Trying to finalise plans for a 2 month trip to the US, including booking all the flights, a mere 13 days before flying out is a tad stressful as I've discovered. The thought, therefore, of doing a blog just made me want to scream but I'm calm now. All is booked, I have somewhere to stay for my first week (I didn't until 2 days ago!!) and I am now calm...I hope!
In the early 90's in the UK Take That were THE boyband of choice for almost every girl in the country. They had catchy, yet well written, songs and their energetic performances. Add to that the obligatory 'boys that all the girls want' styling and they were the perfect boyband package. Of the boys it was baby-faced Mark Owen and the cheeky 'baby' of the band Robbie Williams that garnered the most attention.
All was going so well - in the period between 1991 & 1996 they sold over 25 million records - until 1995 when, after having several run-ins with band members and management due to his escalating drug problems, Robbie quit. This would be the last time they would all be in contact with Robbie for 12 years. After he left the rest of the members fulfilled already sold-out tour obligations before disbanding in February '96.
Main songwriter for the band Gary Barlow. baby-faced Mark Owen and the black sheep Robbie Williams all went on to have solo careers. While Gary and Mark had moderate success, Robbie's career just went through the roof seeing him perform to massive sell-out audiences and selling over 55 million records worldwide.
Over the years Robbie made his animosity towards Gary Barlow and former manager Nigel Martin-Smith well known through not only interviews but song lyrics too. This helped to keep the walls up between them and let the feud ripple on.
In late 2005 ITV broadcast a documentary about the band where all the members were interviewed. For Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen & Gary Barlow it was the first time they'd all been in a room together in many years. Robbie, however, declined to attend though he did do an interview on video which was played to the rest f his former band mates where he was apologetic about how he'd behaved in the past and saying how he'd swap all of his fame and fortune for the happy family life Gary now had. While not bringing him back into the fold, it did start to thaw the ice.
2006 saw Take That reform as a four piece with a new album and new sell-out tour. The band were as popular as ever, if not moreso. Robbie, meanwhile, saw his album 'Rudebox' flop (by his previous sales standards) and retreated to a rehab clinic in early 2007 for addiction to prescription drugs and, bizarrely, Lucozade while his former bandmates picked up their first Brit award since they'd split over a decade earlier.
It was during 2007 that Gary & Robbie started to communicate again. They've said in recent interviews that they just sat down, talked over all the things that caused the problems between each other and both apologised genuinely for any of the things they'd done in the past to hurt each other. This prompted the moves towards a full reconciliation of the original line-up of Take That (they've a new album out in November this year and a tour for next year, though dates haven't been announced yet) and now Robbie & Gary are closer friends than they ever were before all of the falling out.
However, prior to all the Take That reunion fun, is this single. It's a touching ballad-esque song with Robbie & Gary singing about all their 'lost' years as friends and if the song didn't give it enough emotion for you then the video will. You can just tell they don't need to act the emotions on their faces and that's what makes it so moving.
This song more than deserves to be a huge success, even my Dad said it's the best thing either of them have done in their careers and he thinks quite highly of both of them as it is.
I hope you enjoy it!
Robbie Williams & Gary Barlow - Shame
Well there’s three versions of this story mine, yours and then the truth
And we can put it down to circumstance, our childhood, then our youth
Out of some sentimental gain I wanted you to feel my pain, but it came back return to sender
I read your mind and tried to call, my tears could fill the Albert Hall, is this the sound of sweet surrender?
What a shame we never listened
I told you through the television
And all that went away was the price we paid
People spend a lifetime this way
Oh what a shame.
So I got busy throwing everybody underneath the bus
And with your poster 30 foot at the back of Toys-R-Us
I wrote a letter in my mind, but the words were so unkind, about a man I can’t remember
I don’t recall the reasons why, I must have meant them at the time, is this the sound of sweet surrender?
What a shame we never listened
I told you through the television
And all that went away was the price we paid
People spend a lifetime this way
And that’s how they stay
Oh what a shame.
Words come easy, when they’re true
Words come easy, when they’re true
So I got busy throwing everybody underneath the bus
And with your poster 30 foot at the back of Toys-R-Us
Now we can put it down to circumstance, our childhood then our youth.
What a shame we never listened
I told you through the television
And all that went away was the price we paid
People spend a lifetime this way
And that’s how they stay
Oh what a shame.
People spend a lifetime this way
Oh what a shame
Such a shame, what a shame
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