50 facts about talented Gary Barlow

50 things you didn't know about frontman and lead vocalist of British pop-group Take That, Gary Barlow.

1. Gary Barlow OBE is an English singer, songwriter, pianist, composer and record producer.

2. Gary Barlow is frontman and lead vocalist of British pop-group Take That and served as head judge on series 8, 9 and 10 of The X Factor UK.

3. Gary Barlow is one of Britain's most successful songwriters, having written fourteen Number 1 singles and twenty four top 10 hits.

4. Gary Barlow has had three Number 1 singles, six top 10 singles and two Number 1 albums as a solo artist, and has had seventeen top 5 hits, twelve Number 1 singles and seven Number 1 albums with Take That.

5. Gary Barlow is also a six-time recipient of the Ivor Novello Award and has sold over 50 million records worldwide.

6. Gary Barlow was appointed an OBE in 2012 for services to music and charity

7. Gary Barlow cites watching a performance of "Just Can't Get Enough" by Depeche Mode on Top of the Pops when he was ten years old as a main influence of his love of music, describing it as 'mesmerising'. Gary Barlow subsequently asked for a keyboard for Christmas. Gary Barlow spent most of his spare time teaching himself to play his favorite songs. Gary Barlow has credited Elton John with inspiring him to play the piano.

8. In 1986, when Barlow was fifteen years old, he entered a BBC Pebble Mill at One Christmas song competition with "Let's Pray for Christmas". After reaching the semi-finals, he was invited to London's West Heath Studios to record his song. This inspired Barlow to perform on the northern club circuit, singing cover versions and his own songs. Barlow's first performance was at the Connah's Quay Labour Club in the late '80s and he was paid £18 per performance on Saturday evenings. In 1989, he appointed Wigan show business agent Barry Woolley to be his manager and recorded a single ("Love Is in the Air") which was never released commercially.

9. Gary Barlow was eventually put in touch with casting agent Nigel Martin-Smith, by renowned celebrity photographer Michael Braham, who took Barlow's first professional head-shots.

10. Nigel is a friend of Michael's, and introduced Barlow to Nigel who was interested in starting a boyband. Martin-Smith decided to use Barlow as the lead-singer after being impressed by his self written material including an early demo tape of Barlow's "A Million Love Songs" concluding that the band would be built around Barlow's vocals and songwriting skills.

11. Gary Barlow, who wrote the majority of the group's songs, is widely recognised as the musical talent behind Take That.

12. After selecting Barlow as the group's lead-singer, Nigel Martin-Smith introduced Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and finally Robbie Williams to the fold.

13. The group were signed to RCA Records, and after a number of top 40 hits, eventually secured their first number one with Barlow's "Pray". Previous hits included "A Million Love Songs", "It Only Takes a Minute" and "Could It Be Magic".

14. The debut album Take That & Party was released on 17 August 1992 and reached number two on the UK Album Chart. The following year saw the release of their second album, Everything Changes based on Barlow's own material. It went straight in at number one on the UK Albums Chart and spawned four number 1 singles, as well as "Why Can't I Wake Up with You" and "Love Ain't Here Anymore" hitting number two and three respectively.

15. Gary Barlow received an Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song in 1994 for the number 1 hit song "Pray" included on the album. In 1994, alongside Rick Astley, Barlow did backing vocals for Elton John's version of Can You Feel the Love Tonight from The Lion King.

16. Take That's third album Nobody Else, again based on Barlow's own material, went straight to number 1 and was to be their last studio album of the 90's. The album had three number 1 singles, including Barlow's "Back for Good" which peaked at number 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and was brought forward an unprecedented 6 weeks before its official release such was the demand for the single.

17. A Greatest Hits collection followed again reaching number 1. The album featured the band's eighth number 1 single "How Deep Is Your Love". Gary Barlow returned to the limelight in a successful TV documentary, Take That: For the Record in 2005.

18. Barlow's solo career was predicted to be very successful, being described as 'the next George Michael'.

19. His first two solo singles "Forever Love" (released July 1996) and "Love Won't Wait" (composed by Madonna and Shep Pettibone) both leapt to the number one spot in his home country.

20. "Forever Love" was also used as the soundtrack to the film The Leading Man.

21. His debut album Open Road reached number 1 in the UK Albums Chart and went on to sell 2 million copies worldwide.

22. After the success of his first solo album he released his second LP Twelve Months, Eleven Days in 1999.

23. Barlow's first solo release since 1999 was a duet with reconciled Take That bandmate Robbie Williams on a single entitled "Shame".

24. The single was written by both Barlow and Williams after they began to work together in Los Angeles on new material for a new Take That album following Williams' return to the band.

25. On the first day of the song being released to the radio and the media, "Shame" received an unprecedented 694 plays on the radio and 153 plays on TV. The single peaked at number 2 in the UK, selling 224,000 copies and being certified as Silver by the BPI, while also charting in 21 countries worldwide.

26. Barlow announced in January 2011 that he was to hold a solo concert entitled GB40 at the Shepherd's Bush Empire to celebrate his 40th birthday and his 20 years in the music industry with all money going to the Prince's Trust charity.

27. Gary Barlow was joined by guest appearances from Chris Martin, Ellie Goulding, Midge Ure and his bandmates from Take That, while also receiving recorded birthday messages from a number of celebrities such as Chris Moyles, Peter Kay, Elton John and Robbie Williams.

28. In September 2011, it was announced that Gary Barlow would be headlining BBC Radio 2 Live in Hyde Park. Barlow's performance was praised by critics as he returned to Hyde Park as a solo artist for the first time since 1999.

