My Take

In Take That Take One we were always the five lads from the North. Robbie was fíom Stoke, Howard from Droylsden, Mark from Oldham, Jason from Wythenshaw and I was Gary from Frodsham. When I appeared at 12.20 in the aftemoon on 20 January 1971, Frodsham was a Cheshire village; the year after I joined the band it became a town. I'm the second son of Colin and Marjorie Barlow; my brother, lan, is three years older than me. 13 Ashton Drive, the house where I was bom, was on a closeknit council estate on the edge ofthe village. Our house, like all other houses, had a garden at the front and another out back, where my dad used to keep pigeons (my mum hated them). With the exception ofmy mum's muin, who we called Nan Bo, everyone else in my life lived close by. My dad's parents lived 500 metres away in Clifton Crescent; my rnate Graham, who I still know today, lived round the comer and we were in and out of each other's houses constantly. I still like having people hanging around the house, and 1 love it when the band is here working in the recording studio.