Gary Barlow is best known as a member of the hugely popular British pop band Take That. He is now also a judge of the UK talent show The X Factor. He has also experienced success as a solo artist and has won five Ivor Novello awards for his songwriting.

Gary Barlow: Childhood

After being inspired by a performance of Depeche Mode's 'Just Can't Get Enough' on Top of the Pops when he was 10 years old, Gary Barlow was given a keyboard for Christmas. He spent the next few years learning to play some of his favourite songs.

After winning a songwriting contest on the TV show Pebble Mill at One, Gary Barlow began to perform on the club circuit in the north, singing his own compositions as well as cover versions.

The casting agent Nigel Martin-Smith selected Gary Barlow to be the lead singer in a boy band he was putting together, after hearing Barlow's material, including an early demo version of 'A Million Love Songs', which later became a hit for Take That.

Gary Barlow: Music Career

Gary Barlow joined Howard Donald, Robbie Williams, Jason Orange and Mark Owen to form the boy band Take That. After signing to RCA Records, the band had a number of Top 40 hits (such as 'Only Takes a Minute' and 'Could It Be Magic') and finally struck gold and earned their first number one with the Barlow-penned 'Pray'.

Take That's debut album was released in 1992, entitled Take That & Party. The album reached number two in the UK charts. In 1993, the band released the follow-up, Everything Changes. The second album was largely based on Barlow's own material. Everything Changes went straight to number one in the UK and launched a number of hit singles.

In 1994, Gary Barlow received his first Ivor Novello award, winning the Best Contemporary Song for 'Pray'. That same year, Gary Barlow sang backing vocals on Elton John's cover of 'Can You Feel The Love Tonight' for the film Lion King.

The third album from the band was Nobody Else, which became their final studio album of the 1990s. Nobody Else featured the single 'Back For Good', which was penned by Gary Barlow and has become one of the band's best-known songs. The band then released a Greatest Hits collection, which also reached number one. 'How Deep Is Your Love' was contained on the album and was the first single that the band released without Robbie Williams in the band. It was also to become the band's final single, before they reformed in in 2005.

Gary Barlow's solo career was launched in 1996, with 'Forever Love' and 'Love Won't Wait', both of which were number one singles in the UK. His debut solo album, Open Road was also a chart-topper.

The follow-up album, Twelve Months, Eleven Days was then released in 1999 but its sales performance was disappointing in comparison to its predecessor.

In 2010, Gary Barlow and Robbie Williams released a duet, entitled 'Shame'. The track received a huge amount of radio airplay and debuted at number two in the UK chart.

To celebrate his 40th birthday, Gary Barlow held a concert at Shepherd's Bush Empire, where he was joined by artists such as Ellie Goulding, Chris Martin and Midge Ure. A number of celebrities sent birthday messages, including Peter Kay, Elton John and Chris Moyles.

After the release of the documentary Take That: For the Record in 2005, the band decided to reform, minus Robbie Williams. Their comeback single, 'Patience' was a number one hit for four weeks and was voted The Record of the Year in 2006. The band's tenth number one hit came with the follow-up single, 'Shine' The band's first album since reforming, Beautiful World was released in November 2006 and also went to number one in the UK.

The next album from the band was The Circus, which became the most pre-ordered album of all time and sold over 2.2 million copies in the UK. Barlow then set about writing the follow up, Progress - the first Take That album to feature Robbie Williams since 1995. An estimated 1.75 million people attended their supporting arena shows.

Gary Barlow has also written songs for a number of high profile artists such as Shirley Bassey, Will Young, Westlife and Charlotte Church. Barlow also has his own record label, Future Records, home to Aggros Santos, Camilla Kerslake and Emma's Imagination.

In 2011, Gary Barlow replaced Simon Cowell as head judge on The X Factor TV series. The other judges on the show were Louis Walsh, Tulisa Contostavlos (of N-Dubz) and Kelly Rowland (of Destiny's Child).

Gary Barlow: Personal Life

Gary Barlow and his wife Dawn have three children, Daniel (b.2000), Emily (b.2002) and Daisy (b.2009).

