In 1989, Nigel Martin-Smith sought to create a British male vocal singing group. Having seen the success and fame of what was the nascent concept of Boybands following the meteoric rise of the New Kids On The Block in the United States, he realized there was no such contemporary group in the United Kingdom. Therein was the birth of the first boyband from the UK and arguably all of Europe at the time. Martin-Smith's vision, however, was more mature and teen-oriented than the clean-cut image that the New Kids sported in the media.

Auditions for the group were held throughout Manchester, where Martin-Smith met teenage singer and budding songwriter Gary Barlow (then 18), whom he was immediately impressed with. Barlow had been rejected by major record labels, but had been playing live sets at pubs all round the North of England, and until that time, had won a couple of songwriting competitions, having penned A Million Love Songs at age 15. Barlow was immediately interested in the opportunity and recommended his 17-year old friend Mark Owen; a former child model, football (soccer) player and trialist, and whom Barlow met whilst playing live sets at one of the pubs; and Owen had been working there part time as well as at Barclays bank as a teller. Vehicle painter, former model and occasional DJ/breakdancer, Howard Donald was one of the oldest to audition at 21, but he was accepted into the group. He recommended to Martin-Smith a neighbourhood friend Jason Orange (then 18), who was a skilled break-dancer and had appeared on The Hitman and Her. Working as a decorator, Orange passed the audition and joined the project. Finally, Martin-Smith recruited a 15-year old boy named Robbie Williams as the fifth and final member of the group by way of advertising in the local media. According to Williams in Take That: For The Record, it was his mother that signed him up for an interview, and he was selected after an audition.

When Take That formed, they were forging a new type of musical path as much as a musical career, as they were largely the pioneers of the new boyband genre outside of the US. They started with more dance oriented melodies to cater to the British dance and disco scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. In their early years, they were clean-cut and dressed in black leather gear, but at the height of their fame, they were known for a more older, adult feel and image than the squeaky-clean New Kids. During their popularity, the band sported body piercings, tattoos, facial hair, and dreadlocks, in Donald's case.

For the first two years, the band rehearsed, performed at school dances, public events and even gay bars.

The band's breakthrough single was a cover of the 1970s Tavares hit It Only Takes A Minute, which peaked at number seven on the UK Singles Chart. This success was followed by the track I Found Heaven, then by the first Barlow ballad A Million Love Songs - both top 20 hits. Their cover of the Barry Manilow disco hit Could It Be Magic gave them their biggest hit to date, peaking at number 3 in the UK. Their first album, Take That & Party, was released in 1992, and included all the hit singles to date. The band was still however, not widely known outside of the dance circuit, and had not made it into the mainstream music charts.

1993 saw the release of Take That's most successful original album Everything Changes, based on Barlow's original material. It spawned four UK number one singles - their first number one Pray, Relight My Fire, Babe (beaten to Christmas number one by Mr Blobby), and the title track Everything Changes. The fifth single Love Ain't Here Anymore reached number three on the UK charts. Everything Changes saw the band gain international success, but it failed to crack the US market where an exclusive remix Love Ain't Here Anymore (U.S. Version) gained little success. However, by 1994, the band had become radio and television hits across Europe and Asia, where along many other 90s acts like Michael Jackson and Duran Duran, the rise of MTV videos streamed direct to via what was a new form of television called cable TV saw the rise of global touring opportunities because of worldwide audiences as it meant the band reached audiences far and wide. However, it was not till 1995 that the band would do their first World Tour.

It was at this time in 1994 that the band fronted scores of magazine covers ranging from Smash Hits to GQ, Popstars and so on and began becoming mass merchandised on all sorts of paraphernalia ranging from picture books, to posters, stickers, their own dolls, jewellery, caps, T-shirts, toothbrushes and even had their own annuals released. The band also began touring extensively around the continent and had sell out concerts back in England at almost all of their sets from Earl's Court to concerts for Princess Diana, to Berlin and Milan. The band had also developed an astoundingly massive female teenage fanbase at the time, because the band was seen as new and exciting and consisted of four good looking Mancunians who could "dance, smile and sing in harmonies". This led to what was known as the "Take That Phenomenon" around the UK, usually underscored by throngs of teenagers queueing up for long lines wherever the band was rumoured to be. There was mass hysteria everywhere they went, and the band hit the apex of their popularity in the 1990s. During this time, the band performed at numerous music awards shows like the Brit Awards or Top of the Pops, where they were regulars with their five hits in a row in 1994.

By the time the band's 1995 album Nobody Else was launched, the release of Sure, their first single from the album, achieved yet another number one on the UK Charts. But it was not until their second release from that album that they would experience what would become their biggest hit single (and only US Chart entry), Back for Good, which reached number one in 31 countries around the globe and to date has been covered 89 times the world over. The song was initially unveiled for the first time via live performance whilst at the 1995 Brit Awards, and based on rave reviews and the reception of that performance alone, the record pre-sold more records than expected and forced an earlier release date. Never Forget was the final single off the Nobody Else album. The album was also noted for its cover which was a parody of the cover of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band cover sleeve.

