NEWS
Gary Barlow: 'I feel like in some ways I'm just getting going, just finding a fourth gear'
3 d
This week, on The Lulu Podcast: Turning Points, Lulu is joined by one of the UK’s most successful songwriters and performers, Gary Barlow. Despite having known each other for decades, the pair chatted frankly about Gary’s musical journey for the first time – from his Dad making sacrifices to buy him his first piano to Robbie Williams’ departure from Take That. You can listen to the full episode here.
ON STILL LEARNING:
“I'm a student of life still. I never want to be the teacher. I want to be a student always. I was actually in Nashville a couple of weeks ago and I was working with some people, some I'd worked with before, some I've never met before. I was chatting with a very good songwriter one day and she said to me, what are you doing here?, and I said, I'm here to learn. She couldn't believe what I was saying. I feel like in some ways I'm just getting going, just finding a fourth gear.”
DISCOVERING HIS MUSICAL EAR:
“I was doing everything by ear, which was the bit that always tells me that I'd been given something from somewhere that just lived in me. So, I'm like 10 at this point, me and my Dad went into this music shop and said, right, what's the next step? And this guy must have seen us coming. He went, come this way. He started to play - and of course he's a salesman - the music, we were looking at each other and we couldn't believe it. He was playing the keyboards, but it was augmented by little buttons. It was amazing. As he was playing away, I'd noticed my mum and dad had sort of backed off talking, and my dad decided he was going to sell all his holiday time from work to buy it for me.”
CONCERT HIGHS:
“You come back [off stage] and you're like, well I've only played music and stood on a stage, but you're exhausted. It's just an amazing thing. When I was playing in the clubs I got up there and had nights where I didn't get clapped. Had nights where was told to turn it down. Had a night where someone sat reading a newspaper on the front row. And you've gotta go through all that because then when you walk on at Wembley Stadium and they roar, that's easy… that's the easy bit.”
MEETING TAKE THAT:
“I was sort of ahead of my years because I was working a lot with musicians who were 50, you know, they were much older than me. So I was in the company of a lot of older people all the time. And so when I eventually met the boys, I hadn't been around people my own age for years and I kind of looked like I hadn't as well. I was in all the wrong clothes I was like, who are these young, good-looking people?”
SHARING SKILLS IN TAKE THAT:
“When the lads met me, they were like, oh my God, play us something, and I remember they used to make me play things. It was sweet, really nice, and in the same way, they were helping me because, if you were to be in the company of Jason (Orange), and he started to move, it was kind of breathtaking. And he'd be like, right, come and stand next to me, just put one foot here, and then he'd like be my teacher.”
EARLY REACTION TO TAKE THAT:
“I know Robbie talks about this a lot, and it's very hard to take everyone back to this point, but you've got to remember in the 90s, radio didn't like us and the music industry never really accepted us. We were always just the boy band. And it's a funny thing because as a five piece we were like, we'll show you. There was a switch, and it took us years, but when we sat up and did “Back For Good” for the first time, everything changed, everything moved.”
LOSING ROBBIE WILLIAMS:
“By the mid-90s, it felt like we'd been on the road forever. It was a strain. And there's one thing I always used to hate was that you'd wake up and you'd think... Where are we? Yeah, what day is it again?... How did we get here? And then Rob just decided, I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to do it. I don’t want the rehearse. I don't want to be called in at half past nine in the morning. He'd come apart from us a bit. He had a bit of a different friend group. He'd just split off the edge a bit and the gap got wider. And he just decided one day he was going and went. And we said, it'll be alright, he’ll be back tomorrow, two days, maybe three. Then it was two weeks, three weeks… and we realised he’s not coming.”
ON STILL LEARNING:
“I'm a student of life still. I never want to be the teacher. I want to be a student always. I was actually in Nashville a couple of weeks ago and I was working with some people, some I'd worked with before, some I've never met before. I was chatting with a very good songwriter one day and she said to me, what are you doing here?, and I said, I'm here to learn. She couldn't believe what I was saying. I feel like in some ways I'm just getting going, just finding a fourth gear.”
DISCOVERING HIS MUSICAL EAR:
“I was doing everything by ear, which was the bit that always tells me that I'd been given something from somewhere that just lived in me. So, I'm like 10 at this point, me and my Dad went into this music shop and said, right, what's the next step? And this guy must have seen us coming. He went, come this way. He started to play - and of course he's a salesman - the music, we were looking at each other and we couldn't believe it. He was playing the keyboards, but it was augmented by little buttons. It was amazing. As he was playing away, I'd noticed my mum and dad had sort of backed off talking, and my dad decided he was going to sell all his holiday time from work to buy it for me.”
CONCERT HIGHS:
“You come back [off stage] and you're like, well I've only played music and stood on a stage, but you're exhausted. It's just an amazing thing. When I was playing in the clubs I got up there and had nights where I didn't get clapped. Had nights where was told to turn it down. Had a night where someone sat reading a newspaper on the front row. And you've gotta go through all that because then when you walk on at Wembley Stadium and they roar, that's easy… that's the easy bit.”
MEETING TAKE THAT:
“I was sort of ahead of my years because I was working a lot with musicians who were 50, you know, they were much older than me. So I was in the company of a lot of older people all the time. And so when I eventually met the boys, I hadn't been around people my own age for years and I kind of looked like I hadn't as well. I was in all the wrong clothes I was like, who are these young, good-looking people?”
SHARING SKILLS IN TAKE THAT:
“When the lads met me, they were like, oh my God, play us something, and I remember they used to make me play things. It was sweet, really nice, and in the same way, they were helping me because, if you were to be in the company of Jason (Orange), and he started to move, it was kind of breathtaking. And he'd be like, right, come and stand next to me, just put one foot here, and then he'd like be my teacher.”
EARLY REACTION TO TAKE THAT:
“I know Robbie talks about this a lot, and it's very hard to take everyone back to this point, but you've got to remember in the 90s, radio didn't like us and the music industry never really accepted us. We were always just the boy band. And it's a funny thing because as a five piece we were like, we'll show you. There was a switch, and it took us years, but when we sat up and did “Back For Good” for the first time, everything changed, everything moved.”
LOSING ROBBIE WILLIAMS:
