Howard Donald has jokingly branded Take That’s music “s***”.
The 52-year-old boy band star has confessed that his band’s songs – which include mega-hits ‘Back For Good’, ‘Relight My Fire’ and ‘Patience’ – are not necessarily his favourite tunes as he revealed he is a lover of electronic music.
He told the ‘Events that Made Me’ podcast when asked which Take That songs are his favourites: “I don’t like any of them, they’re all s***.”
On what he is listening to, he added: “At the moment I’ve got 15 boxes of vinyl, all dance music from the late 80s and 90s, I’m sifting through – Beck, Chemical Brothers, Kraftwerk, Human League, Gary Numan.
“I generally listen to a lot of electronic music – I listen to a lot of dance music.”
The musician hailed Take That “a business” and said they invest millions into making their live shows impressive for their fans.
He said: “We’ve always said we want people to walk out of those arenas and say: ‘Wow. It was an amazing show. I got my £80 worth’.
“Production wise, you could spend anywhere between £10million – £15million producing a show like that.”Then obviously you’ve got to do enough shows to get your money back, otherwise you would be doing it for free. And we are a business at the end of the day.”
And Howard – who is joined in the group by Gary Barlow, 50, and Mark Owen, 49, in the current lineup – insisted you don’t have to be into the ‘Rule The World’ hitmakers’ music to enjoy their performances.
He added: “We never used to see guys at our show, and bit by bit the girlfriends would be bringing the guys, and the guys would have their arms in the air.
“They’ve come along because they know Take That’s going to deliver a performance – whether you like the music or not.”
Meanwhile, former band member Robbie Williams has revealed he and Gary have penned lots of new music together and will continue to do so.
The ‘Angels’ hitmaker told his bandmate on the Meerkat Music radio show. “I love writing with you and we are going to do more and more of that. What people don’t know … we have written quite a few songs recently. Some things that I am really proud of.”
Gary replied: “I am always proud of our stuff.”
The 47-year-old pop star also spoke of reuniting with the trio last May for their virtual Meerkat Music gig for the first time since 2018 and admitted he wanted to earn the respect of Gary.
He said: “If there was anybody on the planet that I needed them to know and feel what I could do — it was you.I suppose because you are my older brother, musical entertainment wise, my peer. I desperately wanted that recognition from you more than anybody else on the planet. And we got it.”
Although Robbie has hinted at reuniting with Take That, Gary recently insisted they won’t be back for “a few years”.
The band has been a three-piece ever since 2014 after Robbie and Jason Orange quit the chart-topping group.
However, Gary recently said he believes Robbie, 46, and Jason, 50, will eventually come “home”.
Robbie quit the ‘Could It Be Magic’ group – who formed in Manchester in 1990 – in 1995 to pursue a successful solo career, while Take That continued as a four-piece before they split a year later.
The ‘Relight My Fire’ hitmakers reunited 16 years later as a five-piece in 2010 for their final album, ‘Progress’, and the ‘Progress Live Tour’, which wrapped in July 2011.
But Robbie stepped away from the band again to focus on being a father, while Jason decided he wanted out of the spotlight in 2014 and insisted there were no hard feelings between him and his bandmates.