In July 1995, Robbie Williams left the group and was photographed by the press partying with British band Oasis at Glastonbury. Take That continued to promote the album Nobody Else as a four piece, scoring a further hit single and fan favorite Never Forget (subsequently released as a single in a Jim Steinman remix version) and completing the Nobody Else Tour in July 1995.

On 13 February 1996, Take That announced that they were disbanding. This was followed by the Greatest Hits compilation in 1996, which contained a new recording, a cover of The Bee Gees How Deep Is Your Love. The single went on to become what was to be the band's final U.K. number one until their 2005 comeback a decade later. At the time in 1996, such was the level of Take That's popularity, that upon their announcement of their break up, millions of teenage fans were seen crying all over the country and across Europe. The situation got so dire that counselling hotlines had to be specially set up by local authorities to cater to suicidal tendencies in many young women.

Gary Barlow
Barlow recorded a solo album, Open Road (1997). Five singles were released from the album, with the first two — Forever Love and Love Won't Wait (written by Madonna) — both reaching number 1 on the UK singles chart, but it was the single "So Help Me Girl" that gave Gary Barlow's solo album international stardom. His second album, Twelve Months, Eleven Days, was less successful. Two singles were released: Stronger, which reached #16, and For All That You Want, which reached #24. Barlow was then dropped from his label just before he was due to release a third single Lie To Me. He later set up a studio in his Cheshire home and began writing and producing records for the likes of Atomic Kitten, Donny Osmond, Blue, Lara Fabian and Delta Goodrem.

Mark Owen
Owen has released three solo albums to date - Green Man, In Your Own Time and How the Mighty Fall. He had three top 5 singles from these albums; Child, Clementine and Four Minute Warning. He has toured extensively in Europe and the UK, and visited Japan in early 2006, where he has secured a publishing deal. Mark Owen also won Celebrity Big Brother in 2002. Mark's third album How The Mighty Fall was released under his own label Sedna Records.

Howard Donald
Donald developed his songwriting skills, and tried to land himself a solo record deal after the band split. Despite completing an album, he gave up his efforts at launching a solo career. However, he returned to his DJ-roots and went on to become a successful DJ playing mostly in the UK and Germany. He is also one of the owners of the production company Sonic Fly.

Jason Orange
Orange briefly ventured into acting with two roles; a DJ drug dealer Brent Moyer in Lynda La Plante's Killer Net (shown on UK Channel 4 and now on DVD) and a theatre role in the play Gob which was performed at the King's Head Theatre, London. He also travelled the world and went back to college to study sociology and psychology.

On November 14, 2005, Never Forget - The Ultimate Collection, a new compilation of their hit singles including a new previously unreleased song, also made the top end of the UK charts. The new song Today I've Lost You (recorded in September 2005) was originally written as the follow up to Back for Good but was never recorded. On Wednesday November 16, 2005, the group got back together for the ITV documentary TAKE THAT: For The Record, in which they aired their views over the split and what they had been up to during the last 10 years. On November 25, 2005, there was an official press conference by the band announcing that the post Robbie Williams line-up were going to tour in 2006. The tour, entitled Ultimate Tour, ran from April to June 2006. The tour featured a guest appearance by British soul singer Beverley Knight, who replaced Lulu's vocals on the song Relight My Fire; although Lulu did appear during the stadium shows on Relight My Fire and Never Forget. The American girl-band Pussycat Dolls supported the group at their Dublin concert, and the Sugababes supported the group on the final five dates of the stadium leg.

On May 9, 2006, Take That came back to the recorded music scene after more than ten years, signed to a music deal with Polydor Records in a deal reportedly worth £3,000,000. After a month on sale the band's comeback album Beautiful World sold over 2.7 million copies in the U.K. Unlike the band's earlier works, where the majority of their material was written by Gary Barlow, all songs are co-written by the band members. The come-back single Patience was released on November 20, 2006, with a special event launching it on 5 November (Bonfire Night). On 26 November Patience hit number 1 in the UK in its second week of chart entry making it the group's 9th No.1. The video for Shine, the follow-up to Patience was premiered on January 25, 2007 on Channel 4, ahead of its release on February 26, 2007.

The band's success continued on February 14, 2007 when Take That performed live at the BRIT Awards ceremony at Earl's Court. Their single Patience won the Best British Single category. The third single taken from Beautiful World was I'd Wait For Life, released on June 18, 2007 in the UK. However the single only reached 17 in the UK Singles Chart, falling out of the top 40 the following week. This is thought to be due to lack of promotion, as the band decided to take a pre-tour break rather than do any promotion for the single.

During 2007, Take That also wrote a song for the motion picure Stardust titled Rule the World which reached number 2 in the UK charts and went on to be the 5th biggest selling single of 2007. Meanwhile Beautiful World the album was the fourth biggest selling album of 2007. It was announced at the start of 2007 that Take That signed a record deal with American label Interscope, and would also release their album in Canada. Starting on October 11, 2007, Take That began their Beautiful World Tour in Belfast. The tour included 49 shows throughout Europe and the UK and ended in Manchester on December 23, 2007.