Gary Barlow
~ 10 Years Later ~

The ballad we wrote called Let’s Pray for Christmas made him only the first runner up but his reward was getting his song recorded with a real orchestra with backing singers and recording time at Strawberry Studios in Manchester.

At 16 he left school having achieved 6 O levels and devoted himself to work in the music business. He met a girl named Heather and they toured the clubs for a couple of years together.

It was at the studio that he met Mark Owen who was a tea boy there, they became friends and formed a band called Cutest Rush when Gary was 18. Still his first single called Love Is In The Air was released independently in 1990 under the name Kurtis Rush.

In 1990 Nigel Martin Smith was looking for young talentated boys to form an UK version of the American New Kids on the Block boy band. Having listened to Gary’s soon to become a hit A Million Love Songs, Nigel invited him to the audition. The other four lucky winners were Mark Owen, Jason Orange, Howard Donald and Robbie Williams, and this is how Take That was formed.

At first the success seemed to let itself waited. Together they toured schools and gay clubs and only in 1991 their first single Do What U Like came out. The video featured the guys in leathers and naked and there was a lot of jelly and several mops involved. While they’ve been together as a band they released four albums and 17 singles from which 8 topped the charts and not only in UK.

From the albums “Take That & Party”, “Everything Changes” and “Nobody Else” most songs were written by Gary and performed with him as lead vocal too. That brought him two Ivor Novello awards in 1993, "Best Contemporary Song" for Pray and the title "Songwriter Of The Year". In 1995 he did it again with the most beautiful ballad Back for Good which brought him another two awards, Best Song Musically and Lyrically and The PRS Most Performed Work, while being nominated in another two categories, The Best Selling Song and International Hit Of The Year.

With good quality songs, sexy men, visually appealing videos and most dynamic concerts Take That turned into a huge phenomenon captivating millions of fans all over the world. They reached their peak in 1995 with two major hits from the Nobody Else album, Back for Good and Never Forget, after having won the Best Group award at MTV European Music Awards the previous year.

Still in July 1995 Robbie announced he was leaving the band and Take That continued as a quartet. They went on Nobody Else tour in UK, which earned them Best Live Act MTV award and this was when Gary met Dawn Andrews, one of the dancers on tour.

On 13 of February 1996 came the dreaded announcement, when Gary said in front of a stunned audience during a press conference “Unfortunately the rumours are true, and How Deep Is Your Love is going to be our last single together and the Greatest Hits is going to be the last album and from today... is no more... " The fans were shocked. Support hotlines had to be open in UK for the depressed teenagers.

True to their previous angagements the guys made their last public appearance as a band on April 5, 1996 in Amsterdam. The last video they shot for How Deep Is Your Love, a Bee Gees cover, showed the guys tied up in a basement and it ended symbolically with Gary being thrown off a cliff. There was no more Take That.

But Gary was ready to launch his solo career already. His first single Forever Love was released in July 1996 going straight to no. 1 in the UK chart and soon around Europe as well. The song written by Gary was included on the soundtrack of The Leading Man drama starring Jon Bon Jovi.

The Open Road album was due to be released in September and everything was ready for the launch but after resigning to his American record company Arista he was given the oportunity to work with big producers and songwriters and Gary chose to re-record the entire album in US. Further more he split with his long term manager Nigel Martin Smith and signed with Simon Fuller who was dealing with artists who had become big in US.

The first single from the album, Love Won’t Wait, a song written by Madonna especially for him, was released in May 1997 and turned out to be another number one. Open Road album came out the same month and sold one million copies. Fans’ expectations and critics’ predictions seemed to have been right, Gary was not only a great song writer, he was also star material and he was meant to have a great solo career. He was labeled as 'the next George Michael' and compared to Elton John.

So Help Me Girl, a cover after a country song, was the next single, accompanied by a very romantic video, the European version, and it did fairly well in US being his first single released there. Open Road, the album title track made it to top 10 too and it stayed there for a while.

1998 was spent on tour promoting the album around the world. Gary was warmly welcomed everywhere he went, and as soon the tour ended he returned into the studio to work on his second album.

Something had changed in the air though. Bored with the clean boy image Gary had and that didn’t provide them with any subjects meant to sell papers, the media fueled a war between him and his former band mate Robbie Williams who had embarqued on a solo career too. With lack of support from the press and radio where he got little air time for his songs and a very bad management who went on a rabid campaign against his fan sites forcing them to take off all his photos Gary was doomed to fail.

