Take That are back for good

Take That survived feuds and solo stumbles to top the charts again. Here they talk about Robbie, relighting the fire, and why success is sweeter the second time around.

by Alan Jackson/ Times Online

A pop track plays at bird-scaring volume as four men walk back and forth across a rooftop in downtown Los Angeles, singing to the sky. A helicopter circles noisily overhead, its onboard cameraman documenting their every move and expression. Here is the biggest and best of all Britboybands, the one that came back to be a man band, filming the video for Greatest Day, first single from a new album that by Christmas will be inescapable in British high streets and on radio. “Mad, this,” notes one ripe Mancunian voice in a moment of quiet between takes. Looking out across the expanse of asphalt and assessing the 30-storey drop to the street below (there’s no wall or barrier to prevent anyone just stepping off into infinity), three similar accents murmur their assent. But then the music starts up again and the helicopter prepares to swoop back in. Dutifully, Take That go back to work.

They are unlikely lads to be getting the full Hollywood treatment. “We haven’t seen one of these since 1992, and even then we said, ‘Next time, please just send a van,’” commented Gary Barlow earlier of the stretch limo that brought them to the shoot. (Tomorrow, at their insistence, a people carrier will replace it.) Laudably self-aware and unstarry, they’re only too conscious of the irony of their being back in the world of vast promotional budgets and drivers kept on hold. Yes, they sold millions, first as a five-piece with Robbie Williams, then for a short while without him. But as recently as three years ago, they were washed up commercially, the glory days behind them. They had gone out at the top, certainly, but respective solo projects then foundered and record deals were soon withdrawn. As Williams, then in the ascendancy, gloated, his former mates found themselves adjusting to life as pop has-beens, yesterday’s heroes.

The world of work is a perilous place these days. Success and status can be here today, gone even before tomorrow, all privileges withdrawn. But nowhere is that more true than in the entertainment industry, as Take That’s lead singer and songwriter Barlow will tell you. Even though it was he who precipitated the end of TT phase one by announcing his decision to go it alone, he did not escape the hurt. You might even judge that he felt it the most keenly. In 1996 and ’97, he enjoyed two successive No 1 singles in the UK, Forever Love and Love Won’t Wait. A first album sold well. But by the time its follow-up was released, Williams was beginning a run of hits (Angels, Let Me Entertain You, Millennium, No Regrets) that rendered him ubiquitous. The Robbie image was cocky, edgy, knowing, Gary’s safe and suburban by comparison. Unceremoniously, he was dropped.

Humiliated, but still believing he had a future as a recording artist, he looked around for another deal. No interest. “Then I talked to promoters about doing a small-scale tour.” Again, no interest. “I explored every possible avenue, even shopping around songs for other people to record, but within a couple of months it became clear that there was no way forward for me. When you’re hot and are having hits, the industry can’t get enough. When you’re cold, it’s like having some disease. No one wants any association with you at all. It’s as if you’ve been fired for stealing out of the till. It’s instant, brutal. You’re unemployable.” To be rejected by the business he loved was, he says, crushing. “You don’t even get the gold watch and the handshake. But that’s not the point. My issue was that I wanted to work and couldn’t. That was the most upsetting thing for me, music being all I know.”

Williams’ continuing ascent only added to Barlow’s misery, causing him to retreat for a full five months behind the gates of the antique-filled Cheshire mansion (it has long since been replaced by a London flat) he had bought with his songwriting royalties. “It’s one thing getting dropped, but what it filters down to is walking along the street and having people shout, ‘How’s Robbie?’ Or you go in a shop and they put on his CD the moment they see you. That’s what made me reclusive. There’s a meanness in Britain. People relish your situation. You end up embarrassed to be who you are. It got to the point where I wouldn’t even use my credit card over the phone, ’cos I was ashamed to say my name. It was an odd, depressing, very negative time.” Feeling his only option was to leave the country, and with his wife and newborn son in tow, he relocated here to LA.