29. On 24 October 2011 Barlow announced that he was to play his first two full solo concerts in 11 years at the Royal Albert Hall entitled Gary Barlow: In Concert, with all proceeds going to the Prince's Trust charity. These concerts sold out 'minutes' after going on sale and were praised by fans and the media alike with Barlow playing the biggest hits from his 20-year career.

30. In December 2011, Gary Barlow performed a duet with Michael Bublé singing "Rule the World" and Bublé's single, "Home".

31. Gary Barlow was featured in a duet with Agnetha Fältskog (from ABBA) on her 2013 album A, released in May 2013.

32. Gary Barlow co-wrote the song, "I Should've Followed You Home" with album producer Jörgen Elofsson.

33. It was announced in January 2012 that Barlow and Andrew Lloyd Webber would be working together to write the official Diamond Jubilee single.

34. Barlow and Lord Lloyd Webber composed the music to the song; with Barlow then taking this music to musicians and singers around The Commonwealth with the aim to incorporate sounds from around the world onto the single.

35. Gary Barlow announced on 15 October 2012 that he was to embark on his first full solo tour in thirteen years around the UK and Ireland. In a statement, he said, "I'm really excited about these dates. Playing live is my favourite thing and I haven't played a solo show for over a year now. Last year playing two London shows was brilliant, we all had such a good time, so I thought right let's get out and see the rest of the country!"

36. The tickets to Barlow's solo concerts sold out instantly after going on sale on 19 October, with tickets selling faster than those of The Rolling Stones for their comeback dates.

37. Demand was so high for tickets that Barlow added more dates, which also sold out instantly. It was also revealed by ticket marketplace SeatWave, that Gary Barlow's solo shows had sold six times more tickets than Robbie Williams' solo concerts, despite being on sale for a week less.

38. On 4 October 2013, Barlow revealed his new album would be called Since I Saw You Last, and would be preceded by his first single from the LP, titled Let Me Go, released worldwide on 17 November 2013.

39. After leaving his career as a solo artist Barlow returned to his first love of writing music. He soon signed a song writing publishing deal with Sony and went to the US on a six-month songwriting project, residing in Nashville, Los Angeles and New York with his wife, Dawn and first child, Daniel.

40. In 2010 Barlow signed a new 5-year song writing publishing deal with Sony music. He has been voted as the greatest British songwriter of all time in a 2009 OnePoll, who surveyed 3000 people John Lennon and Paul McCartney, of The Beatles, were placed second and third respectively.

41. n 2011, Barlow wrote the song "Run for Your Life" for The X Factor series 7 winner Matt Cardle's debut album.

42. Gary Barlow has also written for the likes of Robbie Williams, Westlife, Lily Allen, Blue, Elton John, Olly Murs Matt Cardle, T-Pain, Will Young N-Dubz, Lawson, Shirley Bassey, Donny Osmond (from The Osmonds, Elaine Page, Agnetha Fältskog (from ABBA), and many more while also being commissioned by the Queen to write the official single for her Diamond Jubilee which saw Barlow collaborate with Andrew Lloyd Webber.

43. To date Barlow has written 14 number 1 singles in the UK, and 2 Billboard Hot 100 top 10 singles in the United States including Back for Good which went to number 1 in 31 countries across the world.

44. At the beginning of May 2010, it was announced that Queen Elizabeth II had asked Barlow to organize her 86th birthday party and her Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012. A source said: "Her Majesty has been made well aware of his charity work and the events he has put together. She knows that Gary has got the power to pull in the big names across the music industry and to ensure it's a party to match the occasion". This was confirmed on February 2012 with Gary Barlow being named as the lead organizer and producer of a concert that took place outside Buckingham Palace and featuring globally recognized superstar artists.

45. On 7 May 2011, it was announced that Barlow was in advanced talks to replace Simon Cowell as a judge on The X Factor. He was officially confirmed as a judge on 30 May, alongside the returning Louis Walsh and fellow new judges Tulisa Contostavlos and Destiny's Child's Kelly Rowland, who collectively replaced Girls Aloud's Cheryl Cole and Dannii Minogue. He became the only judge to have four acts in the finals after Christopher Maloney became the popular wildcard and the thirteenth finalist in the show. Barlow guided Maloney to the final of the show, becoming Barlow's second finalist in two consecutive years.

46. On 25 June 2013, it was announced that Barlow had been signed up to work on a new musical version of Finding Neverland and will co-write the score for the theatre project, which is being developed by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

47. After twenty years within the music industry in which Barlow has achieved phenomenal success across the world; coupled with his efforts to raise money and awareness for various charities he was honoured in the 2012 Queen's Birthday Honours. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II on 16 June 2012, which he was awarded on 21 November for "services to Music and to Charity".

48. In 2000, Barlow made his acting debut in the ITV1 drama Heartbeat.

49. Gary Barlow organised a sponsored climb to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for Comic Relief. Barlow and eight other celebrities: Girls Aloud's Cheryl Cole, Ben Shephard, Alesha Dixon, Girls Aloud's Kimberley Walsh, Fearne Cotton, Chris Moyles, Denise Van Outen and Boyzone's Ronan Keating, made it to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro safely on 7 March 2009, raising millions for Comic Relief.

50. In 2000 Barlow married Dawn Andrews, who was a dancer on their 1995 Nobody Else Tour. They have three children, Daniel, Emily, and Daisy.

Source: Wikipedia.org