Product Description

Take That have acheived the biggest comeback in British pop history!and it seems they are only just beginning. In November 2008, Take That announced a summer tour for 2009 -- yet even by their own remarkable standards, the frenzy for tickets was almost hysterical. Within three hours, all 700,000 tickets had been sold, forcing stadiums across Britain to be re-booked for extra dates. This was nothing new -- the reformed 'man band' had already broken British records for DVD sales, single sales and released the fastest selling album of 2008 with Circus. They are re-writing all the record books!literally. How have they done it? Why does Britain adore Take That? Take That -- Now and Then explores this phenomenon while this new, fully updated edition is also a vast visual bible for all Take That fans. From the band's first 'comeback album', Beautiful World, Take That's story is brought right up to the present day with full coverage of new singles, new albums, TV appearances, Ivor Novello and Brit Awards, growing families and spectacular stadium gigs. Further, the book will be hugely expanded with scores of colour and black and white photos, as well as rare and unseen memorabilia, ticket stubs, backstage passes, snap shots and studio snippets -- taking fans from the early 90s and Robbie all the way to Take That's current 'man band' status . Take That are the UK's biggest pop band -- Now and Then: The Illustrated Story will be a must-have book for their millions of fans.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26109 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-28
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Review
Praise for Take That: Now and Then -- 'Buy it now!' ***** Closer '! [an] honest, detailed account of the boy band of the Nineties' Bella 'This is simply essential reading for "Thatters" everywhere.' **** Hot Stars (Supp. to OK! magazine) ' Well researched and breezily written.' Observer 'Compulsory for any fan'. Manchester Evening News

About the Author
Martin Roach is the owner of IMP, an independent biography and new fiction publishing house. He has written over 65 biographies. He has ghost-written Westlife's no. 1 best-selling autobiography.

Customer Reviews

No insight, in parts just plain wrong!
Being a HUGE Take That fan in the 90s, I was one of the thousands who used to devour any interview or snippet of information on Mark, Howard, Gary, Jason and Robbie from wherever I could lay my hands on it.

After reading Gary's brilliant autobiography, My Take, and watching the recent For The Record documentary, which both painted a slightly different version of events from the one that was carefully spun at the time (!) I was interested to read this book to see if there were any other little gems that they hadn't been quite so happy to put out for public consumption before.

However, I found this book a complete waste of paper. I very strongly doubt the author, Martin Roach, has ever met any member of Take That, or anyone associated with them. The first sign of this was when I noticed that one of the sources he did list was Brian Harvey (he of East 17... a great source of info on Take That, i don't think!)

Basically, it was a re-hash of the information that was available at the time, lazily put together without any independent research or worthwile interviews. Despite claiming to be based on "the biggest comeback in pop history" it doesn't seem to have been updated to me. In fact, a lot of it I recognised from old TT annuals or Smash Hits interviews. It also regurgitated a lot of information that has since been shown not to be true, or to be the "offical" version of events that the management wanted the impressionable teenage fans to believe about their squeaky clean idols.

All in all, if you are interested enough in Take That to want to read a book about them, you'll probably know all this already. If you don't know much about Take That, it is useless as a rough guide as most of it is wrong or out of date.

Instead, I'd highly recommend reading Gary's book... really good, well written and (obviously) well informed. Don't waste your time on this effort... It's just Martin Roach cashing in on the Take That revival.

for all take that fans
i was obsessed with take that as a 13 year old, now 26 i am still a fan and couldn't wait to read this book.
it is an quick and easy read with good quality photographs included. it doesn't really cover any new areas that a dedicated 'thatter' wouldn't alraedy know but it is still an enjoyable read and brings back some memories!

Terrible book
Badly written, badly informed, even inconsistent within itself! Not much to add to previous reviewer, but if, like my boyfriend was, you happen to be in the market for a present for an otherwise intelligent Take That fan please avoid this at all costs. Gary's book is better. Not brilliant, just better.