Take That are an English five-piece vocal pop group comprising Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Robbie Williams. Barlow acts as the lead singer and primary songwriter. In total, the group have had 25 top 40 singles and 16 top 5 singles in the United Kingdom alone, 11 of which have reached number 1, as well as having six number 1 albums.

Take That's dance-oriented pop tunes and soulful ballads dominated the UK charts in the first half of the 1990s, winning multiple BRIT Awards whilst also spawning two of the best selling albums of the decade with Everything Changes (which was nominated for the 1994 Mercury Prize) and their Greatest Hits album. Williams left the band in 1995 whilst the four remaining members completed their world tour and released a final single before splitting up in 1996. However, after filming a 2005 documentary and releasing a new greatest hits album, the four-piece Take That officially announced a 2006 reunion tour around the UK, entitled The Ultimate Tour. On 9 May 2006, it was announced that the group were set to record new material together once again; their fourth studio album, Beautiful World, was released in 2006 and was followed up with The Circus, in 2008. The group achieved new success as a four-piece, scoring a string of chart hits across the UK and Europe whilst taking the number of records sold to over 40 million worldwide. Williams rejoined the group in 2010, and their sixth studio album, Progress was released on 15 November of that year, making it the first album of new material to feature Take That's original line-up since their 1995 album, Nobody Else.

In 1989, Nigel Martin-Smith sought to create a British male vocal singing group. Having seen the success and fame of what was the nascent concept of boy bands following the meteoric rise of the New Kids on the Block in the United States, he realised there was no such contemporary group in the United Kingdom. Martin-Smith's vision, however, was more teen-oriented than the clean-cut image that the New Kids sported in the media. A campaign to audition young men with abilities in dancing and singing took place in Manchester and other surrounding cities in 1990. Martin-Smith met budding songwriter Gary Barlow through well known celebrity photographer Michael Braham, whom Barlow had hired to take professional head shots. Michael was an old friend of Nigels, and knew about him looking for guys to put together a boy band with. Michael gave Nigel Martin-Smith's personal mobile number to Gary and the rest as they say is history. Impressed with Barlow's catalogue of self-written material, he put him under consideration for the group. At twenty-two, Howard Donald was one of the oldest to audition, but he managed to become accepted into the band after getting off work as a vehicle painter. When asked to recruit other possible candidates, Donald recommended fellow street dancer Jason Orange, who had appeared as a dancer on The Hitman and Her.

1993 saw the release of Everything Changes, based on Barlow's original material. It peaked at number 1 in the UK and spawned four UK number one singles – their first number one "Pray", "Relight My Fire", "Babe" (beaten to the Christmas number one by Mr Blobby), and the title track "Everything Changes". The fifth single "Love Ain't Here Anymore" reached number three on the UK charts. Everything Changes saw the band gain international success, but it failed to crack the US market where an exclusive remix "Love Ain't Here Anymore" (U.S. Version) gained little success. However, by 1994, the band had become radio and television stars across Europe and Asia. But it was not until 1996 that the band would do their first World Tour.

It was during the years 1993–95 that the band fronted scores of magazine covers ranging from Smash Hits to GQ, becoming mass merchandised on all sorts of paraphernalia ranging from picture books, to posters, stickers, their own dolls, jewellery, caps, T-shirts, toothbrushes and even had their own annuals released. The band had also developed a large female teenage fanbase at the time. During this time, they performed at numerous music awards shows and chart shows such as the BRIT Awards and Top of the Pops, also winning the Best Live Act award in 1995 at the MTV Europe Music Awards, having been renowned for their breakdance routines, melodious harmonies, elaborate costumes and flamboyant stage props.

In July 1995, Robbie Williams' drug abuse had escalated to a near drug overdose the night before the group was scheduled to perform at the MTV Europe Music Awards. According to the documentary For the Record, Williams was unhappy with his musical ideas not being taken seriously by lead singer Barlow and Nigel Martin-Smith, because his desires to explore more hip hop and the rap genre conflicted with the band's usual ballads. Barlow explained in interviews that Williams had given up trying to offer creative input and merely did as he was told. As well as the friction with Nigel, Jason had problems with Robbie's increasingly belligerent behaviour and his habit of missing the band's rehearsals. Both he and Barlow confronted Martin-Smith about the internal conflict, because they did not want Robbie dropping out while touring and before they planned to explore America in the next few years, which ultimately never came to pass. During one of the last rehearsals before the tour commenced, they confronted Robbie about his attitude and stated they wanted to do the tour without him. He agreed to quit the band and left; it would be the last time for twelve years that they were all together.

Shortly afterwards, Williams was photographed by the press partying with fellow band Oasis at Glastonbury Festival. Following his departure, he became the subject of talk shows and newspapers as he acknowledged his plans to become a solo singer, and he was spotted partying with George Michael in France. However, a clause in his Take That contract prohibited him from releasing any material until after the group was officially dissolved, and he was later sued by Nigel and forced to pay $200,000 in commission. Undaunted by the loss, Take That continued to promote Nobody Else as a four piece, scoring a further hit single with Barlow's "Never Forget" and completing the Nobody Else Tour in July 1995.

