CityLife

Take That close in on record deal

TAKE That really could be back for good - as I hear the lads are on the brink of signing a massive new recording contract.

It will mean new material from the band for the first time in 10 years.

The lads - Gary, Howard, Mark and Jason - are currently wowing fans at the M.E.N Arena on their comeback tour.

But my sources tell me they are already looking to their future with a megabucks album deal in the pipeline.

The band's former manager, Manchester-based impresario Nigel Martin-Smith, masterminded the comeback but says even he has been surprised at the huge level of interest in all things Take That.

"I can't believe quite what a success the comeback has been," he tells me.

"I thought they would come back, do the tour and that would be it. But the rumour is that they are going to sign a huge record deal and that it will be announced by the record company involved soon.

Good

"Now they are back, I can see them being back for good - they could tour every year and pack out the stadiums.

"They are all now very much in control of their own destiny. It's up to all four of them whether they want to carry on doing this, and whether they can all work together in the studio. The trick is to turn the huge affection for the old Take That into what's happening now musically, and that is a very difficult thing to do."

Nigel, who is putting a new band together to emulate the success of Take That, will be at the M.E.N Arena tomorrow night to watch the lads he first plucked from obscurity in the city back in 1990.

"Although I was involved in the comeback tour in the early stages, this will be the first time I'll have seen how it has all panned out, so I'm really looking forward to it," he says.

"The boys invited me down on Saturday, so I couldn't really not go and see it."

What do you think? Have your say.

Catch up with all the latest Take That news, below.