the album was certified platinum after `a million love songs` left the top 40 and the next single was already getting airplay. the album wasn't even in the top 10 during that singles chart run, so i doubt that single give the album its biggest boost. the album peaked a week after `could it be magic` peaked on the chart and had its longest top 10 run during that singles chart life.

i will read the rest and comment on that too. i just had to address this first.

so you are saying that the majority of that album was co-written then? besides, like you said yourself, john shanks contributed with guitar cords and actually that is central to the medley in my opinion.

he is inconsistent though. if he was that good, then he would have delivered better material for other artists. not forgetting his solo material, which really highlighted his inconsistencies in my honest opinion. the take that songs were well produced and made the best of his compositions. however, the well seemed to run completely dry once he left the band and despite working with some of the best people in the business the results were less than impressive.

David Byrne is a pretty talented guy

Gary Barlow is a strange one really considering his non-Take That output. There's no denying he's written some fantastic pop songs for TT but as GPK mentioned, the inconstancy of his output is undeniable and it kind of baffles me. Maybe he's simply more comfortable writing for TT? I mean I think he's shown he can be more versatile with Progress which was a departure from the classic TT sound, was IMO their most consistent album and it's probably their most critically acclaimed. Perhaps, the comfort of TT gives him his best results? I don't know. With TT though, I think in particular Mark and Howard's inputs are largely underplayed. I think they've contributed in a big way to the quirkier sound of TT part 2, like with Shine as scamrasc mentioned, and much more than people think.

As for GB being the UK's most talented male, not in my opinion but with no disrespect to Will Young, I think GB is the more talented of the two.

Add me to the George Michael is a great songwriter list.

progress was produced by stuart price and i think people underestimate the role a producer plays in the process. a producer can make or break a song and having the same producer can certainly add consistency on an album.

i remember ruth lorenzo performing `love ain`t here anymore` on the x factor and her version of the song was a departure from the original. with different production that played to that singers strengths, it transformed a previous dreary song in my opinion.

I would hardly say Gary has had 22 years of success!

He was successful in Take That from 1990 - 1996 and then from 2006 onwards! 12 years so he's on par with Will near enough.

Oh, there's no denying the role that someone like Stuart Price plays. His production is wonderful and I know he completely changed the direction of a few of the songs sonically. However, I don't know if you watched the documentary on the making of the album but what really surprised me is that Gary Barlow had a lot of demos that sounded close enough to the final products prepared ever before Price got to work. That did really surprise me as did the fact that he's a complete gear nerd with a huge collection of vintage and collector keyboard pedals!

I've always liked that song but I think it fell victim to that mid-90's ballad production. The melody, vocal arrangement and chord progressions are lovely I think.

yeah, sorry the producers role comment was a general observation and not aimed at you directly. so sorry if that came across a tad patronising. i did see that documentary, in fact, i saw all the documentaries since they re-formed. personally, i think they were more of a marketing strategy designed to show the group in the best possible light and loosely based on actual events.

Yeah, he can join the list of other illustrious Novello winners like Celine Dion, the Brotherhood of Man and Gary Glitter.

Well you dont sound snobbish in the slightest. As if bombing means something is bad. Heaven forbid the masses dont gobble it up like the fast food crap they're used to. I havent even seen it by the way, and by sounds of it neither have you. How stereotypical of you to read of names of rock legends. Quite lazy really.

Fogive me, but are we only speaking of the latest album? Because Strickland Banks was nowhere near horrendous if you just hate his rap stuff.

Congratulations, you have just invoked the DS equivalent of Godwin's Law.

i think the word you are looking for is realistic choices, unlike the totally unrealistic choices of gary barlow and the guy from pop idol

Every choice is a realistic choice to the poster of it, don't be so opinionated.

i think George Michael is very underated as an artist. as a songwriter and as a singer.

as a singer i don't think there is anyone that comes close these days.

The 'guy from Pop Idol' has a name,it's Will Young . He's also had 6 consecutive platinum/multi platinum selling albums, but I assume you've conveniently forgotten that.

People on this forum seem to have also conveniently forgotten the artists that were around before the year 2000... you know, the artists who picked up guitars and wrote their own tunes whilst queueing up in the dole queues that went on to sell out huge stadiums.


Nevermind some wannabe from pop idol.

Don't worry, no offense at all taken

Re: the documentaries, I'm sure there was some very creative editing but I think also there were some fairly honest parts. I don't know if they succeeded with the marketing though because a lot of people found them unlikeable after the Look Back, Don't Stare doc or at least that's the impression I got.

Robert Fripp

i think it is difficult to establish which were the honest parts to be honest. the robbie williams ongoing saga created a storyline and the whole tone seemed overly dramatic at times. the only thing that can shed light on whether the marketing was successful is the record sales in my opinion and to have 3 studio albums all selling over 2 million copies in a row is quite an achievement to be fair.

I agree, it did feel melodramatic which as you say fitted into the whole RW storyline - we all love a bit of resolution, eh? I enjoyed the doc though I must say and although we of course can't identify what was real or what was exaggerated, it felt relatively natural enough, well at least to me anyway. I don't think it was at the contrived levels of say Keeping Up With the Kardashians!

Yes, it's quite an achievement especially in this day and age. It'll be interesting to see how the new RW solo album does and the next TT album whenever that comes about. I've heard good things about the RW album but whether that translates into sales or not and if he'll have picked up some TT fans from the Progress stint will be intriguing especially as he's still somewhat hated by some TT fans (in addition to a lot of the general public). Obviously given the current sales climate, he won't come anywhere near his glory days but I'll definitely be watching to see how it unfolds.

no, they were not as contrived as certain `reality` tv shows, but the later documentary did seem to dwell on the creative aspect in order to promote a level of credibility in my opinion.

robbie is past his peak and his return to take that will not have provided the `good karma` that no doubt he hoped for. however, he could continue to sell roughly about the same amount of copies as his last two albums with the right promotion. take that have also taken a nose dive in terms of public opinion in recent times with the tax avoidance scandal, so it will be interesting all round to see if future sales are effected.

I think so too and even more so when you add into the equation that many TT fans apparently did not like the direction of Progress at all and put the blame on Robbie for the sound. At the same time though, if the reports I'm hearing about the album are true (I've heard that it's full of potential hits) and he can release a strong lead in and follow up single then perhaps his sales might increase slightly and of course, if he tours this time around that will help matters. I agree with you though that the sales will probably be in the ballpark of the last album which isn't too shabby either.

Yep, add Gary's turn on the X Factor to that list of negative publicity. He did not come across well! Saying that, Mark Owen's cheating scandal didn't affect them really.

its silly of the take that fans to assume that robbie signalled the change in take that`s sound on progress. especially, if they bought into the documentary that hinted that gary was the `creative force`.:yawn: i don't think robbie could win to be honest, had he continued to shy away from the group, then the fans would have moaned about that too.:sleep:

they may get away with the negative press once again, who knows? they cant stand still though and not evolve musically. westlife delivered the same style for most of their output and eventually the sales tailed off.

Elton John makes mince meat of Barlow and Young.