ARTICLES - GARY BARLOW Smash Hits, 23rd April 97

"We all decided to split up and what a great move it was. If Take That were still together, how could we compete with the Spice Girls?"

Geri's chest wasn't the only one everyone was gabbling about at the Brit Awards. Swankin' along the podium, with the lovely Louise in tow, came the finest sculptured torso The Hits had seen in many a long year. The music 'biz' nearly dropped their canape's when they realised it belonged to Gary Barlow. Gaz, you see, is back. Long gone are the days when he was the talented-but-slightly-lardy one in the pop combo they all called Take That. Now he's muscled up and mouthing off about Sheryl Crow ("a real woman"), his favourite Spice Girl (Emma), Madonna (apparently the writer of his new single, Love Won't Wait, though no one's admitting it due to a bizarre copyright wrangle) and his girlfriend Dawn ("yes we're still together"). He didn't enjoy the Brits much - "Too much attitude, you'd see the Fugees with their entourage and it'd be just ridiculous." The thing is, Gary's still a pretty down-to-earth bloke. He's got his house near Manchester, complete with a massive swank kitchen 'range' and an eccentric collection of animals including dogs, donkeys and peacocks. And here he is, braving his first Smash Hits interview for many a 'moon'. Gary Barlow, what the heck have you got to say for yourself?


S.H.: It's been ages since Forever Love. What on earth have you been up to?

G.B.: Last April, May and June I recorded my album, and I thought, "right, I'm happy with that." It was almost finished and I went to America to meet the head of the record company. He said he'd got some producers who'd love to work with me. They were people I'd always wanted to work with, so I went for it, and we spent the rest of last year in America writing and re-recording the album. If it doesn't work I can't do anything more than I've done. To be honest, I'm worried - it's been a long time since the band split up, and I'm worried that the fans might have forgotten me.

S.H.: What prompted the dramatic image change?

G.B.: I'm really clueless when it comes to things like image, but I'm the lightest I've ever been, I'm more trained than I've been before - I think I'm looking the best I've ever looked. That makes me feel much more confident as a person. One thing I have learnt is that I can do it on my own. I just want people to see me as me. If I was to suddenly change into a punk artist then that wouldn't be me. That would be rubbish!

S.H.: How did you shift the lard?

G.B.: Instead of going into a restaurant and ordering fish, chips and peas twice, chops with baked beans, gravy, apple crumble and custard, I'd order seafood pasta. One of my vices was always eating. I'd eat six bars of chocolate a day and drink about twenty cups of coffee, all with two spoonfuls of sugar. Now I do about a hundred sit ups a day - that keeps the flabby bits off. I've seen all the stick Robbie's taken in the past year for being overweight and I didn't fancy that. That would upset me.

S.H.: Were you surprised when Mark Owen turned out to be the first ex-Thatter to release an album?

G.B.: For Mark to leave the band and do the album, I think is a huge feat, and I think he's done it really well. During the band, the boys would come on last of all - they'd never take part in the music making, so they'd never had any training to do any of that. Good luck to him. I think it'll take two or three albums before people realise what he's about. When Child came out I thought it'd be number one, and I got a shock when it only got to three. I mean, Mark was 80 per cent of our fanbase. But that kind of music's a very niche market.

S.H.: What are Howard and Jason doing these days?

G.B.: I'm not sure what Jason's doing - I think he's enjoying the time off. I think you'll be hearing from Howard soon, so I'll leave him to tell you what he's doing himself. (He'll apparently have a single, Speak Without Words, out this summer.)

S.H.: How often do you see them?

G.B.: I see Howard all the time - two or three times a week. I see Jason every month or so when I go up to Manchester. I've not seen Mark for a long time - I think he's made a definate move to break away from the Take That thing. And of course nobody's seen Robbie. (laughs)

S.H.: Are you still hurt by the slagging off Robbie gave you?

G.B.: (Immediately) No, I never blamed Robbie, because he's so young and he's been through such a lot. He's got a lot of bitterness - there's a lot of baggage with him. He's going to lash out at somebody and if I'm a real friend to Robbie I'll be there when he needs me. I don't know whether I'm stupid or too nice, but he was my friend for five years no matter what. I don't know what his problem is - I think only he knows that. It seems strange that it's two years, nearly, and he's only got his second single.

S.H.: As soon as Take That split up, you all produced respective girlfriends....

G.B.: (Laughing like mad) Yeah, they'd actually been there about four years but no one had realised!

S.H.: Were the fans annoyed that you'd all fibbed that you were single?

G.B.: Well, no one had fibbed. Howard had his girlfriend for a long time and everybody knew about that. And I started seeing Dawn on the last tour and that came out about two months after we'd started seeing each other. The fans have been good with me, though, I've never had any hate mail or anything.

S.H.: They never blamed you for the break up of the band?

G.B.: No, that was just journalists. We all decided to split up, and what a great move it was. If we were still together how could we compete with a success like the Spice Girls? We knew at that point that something would come along - we knew it wouldn't be another boy band, it'd be an Oasis or whatever - and they'd just totally outshine us. And then you'd have to work double hard to maintain your success. And we weren't up for it at all. That's when we decided to call it a day.

S.H.: Are you happy with the way it's all gone?

G.B.: Well, there's always the worry that it could still go horribly wrong, but I've done my best. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed.