Since the moment he chose to learn to play the keyboard instead of riding a BMX bike, Gary Barlow knew he was heading for big things.

So ambitious was the Cheshire lad that by the age of 12, he had secured a slot as a pianist at a social club in Connah’s Quay, North Wales, making £12 a night during weekends.

By 14, he was commanding £140 for four sets a night on the cabaret circuit playing Barry Manilow songs, finishing at 2am when his mother would wait outside to pick him up.

Now, of course, Gary commands millions for the lyrics he pens, and is the lead vocalist in one of the most phenomenally successful boybands the world has ever seen.

Seen as one of the two “main” faces of Take That along with Robbie Williams, Barlow’s first big break came at the age of 15 when he entered the BBC Pebble Mill competition called A Song For Christmas, where he came first runner-up.

Three years later, in 1989, he entered the Manchester Evening News Search For A Star talent competition and was voted, prophetically, the performer with the best long-term future.

He was snapped up by Manchester-based entrepeneur Nigel Martin-Smith, who signed him to his talent agency and pushed him into being the founding member of the new New Kids On The Block-style outfit he was looking to create.

Gary writes most of Take That’s material, scoring 11 number one hits, 27 top 40 singles and 16 top five singles in the United Kingdom alone, as well as having seven number 1 albums.

Their first number one – 1993’s Pray – was Barlow’s own, as was much of the hugely successful album Everything Changes. Pray also saw him take home two Ivor Novello awards that year, for Best Contemporary Song and Songwriter of the Year.

When Robbie left in 1995, Gary and co continued as a quartet, supporting album number three Nobody Else with a UK tour where Gary met his wife-to-be, one of their backing dancers Dawn Andrews.

But that was the only good thing to come from that period and just months later, they decided to call it a day. That’s when it all went a bit wrong for Gary.

He was tipped as the one most likely to “make it”, and achieved a number one hit with album Open Road, but was soon overshadowed by his main rival Robbie, who fuelled the media-hyped rivalry by spouting off about how untalented, fat and generally rubbish his former bandmate was. As Angels became Robbie’s breakthrough hit, saving his career and turning him into a solo star, critics and even Gary’s old fans began to see him as “boring one”.

A one-off stint on Heartbeat failed to spawn an acting career while subsequent hits flopped and, in March 2000, he was dropped by his record label.

“I really did think it was all over as a musician,” he said.

But, determined to stay in the game, he lost weight, upped sticks and moved to LA to work with a string of stars including Blue, Atomic Kitten, Donny Osmond, Delta Goodrem and Charlotte Church.

All the while, he was still jotting down ideas and lyrics for work he would love to do himself. And in 2005, a documentary called Take That: For The Record sparked rumours of a reunion, and Gary confirmed the fab post-Williams foursome would reunite for a “one-off” tour.

Of course, the “one-off” became a full-blown reunion as fans old and new fell in love all over again with their power-pop ballads – again, largely penned by the chiselled-chinned Barlow, who at 40 has never looked so good.

Over the years, he has won the prestigious Ivor Novello Award five times and has been voted the greatest British songwriter of all time in a national 2009 poll organised by OnePoll. Last year’s reunion with Robbie was probably toughest on the father-of-three, who revealed he had to overcome all feelings of resentment over the bitter split more than a decade before.

“A lot of bad stuff happened between me and Robbie, and I hadn’t actually set eyes on him for more than 10 years until we found ourselves in Los Angeles in 2008, mixing The Circus album,” he said.

“I remember him walking into the room and I could barely look at him.

“On the surface, it was all matey-matey stuff but for me it was like meeting someone I’d never met before. I found it hard.

To make a public statement of their newfound friendship following the announcement of Robbie’s big return, the pair released a single together – Shame.
And it just keeps getting better.

With reports that the Progress tour will pocket each individual band member a tidy £6 million, Barlow was given an extra £1.5m boost when he was named as Simon Cowell’s replacement on the new series of the X Factor.

And fans may want to keep an eye on the VIP boxes at Villa Park next week as rumour has it his fellow judges – Kelly Rowland, Louis Walsh and N-Dubz’s Tulisa – have been spotted at several shows so far.