Short Biography

Gary Barlow was the second and youngest son of Marge and Colin Barlow. He has an older brother named Ian. His first school was Weaver Vale Primary School, and he moved on to Frodsham High School in 1982. He was the founding member of successful pop group Take That, who split up in 1996. His acting debut came in 2000 when he starred in Heartbeat, shortly after his marriage to Dawn Andrews, and shortly before the birth of son Daniel. Their daughter Emily was born in 2002. He now works as a record producer.


It was an important day in pop history when Gary Barlow and the three other members of Take That made the mutual and risky decision to disband what had become the biggest pop group of the decade. It was not one which was taken lightly, but one which the four members felt was the right one - it was time to move on for all of them. The reasons for the headline making split were made clear - the huge umbrella that was Take That meant that the lads had little time to develop as individuals and with the arrival of newer and younger boy bands on the "pop" scene the four simply felt that, as Gary famously said at the farewell press conference "The time had come."


Having already penned a string of hits while in Take That (Pray, A Million Love Songs, Babe, Everything Changes, Back For Good) it was clear from the start that Gary possessed the pedigree to ensure that his new solo career would be as successful as his last. During their five year reign at the top of the pop world Take That were to sell over 10 million albums worldwide and notched up an incredible eight UK No 1`s, a good proportion of which were Gary`s handiwork. Although respect for his songwriting was growing rapidly, it wasn`t until the 1995 release of "Back For Good" that Gary was to become established as one of the most successful songwriter`s of the decade. The single catapulted the group to an incredible four week stint at the top of the charts, and earned them their first top ten US entry.


Throughout the group`s career Gary`s songwriting became increasingly successful and this was highlighted in 1994 when he was awarded the prestigious Ivor Novello award for "Best Contemporary Song" (for Pray) and the title "Songwriter Of The Year," joining a role call of honor with former title holders such as Elton John, George Michael, Annie Lennox and Eric Clapton. Two years on he was back, winning in two categories for his critically acclaimed ballad "Back For Good" (Best Song Musically and lyrically/The PRS Most Performed Work) and being nominated in a further two (The Best Selling Song/International Hit Of The Year). But even after the honor of being presented with such prestigious awards Gary remains humble. "These awards are voted on by only a few people in the record industry, and at the end of the day it`s what the public think. They`re the most important part of all of this."


Gary`s come a long way in a career that began on Gary`s tenth birthday when his parents bought him a keyboard instead of a BMX. Gary had exhausted its repertoire of noises within weeks and soon progressed to playing a 錺roper` home organ with foot-pedals. By the age of 12 he was playing weekends in the bar at a labor club in North Wales, and at 15 had written his first song. 16 saw him leave school and work as a musician and at 18 he had a life changing meeting with a certain Nigel Martin-Smith who had 刟n idea for a band." The rest as they say, i

Miscellaneous Information

Friends and Family

Ian [Brother]

Marge [Mother]

Colin [Father]

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