When Gary was fifteen he began to write his own music in the form of ballads. He entered a competition for the BBC Pebble Mill competition called ‘A Song For Christmas’, finishing runner up in the competition, but it allowed him to become friends with a man called Bob Howes who later introduced him to Rod Argent who Gary wrote to for advice about his songs. As part of the prize for being a runner up in the competition Gary was invited to 10cc's Strawberry Studios, a recording studios in Manchester. Here he met Mark Owen and the rest is history.

Gary did go on to have his own, albeit short, solo career after Take That split, topping the album charts with 'Open Road' and the single charts with 'Forever Love' and 'Love Won't Wait'. The singles 'So Help Me Girl' (No.11), and 'Open Road' (No.7) also scored him Top 20 success in 1997. By 1999 though, unlike Robbie Williams, Gary Barlow was an unwanted man by the cruel London-based media - and his excellent 'Twelve Months, Eleven Days' album received very little attention, and subsequently only just broke into the Top 40 (UK No.35). The singles, 'Stronger' (No.16) and 'For All That You Want' (No.24) also flopped. His management didn't help matters though - bullying many unofficial web fansites into closure. Not only had he lost many fans, he'd also managed to upset the one's he did have left. Gary seemed to give up bitterly - not that the Robbie-loving media were interested.

Gary also has a ‘Gary Junior’ called Daniel who was born on the 16th August 2000 and a little girl named Emily who was born in 2002. He is currently enjoying spending time with his family and writing and producing for other artists including Donny Osmond and Gloria Estefan, as well as putting together a new boy band to produce. He has no plans to release any albums of his own unfortunately.

For most of his life, Mark grew up living in a cosy council house, similar to those featured in Coronation Street. He attended St. Augustine’s High School, but spent most of his time playing football and impersonating Elvis. However, despite this he still managed to gain 6 GCSE’s. He left school at 16 and had trials with another very famous Manchester established group, Manchester United. Unfortunately he sustained an injury and was unable to continue. For some unknown reason, he actually supports Liverpool FC (normally blaspheme in Manchester!).

Mark met Gary Barlow whilst he was working at 10cc's Strawberry studios, where they formed The Cutest Rush, which later turned into Take That.

After the split of Take That Mark released the album, ‘Green Man’ in 1996. Whilst it only reached Number 33 in the UK charts, it did spawn three singles, including the top 3 hits, 'Clementine' and Child'.

In 2002, Mark regained the public's attention and admiration by successfully winning Celebrity Big Brother. He currently lives in the Lake District and is working on a new album you may be pleased to hear.

Robbie joined Take That when he was just 16 all thanks to his mum. She saw the adverts for the audition and decided that he should apply, driving him up to Manchester. As soon as he entered the studios he was picked and Take That was complete.

Robbie found the rules of the band hard and sought to taking drugs and drowning his sorrows in alcohol. He left Take That on the 17th July 1995 and six months later the band decided to split. On June 27th 1996 he announced that his contract was ending with BMI and he was signing to a new record label ‘Chrysalis Records’.

Robbie released his first solo single on 29th July 1996 called ‘Freedom’. The track reached number 2 in the charts and he was all set for a solo career. After a full year of partying Robbie decided that he was going to make a go off his career and released another single on the 14th April 1997 called ‘Old Before I Die’ which also got to number 2. His next singles also charted highly, 'Lazy Days' reached Number 8 in July 1997, whilst 'South Of The Border' hit Number 14 heralding the album 'Life Thru A Lens' which went into the charts at Number 11.

Robbie’s career really took off though with the release of the single ‘Angels’, which reached Number 4 in December 1997 encouraging sales of ‘Life Thru A lens’ to push it back up the charts to Number 1. By now Robbie was hot property and his sex life, drug and alcohol problems, and constant swipes at Gary Barlow and Nigel Martin-Smith made him daily front page news.

His next four albums have all topped the charts, 'I've Been Expecting You' (1998), 'Sing When You're Winning' (2000), the jazz swing cover album 'Swing When You're Winning' (2001), and 'Escapology' (2002) all spawning many hit singles, including five number 1's.

Moving back to Manchester from London (check out the brilliant track 'Knutsford City Limits', Robbie's since relocated to Los Angeles in 2002 after signing a groundbreaking deal for £80 million with EMI proving he's come a long way since his Take That days!