a mix of covers and Barlow ballads.
1993 saw the release of Take That's most successful original album Everything Changes, based mainly on Barlow's original material. It spawned four UK number one singles - their first number one "Pray", then "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" also saw Take That become an international success, although the US market still proved elusive ("Love Ain't Here Anymore" was even remixed for American release with a more rhythm & blues sound but did not garner much attention). However, they were at their highest peak of celebrity in the UK - highs included having tea with Princess Diana at Kensington Palace, and sitting on Elton John's sofa shouting out requests for him to play on the piano.
Their 1995 album Nobody Else, was launched with the release of number one single "Sure". Their second release would become their biggest hit single (and only US Chart entry), "Back For Good". The album was also noted for its cover, which (outside of North America) was a parody of the cover of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band cover sleeve.
Departure of Williams
In July 1995 Robbie, wanting to get rid of his clean-cut image, rebelled and began to party hard with British band Oasis at Glastonbury. A mixture of growing animosity between Williams and Martin-Smith over Robbie's professionalism, and disagreements between Williams and Barlow and the other band members due to this resulted in Robbie's departure from the band.
Take That continued to promote the album Nobody Else as a four piece, scoring a further hit singles and fan favourite "Never Forget" (subsequently released as a single in a Jim Steinman remix version).
Break-Up
On 13 February 1996, Take That announced that they were splitting. This would break the hearts of millions of fans worldwide - to an extent that hotlines were set up around the UK to cope with fans' grief. 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" (featuring the remaining members tied to chairs in the video in what was proposed by the media as the way they felt about their management and recording contracts), which went on to become what appeared to be the band's final number one.
Careers outside Take That
Gary Barlow
Soon after the split, Gary Barlow recorded a solo album Open Road (1997). Five singles got released of the album, with the first two Forever Love and Love Won't Wait to be number 1 in the UK charts. 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 subsequently dropped from his label. This was said to be due to him only being capable of releasing slow ballads, he also had no involvment on 5 tracks on his solo album, signaling rumours he was never the same man who was behind all the TT hits He later set up a studio in his Cheshire home and began writing and producing records for the likes of Donny Osmond, Blue and Delta Goodrem.
Robbie Williams
Robbie Williams released his first single, Freedom, a cover of a George Michael song in 1996. He achieved much greater success with his fifth single, the self-penned "Angels", which has become his signature tune. Since then, he has released many successful solo albums including I've Been Expecting You, Swing When You're Winning and Escapology. Every one of Robbie's studio albums has been catapulted to No.1 in the UK, including his latest effort Rudebox. His album sales average over 2 million per album in the UK. In 2005 he was named the best selling artist of the new millennium in the United Kingdom and is the most successful male British solo artist in British history with album sales standing over 17 million and 70 million records worldwide. He is also is the biggest selling artist in Europe of the 21st century.
Mark Owen
Mark Owen has released three solo albums to date - Green Man, In Your Own Time and How the Mighty Fall. He has toured extensively in Europe and the UK, and visited Japan in early 2006, where he has secured a publishing deal. Owen also won the 2002 UK version of Celebrity Big Brother.
Howard Donald
Howard Donald recorded a single but it was not released. He then went on to become a successful DJ playing mostly in the UK and Germany.
Jason Orange
Jason Orange had two acting roles, he played DJ drug dealer Brent Moyer in Lynda La Plante's Killer Net (shown on UK Channel 4 and now on DVD) and he appeared in the play Gob which was performed at the King's Head Theatre in London.
For The Record
On 14th November 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". This track is the only track from the album which isn't available to download. On Wednesday 16 November 2005, the group got back together for the ITV1 documentary "For The Record", in which they aired their views over the split and what they had been up to during the last 10 years. The four post-Williams members got together in a room filmed by the documentary, which created speculation around a reformation - heightened by a nomination for a Rose d'Or award, and over seven million viewers.
