How To Become Famous?

How did Gary Barlow become famous???I'm 13years old.?

• Gary Barlow is one of my biggest musical inspirations, not only for his songwriting but for his performing as well . How did he become famous. It's my dream to be famous, so I want to know how to be become famous. Please help. I'm 13years old, i sing and play guitar, i also song write for myself. Please give me hints and tips. I'm from the United Kingdom just so yous know.

• Answer:

  i don't think you've fully thought out the ramifications of being "famous". it's not a good dream to have. you sound like you have a strong interest in music at least though, so i would say focus on developing your talents and working on your craft. dream of being "successful", rather than just famous. but to answer your question, i'l just tell you his life story. gary became famous as part of take that. basically, when he was 10, he asked his parents for a keyboard for christmas. he devoted every minute he could to learning everything he could possibly learn, and it became a passion of his. his initial dream i think was to one day be a professional pianist. by the time he was 12/13 he was landing jobs in pubs and clubs around the north (beating out competition from people 3 times his age). he soon started touring the northern club circuit, playing covers and taking requests, until eventually, he started singing them too. by the time he was 14/15 he had started to experiment with writing songs, and wrote "a million love songs" (take that released this as one of their 1st singles and it went to no.7) when he was 15 and came 2nd in a national songwriting contest by the bbc. he continued down this line for another few years before he started to look for a manager. he eventually found nigel martin-smith, who wanted to form a boyband, and centre it around gary's singing and songwriting talents. take that was formed - BOOM! worldwide success. (well, after a few dodgy 1st singles anyway) take that were around from 1990-1996, when they split. most of the guys thought they'd try it solo, including gary, and robbie williams, who at that time was the "rebell" of the band, which basically ment he was off his head on coccaine, which was deemed to be cool at that time, because it was britpop and everybody was a prat (good music though). anyway - this is where i say be wary of fame. upuntill this point, the media had been on gary's side, and had built him up and up to impossible expectations. "new elton john/george michael", "best british writer since blah blah blah". he initially did very well with no.1s, but made a lot of mistakes with his solo career, and the media turned on him like a shot (the fact that robbie was filling all the papers with his antics and trashing gary at every possible turn didn't help matters). cue years of vitriol and abuse from not just the media, but the public too, of such an extent that he had to leave the country and wanted to change his name. 2005 - take that do a documentary and reform as a 4-piece. uk rejoices and welcomes them back with open arms. seriously - public response to those guys is incredible! suddenly gary's a loveable, nice, talented guy once again in the eyes of the media and the public, who now see him as a well grounded father/underdog. take that just get bigger and bigger, and gary gets a job as a judge on the x factor, making him even more famous. that's pretty much the story of his career. longest post ever, but what i'm saying is, he has a fantastic career, yes, but most of that is down to his talents persevering in the end and the mystical power of take that as a group. the "fame" side of things has caused him more pain than anything else ever did.