Take That are an English pop group formed in Manchester in The original line-up also featured Jason Orange and Robbie Williams. The group have had 28 top singles, 20 top and 17 top-5 singles on the UK Singles Chart , [ 6 ] 12 of which have reached number one. They have also had nine number-one albums on the UK Albums Chart. Williams left the band in , while the four remaining members completed their world tour and released a final single before splitting up in After filming a Take That: For the Record about the group and releasing a new greatest hits album , a four-piece Take That without Williams officially announced a reunion tour around the UK, entitled The Ultimate Tour.
On 9 May , it was announced that the group were set to record new material together once again. Their fourth studio album, Beautiful World , was released in and was followed up with The Circus , in The group achieved new success as a four-piece, scoring a string of chart hits across the UK and Europe while selling over 45 million records worldwide. Released on 15 November of that year, it was the first album of new material to feature Take That's original line-up since their album, Nobody Else.
It became the fastest-selling album of the 21st century [ 18 ] and the second-fastest-selling album in British history. In , the band recorded a seventh studio album, this time as a trio without Williams and Orange. The album, titled III , was released in November and became the band's seventh number one. It was preceded by the single " These Days ", which became the band's 12th number one single in the UK.
In the same year, the Official Charts Company revealed the biggest-selling singles artists in British music chart history with Take That placed 15th overall, making them the most successful boy band in UK chart history. Martin-Smith's vision, however, was to create a teen-oriented group that could appeal to multiple demographic segments within the music industry. Martin-Smith was then introduced to young singer-songwriter Gary Barlow , who had been performing in clubs since the age of Impressed with Barlow's catalogue of self-written material, Martin-Smith decided to build his new-look boy band around Barlow's musical abilities.
A campaign to audition young men with abilities in dancing and singing followed and took place in Manchester and other surrounding cities in At 22, Howard Donald was one of the oldest to audition, but was chosen after he got time off work as a vehicle painter to continue the process.
