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| Birth Name(s) : Gareth Gates |
Date of Birth: N/A |
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Full Gareth Gates Biography
Gates was born in Bradford to father Paul Gates and mother Wendy Broadbent . He has three sisters, Jessica (b. 1993), Charlotte (b. 1991) and Nicola (b. 1985) and grew up with cousin James (b. 1986) who was fostered by the family. His parents regularly foster other children.
Gates joined Bradford Cathedral choir at age nine. He was head chorister at Bradford Cathedral by the age of eleven, singing solo for the Queen when she visited in 1997. Gates achieved Grade VIII in piano, classical guitar and singing. He had gained a place at the Royal Northern College of Music before the finals of Pop Idol.
The songs Gareth sang on Pop Idol were:
- Audition - Flying Without Wings by Westlife
- Top 50 (Semi Finals) - Flying Without Wings by Westlife
- Top 10 (Your Pop Idol) - Everything I Do (I Do It For You) by Bryan Adams
- Top 9 (Christmas Songs) - Last Christmas by George Michael
- Top 8 (Burt Bacharach) - Arthur's Theme by Christopher Cross
- Top 7 (Movie Hits) - My Girl by The Temptations
- Top 6 (ABBA) - One Of Us by ABBA
- Top 5 (Big Band Hits) - Mack the Knife by Bobby Darin
- Top 4 (No. 1 Hits) - Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers
- Top 3 (Judge's Choice) - Yesterday by The Beatles; Flying Without Wings by Westlife
- Top 2 (Grand Finale) - Evergreen by Westlife; Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers; Anything Is Possible
Gates' first single, a cover version of "Unchained Melody", entered the UK Singles Chart at number one, knocking Will Young's first single — the double A-side "Anything is Possible"/"Evergreen" — off the top of the chart. The single went double-platinum in the UK, and was voted 2002's Record of the Year by ITV viewers, but it failed to best Will Young's triple-platinum debut single. This was followed by another high selling number-one single, "Anyone of Us (Stupid Mistake)". His third single, "The Long and Winding Road", a duet with Will Young, also reached number one. His fourth, "What My Heart Wants to Say" reached number five.
Gates was at the height of his fame in 2002, with the now-defunct Smash Hits magazine dedicating 7 November as International Gates Day for his fans.
His next two singles "Sunshine" and "Say It Isn't So" reached numbers three and four respectively. His second album Go Your Own Way peaked at number eleven in the UK. It charted at number 1 and achieved platinum status in a number of Asian countries.
Gates has enjoyed significant success outside the UK, particularly in Asia, South Africa and many European countries. He won MTV Asia's award for Best International Male in 2003/4 and was awarded the same title by MTV China and MTV Taiwan.
To date, Gates has sold just over three million music singles in the UK alone, including the second and sixth best selling singles in 2002 ("Unchained Melody", which sold 1.3 million, and "Anyone of Us (Stupid Mistake)", which sold 570,000) and the second best selling single in 2003 ("Spirit in the Sky", 550,000 copies).
In 2003 and 2004, it was reported in the national press that Gates was being dropped by his record company BMG. The reports, which also cited low sales of his second album and low concert ticket sales as reasons, were denied by both Gates and the record company at the time. However, Gates was eventually dropped from the label two years later in April 2006 before the release of any new material.
Gates later appeared on a documentary called Whatever Happened to Gareth Gates? about his experiences in the industry and his life outside it, which was screened on ITV1 in December 2006. The documentary confirmed a new record deal with UMTV, part of Universal, and an album as well as showcasing snippets of the new material.
An early preview of his new music was given at a secret gig on 29 November 2006 where he sang tracks titled "Afterglow", "Pictures of the Other Side", "Changes", "Angel on My Shoulder", "New Kid in Town", "Lost in You", "Can't Believe It's Over" and "19 Minutes". He has been working with writers such as Sacha Skarbek (James Blunt), Ricky Ross (of Deacon Blue fame) and Pete Gordeno, and has been produced by Martin Terefe, Jon Hall and Nick Whitecross.
Since 2004 Gates has also been working extensively with singer-songwriter Judie Tzuke (best known for her 1979 hit "Stay With Me Till Dawn"). Initial contact was apparently made through Lucie Silvas; Gates' regular acoustic guitarist, Graham Kearns, also worked with Tzuke and has writing credits with Gates on both albums. Appearing at Crewe's Limelight during Tzuke's October 2004 tour, Gareth sang backing vocals to a surprised audience on Tzuke's track "Bully" (from her album Secret Agent). A song Gates co-wrote with Tzuke, "Dark Days", appeared on Tzuke's 2007 album Songs 1.
On March 30th 2007 Gates appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, the first time he has participated in an interview for a mainstream TV chat-show since his speech improvement.
Gates lives in Vauxhall, London with dancer, choreographer and model Suzanne Mole, whom he met at the Record of the Year awards in 2002. In October 2006 The People newspaper reported that they had secretly married, although this was subsequently shown to be untrue. |
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