A Gary Barlow tribute has revealed what it’s really like to impersonate one of the biggest UK boybands of all time for a living - from performing for Coldplay and meeting the real thing on the Graham Norton show.
Danny Maines, who has been a part of Take That tribute act ‘Rule The World’ for two decades, revealed he stumbled upon the move by accident when he went to an audition with a pal, and was told he sounded ‘just like him’ when singing a Barlow song.
Since then, the group have performed thousands of gigs, and after 12 years as a three piece, Danny explains the trio are like ‘brothers’.
Elsewhere, he speaks about some of the most memorable bookings, from a 38,000-strong crowd at a German festival, to an upcoming nudist festival.
He goes on to reveal the choreography as the hardest thing to learn, whilst ‘A Million Love Songs’ is the most difficult song to perform at gigs.
Speaking on behalf of Zingo Bingo, Danny Maines says:
What are your favourite shows to do?
The easiest shows to do are things like theatre shows and the festivals where people have specifically come to see a Take That tribute act. It's a lot easier to set yourself up for those kinds of shows. It's harder to set yourself up for weddings because you just don't know what you're going to get.
We get on like a house on fire, like brothers. We've been together 12 years, so we literally are like brothers, including the arguments and things like that, it's all in there. It can be really hard work, but I'm also lucky enough to have come into this business on the back of working on building sites when I was younger. No matter how hard it gets with traveling or certain shows here, I know it's a hell of a lot easier than working on a building site on December morning.
What did you do before this?
I was an air conditioning engineer before this, so yeah, 6 a.m. on a December morning when it's freezing cold on a building site outside all day is a big difference. I'm glad I had that [experience], because it always keeps me grounded in this when I think, ‘Oh, it's a tough one, this.’ I just always think back to those days, and it’s nowhere near as tough as a real job.
Have you ever done shows for anyone famous or any big corporate gigs that were memorable?
One in particular for me. I'm a big Coldplay fan, and we turned up for a booking, we didn't know what was going on. It was all very hush hush. We were just told, ‘There's a private party in London, there's going to be some famous people there. We can't tell you who it is or what it's for in case you tell anybody.’ So we turned up, the first person I saw walk out was Fearne Cotton. We go over and set up, the gig starts, we walk out, and Coldplay are there and half of the Spice Girls are there with them. It was for Coldplay's management company at the time. We literally start singing ‘Shine’ and Chris Martin's dancing on the dance floor right in front of us.
Did you get to speak to the guests?
Yeah, I got to say hello to shake Chris and the Will Champion’s [the drummer’s] hands. I met Noel Gallagher's wife because I was a big Oasis fan. Noel was on tour at the time, but his wife came. There were a lot of famous faces there, so it was a bit daunting at the same time. This was around 2011 and it was just after Chris had performed Back for Good with Gary for his 40th birthday. I didn't ask him to come up and sing with us, and I should have done. I always regret that.
You met Take That on the Graham Norton show, can you tell me a bit about that?
In the 20 years of doing this, it's probably the most nervous I've ever been, by a long way. We had an email from our management company, asking if we were available to come down to London and do the Graham Norton show with Take That on it. They told us to just come as audience members and they'd do a little skit. We all travelled down, sat in the audience and then it sort of happened. I was like, ‘I'm Gary’, and then Gary went, ‘Oh, he sounds just like me’. Then they asked me to sing and I realised, ‘oh no, I've got to sing a cappella in front of them as well’. My voice was wobbling all over the place, because I was so nervous, but it all went down well.
Then that finished, they performed. It must have been about 2014 because ‘These Days’ had just come out. We went backstage and met Gary. He said, ‘Good sports, that was really good’. Howard was like, ‘That was brilliant’. We asked if we could get a picture, and they were like, ‘Yeah, of course’. We had a little chat about the album, had a picture with them all. Then someone tapped us on the shoulder for a picture - and it was Nicole Kidman! That was another surreal experience for us that we really enjoyed. The Take That lads were really supportive and really nice. I’d been doing it for 7 years by that point as well, so it was a long time doing it and to finally meet who you're pretending to be every week, it was good.
