Like many of us, Gary Barlow is looking forward to Christmas with muted optimism. “We’re playing Aberdeen tonight and people are getting on with it,” says the singer-songwriter, who is in the middle of a solo nationwide tour. “They’re having a good time, but it is a bit worrying with all this [Omicron] doubt. I had a pang last night watching the news, thinking, ‘Oh, please! Don’t take everyone’s Christmas.’ ”
This aside, Barlow, 50, has the relaxed aura of a man utterly at one with the world. He became a boy band heart-throb 30 years ago as one fifth of Take That and went on to sell more than 50 million records, write 13 UK No 1 singles and win six Ivor Novello awards.
