Take That: 'We don't really care if new album is a hit or not'

Howard Donald, Gary Barlow and Mark Owen of the band Take That. Photo / Getty Images

"We're not boys any more," says Mark Owen, once Take That's sweet-faced pin-up, now a grizzled 47-year-old. "But I don't think the word boyband had even been invented when we started. We thought of ourselves as a pop group. And pop never gets old."

A 25-track career retrospective, Odyssey, has been released and next year Take That embark on a massive arena greatest hits tour of the UK and Europe. "It does feel like the end of something," says Gary Barlow, carefully. The band's original songwriter and frontman, he is dapper and bearded at 47.

"But it's not farewell," interjects the third member, Howard Donald, the eldest at 52, unshaven, unkempt, lounging in sportswear with an air of laidback amusement, as if he still can't quite believe stardom is his life.

Seated in a plush London hotel suite, the hirsute, wrinkled trio don't exactly look like boyband material any more. To be fair, they don't seem remotely concerned about it, exuding the bluff, relaxed air of grown-ups comfortable with their life choices.

"If I could be bold, I don't give a s*** whether the new album's a hit or not," says Barlow, a man once almost defined by a sense of pressing ambition. "The music is only a piece of the pie now, its not the be all and end all."

There are three new songs on Odyssey, and others have been re-recorded and remixed to create a narrative telling the band's story.

Despite the global success of their successors One Direction, Take That remain the biggest-selling British boyband of all time, with 28 top 40 singles in the UK and seven number one albums. But the music business has changed almost beyond recognition since Take That first got together in 1989.

"We can't worry about streaming and new platforms and whether it will be played on the radio. Even if it's a flop, we're still going to go on tour next year and play to 600,000 people."

Originally there were five members of the band, including Robbie Williams and Jason Orange, but in 1995, following controversies over drink and drugs, Williams quit. He subsequently went on to become one of the most successful solo artists in British pop history.

After soldiering on for a year as a four-piece, the band broke up in 1996.

"This idea that pop stars are invincible is a crock of s***, and I think the public knows that," says Donald, keen to emphasise they have no complaints. "Everybody goes through hard times. But I'll tell you what, working nine to five your whole life? That's harder."

Owen recalls the young Take That meeting Ringo Starr in Monaco in the Nineties.

"He said, 'Don't let them work you too hard'. So whenever I meet a young band and they ask for advice, I pass on Ringo's words."

"I think that is really bad advice," retorts Donald.

"Well, we never listened anyway." insists Barlow. "We still work too hard."

Take That reunited as a quartet in 2005, playing sophisticated anthemic pop rock, with all members sharing songwriting and lead vocals.

"We really didn't know if anyone wanted to hear from us again," says Barlow. But the mature version proved even more popular.

In 2010, Williams rejoined for the hugely successful Progress album and they went on to win best British group at the 2011 Brit Awards. "We danced, we were on the tables."

Williams subsequently departed to concentrate on his solo career, and so did Jason Orange, tired of the touring life. The surviving three-piece released two hit albums, though 2016's Wonderland was held off the top spot in the UK by Ed Sheeran.

They have maintained positive relationships with both ex-band mates. "We have walked through so much life together," says Gary.

"For me, it would be a wonderful thing if maybe, one day, the five us would do something together again," says Owen.

So it would appear that it is not yet the end of the saga of Britain's longest-running boyband. "It is the end of part two," says Barlow. "What's next? We don't know! But I think knowing that this is the end of a chapter will make us come back hungrier, and work harder."

This declaration appears to alarm Owen. "I'm already working as hard as I can!" he comically protests.

"Don't listen to Ringo," quips Donald.

• Odyssey is out now.