GARY BARLOW

Gary was born on January 20th 1971 in Frodsham, Cheshire the second son to Marge and Colin Barlow. Gary developed an early interest in music, so much so that he taught himself how to play the piano at 10 years of age. He spent his teenage years gigging around the north of England, and educating himself about all kinds of pianos, keyboards and music production. Gary began writing songs at age 15. When he was 19, he was approached by manager Nigel Martin-Smith to front a new boy band - Take That - as lead singer. Between the period of 1990-1996, Take That had 8 UK number 1s and many top 10 singles, the vast majority of which were written by Gary himself, including the worldwide smash hit "Back For Good", which reached no.1 in 31 countries and peaked at no.7 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart. In 1996, Take That hung up their dancing shoes. After embarking on a short-term successful solo career, Gary receeded from the limelight and turned his talents to songwriting and producing. He wrote songs for Delta Goodrem, Donny Osmand, Atomic Kitten and Charlotte Church. Gary further cemented his reputation as a songwriter through collaborations with the likes of Christina Aguilera and Elton John. In 2005 Take That reformed. They went on to have continued success, breaking records with their album tour ticket sales. Tickets for the Take That Present: The Circus Live tour sold over 1 million tickets in just 5 hours. In 2011, the Take That Progress tour consisted of an unprecedented 8 nights at Wembley Stadium and the album of the same name is the second fastest-selling album of all-time in UK chart history. Gary has won many awards, including 5 Ivor Novellos. In 2011 Gary joined the 'X Factor' panel of judges in the UK version. Gary has organised and taken part in many large projects for charity, including gathering a team of celebrities to climb Mt. Killimanjaro in 2009 for Comic Relief and organising charity concerts for Children in Need in 2009 and 2011, called "Children in Need Rocks the Royal Albert Hall" and "Children in Need Rocks Manchester", raising millions of pounds for these worthy charities.