When the call came to join Take That, Gary Barlow was washing his Ford Orion car on his parents’ driveway.
He probably didn’t know he was about to have the Greatest Day, but that conversation with music producer Nigel Martin-Smith would set Gary and four other unknowns on the path to fame and fortune.
Martin-Smith called Gary, then 19, after hearing one of his demo tapes and explained he was putting together a new group of “clean-cut young men” who would be Britain’s answer to America’s New Kids on the Block.
And he certainly picked a winner in talented songwriter Gary who, along with Robbie Williams, Mark Owen, Howard Donald and Jason Orange, formed boyband Take That and ended up selling more records than any other English group since The Beatles.
Their debut album, Take That & Party – which was released 30 years ago – shot straight into the Top 10.
The boys would go on to sell more than 45 million records worldwide, sell out stadium tours, have 12 No1s and 28 top 40 singles. Between them, they have amassed a fortune too.
But before their initial record success in 1992 – the year in which football’s Premier League was formed and Bill Clinton was elected as President of the United States of America – the lads had been doing ordinary jobs.
Gary had been performing in working men’s clubs, while Jason, 20 – who had been breakdancing from the age of 13 – was working as a painter and decorator.
Mark, 18, was working in a bank while Howard, 22, had been painting cars. He took half a day off work to audition for the band after seeing a newspaper advert for singers and dancers.
Robbie, the youngest band member, aged just 16, found his way into the group after his mum heard a shout-out on the radio and sent off his CV.
Both Robbie and Mark brought their mums to the audition. And the first time the future bandmates met in 1990, Martin-Smith warned them that, if they were a success, they would all “probably hate each other” in five years’ time but would “all be very wealthy”.
While Take That’s first few singles flopped, they struck gold with It Only Takes a Minute in 1992 – a cover of the 1970s Tavares hit. Although Gary said at the time that he “felt defeated” having to release a cover song, it opened the door to world domination for the band.
Suddenly, everybody wanted a piece of them – especially their female fans.
In a 2005 documentary, Gary said: “There’d be queues of girls wanting to get to where we were.”
Jason said the boys were all encouraged to have fun, and Mark added: “I think we all had our fair share of fun, sex and frolics.”
Over the years, the boys’ turbulent love lives were often headline news, but at the height of the band’s fame, in the mid-1990s, Robbie started partying hard and taking drugs.
Things soon spiralled out of control though, and the night before Take That were due to perform at the MTV Europe Music Awards in November 1994, he nearly overdosed.
Robbie, who quit the band the following year, would go on to have a well-documented battle with depression, self-esteem issues and substance abuse.
He checked into rehab in America – the country where he still resides – and went on to have a successful solo career.
But his decision to leave the band had such an impact, The Samaritans set up a special telephone helpline to offer distraught fans counselling.
The rest of the band parted ways in 1996 and all but Jason released music of their own. But after a 2005 TV documentary about their split attracted six million viewers, they decided to reunite for The Ultimate Tour the following year.
Gary, Mark, Jason and Howard also agreed to share lead vocals and songwriting duties – and would go on to have significant success as a four-piece.
Their comeback single, Patience, hit No1 as did the album, Beautiful World – the 35th best-selling album in UK music history.
With their original fanbase on their side and a whole host of new young followers, the boys could do no wrong.
Their 2008 album, The Circus, broke all pre-order records before becoming the fastest-selling album of the year. It was followed by the critically acclaimed Circus tour in June 2009, which was a big success.
In 2010, Robbie rejoined his old bandmates on stage and their 2011 tour, called Progress Live, caused all the major ticket suppliers across the UK to crash before selling a record-breaking 1.1 million tickets in 24 hours.
Robbie did later quit the band again – but has since remained close friends with all the boys.
His departure, and that of Jason in 2014, did not signal the end for Take That, though.
The band continued as a trio and released album III in 2015.
Their eighth studio album Wonderland followed in March 2017 and the following year, Odyssey, their greatest hits, hit the shelves, ahead of a European tour celebrating the band’s 30th anniversary.
Take That fans are also excited about the prospect of a potential comeback – with Robbie.
In 2020, Robbie said: “I’ve got 12 or 13 projects left. Will one of those be Take That? I don’t know... but I will hazard a guess and say ‘yes’.
“I’ve got so many ideas I want to do and so many things I want to fulfil that I know what I am doing for the next five years, and it doesn’t involve Take That.
“[But] yes, I do want to do another gig with Take That.”
We’ll have to watch this space…
