Howard Donald

Howard Paul Donald born 28 April 1968 is an English singer songwriter drummer pianist dancer DJ and record producer He is a member of the pop group Take That He was also judge on the German reality talent show Got to Dance from 2013 to 2014 during a Take Thathiatus Donald was educated at Littlemoss High School in Droylsden gaining no GCSEs and trained for three years as a vehicle painter on the Youth Training Scheme YTS A budding DJ his musical interests were largely informed by his brother Colins vinyl collection and included electronic acts such as Kraftwerk John Foxx Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark OMD and Gary Numan As a teenager Donald became interested in dancing and frequented the burgeoning breakdancing circuit in the Greater Manchester area where he would first come into contact with future bandmate Jason Orange He auditioned for Nigel MartinSmiths new boy band project at his office in Manchester and was selected The group was eventually named Take That Nigel MartinSmith recruited Donald along with Gary Barlow Jason Orange Mark Owen and Robbie Williams to form a British boyband Take That The band enjoyed five years of success until Williams left in 1995 leaving them to carry on as a quartet Along with Orange Donald featured less on lead vocals than Barlow Owen and Williams during the bands first era however did sing lead vocal on the single Never Forget which reached No 1 in the UK in 1995 In early 1996 Donalds bandmates Barlow Owen and Orange came to the difficult decision that Take That was to split They told Donald who was not happy but went along with their decision Following the split Donald attempted a solo career recording an unreleased single Speak Without Words and returned to DJing In the 2005 documentary Take That For the Record Donald confessed to being unstable enough to have the intention of committing suicide by drowning himself in the River Thames not long after the split In 2005 Take That reformed and announced a reunion tour The Ultimate Tour in the summer of 2006 following the release of their Greatest Hits album Never Forget The Ultimate Collection The tour was followed in late 2006 by their first studio album since 1995 Beautiful World and from it they achieved two number ones in Patience and Shine Beautiful World featured Donald on lead vocals on two tracks Beautiful World and Mancunian Way The song Mancunian Way is a tribute to the bands hometown of Manchester On the 2008 Take That album The Circus Donald sang lead on two tracks What Is Love and Here He also shared lead vocals with the rest of the band on the albums opening track The Garden On the 2010 Take That album Progress Donald sang lead vocals on the track Affirmation He also played drums on several songs on the Progress album and mixed a Bside track for the second single Kidz called Revenge of the Kidz On the 2017 Take That album Wonderland Donald sang lead vocals on Every Revolution In 2021 Donald appeared on The Masked Dancer masked as Zip He reached the final and was unmasked in third place Donald was one of the judges on a dancing show Got to Dance in Germany from 2013 to 2014 Source Article Howard Donald from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30