Take That

Take That biography

Take That are an English five-piece vocal pop group comprising Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Robbie Williams. Barlow acts as the lead singer and primary songwriter. In total, the group have had 27 top 40 singles and 16 top 5 singles in the United Kingdom alone, 11 of which have reached number 1, as well as having seven number 1 albums.

Take That's dance-oriented pop tunes and soulful ballads dominated the UK charts in the first half of the 1990s, winning multiple BRIT Awards while also spawning two of the best selling albums of the decade with Everything Changes (which was nominated for the 1994 Mercury Prize) and their Greatest Hits album. Williams left the band in 1995 while the four remaining members completed their world tour and released a final single before splitting up in 1996.

However, after filming a 2005 documentary and releasing a new greatest hits album, the four-piece Take That officially announced a 2006 reunion tour around the UK, entitled The Ultimate Tour. On 9 May 2006, it was announced that the group were set to record new material together once again; their fourth studio album, Beautiful World, was released in 2006 and was followed up with The Circus, in 2008. The group achieved new success as a four-piece, scoring a string of chart hits across the UK and Europe while taking the number of records sold to over 45 million worldwide.

Williams rejoined Take That in 2010 for the band's sixth studio album, Progress. It was released on 15 November of that year and became the fastest selling album of the 21st century, the second fastest selling album in British history, whilst also making it the first album of new material to feature Take That's original line-up since their 1995 album, Nobody Else. Since 2011, Take That have set the new record for the fastest selling tour of all time in the UK, beating the previous record set by their Circus Live Tour in 2009, won the award for Best British group, and were named as Amazon's top-selling music artist of all time.

History

1989-93: ''Take That & Party

In 1989, Nigel Martin-Smith sought to create a British male vocal singing group. Martin-Smith's vision, however, was a teen orientated group that would aim across more than one demographic segment of the music industry. Martin-Smith was introduced to young singer songwriter Gary Barlow and was so impressed with Barlow's catalogue of self-written material he decided to build his new look boyband around Barlow's musical abilities. A campaign to audition young men with abilities in dancing and singing followed and took place in Manchester and other surrounding cities in 1990. At twenty-two, Howard Donald was one of the oldest to audition, but he was chosen after he got time off work as a vehicle painter to continue the process.

Take That's first TV appearance was on ''The Hitman & Her'' in 1990, where they performed Barlow's self written unreleased songs "Love" and "My Kind of Girl". They later appeared a second time to perform "Waiting Around", which would become the B-side for the first single, "Do What U Like". "Promises" and "Once You've Tasted Love" were also released as singles but were minor hits in the UK. Take That initially worked the same territory as their American counterparts, singing watered-down new jack R&B, urban soul, and mainstream pop. However the group worked its way toward Hi-NRG dance music, while also pursuing an adult contemporary ballad direction. As they aimed to break into the mainstream music industry they worked a manner of small clubs, schools and events across the country building up a fanbase as they travelled to gigs constantly for months.

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