Mark sounds so beautiful.
If there is a most underrated songwriter award, Mark will win it. Hands down.
Hello Thatters. Today is a wonderful day, with Mark’s album being out and Gary being in Birmingham for X Factor. Also, Robbie performed at the Summertime Ball yesterday, so it’s a good time to be a Thatter. As a kind of celebration, and if you can’t buy Mark’s album in your country (and I know there are many of us who will buy his album if given the chance to), here’s a full download of The Art of Doing Nothing (Deluxe Edition).
Carnival is one of my favourite tracks off the album, so I’ve chosen to upload it. Feel free to download the album, but please Like or Reblog if you’ve done so. Thank you, and a good day to all! :)
Mark Owen joined Take That at 18 – he could easily have become a decorator like his dad. ‘I really don’t know what else I’d do,’ he says.
After a solo career that ended in 2003 he is attempting another with a new album, The Art Of Doing Nothing.
He explains the title: ‘I bump into people on the street and it’s difficult if they ask what I’m up to. I find it much easier to go, “nothing”. Then I decided I’d practise the art of doing nothing.’
The album was recorded in his home studio (the Rabbit Hutch) at the bottom of his garden in South London; songs were co-written with his long-time collaborators Ben Mark and Jamie Norton, both of whom have worked with Take That since their comeback.
‘The band goes out, does this big tour or album, then you come back home and everyone goes his own way,’ he says.
‘Home is this lovely space where you look at what you’ve achieved, and my wife is there – brilliant – and you hang out with the kids.
‘But they go to school in September, and then my wife goes, “I’m pregnant!” and I go, “Oh, great – everybody’s off!”
‘I’ve spent most of my life just going forward. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I have to ask, who am I? What happened yesterday? Is any of that real? And every now and then you get a glimpse of your old self and you go, “Who’s that?” ’
Are Take That still the same five men?
‘We laugh now when we see the old footage, because we used to throw ourselves around to every song, whether it was a ballad or a fast one,’ he says.
‘We’d be like: “We’re going!” (pumps two fists in the air) no matter what we were singing. When you’re young, you’re not aware, really, you’ve got so much energy flying around.’
And after you got back together?
‘Sometimes it’s been heavy. But we’ve this grounding now. The difference is, you feel all “yeah yeah yeah!” (brandishes fists again). Then you go home.’ And back in the day, you didn’t go home? ‘No.’
Owen appears to have had a particular role in the complicated Take That ‘détente’.
‘After the split I bumped into them [Gary and Robbie] at random times,’ he says. ‘I was going between one here, and another there. It was always important to try to get Gaz and Rob back in a room together.
‘When we got back the second time (as a foursome, in 2005) we hoped from day dot that we would get Rob in a room with us. And once we’d achieved that, there was always a chance that we could do something.’
What does he make now of their fraught relationship?
‘I was watching a nature show, about gorillas. In the wild, they work within the clans and sometimes they challenge one another for control of the group.
‘That, since the day we met, is how we’ve been – especially when Rob and Gaz were having their thing. One the silverback, the other challenged.’
Take That are back in the studio next year but no one’s clear if Williams will be there.
‘When we’re together, it’s really together with the lads,’ he says.
‘There’s a feeling I only ever get when I’m with them. Sometimes I look across the room and I see how old we all look. Extra lines, wrinkles, more grey hairs. And I think, “We’ve been together such a long time.” It’s a warm feeling.’
It must have been a big adjustment welcoming Williams back, making a space in something working so well without him?
‘I always pictured it like this,’ he says. ‘There was a bench with four of us on it, and Rob came along, and somebody would go, “Well, sit down, Rob!” – and that person would get up so Rob could sit down. After a while, they’d go, “Anybody want to let me sit down?”
‘And someone else would stand up to let him sit down.’
Was that you standing up, or Gary?
‘Everybody stood up at some point. Even Gaz had to get off the bench! Then we realised we could all get on the bench, or get the bench extended!’
He grins. ‘We’re not clever enough. It took a while to see we could all fit. Or we could all sit on the grass.’
Watching Mark on Neil McCormick’s Needle Time and I’m so happy he loved the making of and touring for How The Mighty Fall. It’s a BRILLIANT album (if you haven’t heard it, you must!!!) and I was worried he was sad it wasn’t a bigger hit, but no he loved the fact that it was done through his own label without owing anything to record executives. And he really enjoyed the almost year-long tour. And it was right before Take That reformed for the Ultimate Tour so I’m now all feels and this band is perfect ok.
mark owen in a scissor lift, as you do [x]
Body Popping! [x]
| Gary and Howard supporting Mark while he was on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show - 07.06.2013
You can listen to the whole show again here
take that tours → progress live
