Take That considered name change after Robbie’s return
Take That fans have been waiting fifteen years for their all time favourite band to get back together, and although they got their wish earlier this summer, they could well have been chanting a different name as the five guys took to the stage for the first time since the 90s. Talk of a reunion accelerated after it was confirmed in June 2010 that Williams and Barlow would record a single together, and these rumours were confirmed the following month by none other than Williams himself. However he revealed recently that the band considered changing their name and ditching the moniker that fans know and love to reflect their more mature sound.
Talking to Q Magazine, Robbie confirmed that the group eventually binned the idea, but that talk of a change also got them thinking about a change in musical direction. Take That’s forthcoming album ‘Progress’, due out on the 22nd November, is reputed to have ventured into electro-pop territory, and it seems that Williams’ return has been the catalyst for the change in style.
“The initial idea of not being called Take That freed Gary up,” said Williams. The singer’s return also gave Barlow a new lease of life, and provided a creative spur to his song writing. “After those last two records the thought of the four of us just going in and doing another… it solved all that Rob coming back. It’s made it interesting,” he said.
A long-standing feud between the pair has been widely documented since Robbie’s departure fifteen years ago, with jibes, insults and criticisms being exchanged through the media. Now much older and wiser, Barlow and Williams decided to put the past behind them in 2009, which paved the way for the latter’s return to the group.
Although Williams enjoyed considerable solo success in the decade following his Take That exit, it seems that he was never truly happy as a lone artist. Talking about his constant desire to return to the band, Williams said, “I had to wait for the stars to realign. It was like, ‘I’ve done Come Undone and Feel and Angels – and that’s not what I want either’.” Although he launched a comeback in late 2009 with album ‘Reality Killed the Video Star’, it seems that Williams’ mind was already on a Take That reunion. “Unfortunately for EMI, I was disinterested,” he said. “This was more exciting and happier.”
Looking back to Williams’ acrimonious departure in 1995, Jason Orange has suggested that the singer was unjustly treated by some band members. “Maybe I bullied him in some ways, not overtly but covertly. He took exception and rightly so,” Orange disclosed. “It’s easy in a group for one person to become the scapegoat. I think we did that to a large extent with Rob.”
However, past tensions now appear to be water under the bridge, and Take That are now happily back together again – which will be music to ears of the band’s loyal fans.