On 13 February 1996, Take That formally announced that they were disbanding. This was followed by the Greatest Hits compilation in 1996, which contained a new recording, a cover of The Bee Gees' "How Deep Is Your Love". The single went on to become what was to be the band's final UK number one until their 2006 comeback a decade later. Take That gave what was thought to be their final performance in April 1996 at Amsterdam. Following the band's announcement, millions of their fans were distraught around the world and in the UK alone, teenage girls threatened suicide and were seen lining streets in tears, to the point that telephone hotlines were set up by the government to deal with counselling them.

On 14 November 2005, Never Forget - The Ultimate Collection, a new compilation of their hit singles including a new previously unreleased song, also achieved great success and peaked at number 2 on UK charts and achieving 3x Platinum. The new song "Today I've Lost You" (recorded in September 2005) was originally written by Gary Barlow as the follow up to "Back for Good" but was never recorded. On 16 November 2005, the group got back together for the ITV documentary Take That: For the Record, in which they aired their views over their fame, success, the split and what the post-williams line up had done since. On 25 November 2005, there was an official press conference by the band announcing that the post Robbie Williams line-up were going to tour in 2006. The tour, entitled Ultimate Tour, ran from April to June 2006. The tour featured a guest appearance by British soul singer Beverley Knight, who replaced Lulu's vocals on the song "Relight My Fire"; although Lulu did appear during the stadium shows on "Relight My Fire" and "Never Forget". The American female ensemble Pussycat Dolls supported the group at their Dublin concert, and the Sugababes supported the group on the final five dates of the stadium leg.

On 9 May 2006, Take That came back to the recorded music scene after more than ten years, signing with Polydor Records in a deal reportedly worth 3 million pounds. The band's comeback album, Beautiful World, entered the UK album chart at no. 1 and, as of June 2009, had sold over 2.6 million copies in the UK. It is currently the 35th best selling album in UK music history.

In the album Beautiful World all four members of the band had the opportunity to sing lead vocals. Unlike the band's earlier works, where the majority of their material was written by Gary Barlow who received a sole credit, all four band members are credited as co-writers, regardless of whether they contributed to the writing process or not. The comeback single, "Patience", was released on 20 November 2006, with a special event launching it on 5 November. On 26 November "Patience" hit number 1 in the UK in its second week of chart entry making it the group's ninth No. 1 and stayed there for 4 weeks. Take That accompanied Leona Lewis in a version of "A Million Love Songs" in the final of The X Factor on 16 December 2006, just before she went on to win the show.

The week after Take That's comeback album Beautiful World was released it was announced that Take That had become the first artists ever to top the UK official single and album charts along with the download single, download album and DVD charts in the same week, as well as topping the radio charts.

"Greatest Day", the first single from the album The Circus, made its radio premiere on 13 October 2008 and it was released on 24 November. It debuted at Number 1 in the UK Singles Chart on 30 November 2008. An album launch party for The Circus was held in Paris on the 2 December. Prior to the official release of Take That's upcoming album The Circus it was revealed that the album had broken all preorder records and had become the most preordered album of all time. On its first day of release The Circus sold 133,000 copies, and after four days on sale it sold 306,000 copies (going platinum) making The Circus the fastest selling album of the year. The album reached number 1 on the UK album charts on 7 December 2008 with total first-week sales of 432,490, the third highest opening sales week in UK history.

On 7 June 2010 the news broke of a single called "Shame" which had been written by Barlow and Williams and would feature the vocals of both artists. This was the first time the pair had worked together since 1995 and would appear on the second greatest hits collection of Williams. The single peaked at number 2 on the UK singles chart whilst also achieving success throughout Europe.

On 15 July 2010, Robbie Williams announced he was returning to Take That. A joint statement between Williams and the group read, "The rumours are true... Take That: the original lineup, have written and recorded a new album for release later this year." The statement went on to say, "Following months of speculation Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Robbie Williams confirmed they have been recording a new studio album as a five-piece, which they will release in November."

The lead single from Take That's forthcoming album Progress has been announced as "The Flood" and was released 7 November as a digital download, and on 8 November as a physical copy, with the album released a week later on 15 November.

On 26 October the band announced that they would be embarking on a huge UK stadium tour entitled Progress Live 2011 starting in Sunderland on 27 May, and finishing with a record breaking 8 nights at London's Wembley Stadium in July 2011. Williams will also perform hit singles from his solo career. They will then play at some of the biggest venues across Europe for the second leg of the tour. The phenomenal demand for tickets across the country led to all the major ticket suppliers across the UK crashing for hours on end. The demand and sheer volume of fans also created problems for the U.K. telephone network. Take That's Progress Live 2011 has also broken all records for tickets sales selling over 1.1 million tickets in one day smashing the previous box office record set by Take That's Circus tour in 2008.