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<\/p>\nBack for good? Take That never really went away. We have had 35 years of these greatest survivors \u2014 the boy band who lived, as opposed to the many others from the Nineties who were taken in by a rabid pop industry machine and then spat out. Indeed, Take That could lay claim to being Britain\u2019s longest-lasting still-thriving band. Who else? Coldplay have been going for seven years fewer, while, despite Oasis\u2019s summer success, all but one of the songs they played was from last century. <\/p>\n
Take That, on tour, mix their indelible Nineties classics such as Pray, Babe and No Regrets with hits from the past 20 years \u2014 Rule the World, Greatest Day, Patience, The Flood. From the start Gary Barlow was the songwriter; Mark Owen the cute one; Robbie Williams the rogue; Howard Donald and Jason Orange the unstoppable dancers. Next year the band will play 17 stadium shows in a revamp of their hugely successful 2009 tour The Circus Live, while also gearing up for a warts \u2019n\u2019 all Netflix documentary. Such was the demand for the tour that, on the day the tickets went on sale, six extra dates were added. <\/p>\n
And yet, of course, there are only three of them now: Barlow, Owen and Donald. We are sitting in a photography studio in west London cradling coffees and, in the case of Barlow, 54, his fluffy pomeranian, Hugo. He is still the serious one but now wears his success more lightly than he once did, with a dry wit that can take you by surprise. <\/p>\n
Owen, 53, meanwhile, dressed in a checkerboard coat and wearing a tan he\u2019s picked up from his home in Los Angeles, is sweet and softly spoken, but also with a deadpan sense of humour. (Whenever someone calls Take That a boy band, Owen tuts with faux indignance, \u201cWell, we weren\u2019t a boy band, but go on\u2026\u201d) Donald, 57, on the other hand, is deeply emotional \u2014 his big orange trousers belie a rather serious man who adores what he does and, I think, still cannot believe he gets to do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really proud that we have brought so much joy into people\u2019s lives,\u201d Donald says. \u201cWhether it was the Nineties or now, for two hours we are on stage and give a really great energy for people to go away with. We put on a f***ing great show.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which is entirely true \u2014 the first Circus Live tour often had 40 people performing at once, plus an animatronic elephant. It is a bombast of euphoric pop joy, yet these men are human, with families, love and loss. Owen was forced to evacuate his family from their home in the Palisades area of LA for a month during the wildfires this year; Donald tells me forlornly that he lost touch with his brothers in the early days of the band; while Barlow has been through hell. <\/p>\n
On August 4, 2012, Barlow\u2019s fourth child, Poppy, was stillborn. He and his wife, Dawn Andrews, were allowed to hold their baby daughter for a while and organised a funeral. Eight days later Barlow was on stage with Take That at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics. <\/p>\n
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A fresh-faced Take That in the video for their debut single, Do What U Like, in 1991. From left: Mark Owen, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow<\/p>\n
GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n
This side of their jobs, I venture, seems absurd \u2014 putting on a front when you just want to hide? \u201cI could give you ten answers here,\u201d Barlow sighs. \u201cI mean, we\u2019re singing \u2014 it\u2019s not that hard. I could be doing a proper job. That\u2019s what I always think.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donald comes to his aid. \u201cWithout trying to speak for Gary,\u201d he says, \u201cwhen we did the Olympics, he got on stage and\u2026\u201d he wells up. \u201cSorry, I\u2019m getting emotional. I thought he was never going to do it, you know? But he is a professional, he got up and sang Rule the World. I was thinking, f***ing hell, Gaz.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barlow shrugs and smiles, holding Hugo that little bit tighter. \u201cYou\u2019ve just got to turn it on for a few minutes, haven\u2019t you?\u201d he says. \u201cBut you know, welcome to showbusiness. It\u2019s a funny one and you\u2019re absolutely right. Definitely some nights you stand side of stage thinking, oh, I could be at home tonight, but you go out there and it\u2019s the most wonderful two hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the past Barlow has spoken about Poppy\u2019s death with a calm reassurance that has led to his and Dawn\u2019s story being featured on websites and support services for people suffering similar grief. Does he feel a responsibility to speak about his experiences because it can help others? <\/p>\n