Twelve Months Eleven Days, the album's title reflecting the length of time needed to have it done, did poorly in the charts as well as the two singles released from it, Stronger and For All that You Want, formely known as Superhero. The third planned single, Lie to Me, one of Gary best songs written ever, was never released.

Something good did happen to Gary in that period, he married his long term girlfriend Dawn Andrews on 14 January 2000. Howard Donald was his best man and DJ at the wedding.

Unfortunately on March 25, 2000, BMG/RCA terminated Gary’s contract. Without a record label, no support from all sides, and seemingly unwanted in the music business Gary announced he was giving up on his solo career later that year. Before that he tried his hand at acting staring in an episode of british series Heartbeat and probably one of the biggest achievements of his life happened in the month of August when his son Daniel was born.

Since time never stands still Gary moved on and decided to concentrate on his song writing and producing. He moved to Los Angeles with his family and woked there most part of 2001. After his return in UK he teamed up with Elliot Kennedy setting the bases of a producing company called True North.

In June 2002 his second child, Emily was born.

During the next following years Gary worked with artists like Blue, Atomic Kitten, Lara Fabian, Donny Osmond, Delta Goodrem and Charlotte Church. There were rumors he wrote a song for Eurovision in 2004, and he collaborated to Love Shack musical in 2005. Taking a step in a different direction he also became food critic writing restaurant reviews for London’s Grove magazine. And although the press tried to reignite the rivalry between him and Robbie he never fought back but went on with his life. Meantime in 2003 a remix of Love Won't Wait was high up in the US charts being constantly played on the American radios.

A definite turning point took place in his life by the end of 2005. Take That for the Record documentary was aired on TV and revived the fans and media’s interest for Take That. Soon after that Never Forget: The Ultimate Collection was released, a DVD including their greatest hits, a previously unreleased song and unseen footage with the band, and ten days later, on November 25, 2005, Gary was announcing during a press conference “Unfortunately the rumours are true, and that Take That are getting back together.”

Not for good but only for an UK tour for now. It was enough though for all the tickets to disappear in less than 30 minutes once they went on sale, all the concerts were sold out and more dates had to be added.

In December 2005 Gary sold his Cheshire estate where he'd been living for the past 10 years and moved to London. Then along Mark, Jason and Howard, as Robbie wasn’t going to join them, he spent the following months training hard for the tour and putting together a fantastic show. The tour kicked out in April 2006 being scheduled to continue until the end of June and the reviews coming from both critics and fans were very appreciative.

In 2006 he formed BHK Media with Eliot Kennedy and Robert Howes, a company destined to produce major music-driven projects. Furthermore Gary's autobiography came out in October 2006. A big number of fans showed up for the small series of signings he did to promote the book.

A new album, Beautiful World, was released at the end of 2006 immediately becoming no. 1 as well as the first two singles released from it, Patience and Shine. In the same period of time a DVD with live footage from the Ultimate Tour came out, a nice Christmas present. In February 2007 Patience won the Brit Award for Best British Single.

Keeping himself busy, Gary along with Celia McCamley formed in 2007 San Remo, a publishing company meant to help artists and writers do their job. Meantime An Audience With Take That… Live! won the Bafta Craft Award for Production Design.

On July 1st Gary and Take That performed at the concert held in the memory of Princess Diana, and then at the end of the month they flew to LA to attend the premiere of Stardust movie for which they wrote the song Rule the World. This was going to be their next single.

Autumn came with an ad campaign for Marks & Spencer, Gary’s official website came online, and the year ended with a 50 dates Beautiful World tour in UK and Europe culminating with the ITV 2008 countdown held in O2 London arena.

The DVD for the tour came out faster this time, right after another win at the Brits for the single Shine and best live performance. A series of awards followed, Take That won London's Favourite UK Group award at the Capital Awards, Gary received The 2008 PPL Lifetime Acheivement award at the Production 08 Radio Academy Awards, and Take That won the Ivor Novello Award for the Most Played Song for 'Shine'.

In May talks started with their producing company regarding a new album. We got more happy news in July when Gary announced that he and Dawn were expecting their third child. The writing and recording of the new album was done all through summer taking only time for a vacation in between and in September Take That flew to LA to master the album.

Britannia High, an interactive TV show produced by Gary and for whom he wrote the music, started to air in UK.

After filming a funny Marks & Spencer ad, December came with a bag full of presents under the form of a new single, Greatest Day, and a new album, The Circus.

And to top it all, 2009 started with two even bigger events, the birth of a new baby girl called Daisy and the climb of Mount Kilimanjaro with a group of celebrities in support of the Red Nose Comic Relief campaign.

Want more surprises? Stay tuned!