Pop royalty will be in town this weekend, when Gary Barlow plays Dubai Media City Amphitheatre on Friday October 17.
A six-time recipient of the coveted Ivor Novello award for songwriting, he has written no less than 13 No.1 hit singles.
Widely acknowledged as the driving forced behind Take That, the most successful boy band in British history, he was also awarded an OBE from the Queen in 2012 for services to music and charity.
As if that wasn’t enough, he’s also famed in his home country for dishing out advice to pop hopefuls as head honcho on reality talent show X Factor.
Gary’s going to get an emotional and warm welcome when he performs all the hits – from Babe to Back for Good – as he brings the curtain down on his solo tour right here in the UAE.
He wasn’t always afforded such warmth though.
Gary was adored by millions, along with band mates Mark Owen, Howard Donald, Jason Orange and Robbie Williams as Take That stormed the chart from 1990 to 1996.
But things changed following the boy band’s break-up, Gary’s first solo album ‘Open Road’ topped the charts the following year, but a media backlash was in full swing by the time of his follow up ‘Twelve Months, 11 Days’ in 1999.
Gary is philosophical as he talks to Your Life about the tough treatment he was dealt. “I don’t know, it’s a bit like a lottery. I see it a lot with people like Justin Bieber now. It feels like people must decide – it happens overnight – guess what, you are rubbish and we don’t want you any more. I don’t know why it happens to some people. Back then, the media was really top dog. Recently the media have had to retreat a bit because of the power of people – on Twitter and Facebook. People have more of a voice now. Back then we’d read papers and believe it.”
Unfortunately for Barlow, the British papers were playing games, taking sides.
Cheeky, chirpy former bandmate Robbie – the one who walked out on Take That – was tabloid gold. An evident lust for life, a gleam in the eye and great songs such as Lazy Days and Angels cast the cheeky, chirpy Stoke singer as the boy who made good.
The downside was a witchhunt for Barlow.
He says: “The success of Robbie was a brilliant story. He was at an all-time low and he’d left the group and the all of a sudden he’s this global rock star. But when that happens there are casualties, I was definitely one of them.”
Things got tough.
Robbie admitted afterwards: “Even though I disliked Gaz or the regime we were under, I didn’t want him to hurt. I did want to win, but I didn’t want him to have the fall from grace that he did.”
Gary dropped out of the public eye for over a decade. The pressure was evidently getting to him – in the form of serious weight gain.
Gary’s a refreshingly honest interviewee, and talking about that period he says: “Those were unhappy times. Mine (weight gain) definitely came through being unhappy , I was not in a great place, I was fed up. That’s how it comes out for some people.
“But also, I am one of those people that put on weight just by smelling a plate of chips. I am always at war with my body. I’m not naturally thin and I have to constantly work at that and I definitely slipped into a bad routine – not doing any exercise, eating whatever I wanted. I wanted to make music, that’s all I can do – I am useless in every other department.”
2005 TV documentary ‘Take That: For The Record’ brought Barlow and the boys (minus stay-away Robbie) back into the public eye, and after reforming, 2006 album Beautiful World and 2008’s Circus put everyone’s favourite boys-turned-men back to the top of the singles and album charts.
The circle was complete as Robbie returned to the fold for 2010 album Progress. Few people doubt the importance of Gary’s songwriting skills or his driving force in this story.
Talking on the phone he revealed how the next Take That album is ‘in the bag’, while he’s still riding high on the success of his most recent solo album.
He’s also working hard on a Broadway musical of the Peter Pan story. It’s clear the past doesn’t hold too much fear for Gary, a family man with three children.
“What is beautiful is that we are all back together and everyone happy and content in their lives.
“Even though I can look back on those times and remember the feelings, there’s been a happy ending to it all.”
Give Gary a big cheer on October 17, he deserves it.
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