In the early 90s when Manchester was producing some of music’s most-talked-about groups, such as The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses, a manager named Nigel Martin-Smith had decided that the pop charts needed a severe injection of fun. Martin-Smith auditioned prospective stars and assembled a line up of five working-class boys from the North West of England. Gary Barlow (19), Howard Donald (21), Jason Orange (19), Mark Owen (16) and Robbie Williams (16) completed what was to become the now legendary Take That.

With no stage school experience and little experience of performing, Take That began their musical careers without massive impact. However, in 1993 with a cover of ‘It Only Takes a Minute’, Take That arrived on the UK pop scene. Reaching #7 in the charts, and gaining much of their teenage girl fan-base in the process, the boys needed a big hit to continue the success. The follow-up single was the Barlow-penned ‘A Million Love Songs’, a great song and proof that boybands can write their own material.

The hits continued with ‘I Found Heaven’ and another cover, this time Barry Manilow’s ‘Could it be Magic?’ was given the Take Take treatment and was their biggest hit to date, reaching #3 in the UK charts.

Take That released the album ‘Everything Changes’ in 1993 to massive success, producing four #1 singles - ‘Pray’, ‘Relight My Fire’, ‘Babe’ (with Mark Owen on lead vocals) and the title track “Everything Changes”. Despite the domestic success of the album, Take That failed to break the elusive US market.

Following another #1 with ‘Back for Good’ from the album ‘Nobody Else’ Take That began to experience personality clashes. The much-publicised fall out between Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow reared its head when Williams attempted to break from the clean-cut image of the group. 1995 was to be the year that Take That fans had dreaded, when Robbie Williams’ departure from the group acted as a catalyst for the break-up that was to follow early in 1996. The break up proved so traumatic for some that a helpline was set up to comfort the millions of distraught fans. Take That ended their spell as UK’s number one boyband with another #1 smash hit, the anthem-like ‘Never Forget’.

Robbie Williams, Gary Barlow and Mark Owen attempted solo music careers with varied levels of success. While Howard Donald became a respectable DJ and Jason Orange took his talents to acting, on the small-screen and a brief stint on the stage. However the Take That story would never lie and so in 2005, when ITV produced a documentary on the band, all five members agreed to take part. Then on 25th November 2005, the news we all wanted to hear happened as they announced an official tour for 2006 - minus LA-based Robbie Williams.

The tour proved an instant success, selling out in just over an hour. Take That were back for a final swan-song or so we thought. On 26th November 2006, ‘Patience’ became Take That’s ninth UK #1, the album ‘Beautiful World’ swiftly followed. The boys followed this success with another #1, ‘Shine’ with Mark Owen claiming lead vocals.

Take That can also claim the title of first band ever to top the five main official UK single at the same time for the week ending December 17th 2006. With this continued success and the rumoured Take That Musical as well as another sell-out tour in 2007 in the pipeline, Take That are certainly ‘Back for Good’.

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