Take That

Modeled on New Kids on the Block, the British boy band Take That dominated the UK charts with a string of No. 1 albums and a dozen No. 1 singles from 1993 to 2014. • Take That formed in 1989 after the British music manager Nigel Martin-Smith met singer Gary Barlow. The other members joined by audition: Howard Donald was the oldest, at 22, and Robbie Williams was the youngest, at 16. • The group’s breakthrough came on the 1992 single “It Only Takes a Minute”, a cover of a 1975 song by the American R&B group Tavares. Take That’s version climbed to No. 7 on the British pop singles chart. • Take That’s second full-length, 1993’s Everything Changes, was the first of six consecutive albums to reach the top of the UK charts. • Williams left the band to pursue a highly successful solo career after the 1995 release of their third album, Nobody Else. The rest of Take That split up early the following year. • All of the members except Williams reunited in 2005 for a TV documentary about the group, followed by a tour of Britain and Ireland and a new album, Beautiful World, in 2006. • In 2010, Barlow and Williams, who hadn’t worked together since 1995, released the single “Shame”. Williams would rejoin the group for its sixth album, Progress, released that November. • Though Williams didn’t appear on Take That’s seventh or eighth albums, he has continued to write and occasionally perform with the group, which officially became a trio following the 2014 departure of Jason Orange. • Over the years, they’ve won eight Brit Awards, including Best British Artist in 2011.