Take That
As the most popular teen-pop sensation in Britain since the 1960s,
Take That ruled the UK charts during the first half of the 90s.
In
strict commercial terms, the band sold more records than any
English act since The Beatles, though the cultural and musical
importance was significantly less substantial.
Take That initially worked the same territory as their American
counterparts, singing watered-down new jack R&B, urban soul
and mainstream pop. Eventually the group worked their way toward
hi-NRG dance music, while also pursuing an adult-contemporary
ballad direction.
Their boyish good looks guaranteed them a significant portion
of the teenybopper audience, but they were also able to make
inroads in the adult audience via Gary Barlow's melodic,
sensitive ballads.
Barlow was always the central figure of Take That, and as the
lead vocalist and songwriter for the band he determined their
musical direction.
As a child, Barlow was already a gifted
musician and, by the age of 14, he was playing organ in Ken
Dodd's supporting band. One of his first original compositions,
Let's Pray For Christmas, was a finalist in a Christmas song
competition on the BBC television show, Pebble
Mill.
In his late teens, he came in contact with Mark Owen and Robbie
Williams, two other young musicians that came from middle-class
backgrounds. Williams' father was a comedian and his
mother was a singer, and before the formation of Take That, he had
briefly appeared in the BBC soap opera, Brookside.
Owen had previously auditioned and failed for Manchester United.
The trio formed The Cutest Rush, which had a short-lived
career, but record producer/manager Nigel Martin Smith - who had
the intention of putting together a British version of New Kids On
The Block - approached the trio, who agreed, along with Jason
Orange and Howard Donald (two former members of a break-dancing
troupe called Street Beat) to become Take That in 1990.
After a few brief tours through gay nightclubs, Take That
released their debut single, Do What U Like,
on their independent Dance UK label in July 1991. The
single became a minor sensation, primarily because the video was
quite suggestive and featured the band's bare bums. The single
caused enough uproar for RCA Records to sign the group in Autumn
1991. Their first single for the label, Promises, scraped into the Top 40 by the end
of the year.
In early 1992 Take That underwent a "Safe Sex" club
tour to support their third single, Once You've Tasted
Love, but the record only reached number 47. The band didn't break into the big-time until that summer, when their
cover of a Tavares song, It Only Takes A
Minute reached number seven.
Following the single's success, Take That became a British media sensation,
which set the stage for their debut album, Take That And
Party, to debut at number five upon its release. Within a
month, the single A Million Love Songs,
reached the Top 10.
At the end of the year the group took home no less than seven
awards at the Smash Hits Awards, and their
debut album continued to climb the charts, peaking at number two.
Early in 1993 the group's number three cover of Barry
Manilow's Could It Be Magic? won a Brit Award for Best
British single. Shortly afterwards, Why Can't I Wake Up
With You? reached number two.
Pray, the first single from their forthcoming second
album, entered the charts at number one, and that Autumn, Relight My Fire (which featured a cameo from
Lulu), reached number one also.
Everything Changes, the band's second album,
entered the charts at number one upon its October release.
Throughout the end of 1993 and 1994, Everything
Changes yielded hit singles, with the majority of the
releases making their way to number one.
For nearly five years the group's popularity was unsurpassed
in Britain, as they racked up a total of seven number one hits. By
the middle of the decade though, pop music tastes in Britain were
changing, and shifting toward the classic guitar-pop sounds of
Brit Pop bands like Blur and Oasis, who were able to appeal to
both the indie-rock and teen-pop audience.
The members of Take That were also entering their mid-'20s and
becoming disenchanted with each other. The first single
from the forthcoming third album, Back for
Good, was more substantive than any of their previous
singles and earned them good reviews from all quarters of the
press. But the single suggested that Gary Barlow was beginning to
distance himself from the band - and he wasn't the only member to
act in such a manner; Robbie Williams was becoming known as the "wild" member, and was alienating himself from the
rest of the group.
Nobody Else, the band's third album, was a number
one hit upon its spring release, but Robbie was noticeably quiet
on the record. During the summer of 1995, it became evident that
Williams was getting ready to breakaway from Take That. He
began tagging along after Oasis, who were notorious for their drug
and alcohol intake, and Williams became the target of a number of
tabloid reports of his bad behaviour, all the time bragging to the
music press that he was working on solo material that sounded like
Oasis.
It surprised nobody when Williams left Take That in July 1995,
announcing that he was working on a solo album. Following his
departure the group immediately removed his name and likeness from
all promotional and commercial material (his face didn't even
appear on the cover of the American release of Nobody
Else).
Take That announced they had broken up on 13 February 1996
(ironically Robbie Williams' 22nd birthday). Following the press
release, they released a greatest hits collection, with their
final single - a cover of The Bee Gees'
How Deep Is Your Love? -
entering the charts at number one.
Take That re-formed without Robbie Williams in 2005. They were
bigger than ever with chart hits including Patience (2006),
Shine
(2007) and Rule The World (2007).
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