On 25 November 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 The Ultimate Tour 2006, started with just 11 dates booked but after record sell-outs, a further 19 dates were added - totalling 30 arena and stadium concerts around Britain and Ireland - and 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 Arena 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.
The Ultimate Tour
On 19 May 2006, Williams announced to Jonathan Ross on his late-night chat show that he would join his former band mates for a rendition of "Could It Be Magic" during the tour, if Ross should beat him at a game of tennis in the week following the broadcast. It turned out that he later didn't take part in the proposed match. Williams did feature in the 2006 gigs in performances of "Could it be Magic" as a 20ft pre-recorded hologram.
While Robbie Williams was not to be part of the tour, the other members of the band extended an open invitation for him to join them on stage if he wished to: "The door’s always open for Rob. If ever he's bored one day and we’re on the road and he wants to come and sing a song, we're always ready to do that. We'll have a spare mic ready for him on stage."Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).
On 4 May 2006, Tony Mortimer of East 17 criticized Take That during an interview with The Sun, he claimed that East 17 had "sold more albums world-wide", but this is not true as Take That's global chart success was much higher in the 1990s. Further proof of the difference in popularity between the two acts was shown when East 17's one-off show took much longer to sell-out than the whole Take That tour.
Patience & Beautiful World
On 9 May 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 million. Owen said the band were looking forward to making: "a great record, the best record we've ever made". Rumours circulated that Williams could join the band to record some of the album, but this did not happen.
The come-back single "Patience" was released on 20th November 2006, with a special event launching it on 5th 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. On Saturday 2 December the band performed live on ITV1 show An Audience with Take That. They performed some of their biggest hits and songs of the new album to an audience full of celebrities, and the album, "Beautiful World", reached #1 on the UK album chart the following day, while 'Patience' also remained at No.1 on both the Official UK Singles and Download charts.
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 only "I'd Wait for Life" being an entirely Take That composition.
Take That also celebrated being the first band ever to simultaneously top the five main official UK single, album, DVD, download single and download album charts in the same week (week ending December 17th 2006) with 'Patience' (single), 'Beautiful World' (album) and 'The Ultimate Tour - Live In Manchester' (DVD).
Shine & Beautiful World Tour 2007
It was announced at the start of 2007 that Take That recently signed a record deal with American label Interscope, and would also release their album in Canada. After just over a month on sale the band's comeback album Beautiful World sold over 1.5 million copies in the U.K, and the band took promotion to Germany, where on 20th January 2007, they appeared on "Wetten Dass...", in which they announced there would be an European tour in October 2007.
The video for Shine, the follow-up to Patience was premiered on January 25, 2007 on Channel 4, ahead of its release on 26th February 2007. The band's massive success continued on 14th February 2007 when Take That performed live at the Brit Awards ceremony at Earl's Court. Their single Patience won the Best British single category. Following their performance, Patience re-entered the UK top 10 after 16 weeks in the charts, with Shine just one place below at #11. On 4th March, it topped the UK singles chart, becoming the second straight single from the album to do so.
Take That will visit Australia, Japan and Canada in the coming months as they take Beautiful World around the world. Plans for a third single are as yet unconfirmed. In the meantime the band have announced the Beautiful World Tour 2007 that will start from Belfast, UK in early October, and will see the guys performing in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Holland, Denmark and Sweden before finishing in Manchester, UK after 11 sold-out dates at the MEN Arena.
"Shine" became the second Number One single of the album Beautiful World on 4 March, 2007. It was the tenth number one single of their career and took them past The Spice Girls and ABBA (both on nine) in the all-time number one UK singles charts.
In "Shine," the lead vocal is sung by Mark Owen. Some people believe that the lyrics are about Robbie Williams, although there is no evidence to support this.
Discography
External links
- TakeThatTV.com Official Website (Polydor)
- TakeThat.com (SonyBMG)
- Template:Myspace
- Brit Awards Website