Christmas... I WANT YOU BACK FOR GOOD!

There was only one way Gary Barlow was going to lift the gloom last year – by writing a few festive songs. Here he tells Lisa Sewards how they snowballed into his first Christmas album

What a difference a year makes. Last Christmas was a washout for everyone, locked down in our tiers and unable to see our loved ones. This year the shackles are off and we can look forward to a party, and the soundtrack may well be Gary Barlow’s new album The Dream Of Christmas.

It was the sheer awfulness of last year that inspired him to create his first Christmas album, when he began writing a few festive songs to brighten the gloom last December. But now it’s snowballed into a full-blown yuletide album, a mix of original compositions and covers of Christmas classics, laced with Gary’s sophisticated sparkle and good cheer.

‘I absolutely love Christmas,’ he says, ruffling the fur of the huskies co-starring with him in our wonderfully wintry photoshoot. ‘I wrote the original songs last Christmas when I felt like I didn’t have a Christmas, so it was my way of making it bigger than it was. I thought, “OK, I might put a couple of tracks out next Christmas” but then it started to get bigger and the label said, “You need to do a whole album.”’

Which is pretty much a metaphor for Gary’s prolific career. He’s sold more than 50 million records, written 14 UK No 1 hits, won six Ivor Novello awards and his last album, Music Played By Humans, recorded with an 80-piece orchestra, debuted at the top of the charts last year. On his latest album, one of the most upbeat tracks is How Christmas Is Supposed To Be, a duet with Sheridan Smith that will have you rocking around the Christmas tree.

‘I didn’t write it as a duet, but I knew I wanted to find somebody,’ he explains. ‘Then I saw the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special and thought, “Sheridan does West End theatre, she acts, sings, dances... she does everything.” Just as I was thinking that, I did the Royal Variety Performance and Sheridan was on it too! We were waiting to go on in the wings together and she said, “Can I give you my Instagram account?” and I said, “Can I give you mine?” Then about two months later I got in touch and said, “I’ve got a song – would you consider it?” and Sheridan texted straight back saying, “I’m ready, let’s do it.” So I went up to Manchester where she was working and we set up in a hotel room and we recorded it. Just like that.’

Gary has also crafted his own range of organic red and white wines in partnership with Benchmark Drinks. Called Gary Barlow Organic, they’re available now in Morrisons and online. ‘For years and years I’ve wanted to do something with wine but I’ve never felt qualified,’ he says. ‘So in lockdown I just thought, “I’m going to do this.” I’m one of those people who when I taste a bottle of wine once, I order it for the rest of my life. But about five years ago I was offered something and I loved it, a Spanish wine that I’d never drunk before. So we’ve now made fully organic wines which are among the most affordable on the shelves in the UK.’

He makes it sound effortless, but his journey has been far from it. Robbie Williams left Take That in 1995, leading to the band splitting the next year. Robbie became a globe-conquering act, and when Gary went solo too, he was expected to become the new Elton John. But it seemed that the more Robbie rose, the further Gary fell. At one point, it was like Robbie was rubbing his nose in it.

He tells me a poignant story today of a moment when he had to pull his car over as Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel’s duet Don’t Give Up – with its haunting refrains of ‘No reason to be ashamed’ and ‘You’re not beaten yet’ – came on the radio at one of the lowest moments of his life. His two solo albums had faltered, his lyrical genius had deserted him, his confidence had crashed and he was reeling from the shock of being told his record label had dropped him.

‘I love that song,’ he says now. ‘It can be weird when music plays out the scenario you’re in. It was like a spell. I’d just lost my record deal. I’d just had a phone call to say it’s all over. I was thinking, “Oh God, how did I get here?” And then this music started and I thought, “Wow!”

‘The biggest lesson for me from the 90s was that having success suddenly pinned on you is really unhealthy. I don’t think I coped with it well. I ended up thinking I was invincible, that I could do anything. Then that day arrives where you get one thing wrong and this confidence that’s been built up over years starts to crack.

‘I didn’t cope well with sudden success’

Then slowly... bad decision, bad decision, bad decision. All of a sudden you find yourself saying, “S***, how did that happen?” The rise is always quite slow, but the fall is fast.’

As one of the best-connected men in the music industry, Gary was lucky enough to be able to tell the famously reclusive Kate Bush how much the song meant to him. ‘Yes, I have told Kate that. I love her. I didn’t relate it all, as it would have been too long a story, but it’s one of my top five favourite songs, and I’ve met Peter Gabriel a few times as well,’ he says.

It wasn’t just Gary’s career that suffered, but his health too. He didn’t go out for months at a time and took to comfort-eating to lift himself out of depression. At one point his weight ballooned to just over 17 stone, but today, aged 50, he looks the picture of health. So how did he get his mojo back? ‘I just woke up one morning and thought, “I don’t want to have this day again. I’ve had this day for years and I don’t want it again.” It was the first time I realised how amazing the mind is. If the mind decides today’s a different day, then it will be.

‘I had to work out how I could change that day. It was just doing different things like not having the same meal at the same time and not feeling the same guilt because I had too much on the plate. It’s a weird thing, I hit 30 and the floodgates opened. I stopped exercising, which I used to love to do. And it sounds so boring to say but it’s such an important part of the day. I try to exercise every day now, even if it’s only some yoga. I also do spinning and Pilates, and I like a run. I’ve got a trainer a couple of times a week. It makes me feel good.’

Yet even at his lowest point not once did Dawn, his devoted wife of 21 years, grumble or nag. ‘Very cleverly she didn’t,’ he smiles. ‘She managed it brilliantly. She never said,