Bonjour, Wilkommen and Olá. Don’t mind us, we’re just getting a bit continental… time for this week’s Pop Essays, where we profile yet another untapped gem of musical marvellousness. This week: time for a solo Boogie with one fifth of one of the 90s biggest pop bands…
- Artist: Mark Owen
- Song: Believe In The Boogie
- Released: 22/08/2005
- Writers / Producers: Mark Owen / Paul Freeman / Adam Falkner / Tony Hoffer
- Highest UK Chart Position: #57
- Chart Run: 57
For all the intense focus and history that surrounded both Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow’s solo careers following the demise of Take That in 1996, there was one, perhaps lesser discussed solo venture from the 90s biggest boyband that is only really just finding retrospective appreciation.
On paper, as one of the band’s most popular members at its height, Mark Owen was someone who you’d have had smart money on being a big success outside of the band. And things did seem that way to begin with; towards the end of 1996, he’d kicked off his solo career with the #3 hit “Child”, an ethereal yet epic sounding ballad, which repositioned him in more of an alternative pop sound, influenced largely by working with John Leckie, who had produced for both The Stone Roses and Radiohead.
This was quickly followed up by a second top 3 success in February 1997, the jangly singalong anthem “Clementine”. But his debut album Green Man had failed to sell in the anticipated numbers (it peaked at #33), and when his third single, “I Am What I Am”, released almost six months later in August of that year, barely scraped the top 30, all fell silent and RCA Records quietly dropped him. Fast forward five years later to 2002, and a winning appearance on the second series of Celebrity Big Brother immediately placed Mark back into the hearts and minds of the general public.
A new record deal with Universal Island followed, along with his second album, In Your Own Time, which produced the top 5 smash “Four Minute Warning” in August 2003. But when the album’s second single, “Alone Without You”, only peaked at #27, with the album missing the top 40 altogether, it felt like history was repeating itself. Particularly as it had been well established by this point that Robbie Williams (who he had actually performed “Back For Good” with at his sold out Knebworth gig in the summer of 2003) had achieved by all measures the most successful solo career outside the band.
One thing that is touched on in retrospectives surrounding In Your Own Time is how major label executives at Universal Island were still tying him into his “cute one” image he had incurred whilst being in Take That, which they were reluctant to let go of. It is therefore no surprise that come the start of 2004, Mark was once again adrift from a major label record deal.
But 2004 was a turning point in many ways for the industry; it was the start of new avenues, including the fledgling social network site MySpace, and the beginnings of many bands self recording, releasing and touring off their own back.
There were even quite a few higher profile artists taking this route; Simply Red for instance, had enjoyed a platinum selling album with their self released LP, Home, and Melanie C, herself cast adrift from Virgin Records after an underperforming second album, set up her own label, Red Girl Records, which she still releases new solo music through to this very day.
Mark thus set up his own label, Sedna Records, and work began on his third solo album, How The Mighty Fall – which was to be the subject of a very long winded campaign indeed, but mainly as a result of doing it all himself. Although that, if anything, was the biggest indicator of how seriously Mark took it all and how much care went into producing his songs. Speaking in an interview at the time, he said: “Doing it properly isn’t cheap. These are my indulgences. I don’t have a Ferrari, I have two albums.”
Working with Tony Hoffer, who counted Air, The Thrills and Turin Brakes amongst his production credits, thus meant the material leaned into more of a quirky retro 70s sound than his previous material ever had; “Makin’ Out” was the first single and sidled into the top 30 in June 2004. It was a wait of well over a year later – by which point the album was already out in Germany ahead of its UK release, where he still had a big following from his Take That days – before a second single emerged.
It’s a well known fact that songs with the word “boogie” in the title are nothing short of awesome: Baccara’s “Yes Sir, I Can Boogie”, T-Rex’s “I Love To Boogie” and Earth, Wind and Fire’s “Boogie Wonderland”. And “Believe In The Boogie” kept that proud tradition alive, even with its stompy, acoustic jam feel. In fact, we would argue it is one of Mark’s best singles as a solo artist.
Lyrically, it could be interpreted as being about someone who’d had something – success, love, money – to a great degree, then lost it, but still supporting them through it all: “Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh / There’s a friend of mine / Who’s wasting all his money / Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh / Think he’s had his time / Think he’s lost his mind / Still a friend of mine”.
On the one hand, this lyric could even have applied to Gary’s then situation, who Mark had worked with again on the In Your Own Time but had by this point retreated out the public eye to focus on songwriting for other artists including Blue and Delta Goodrem; that said, their relationship had not been quite so fractious as Gary’s had been with Robbie.
In many ways, it’s a shame that a song like this – particularly one with such an earworm chorus (“Cause I believe in the boogie, baby / Times are changing, everything will come around”) was on the least commercially successful album of Mark’s. But we would also argue it was a precursor to what his next musical pursuits were after this album.
Because yes, after just one more single – “Hail Mary” – he had reunited with the rest of Take That for their now legendary 2006 comeback tour, and the Beautiful World album. “Believe In The Boogie” could be viewed therefore, as a bit of a blueprint for some of the songs that were on that album and also The Circus in 2008 – you can draw an easy line between this and say, “Shine” or “Up All Night”. Those wanting to investigate before Take That were back for good proper therefore, might do well to deep dive into Mark’s efforts immediately prior to them reconvening.
Don’t forget to follow our Pop Essays playlist on Spotify, which includes this and all the songs we’ve written about. What are your memories of this week’s featured song or band? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or message us on our Instagram.
The Niche Reference 