Sob. In yesterday's post, Take That split up. Sniffle. I hope you are all managing to cope with the hurt, heartache and betrayal. Rather than focus on the solo careers of Robbie, Gary and Mark, I thought I would take a look at what a fourth Take That album in 1996 might have sounded like. I have cobbled this theory together from Gary's autobiography and various interviews and articles I have read over the year. So in an alternate reality (ooo how Sliders before it went rubbish), rather than releasing a greatest hits in 1996, the That would have got on with the task of their first Robbie-free album. I like to think it would have kicked off anyway with the quite nice BeeGee's cover How Deep Is Your Love in March 1996, that no doubt would have whipped up excitement for the new album with it's smooth line in harmonies and doing-bondage-way-before-Phixx-did video. Gary stated in his biography that many of the self penned tracks on his debut were originally written with Take That in mind; there was an unreleased gem on the Never Forget collection released after the documentary last year; in an interview Donny Osmond mentioned that a festive track written by Gary on his 2004 album was meant to be a Take That Christmas b-side; and finally, although Gary hated it, I like to think that the boys would have recorded Madonna penned Love Won't Wait anyway… how all this would've affected Rob's career intrigues me, but for now here is my "partially complete, wholly imagined" Take That album circa 1996 (probably called Open Road)…
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How Deep Is Your Love (mp3)
Forever Love
Open Road
Love Won't Wait
Superhero
Hang On In There Baby
Everything I Ever Wanted
Today I've Lost You (mp3)
Christmas (Donny Osmond mp3)
Always