\u201cI think so,\u201d he says. \u201cI do believe we\u2019re in a world where we overshare\u2026 I don\u2019t want to be the poster boy for loss, but it\u2019s really hard because sometimes you read something and go, \u2018Jesus, what I said helped this person\u2026\u2019 \u201d He pauses and frowns. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to find a balance. My wife\u2019s really private. She doesn\u2019t want me to talk about any of it and so it\u2019s just very hard. But also I\u2019ve always got to ask myself, with anything we do, \u2018Why am I here today?\u2019 I am here because I write songs and sing \u2014 and that should be enough. And so anything else that\u2019s extra to that? I just need to think about it because I\u2019m not a psychiatrist.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Take That: \u2018We didn\u2019t know what we were doing\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Barlow met Andrews, a dancer, on a Take That tour in 1995 and they married in 2000. They have three children \u2014 Daniel, 25, Emily, 23, and Daisy, 16. <\/p>\n Barlow with his wife, Dawn, in London in 2009. She was a dancer on a Take That tour when the couple met in 1995<\/p>\n GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n \u201cWhat were my mum and dad thinking?\u201d Barlow says, puffing out his cheeks at the thought of how his parents sent him off to join Take That at the age of 18. It was 1990 and their manager, Nigel Martin-Smith, had a dream of taking the wildly successful American formula of New Kids on the Block \u2014 five lithe, hunky men for teenage girls to pin their burgeoning sexuality upon \u2014 but making them from Manchester. In the early days none of Take That wore much on stage as they tore around the schools (and gay clubs) of northwest England. <\/p>\n \u201cI was thinking, what I would do now \u2014 as a parent?\u201d Barlow continues. \u201cEspecially as my kids are at the age where they\u2019re starting to get jobs. All my friends were going off and getting jobs in banks and stuff, and I was going, \u2018I\u2019m going to be famous!\u2019 I was gigging in social clubs and pubs. I was thinking that, as a parent, I probably would have told them to find something else to do. I\u2019d have been worried.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy mum was so angry with me when I said I was going to be in a boy band,\u201d Donald recalls. \u201cBecause all of a sudden I\u2019d lost my job being a vehicle painter, earning \u00a3150 a week, and therefore she was going to lose out on the \u00a320 a week income I paid to live there.\u201d Donald was 21 when the band first hit the road. \u201cAt that time I never had much positivity, thinking I was going to be famous and massive. It could have gone either way.\u201d<\/p>\n SANE SEVEN FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE<\/p>\n SANE SEVEN FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE<\/p>\n SANE SEVEN FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE<\/p>\n Was there a moment when their parents realised their sons had made the right choice? \u201cOur manager was good,\u201d Barlow says of Martin-Smith. \u201cHe used to get all the families together and he organised for them all to come to London on a little bus, put them up in a hotel and took them to watch the Royal Variety Performance.\u201d It was 1994 and Take That played Could It Be Magic and A Million Love Songs, both of which had already gone Top Ten in the UK. Barlow smiles. \u201cBut that felt like a moment \u2014 we were on this show and so was Shirley Bassey. There were kids screaming. We sat up until 4am and I remember the look on their faces. My parents were just thinking, this is incredible\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n What were their first impressions of each other? Martin-Smith had auditioned for young men to back up Barlow, to whom he had taken as a songwriter. \u201cHoward arrived late,\u201d Owen says. He had been at work. \u201cAnd Gaz was there early \u2014 you had set up your microphones, ready, doing your stretches, pressing play on the cassette.\u201d Barlow looks towards Owen. \u201cI don\u2019t really remember you that much from that day,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n Owen laughs. \u201cThat\u2019s not changed \u2014 \u2018What does he do?\u2019 \u201d he says. \u201cBut I\u2019ll tell you who stole the limelight that day \u2014 Jason. He was the most unbelievable dancer. I don\u2019t even really remember Rob from that day.\u201d <\/p>\n Ah, Orange and Williams. The former appears to be a virtual recluse, variously seen in London and the Cotswolds but not in the group since 2014. \u201cHe didn\u2019t want to do it any more,\u201d Owen believes. \u201cBut I\u2019m not going to speak for him.\u201d As for Williams \u2014 well, how can you sum up that powerhouse? Since leaving Take That in 1995 to pursue a world-conquering solo career, he rejoined the band in 2010 and released the superb song The Flood. He then fled again a year later to continue on his very singular path and last year released a biopic called Better Man, which imagined Williams as a chimp. <\/p>\n What animals would these three be? \u201cIn the Nineties I would have been a lemming,\u201d Donald says. \u201cBut not now, though!\u201d<\/p>\n Is there still any relationship with either of their old bandmates? \u201cI mean, on occasion with both of them,\u201d Owen says vaguely. \u201cIt\u2019s come and go. We think about them a lot, but it\u2019s not like we call them every week. We don\u2019t see them much. We love Rob and Jay but we\u2019ve been like this as a band for the longest period of all now \u2014 it feels right for us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor the first time in my life I asked Robbie for two tickets for a gig of his in Berlin for my friends,\u201d Donald chips in, beaming like a fan. \u201cAnd he got them tickets and did a meet and greet! Which was amazing of him, so, so nice.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Take That\u2019s Gary Barlow: there\u2019s no enigma \u2014 I owe my hits to Elgar<\/a><\/p>\n As for Barlow \u2014 well, Williams has been a tricky subject for him. They vied for solo success in the late Nineties and the one who sang Angels came out on top, but their relationship has improved significantly. Barlow has co-written a jokey song on a new album by Williams, out soon, about stalking Morrissey. \u201cMorrissey\u2019s going to love this,\u201d Barlow says. \u201cWe did it years ago, in lockdown. I\u2019m glad he\u2019s using it, it\u2019s funny. And look,\u201d he adds, \u201con Rob \u2014 we all know him well enough to say we love the fact he\u2019s out there doing stuff and we\u2019re out there doing stuff. It is good for everyone, it really is. Sometimes I hear from him ten times a month, sometimes I don\u2019t hear from him for six months.\u201d <\/p>\n I ask again about Martin-Smith, the manager Williams spent the best part of 30 years railing against in song, film and interview. A divisive figure, Martin-Smith helped the band sell 45 million albums, largely in the pre-streaming era of CDs, making multimillionaires of all his charges. Barlow is worth an estimated \u00a3100 million, Williams perhaps twice that. Williams, though, has fought court cases against his former manager over earnings and spoken often about their bitter disagreements. <\/p>\n Why, I ask, is Williams so angry with him, compared with Barlow? \u201cWell, everybody had different experiences of the Nineties,\u201d Barlow says. \u201cAnd Nigel isn\u2019t someone I see all the time, but he was the guy who took me out of the working men\u2019s clubs and got us on Top of the Pops. I can\u2019t forget that. I have to have thanks for it. You just need a few people to believe in you and he was that person \u2014 I\u2019ll never forget it.