The main question is, what is there left to learn?
We all know the story: Take That were five plucky northern lads, formed in 1990 around the songwriting talents of bow-tied lounge singer Gary Barlow.
Initially called Cutest Rush, then Kick-It, they were marketed at gay audiences, with a notorious video for early single Do What U Like, featuring the quintet butt-naked and writhing around in jelly.
But it was teenage girls that made their career, screaming songs like Everything Changes, Relight My Fire and Pray to the top of the charts.
But as their fame grew, tensions simmered. Barlow refused to let his bandmates contribute to the music, leaving them feeling “like backing dancers and puppets”, says Howard.
Fed up, Williams started abusing drink and drugs, almost overdosing the night before the 1995 MTV Europe Awards.
When the others issued him with an ultimatum, he walked out. But without his puppyish energy, Take That were on borrowed time. Within a year, the band was over.
One of the few revelations in the new documentary is that Williams’ departure gave his bandmates a new perspective: You don’t have to do everything you’re told.
“We were like, ‘Oh, hang on a minute, that looks quite refreshing’,” recalls Barlow.
But it wasn’t.
As Williams solo career went stratospheric, Barlow’s became a punchline.
“It was just so excruciating [that I] just wanted to crawl into a hole,” he recalls. At one point, he refused to leave the house for a year, ballooning to 17 stone.
Howard Donald also took it hard, at one point contemplating suicide.
“I decided to go to the Thames… I was seriously thinking of jumping in,” he says.
