Take That's microphone race - Virgin Media - 03.12.08

by **Leannesg1986** Thu Dec 04, 2008 5:34 am

http://musicnews.virginmedia.com/entertainment/news/music/2008/12/03/take_thats_microphone_race

Take That decide the lead singer for their songs depending on who reaches the microphone first.

Mark Owen revealed during recording session for their latest album The Circus it was a scrabble for the mic as he, Gary Barlow, Jason Orange and Howard Donald competed for lead vocals.

Mark said: "I'm not kidding you, sometimes it's a matter of who grabs hold of the microphone first. The way we write is that we have a little piano and computer set up and we'll play a few chords, and someone will say 'I've got a melody idea', so you pick the microphone up and you know you've only got one shot. Get it right and you'll be singing it, get it wrong and it's all over. You can't go back to that mic, so you have to put everything into that one chance.

"There was a point when we had five or six songs and Gaz said 'You haven't got a vocal on here yet Mark,' because I wasn't getting in there fast enough. I was being too polite! So I changed, and the next two weeks were like me, me, me."

Mark sings four tracks on The Circus and joked: "I paid a lot of money to Gary, that's how I got them. I had to re-mortgage my house."