Martin Roach - Take That – Now and Then - Inside the Biggest Comeback in British Pop History

Dedicated to Kaye and Alfie Blue

Cover

Titlepage TAKE THAT NOW AND THEN THE COMPLETE UNAUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY INSIDE THE BIGGEST COME-BACK IN POP HISTORY MARTIN ROACH

Dedication Dedicated to Kaye and Alfie Blue

Foreword by Louis Walsh Foreword by Louis Walsh Take That were the best boy band in the world. They were the reason I started Boyzone—Boyzone were the Irish Take That. I thought Gary and the band were absolutely brilliant. They appealed to everybody, their records were great and they had everything: great ballads, great up-tempo numbers, amazing live shows—I saw them at The Point in Dublin and the sound, the lights, the choreography, the entire show was just amazing. Then, of course, you had Nigel Martin-Smith, who did a fantastic job managing them. He made Take That special : people weren’t always allowed near them, they weren’t accessible everywhere, hanging out at nightclubs all the time with every Page Three girl, like so many boy bands today. Nigel made them special and that had an awful lot to do with their success. Robbie has become successful and he is a great performer…a huge success. I admire his work ethic. He’s a fantastic worker who knows how to appeal to both girls and boys. I have been known to criticise him, but he is so ambitious and I would never underestimate Robbie. He knows exactly what he is doing. Meanwhile, Take That are still selling out stadiums, which is incredible. Their records are still on the radio, their TV documentary was fantastic and they are still so popular. For me, they totally provided the blue-print for that genre. They will always be England’s best boy band. Louis Walsh February 2006

Introduction

A Wish Away

Who Cares Wins

The Fuses Are Lit

Something Remarkable This Way Comes

The Magic Numbers

I Can't Believe What I'm Seeing

The Golden Years

‘I Don’t Even Like Melon!’

Nobody Better

Gone For Good?

Don’t Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes

Open Roads, Endless Possibilities

The Phoenix Unfolds

Chalk And Cheese

People In Glass Houses

Play To Win

Back With The Boys Again

Afterword

Back For Good

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Copyright

About the Publisher

Take That were the best boy band in the world. They were the reason I started Boyzone—Boyzone were the Irish Take That. I thought Gary and the band were absolutely brilliant. They appealed to everybody, their records were great and they had everything: great ballads, great up-tempo numbers, amazing live shows—I saw them at The Point in Dublin and the sound, the lights, the choreography, the entire show was just amazing.

Then, of course, you had Nigel Martin-Smith, who did a fantastic job managing them. He made Take That special : people weren’t always allowed near them, they weren’t accessible everywhere, hanging out at nightclubs all the time with every Page Three girl, like so many boy bands today. Nigel made them special and that had an awful lot to do with their success.

Robbie has become successful and he is a great performer…a huge success. I admire his work ethic. He’s a fantastic worker who knows how to appeal to both girls and boys. I have been known to criticise him, but he is so ambitious and I would never underestimate Robbie. He knows exactly what he is doing.

Meanwhile, Take That are still selling out stadiums, which is incredible. Their records are still on the radio, their TV documentary was fantastic and they are still so popular. For me, they totally provided the blue-print for that genre.

They will always be England’s best boy band.

Louis Walsh

February 2006

Within twelve months of announcing their ‘reunion’ tour in late 2005, Take That had completed the biggest come-back in pop history. At the time of writing they can sell tickets faster than any other pop artist in the UK; they have topped the singles charts two more times and produced one of the biggest selling albums of the last decade; their own TV special enjoyed one of the highest ratings for an entertainment show in years…it seems there is no limit to what they can now achieve.

How have they done it?

On the surface, there are three key reasons. Firstly, the cultural impact from their original career has proved to have far longer lasting resonance than anyone—probably even the band themselves—realised. Pop is a fickle beast and for a band in that genre to have any lasting validity is unusual. Take That was not a pioneering fashion band, far from it. They were not musical innovators. They were certainly not the critics’ band of choice. Yet what the colossal success of their come-back tour tells us is that they clearly made an indelible mark on British music and cultural history. The broadsheets might not like to think so, but it is a fact. Among the thousands of bands that spilled out of the Nineties, the importance of the majority would fade with time. Take That’s legacy, however, was clearly a sleeping giant.

This pop behemoth was first awakened by an ITV1 documentary and then established on the high streets of Britain by a series of come-back shows that captured the nation’s imagination on an unprecedented scale. The band’s famously energetic and explosive original live shows have been surpassed by a new tour of stunning proportions. Filling some of the UK’s biggest venues was one thing, entertaining in them quite another. They did both with aplomb. Why would so many thousands of people chase tickets to see a band from their childhood? Partly because they wanted a good time; partly because the shows themselves were sensational; but mainly because to millions of people, Take That matter .

Finally, the band has produced an album of new material that is genuinely polished, well-crafted and hugely popular. A live show alone does not qualify Take That for the accolade of pop’s biggest come-back. Of course, nostalgia plays a part, but the band has brilliantly complemented this revival with a slew of superb new songs. Opening single ‘Patience’ was a new classic in the ‘Back For Good’ vein, while follow-up ‘Shine’ was an addictive curve-ball. Both were No. 1. The album, Beautiful World , silenced all but the very harshest of critics.

That, it appears, is how they have done it.

It is rare for a pop band to get a second bite of the cherry—rarer still for any come-back to have greater commercial potential than the first time around. That’s what Take That appear to have done. The biggest pop band of the Nineties can now add the biggest come-back in pop history to their list of achievements.

From childhood days in bedrooms writing songs, to thanking audiences of 60,000 in football stadiums over twenty years later, this is how it all happened…

Martin Roach March 2007

Gary Barlow was washing his Ford Orion outside his parents’ house when his mum shouted that someone was on the phone for him. It was a local model-agency owner called Nigel Martin-Smith whom Gary had been to see that very afternoon. The 19-year-old Gary had wanted to speak with Nigel about getting small acting roles now that he had an Equity Card. At the end of their meeting, Gary had given Nigel a demo tape of some songs he’d been writing and recording in his bedroom.