\u201d <\/p>\n Riding high on the Circus Live tour at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, 2009<\/p>\n GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n Take That split up in 1996 \u2014 at a press conference to staggered journalists a year after Williams absconded. \u201cFrom today Take That is no more,\u201d Barlow said and the mood was sombre and odd, with the four men \u2014 Orange was still around \u2014 insisting the break-up was a \u201ccareer move\u201d when, clearly, it was only Barlow, as songwriter, who had any chance of immediate success. There were helplines for distressed fans. \u201cI was the first to call it,\u201d Donald says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a long time ago,\u201d Owen says with a sigh when I ask who was the most reluctant to call it a day on a band still very much having No singles. \u201cI think it was the most obvious choice for Gary,\u201d Donald says bluntly. Barlow gasps. \u201cHe was the writer, the main attraction and the talent,\u201d Donald adds, \u201cso it was more obvious he was going to have a solo career. We all had different experiences with the split and I found it difficult. I wasn\u2019t ready.\u201d<\/p>\n A journalist at that conference asked them for their advice for the upcoming boy bands Boyzone and Upside Down. The three men in front of me look blank when I mention Upside Down. \u201cI can\u2019t even remember them,\u201d Barlow says guiltily. None of them can. Yet they were clearly a name at that time, placed in the same bracket as Boyzone. <\/p>\n Why do some, such as Boyzone and Take That, make it while others have no such luck? \u201cWe were very fortunate to have Gary as a writer,\u201d Owen says tenderly of a man with more hits than Tyson Fury. \u201cWith Gary writing the songs, we had our own energy. We would perform at Whitley Bay Ice Rink, thinking we were walking around Wembley Stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, I can take that a stage further,\u201d Barlow adds with a glimmer. \u201cI\u2019m an ambitious motherf***er. Always have been. I have tamed it in recent years, but I was up there with some of the best, and also we worked so hard. Anybody you met in the Nineties would say we were the hardest-working band around \u2014 hands down. Back then we were just told to do everything. The weird thing is? We did it. We did it all! Nobody had ever seen anyone work like us.\u201d <\/p>\n The band reunite with Williams during his stint as a judge on The X Factor at Wembley Arena, December 2018<\/p>\n REX FEATURES<\/p>\n After a nine-year blip of solo efforts packed with occasional highs \u2014 Barlow tried to be George Michael; Owen went indie; Donald largely DJ\u2019d \u2014 but mostly lows, Take That re-formed in 2005 without Williams. The five had barely spoken in the interim period before ITV offered to make a documentary, Take That: For the Record, about the band and, soon afterwards, an offer of a new tour arrived. Donald said they worried nobody would show up but that was 20 years ago, an anniversary that means the second coming has long outlived the first. <\/p>\n They have largely remained the good guys in the eyes of the public, save for the incident in 2012 when Barlow, Owen and Donald were accused of tax avoidance after investing in a music scheme that could have served as a tax shelter. They apologised and repaid \u00a320 million to HMRC. When I asked Barlow about this a few years back he said, \u201cYou\u2019ve just got to own your mistakes,\u201d which very much felt like the end of that conversation and is still a subject about which they have nothing to add.<\/p>\n SANE SEVEN FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE. GROOMING: LIZ TAW. STYLING: LUKE DAY ASSISTED BY ZAC SUNMAN AND OLLY COOK. MARK WEARS SHIRT BY EDWARD SEXTON TROUSERS AND TIE BY DOLCE & GABBANA, SHOES BY GRENSON. HOWARD WEARS BLAZER BY MR P, ROLLNECK BY JOHN SMEDLEY, TROUSERS BY DOLCE & GABBANA, SHOES BY AMI GARY WEARS BLAZER BY EDWARD SEXTON, SHIRT BY ETON, TROUSERS BY DOLCE & GABBANA, SHOES BY BOSS, BOW TIE BY TURNBULL & ASSER<\/p>\n Was a reunion always on the cards? \u201cNo, definitely not,\u201d Barlow says. By 1999 \u201cI just couldn\u2019t see a way back. I couldn\u2019t see a world where it would happen because Robbie had gone not just big \u2014 he\u2019d gone so big we were just left there. Who would want to come and see us? Who would care?\u201d <\/p>\n It was a torrid time for Barlow \u2014 his songs were expected to make him the breakout star but, for example, Williams\u2019s Let Me Entertain You simply packed more punch than his own Forever Love. He took it badly, suffering from bulimia in an attempt to \u201ckill off the pop star\u201d he thought he no longer was. 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