What did Gary say to you?
He was in quite a rush, but they still took the time to tell us they enjoy what we do and told us to keep it up. Gary told us we were keeping the band alive to all the fans when they’re not on tour. So that was nice.
You’ve been told you sound just like Gary Barlow. Is this something you knew all along or did you have to learn it?
Obviously I'm from Manchester anyways, so the accent wasn't far off. This is how I talk normally. This is me. For the ‘Gary’ voice, I slow it down a little bit and just put a bit of a twinge on it, that's how you sound more like him. I just worked on that. I pretty much already sang quite like him anyway, that was just my natural singing voice. I've not really had to change much of that, other than learning the phrasings he uses and where he'll breathe in a song. That’s all I've had to tweak really but tone wise, I think I naturally sounded like him.
How is the band set up?
Predominantly, we're a three piece. That's the bread and butter, that's every weekend. I can't remember the last time we did a four piece with Jason. We sometimes do a four or five piece with Robbie, too. It doesn't happen that often, probably 10 to 15 times throughout the year. It all comes down to budget really too because the Robbie’s are very expensive!
It doesn't happen often, but when it does, I enjoy it because I don't have to sing as much! It's a lot easier for me, and we get on really well with him. He looks just like him and sounds just like him as well.
What’s the weirdest booking you’ve ever had to do?
I think at the very start, one sticks in my mind for me. We did Brannigan's in Blackpool. Now this would have been completely normal, however, whoever booked the event had the bright idea of putting ‘Miss Blackpool’ on before us. By the time we got out on stage, it was just a room full of lads, and they weren't happy about us being there. We managed about three songs and we got pulled off stage because it was getting a bit aggressive.
Then on the other end of the spectrum, I remember doing a festival in Germany. There were something like 38,000 people there and I thought, flipping hell, what are we doing here? It just felt massive. One that we've not done yet, that I think we've booked for, it's either this year or next year, but we've actually been booked to do a nudist festival. That'll be something that we've never done before, in 20 years, so we're looking forward to that with you.
How does the band as a whole go about getting yourselves into character?
We’ve been doing it for 12 years with the line-up we've got now. We study everything - all the live shows from the 90s, all the way through to whatever they've done most recently. We’ll study what harmonies Howard will do on certain songs, what harmonies Mark will do, what lead songs they sing, and how they sing it. Same with Gary, so you just learn your character and get as close as you can with the mannerisms, sounds and accents.
Whenever they bring something new out, that's when we'll revisit. We'll look at all the songs and see what costumes they’re wearing so we look up to date. That's how we change and evolve the show whenever they do something new. We'll keep the core of our show, but adapt and bring little bits in. Now we're at a point where we've got little sections of our show which represent all of their live shows from the start to now.
They’re taking The Circus back on tour this year. Do you think that will make people want more of that era back again?
I think so. That's my favourite live show as well. I went to it in 2009 and I've got tickets for this one. I think it probably will, because it was amazing. I remember it like it was yesterday. When the newer generation sees it, I think they'll go, this is what it's all about, it's just phenomenal. It's a proper show. We'll be looking at bringing a bit more of The Circus back, like the clown medley and things like that that they did. We used to do it all, we did the theatre show, putting the face paints on and all the rest of it. We love doing that.
What do you think is the hardest thing to replicate?
For me, choreography, 100%. I'm the furthest thing from a dancer you could ever get. It's not too bad for me because Gary's always been regarded as the worst dancer, so I can get away with it! It's just muscle memory now, all the routines that we do, but when I first started, I really struggled. The singing always came quite naturally. I've been singing since I was six or seven years old, so that just came naturally. But the choreography and learning the words was always difficult. When a new song comes out, even now it takes a while to get the words in as memory. If I'm singing Patience or something, it's just there because I've been doing it for nearly 20 years. Potentially the same for the other lads as well,because none of us are trained dancers. We're all right with the singing, it's just learning everything else. It takes a bit of time.