Solo career

1996–1998: Open Road

Barlow's solo career was predicted to be very successful, being described as 'the next George Michael'. 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. "Forever Love" was also used as the soundtrack to the film The Leading Man. His debut album Open Road reached number 1 in the UK Albums Chart and went on to sell 2 million copies worldwide. Barlow's first single to be released in the United States as a solo artist was "So Help Me Girl", which reached number 44 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and number 1 on the US Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. He then achieved another top ten hit in the UK with "Open Road" peaking at number 7 and number 8 in the Netherlands with "Are You Ready Now".

1999–2000: Twelve Months, Eleven Days

After the success of his first solo album he released his second LP Twelve Months, Eleven Days in 1999. Barlow released "Stronger" as the lead single preceding the album. However, due to an expected backlash against Barlow, it received minimal support and airplay and only peaked at number 16. The second single "For All That You Want" again was subjected to minimal radio play and peaked at number 24, however it peaked just outside the top 5 in Finland. Twelve Months, Eleven Days was released soon after the first single to little promotion and peaked at a disappointing number 35, which led to Sony recalling Barlow's 'greatest' song according to critics, the scheduled third single from his second album "Lie to Me".This resulted in both Barlow and BMG parting company. To date Barlow has sold 5 million records worldwide as a solo artist.

2010–2013: Shame and return to solo projects

Barlow's first solo release since 1999 was a duet with reconciled Take That bandmate Robbie Williams on a single entitled "Shame". The single was written by both Barlow and Williams after they begun to work together in Los Angeles on new material for a new Take That album following Williams' return to the band. 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.

Barlow's 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. 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.

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. 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.

In December 2011, Gary Barlow performed a duet with Michael Bublé singing "Rule the World" and Bublé's single, "Home". The performance gained great reception from fans, where it began trending worldwide on Twitter. Soon after it was broadcast, a petition was set up for the collaboration to be made available for digital download to challenge for the Christmas Number 1 spot.

In April 2012, Barlow recorded a cover of "Here Comes the Sun" that was used in the 2012 summer promotion advertisement for Marks and Spencer with him appearing in the advert at the end performing the song.

Barlow was featured in a duet with Agnetha Fältskog on her comeback album A, released in May 2013. Barlow co-wrote the song, "I Should’ve Followed You Home" with album producer Jörgen Elofsson. Early press reports tagged the song as a likely single with strong chart potential leading to Universal Music scheduling it to be released as the third single from the album in November 2013. The single become a top 5 hit in Sweden on the week of its release as well as charting in the UK.

 It was announced in January 2012 that Barlow and Andrew Lloyd Webber would be working together to write the official Diamond Jubilee single. 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. The song entitled "Sing" was released as the lead single from the album of the same name, Sing. It debuted in the UK Singles Chart at number 11 with the album released on the same day entering the UK Album Chart at number 1, becoming Barlow's second solo number 1 album and his first in 15 years. After the airing of Gary Barlow's documentary Gary Barlow: On Her Majesty's Service which told the story of howSing was written; the single climbed up to number one in the iTunes chart. The following week Sing rose to number 1 in the UK Singles Chart selling 142,000 copies and becoming the highest selling single of 2012. The album of the same name remained at number 1, making Barlow the first artist in 2012 to have the number 1 album and number 1 single in the same week.

 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!"

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. 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.

2013–present: Since I Saw You Last

On September 2013, Barlow announced via his Twitter account that he would be releasing his first full length solo album in 14 years, on 25 November 2013. Barlow encouraged his followers and fans to tweet #GBSOLO to reveal the album artwork and title, with their profile pictures being used to create a collage of the album cover. 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. He also announced that he would be touring the album in April 2014, playing some of the biggest arenas in the UK.

 Let Me Go entered the UK Singles Chart at No. 3 with 72,423 copies sold in its first week on sale, giving Barlow his 21st top 3 UK single. The following week it rose to No. 2 selling a further 60,422 copies. One month after release, Let Me Go was certified Silver by the BPI for selling over 200,000 copies in the UK. The week after the release of Let Me Go, the album debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart, behind One Direction's third album Midnight Memories. The album sold 116,000 copies, becoming the fastest selling album of 2013 to miss out on the top spot, whilst also selling more copies in his first week than his Take That bandmate Robbie Williams, whose album Swings Both Ways sold 109,000 copies the previous week to claim the top spot. The album was certified Platinum by the BPI less than a month after being released, becoming Barlow's second solo album to reach Platinum certification. The album went 2x Platinum a month later, spending 8 weeks in the top 5 of the UK Album Charts, becoming Barlow's most successful solo album in the UK to date.