Now Magazine, 22nd May 1997
Elder brother Ian also has his own place there - courtesy of little brother Gary, of course. "I love it there," he says. "I've been working non-stop lately but, whenever I've got a couple of days off, I go home to Cheshire. I go and see my mates, go down the pub. That's the brilliant thing about living at home. People don't see you as anybody different, so you actually go back to being you at home. And I love just being me."
Open Road, Gary's first solo album since leaving the hugely successful boy band Take That, is released on May 26th. His latest single Love Won't Wait which went straight to Number One in its first week of release, was written by Madonna. But Gary, who wrote six Top 10 UK hits for Take That and won four Ivor Novello Awards for his songwriting talents, isn't going to waste time worrying that other people share the credits this time around. "It's wrong to talk about songwriting ability being everything. Whitney Houston's never written a song in her life," he says. "It's about having a good song and getting on and doing it."
Getting on and doing it is his whole philosophy. It's weird. But the most talented member of the ultimate teen-scream band hates the limelight. More than that, he hates the pop star circus too. Asked if he'd like to be chummy with other celebs, he lets the question hang in the air before saying, "No thanks" with enough emphasis so you can't miss the message. "I don't want to get involved at all with any other artists," he adds. "There are people in the music business who can't stand to be out of it. And they always want to be mixing with the right people and seen at the right parties. I hate all that. I went to the Brits this year and once I'd done, I went home. I hate all that milling around making small talk with people."
Naming no names, of course. But didn't Gary and Robbie Williams have a bit of a falling out, what with Robbie calling Gary "clueless and selfish" and Gary putting Robbie's slur down to a disagreement over money? "You can't direct your career around someone else's," says Gary. "I'm far above that. I have so many ambitions to fulfil in the next two or three years, that there are no other performers I even stop to think about." Just in case Gary does want to know though, the score is currently 2-0 to him, since he's had two No 1 solo hits and Robbie has so far failed to hit the top spot.
Gary may have supreme faith in his own ability, but he's not stupid enough to think America will be a pushover. He knows he has a lot of hard work ahead of him and he's not afraid of the challenge.
Financially, he's more than secure. He earned £7 million from his time in Take That. But though he wouldn't turn down the fabulous wealth that would come from stardom across the Atlantic, he wants success for the sake of his status as an artist. And, perhaps, he wants to settle some scores. After all, as he points out: "I'm the only one in Take That who got a deal in America." Last summer Gary parted company with Nigel Martin-Smith, the man who formed Take That and initially managed Gary's solo career. "I was with Nigel for six years," he says. "But you supersede things every now and again. That's all I've done. I wanted a change and a new team."
His new manager is Simon Fuller, the man behind the Spice Girls. Fuller is credited with masterminding the girls' massive success in America, so did Gary want to buy into that? "I was already thinking of joining Simon in the middle of last year when the Spice Girls hadn't even released their second single, so I din't think: 'Ooh, Spice Girls, must have some of that'," he replies. "Simon's past is Annie Lennox and Cathy Dennis and acts that have had success overseas. He's been instrumental, quick to dismiss suggestions that he criticized the Spice Girls single Wannabe and puts their success down to sheer hard work. "Whether you like it or you hate it, it's a worldwide hit," says Gary, who denies that he ever described it as "crap". "It's a hit record and at the end of the day, that's all it's down to. I've met them a few times and what strikes me is that they're very down-to-earth girls. They know what's going on and as long as you're clued up or you've got someone telling you what's going on, you'll be fine. Anyway, even if it all ended for them tomorrow, well, I'd say they're pretty well off," he adds.
Take That never recreated its British success in America. That band had only one hit there - Back For Good - before splitting up. Gary looks on that now as a blessing in disguise. He doubts whether he'd have had the chance to carve out a successful solo career in America if he'd have been known over there as a teen sensation. The British are prepared to listen, he says, bit not Americans: "How many of the New Kids On The Block have a solo career?"
It's no surprise, then to learn that Gary's wary of being pigeonholed by a carefully crafted image - either as a Mr Clean or as a bad boy like Oasis front man Liam Gallagher. "That entertains me, the though that Oasis just fall about drunk all day," says Gary. "No way. They're stone cold sober on that stage because those songs are hard songs to sing. Liam is a good singer. Noel is such a proficient song writer. It's water in those beer bottles because they're just too good at what they do to be loutish about it." He adds: "People look at bands like the Spice Girls and Boyzone and think all their success is just down to image. There's more to it than that, but you'd have to say Liam's beer bottle is just an image."
Gary almost pities those artists who turn into professional celebrities. "I'm a very boring person. I don't go out and get drunk and stay in nightclubs all night. It's not my scene," he says. "Most people love all that but the clocks ticking all the time. There'll come a day when I'm not going to be part of this. And when I'm finally rejected from this business I don't want to be saying: 'I wish I could be at that party tonight. I wish I could get in'." When asked if some people might take pleasure in excluding him, he says: "I've no idea. Not that I'd be bothered if they did. That's a way of life I've never got into. There's a whole list of them, isn't there? People who turn up for the opening of an envelope."
Gary and girlfriend Dawn, a 27 year old dancer, have been together for nearly two years. They keep a low profile and are never in the tabloids. "We're very private. As a singer it's a hard thing to be watched by everyone, but if you're in the papers, it just looks like a soap opera and, we're not a soap opera."
Gary's low profile was blown when a fan begged Gaby Roslin to fix up a meeting for her TV show, Whatever You Want. Gary laughs with embarrassment at the memory of posing in the back of a huge limo. "I tried everything to get away from that limo," he groans. "I wanted to use my own car, but they said, 'No, no, no. It won't look the same.' Do you know whose limo it was? Bobby Brown's! Just the sort of thing you'd imagine him in. Someone should tell him next time he's here. Maybe I will: "Eh, be ordinary. Keep yourself to yourself. Go and watch a bit of Coronation Street, lad."
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