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Take That “The Circus” album cover. Album will be released on December 1,  2008

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Life in a rented apartment was anonymous, soothing, sunny. “I didn’t wear socks for eight months. The weather was always fine. I could walk around the supermarket unnoticed. We even made friends with the neighbours, who knew nothing of who I was and had no fixed opinion of me. I loved that. They were spending time with us just because we’re nice people and they enjoyed our company, nothing more.” The sojourn wasn’t entirely therapeutic, though. In the old Take That days, Barlow’s well-known love of eating and resultant, comparative chunkiness had meant that a variety of unflattering nicknames was bestowed on him by pop columnists and internet gossip sites: Big Gaz, Fat Gary, Gary Who Ate All the Pies. And with time on his hands and no pressure to look his fittest for photo shoots and TV appearances, he found himself piling on the pounds.Today (he is sitting by the pool of the band’s hotel wearing only swimming trunks as we talk), he is a super-toned and tanned version of that paler, porkier former self. The transformation has not been easy, however, and staying at his new fighting weight will be harder still. “I just can’t control myself around food, if I’m honest,” he says, looking without enthusiasm at the newly arrived plate of leaves and vegetables that represents his brunch. “Anything fatty or high-calorie is out. Mine is definitely a future without fries. In the studio, while making the album, the others would be dialling out late at night for burgers and chocolate while I’d be there with my tuna salad and protein bar thinking, ‘This is s***!’ I mean, look how thin they are. It isn’t fair. But life isn’t fair, and if this [he looks again at his plate] is what it’s going to take for me to stay looking like this, then I can cope with it.”Returning to live in the UK in 2001, Barlow found he was 50lb heavier than when he left. “All self-inflicted through comfort eating, of course. I was a mess. When I finally stepped on the scales, the proof was inescapable: 16st 8lb! I thought, ‘I really need to do something here…’” At his wife’s insistence, he saw a doctor, “who gave me the hard facts, no beating around the bush. I was well into the obese bracket given my height, with all the attendant health risks. That’s pretty upsetting news and was a definite wake-up call. Obviously, you’ve got a massive climb ahead of you, being that heavy. In fact, it’s hard to see how you’ll ever reach the top.” It has taken a five-year programme of careful eating and regular exercise to win him his current hunk status, and, as if to demonstrate his ongoing resolve, he picks up his fork and begins purposefully to eat his greens.Of his gradual career rehabilitation, he says, “It didn’t happen overnight by any means, but people were kind enough to start giving me bits and pieces [songwriting commissions, production work] here and there. And of course it was helped by the fact that, three or four years on, our records were still on the radio. It was like they thought, ‘Yeah, he used to write great stuff. I wonder what he’s doing now?’, and then picked up the phone to give me a call.”

In other words, there was a requisite period of time to be endured in the pop wilderness; only after it might he be welcomed back into the fold. And even when that happened, it didn’t occur to Barlow that he might ever take the spotlight again. “I didn’t sing a note in six years, not even on a demo. I locked the door on that side of me, told everyone around me I didn’t want to do it any more. I even convinced myself that it was true.”

The other members of Take That had not been having an easy time of it, either. For Jason Orange, a quietly reflective man who admits to having had self-esteem issues (only he of the four did not attempt a solo career), the end of TT had come as a relief. “When I first joined the band I was mad for it. I kept a scrapbook of all our magazine front covers. I bought into the idea wholesale. But ten years on, I found I loved being a private person again [he travelled the world for two years after the split]. I loved walking through town unrecognised, unmolested. To be honest, I think fame is s***. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. I know it’s a huge aspiration for a lot of young people these days, but really I can’t think of one redeeming feature it has other than that of a quick ego caress or being able to jump the queue at a club. Otherwise, it sucks.”

Like Barlow, Mark Owen enjoyed initial solo success but then also found himself being dropped. “An absolute low point. Everything that had happened up until then had been positive. I didn’t know there could be a downside. To find yourself making records on your own that sell three copies… It hurts. But you’ve got to hit the bottom before you can rebuild.” (For him, the turning point came when he took part in – and won – Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother in 2002.) For Howard Donald, meanwhile (like Orange he admits readily to self-confidence issues), there was the sense of having let his family down. “People around you think it’ll never end. And when it does, they want to know, ‘What are you going to do now? What’s your plan?’ I didn’t have one, which made me feel I’d failed.” That the record company chose not to release the solo album he then went on to make can hardly have helped.
Yet throughout all of this, and as Barlow has mentioned, Take That’s music remained alive on radio stations across this country and beyond, be it his own highly efficient originals (prime examples being Pray, Everything Changes and Back for Good) or judiciously chosen covers (Could It Be Magic, Relight My Fire, How Deep Is Your Love). Along the way, and thanks to the tabloid soap opera that was their competitive relationship with the departed Williams (the cheeky chappie of the original line-up, he had gone thoroughly bad boy after bonding with the Gallagher brothers at Glastonbury and quit the band in July 1995 to begin his own erratic solo trajectory), they’ve won the nation’s collective affection in a way that very few pop acts do. The Bee Gees, Abba, Kylie… That’s the ballpark Take That are in. Residual affection for them remained huge. You might even say they were loved.

Not everyone was fully convinced getting back together was a good idea. Says Orange, “I was wary, I admit. I’d not been wholly comfortable with the pop star thing before. In fact, I’d fought it, thinking, ‘I’m more complex than that. It’s not who or what I am.’ But that was just a silly fight I was having with myself. The people who care about this stuff want me to be a Take That person, and there’s nothing I can do about it. It doesn’t have to represent my whole being. Realising that, I determined to relax and enjoy it more this time around.” And as the only band member without a current partner or children (Barlow has two kids and is currently expecting a third, Donald two also, while Owen’s second is due imminently), he found himself benefiting once again from the company of his old colleagues. “From that point of view, being in Take That is just the best thing ever. I wish everyone could experience it.”

To the industry’s surprise (for there is nothing less commercial than a boy band past its sell-by date), 2006’s comeback album, Beautiful World, outsold anything TT had previously released. “A nostalgia tour is one thing. A lot of bands reform for those,” notes Owen. “But to then release a record that eclipses your own past? We feel blessed. Honestly, we really do.” Endearingly, two years on, a certain we-can’t-quite-believe-our-own-luck spirit still prevails. Says Donald, “There are many more talented individuals out there than me. I don’t have what it takes to shine on my own. But when you get the four of us together there’s a real magic, something people respond to. They see the friendship and commitment. Good songs, hard graft and chemistry… That’s Take That.” Their original fanbase of screaming tweenies, now sensible mums with daughters of their own, could only agree.

What made the difference this time around (there’s a gentle acknowledgement by each that one needed to be made) is Barlow’s newly relaxed and democratic stewardship of the band, one that allows him to share the singing and writing opportunities more evenly. “I think,” says Owen, “we all feel we have a more valid role now, which is very positive.” And Donald: “Winning Brit Awards this time round [Best British Single for Patience in 2007 and Shine in ’08, plus this year’s Best Live Act, too], it felt like we were all being rewarded, not just Gary.” “Mark’s been the one who’s driven this whole thing,” adds Orange. “It’s he who’s held it together. He’s developed into a brilliant pop songwriter, meaning we now have two. Howard and I help wherever we can and the result is that it feels like a band effort, rather than…” One designated driver and three passengers, in short.

Barlow himself acknowedges that a change was due. “In the old days, lead vocals were a sensitive issue, basically ’cos I wanted to do them all. I was young [the four are now aged between 36 and 40], ambitious and selfish. Robbie was the first to challenge that, but hearing him would only make me want to try to do the same song better. My own insecurity issues, totally. I don’t have them any more and as a result I’m enjoying letting everyone else have time in the sun.” That mention of Williams, for a long time resident here in LA, and variously reported to have become a bit of a recluse, even a UFO hunter and possibly long-haired and bearded since the relative failure of his last album, Rudebox, provokes an inevitable question. There he is, just down the road, doing nothing very much as his four old mates live the pop-star high life once more. Might he ever be invited to rejoin the band?

Privately, and after all the media-encouraged and reported animosity between he and Barlow, the five are back on good terms. They’ve seen him twice in the past week (protective to a fault of his privacy, they have sought his permission just to tell me this) and will be meeting up again. The ever more confident tone of their work as a four-piece has proved they don’t need Williams. But would they actually want him? Interviewed individually, only Owen volunteers an opinion. “It would be bloody brilliant if he came back some day. There’s nothing missing without him in a musical sense, but still it would be so great. I think we’d all have Rob back tomorrow if he wanted it and the time felt right. For now, though, it’s been just brilliant to have nights out with him again. We’ve had a right giggle. I’m really made up to be seeing him. I think we all are.”

For the foreseeable future, though, the line-up remains as it is. Take That have been in a London studio recently, writing and recording their second post-reformation album, The Circus, the stylistic breadth and verve of which represents a genuine step forward for the band. This visit to LA was precipitated by the need to oversee its mixing with producer John Shanks, and to shoot the video for its lead-off single. From here on in, the hard slog and hard sell will begin. The four marked the transition from private to public last weekend by driving themselves to Las Vegas to catch the latest productions (Take That’s own stage shows have always beencheerfully over-the-top) and re-bond. And while they were there, Barlow confides, he found himself telling his friends: “These are the best years of our lives, here, right now. We’ve got to enjoy every second, ’cos these are brilliant, brilliant times.”

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