19 December 1993
By the time Take That get to number one in Ireland, they’re no longer Robbie Williams’ Take That—cheeky dance routines and disco bops—but instead Gary Barlow’s Take That: ‘classic’ songwriting and Gary at the piano with four bored-looking backing singers. As it happens, the lead vocal on ‘Babe’ is by Mark Owen, sounding here like a weak and malnourished Oliver Twist asking for more, but it’s on the latter principle. Mark’s role in Take That was always just to stand there and be cute, so even more than Howard or Jason he’s the Ringo of Take That vocals. (I don’t mean that dismissively; Ringo was the coolest Beatle—fact—and Mark has always seemed a likeable chap.)
‘Babe’ is a storytelling song, and tells that story in the dreariest, most laboured and ponderous way possible. Just to phone someone and say hello, Mark takes four painstakingly slow lines, time I can never get back. Our next Take That chart-topper will be a far better Gary Barlow ballad, so maybe we can excuse this one as an early exercise in Gary furrowing his brow and trying really, really hard to write a grown-up song without childish fripperies like energy and fun.
