07 November 2023 , 13:00
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When Take That exploded onto the music scene in the nineties, no one knew the effect it would have on pop history, not least the band's five members: Robbie Williams, Gary Barlow, Jason Owen, Michael Orange and Howard Donald.
Now, more than 30 years later, the new Robbie Williams documentary - due to be shown on Netflix from November 8 - has got everybody talking about when the group split in 1996 and the rift between frontman Gary Barlow and Robbie that stole the headlines for years after. Here, the Mirror takes a look at exactly what happened and, most importantly, who apologised to who?
Robbie was just 16 when he joined Take That and it was no secret he didn’t always agree with their style and song choices, but it wasn’t until he went on a Glastonbury bender with the Gallagher brothers that he finally decided to leave the band. Robbie expressed his desire to leave once the Nobody Else tour had finished, but his bandmates weren’t impressed and asked him to leave right away saying to him: '’Actually, if you're going to leave, can you go now?’”
Years later in January 2023, Robbie revealed the real reason he left the band was because he was in the middle of a nervous breakdown. Speaking to Scott Mills for BBC Radio 2’s Life Thru A Lens series, the Angels hitmaker recalled how he felt overwhelmed during the band’s world tour, and felt like he “was in some sort of burning building and needed to get out”. “I think that I was in the middle of a nervous breakdown, my first of many,” he told listeners. “All the information going into the computer had made the computer overload. So it felt like I was in some sort of burning building and I needed to get out. That's how it felt at the time.”
Robbie was forced out of the band in 1996 and later admitted his behaviour and alcoholism spiralled out of control, while Gary revealed he struggled being forced into the limelight. "I was a pathetic, pitiful creature," Robbie admitted later. "The first thing I would do in the morning would be to empty the bottle of wine that I had fallen asleep over two hours earlier. I'd have taken a line of coke because I couldn't get up without it."
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Gary Barlow also left Take That to pursue a solo career (BBC)Robbie, then 21, didn’t mince his words in interviews with the media, calling Gary a 'clueless w**ker' and saying the group, "had all the creativity of mentally unstable morons." "I hated our music and in the end I also hated myself," he confessed. Meanwhile, Gary, who had also left Take That to pursue his solo career, was doing well and accused Robbie of being jealous of his £6.5million fortune earned from his songwriting royalties. "I do wonder if that’s the source of his feelings because I probably made six times more than they did," Gary sniped before his debut single Forever Love rode in at number one.
But the tables soon turned when Robbie's breakthrough song Angels in 1997 hit catapulted him into a whole new league of success winning him BRIT Awards. Yet, despite his success, he continued to slag off Gary admitting: "My problem has always been with Gary. It was always with Gary. I wanted to crush him. I wanted to crush the memory of the band - and I didn't let go. You know, even when he was down, I didn't let go."
Gary disappeared from the public eye to write songs for others and later revealed how at the time he was trapped in a vicious cycle of binge eating and bulimia, with his weight ballooning to 17st. But the tables tipped again in 2006 when Take That reunited to critical acclaim while Robbie's career was on the slide. Robbie finally rejoined Take That in 2010, and the five men released an album and went on a hugely successful tour.
Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Robbie Williams, Mark Owen and Jason Orange of Take That pose in the press room at the Q Awards 2010 held at The Grosvenor House Hotel on October 25, 2010 (Getty Images)Who healed the rift?
Gary Barlow says making up with Take That bandmate Robbie Williams was “like an exorcism” - where they both admitted: “I’m a d***” in his memoirs where he takes us back to 2008. Referring to it as The Chat, he tells how he invited Robbie to his Beverly Wilshire hotel to make up when the rest of Take That visited LA for a photoshoot. However, it was an ‘uncomfortable’ meeting and Robbie left after just 10 minutes. Despite the false start, Rob later invited Gary to his home and the pair finally put their feud to bed. “Living with that kind of feud isn’t right,” Gary said, adding: “The Chat was like an exorcism.”
In 2009, the Mirror reported Robbie Williams was ready to rejoin Take That – 14 years after his bitter departure. Assuring fans the feud was over, he said: “We’ve matured now. We’d have a laugh.” In 2010 Robbie and Gary announced they were releasing a new song together called 'Shame' and later that year it was confirmed Robbie would be rejoining the band to go on a world tour. Since 2014 Robbie has not performed with the band, but the spat is definitely over. These days Robbie speaks highly of Gary and has said they would “always be family”. Talking about the feud with his former bandmate, Robbie said: “I did things that I'm not proud of and said things I'm not proud of as a reaction to things that I hope he's not that proud of either. That being said, taking the mickey out of Gary, he didn't deserve that.”
Gary Barlow invited Robbie to his hotel to heal the rift (Getty Images)The remaining three members of Take That have also spoken about why they believe Robbie left back in 1995, and in an interview for their In Take That: 30 Years in the Making documentary on ITVX, they blamed a lack of communication for things falling apart between them. “To have someone close to you that you can speak to about your feelings, that’s one of the things we never ever did in the 90s, hence why Robbie left. We never discussed what he was feeling before he left that room,” Howard shared. “We look back at that moment and think we wished we could have talked more. I wonder if it could have saved him leaving. We let him leave the fold and no one looked after him. Robbie was barely 21."
Robbie Williams: Raw. Honest. Real makes its debut this Wednesday (November 8) on Netflix.