Gareth Gates
Background information
Birth name	Gareth Paul Gates
Born	July 12, 1984 (1984-07-12) (age 23)
Origin	Bradford, England
Genre(s)	Pop Soul
Years active	2002–present
Label(s)	SonyBMG (2002-2006) 19 Recordings Ltd/UMTV (2006-Present)
Website	Official site

Gareth Paul Gates (born July 12, 1984, Bradford, England) is an English pop singer who shot to fame in 2002 when he came second in the first series of the ITV talent show Pop Idol. Gates is also known for overcoming his severe stammer through the McGuire Programme[13], qualifying as a speech coach in 2004 [14]. So far he has sold 3.5 million singles & albums in the UK alone.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Pop Idol 2.2 Post-Pop Idol 2.3 Recent career 3 Personal life 4 Discography 4.1 DVDs 5 Tours and concerts 6 Records and awards 6.1 Awards 6.2 Records 7 References 8 External links

Early life

Gates was born in Bradford. 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.

Career

Pop Idol

An early favourite to win, Gates was runner-up on the first series of Pop Idol in February 2002. Despite not winning the competition, he was soon signed up with Simon Cowell's record label BMG. (Cowell had been one of the Pop Idol judges, notorious for his harsh criticisms of many of the contestants.)

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

Post-Pop Idol

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 debut album, What My Heart Wants to Say, entered the chart at number 2, held off the number 1 position by David Gray's 'A New Day At Midnight' album. It nevertheless went on to achieve first week sales of over one hundred thousand, and went on to achieve double platinum status.

In 2003, Gates sang the 2003 Comic Relief charity single, "Spirit in the Sky", with The Kumars. This was also a number-one hit, staying there for two weeks. He also appeared in Comic Relief's Celebrity Driving School. Through Comic Relief, he became involved with Body and Soul, a charity that helps people affected by HIV and AIDS. He continues to be involved.

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.

"Say It Isn't So", a 2003 number-four single, proved to be Gates' last single release in the UK until April 2007. At the start of 2004 he did an arena tour of the UK, then continued to promote throughout Europe and Asia, before taking a break and training as a speech coach and course instructor with the McGuire Programme.

He also had a part in the film Seeing Double, and increased his charitable work, promoting AIDS awareness through a charity concert to fifty thousand people with MTV in Indonesia.

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).

Recent career

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.

The first single from the new album was "Changes" which was released on 9 April 2007, peaking at No.14. His second single "Angel on My Shoulder" was released on 18th June, peaking at No.22. Both singles remained in the UK top 40 for only one week. Gates' third album, Pictures of the Other Side, was released on 25 June and spent two weeks on the UK album chart, entering at No.23 before falling to No.66 the following week, then dropping out of the chart altogether.

Personal life

Gates is qualified as a speech coach and latterly course instructor with the McGuire Programme where he helps those with stammers such as his own. He was the youngest UK person to qualify as a speech coach with the programme. He co-led his first full course in February 2005 and in August 2006 instructed his first course single-handedly in Galway. He led his second at Bournemouth in November 2006.

Gates is a keen supporter of Bradford Bulls and Leeds United F.C..

Gates was alleged to have had a liaision with glamour model Katie Price during the 2002 Pop Idol. Gates initially denied the rumours but finally admitted the affair in 2003. At first he refused to confirm the stories saying that he "sees relationships as private" and was hurt that Price told the media about their relationship.

Gates lives in Vauxhall, London with dancer, choreographer and model Suzanne Mole, who 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 since shown to be untrue.

Gareth is a patron of HIV / Aids Charity Body and Soul

Discography

Album cover	Album information
	What My Heart Wants to Say Chart positions: #1 (Taiwan, South Korea), #2 (UK) Certification: Double platinum in U.K, Triple platinum in Taiwan, platinum in Indonesia and Malaysia, Gold in Norway Additional Sales info: forty-eight thousand + in Spain, 140,000 + in South Africa Biggest selling western artist album in Taiwan 2nd biggest selling western artist album in MTV Asia area Singles: "Unchained Melody" UK #1, AU #9 "Anyone of Us (Stupid Mistake)" UK #1 , NL #1 "The Long and Winding Road" (duet with Will Young) / "Suspicious Minds" UK #1 (double-A side) "What My Heart Wants to Say" UK #5
	Go Your Own Way Chart positions: #1 (Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, Malaysia), #11 (UK) Certification: Double platinum in Taiwan, Gold in South Africa Additional sales info: 30,000 + in Spain Biggest selling Western artist album in Taiwan Singles: "Spirit in the Sky" UK #1 "Sunshine" UK #3 "Say It Isn't So" UK #4
	Pictures of the Other Side Chart positions: #23 (UK) Singles: "Changes" UK #14 "Angel on My Shoulder" UK #22

DVDs

1. Gareth Gates Live
2. Pop Idol Tour DVD

Tours and concerts

Tours

• Pop Idol Arena Tour 2002
• Will and Gareth Arena Tour 2003
• Go Your Own Way Arena Tour - UK and Asia 2004

Other notable concerts

• Private concert for the Prince of Brunei, January 2005
• MTV Asia AIDS Awareness Concert, Indonesia, December 2004
• Concert to open Louis Vuitton's first store in Shanghai, China, October 2004

Records and awards

Awards

UK

• The Record of the Year 2002: "Unchained Melody"
• Smash Hits Awards 2002: best male, best hair, best newcomer, most fanciable male
• Smash Hits Awards 2003: best male, best single ("Sunshine")
• Young Achievers Yorkshire 2002
• Special award for service to Yorkshire 2002
• OUT magazine awards 2003: best singer, best video ("Sunshine"), best performance at G-A-Y

Overseas

• MTV Asia: Best International Male 2003/2004
• MTV China: Best International Male 2003/2004
• MTV Taiwan: Best International Male 2003/2004
• TMF Belgium: Best International Pop
• MTV Taiwan: Inspiration to Youth
• G-Music (Taiwan): Best International Artist 2003
• Hit FM: Best single of 2003 (AOU)

Records

• Youngest male to enter the UK Singles Chart at #1. He was seventeen years and 255 days old when he debuted at #1 with "Unchained Melody" on 24 March 2002.
• Not only is Gates the youngest solo male artist to have four number ones, but he was also the first male solo artist to have four number-one singles in a twelve month period since Frank Ifield in 1965.
• Fans with the loudest screams: Sheffield Arena during "Mack the Knife", Pop Idol Tour. Recorded at 130 decibels.

References

External links

• Official website
• Official MySpace
• "Chart battle for Pop Idol finalists" - BBC News article, March 18, 2002
• "Pop Idol's Gareth is number one" - BBC News article, March 24, 2002
• McGuire Programme - UK
• I Like Music Gareth Gates interview 2007 - ilikemusic.com