Are there any songs you don’t like performing?
I wouldn't say there's anything that we don't like doing, because obviously we only get to do two 45 minute sets. There's that many number one hits that they've got, it's just all the bangers all the way through the night basically. There's nothing in there that you don't like. Certain ones are a bit harder to sing, like A Million Love Songs. I find that it is a bit harder to sing because it's just a little bit up in the register. All the nineties stuff's where the choreography is, they're hard work and quite demanding, fitness wise.
Personally, I'd love to just do a full Circus show, or Beautiful World album. There's songs like that you'd never do live as a tribute act like Reach Out or I'd Wait for Life.
What are your favourite bookings to do?
I love doing festivals in the summer. It’s not just the performance side of it, but it's the logistical side of it as well. When we do festivals, we don't have to take any PA with us. We don't have to set anything up, just walk in, give them the tracks, and get on stage. It's the closest you'll get to being the real thing when you do a festival because the crowd is going mad for every act. You've got other acts around you like Freddie Mercury and the Beatles, it's just brilliant. I love festivals. I've loved doing the cruise ships when we've been on them, and I love doing the theatres as well, because again it's ticket only. They're all there just to see you, so it's a much easier night to perform.
How many festivals have you done? What's been your favourite?
We've done hundreds over the years. Every summer we'll do quite a big run. I couldn't really put a number on it, because there's things like the Adore Festivals and Legends Festivals. They’re all over the country and they'll book you to do all of them on different days. It’s a little mini festival tour if you like. We’ve loved doing the Adored Festivals and Legends Festivals. They were all a live band, which we always would prefer to do instead of a track. Germany always stood out just because it was such a big crowd.
What’s the typical schedule like throughout the year?
It’s busy. You're looking at roughly 150+ shows a year on average. Festivals are usually always in the summer, and then in November and December time, you'll start getting your Christmas lights switched on. They’re always freezing cold, but they're still good fun. We do a lot of hotels and weddings. You're looking at two to four gigs a week. You wouldn't be able to do another job, like a normal 9 to 5 job. It's not possible to do because we are so busy. We've been busy every year, apart from obviously when COVID happened, we had two years off and I had to go and get a proper job for a couple of years, But luckily, as soon as that all finished, we came straight back into it and we were straight busy again.
How often do you update and evolve your shows?
Usually, it’s my decision, purely because I think the lads just prefer it that way anyway. If you're going to change a song, it's nine times out of 10 going to be me singing it. We mainly tend to revamp the show, if you like, when Take That do something new. We will also make tweaks at certain gigs, so if we get into a gig and it's an older crowd, I'll put something like A Million Love Songs in. If it's a younger crowd, I'll change A Million Love songs for the new one, You and Me. I'd prefer to sing that over A Million Love Songs anyway. You can look at the crowd and think, that song will probably work better here, so we'll do that one tonight. It doesn't change that much, really. The talking in between is this whole scripted thing, but then there’ll be the odd off-the-cuff ad-lib where someone says something funny on stage and we respond to that - general camaraderie and moments like that. It's fairly set in its ways, but if Take That does something new, we’ll change it up.
Have you ever had any other celeb bookings or fun showbiz interactions?
Obviously we've done a lot of festivals where we'll be performing and the headline act will be Jason Donovan or something like that. I think the most recent one was Scouting for Girls, we were on before them. We don't tend to get to go and meet them or see them. We met Peter Andre at Butlins. He was on at Butlin's the same night we were, and that's about it really.
What sort of feedback do you get from the audience?
You get a lot. As soon as you finish your show, everyone's wanting pictures and things like that. There’s a lot of things going on, and they'll just say ‘we're brilliant, really good, or you sound just like him’. It’s kind of like being famous for a couple of hours, but you're able to then get in your car and switch it off and go home, whereas the real ones can't. I could still go to Tesco's and get milk!
