Because of stumbling solo career: Gary Barlow felt like a failure

Gary Barlow (54) opened openly that because of his failed solo career, he felt like a failure after the separation from Take that. In view of Robbie Williams (51 )’s comet success, he did not expect Take that ever come together again.

In 1995 Robbie Williams left the band and heralded the end of the popular Boygroup. The remaining four members separated in February 1996. While Williams’ career rose steeply after the publication of songs such as “Let Me Entertain You” and “Angels”, Barlow’s career faded into it. It was a hard time for the singer who suffered from Bulimia and tried to “kill” the pop star, who in his opinion was no longer. After the 54-year-old fought for years with his appearance, he changed his diet in 2003 with the determination of defeating the demons of his body image.

Now he looked back in an interview with “Sunday Times”: “I felt like a failure. I was ashamed of my location, and today it would have been different because you could get help. It is not a shame to ask for help today. But I would have done nothing else, because it all led here.”

When asked whether a reunion of Take That always stood in the room, Barlow said: “No, definitely not. I just didn’t look back. I couldn’t imagine a world in which it would happen, because Robbie had not only gained big things – he had gotten so big that we just wanted to visit us? Who would this be interested?” In the meantime, it has turned out that his fear of career was completely unfounded. Because he published further titles as a solo artist and celebrated the band’s successful comeback in 2005 (without Williams).

It was only last week that Take That will go back to “The Circus Live” tour in the summer of 2026 – with stadium shows in Great Britain and Ireland. Gary Barlow, Mark Owen (53) and Howard Donald (57) first performed the tour in 2009, and the demand was high. Back then, more than 600,000 tickets were sold in less than five hours. At that time there was still Jason Orange (55), who left the band five years later.

The trio now wants to make the show “bigger and braver”. Handled some surprises and emphasized: “The Circus tour was one of our best experiences as a band and in the years after that we often talked about how much we would like to repeat this one day.”

The tour starts on May 29 in Southampton before going to Coventry, Sunderland, Glasgow, Cardiff, Manchester and London. The last gig will take place on July 4th in Dublin. At the end of 2026, the tenth studio album of the band should also appear.