| 35th | Top performers on Top of the Pops: 2002 |
| 46th | Top stutterers |
| Gareth Paul Gates | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Gareth Gates |
| Born | 12 July 1984 |
| Origin | Bradford, England |
| Genres | pop |
| Years active | 2002–present |
| Labels | Sony Music Entertainment (Syco) / 19 Recordings (2002-2006) UMTV /19 Recordings (2006-2007) |
| Website | Official site |
Gareth Paul Gates (12 July 1984 in Bradford, England), is an English singer. He was the runner-up in the first series of the ITV talent show Pop Idol. Gates has sold over 3.5 million records in the UK alone.[1] He is also known for having a stutter, and has talked about his speech impediment publicly. Gates used the McGuire Programme to correct the problem and is now a speech coach with the programme.[2] He is currently appearing as Marius in the the International 25th Anniversary World Tour production of Les Misérables.
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Gareth was born in Bradford to father Paul Gates and mother Wendy Broadbent (née Farry). He has three sisters, Nicola (born 1985), Charlotte (born 1991), and Jessica (born 1993) and grew up with his cousin James (born 1986) who was fostered by the family. His parents regularly foster other children.[3]
Gates and his sisters attended Dixons City Academy in West Bowling, Bradford where Gareth studied art and music at GCSE level.
He joined Bradford Cathedral choir at age nine.[4] He was head chorister at Bradford Cathedral by the age of eleven, singing solo for the Queen when she visited in 1997.[5] 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.[6]
Gates was the runner-up to Will Young on the first series of Pop Idol in February 2002. Despite not winning the competition, he was soon signed up by Simon Cowell to the BMG label.
Gates' first single, a cover of "Unchained Melody" entered the UK Singles Chart at number one. The single went double-platinum in the UK, and was voted 2002's The Record of the Year by ITV viewers. This was followed by another number-one single, "Anyone of Us (Stupid Mistake)". His third single, "The Long and Winding Road", a duet with Pop Idol winner Will Young, also reached number one. His fourth, "What My Heart Wants to Say" reached number five. The now-defunct Smash Hits magazine dedicated 7 October 2002 as International Gareth Gates Day.
His debut album, What My Heart Wants to Say achieved first week sales of 100,000 copies, peaking at number two in the UK Albums Chart, and eventually earned double platinum status in the UK.
In 2003, Gates sang the 2003 Comic Relief charity single, "Spirit in the Sky", with The Kumars. The single was a UK number-one 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.
His next single, "Sunshine", reached number three and were taken from his second album Go Your Own Way, which was released in October 2003. However, the album was far less successful than his debut album. It peaked at number eleven in the UK before dropping to #32 the following week, and only spent four weeks on the album chart altogether. The album enjoyed slightly more success in a number of Asian countries however, and Gates won MTV Asia's award for Best International Male in 2003/4. He was awarded the same title by MTV China and MTV Taiwan.
His next single, "Say it Isn't So", reached number four in late 2003, but 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 his album throughout Europe and Asia, before taking a break and training as a speech coach and course instructor with the McGuire Programme.
By this point, Gates had sold just over three million music singles in the UK, including the second and sixth best selling singles in 2002 ("Unchained Melody", which sold 1.4 million, and "Anyone of Us (Stupid Mistake)", which sold 581,000) and the second best selling single in 2003 ("Spirit in the Sky", 561,000 copies). All three of these singles were listed in the Top 100 singles of the decade (2000-2009) as announced on Radio 1 with Spirit in the Sky at #62, Anyone of Us (#56), and Unchained Melody (#2). The biggest selling single of the decade was, ironically, "Anything is Possible"/"Evergreen" by Will Young, whom Gates had lost the Pop Idol contest to.
In the 2003 film, Seeing Double, alongside pop group S Club, Gates played a clone version of himself. He also promoted AIDS awareness through a charity concert to 50,000 people with MTV in Indonesia.
In 2003 and 2004, it was reported 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,[7][8][9] were initially denied by both Gates and the record company at the time. Gates was officially dropped from the label in April 2006 before the release of any new material.[10]
In 2006, Gates appeared in a television documentary for ITV1 called Whatever Happened To Gareth Gates?, which dealt with his experiences in the music industry and his life outside it. The documentary was screened in December 2006, and confirmed a new record deal with UMTV (part of Universal) and a new album as well as showcasing snippets of the new material. An early preview of his new album was given at a secret gig on 29 November 2006.[11] Gates had been working with writers such as Sacha Skarbek (who has worked with James Blunt), Ricky Ross (of Deacon Blue), Gary Clark and Pete Gordeno, and new the album was produced by Martin Terefe, Jon Hall and Nick Whitecross.[12]
Since 2004 Gates had also been working with singer-songwriter Judie Tzuke. 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 the Limelight venue in Crewe during Tzuke's October 2004 tour, Gates 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 30 March 2007, Gates appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, the first time he participated in an interview for a mainstream television chat-show since his speech improvement.
The first single from Gates' third album was "Changes" which was released on 9 April 2007. The single peaked at Number 14. A second single, "Angel on My Shoulder", was released on 18 June 2007, peaking at Number 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 2007. It proved to be Gates' lowest selling album to date and spent only two weeks on the UK album chart, entering at Number 23 before falling to Number 66 the following week, then dropping out of the chart altogether.
During his time working with her, Gates also co-wrote the song "Christmas And I'm Home" with Judie Tzuke. It was first premiered live by Gates in 2004 in Bradford, and Tzuke recorded the song with pianist Haim Cotton. Tzuke's version was released commercially in November 2008, as a charity single download and as a physical CD single sold exclusively through the CD Baby website.
On 6 July 2008 Gates starred in the line-up for A Spoonful of Stiles & Drewe, a charity fundraiser to celebrate 25 years of musical theatre composers George Stiles & Anthony Drewe.[13] Gates played the part of Robbie in a preview of a new musical entitled Soho Cinders [14] and features on the album.
In January 2009, Gates confirmed in an interview with the Daily Mail that he has no plans to go back to the pop music scene in the near future, planning instead to concentrate on musical theatre,[15] as he had just been cast in the lead role in Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Adelphi Theatre, London. Taking over the role from Lee Mead, Gates began the role on 7 February 2009 and continued to play the part until the final performance on 30 May 2009.
In June 2009, it was announced that Gates was joining the cast of the International 25th Anniversary World Tour production of Les Misérables in the role of Marius.[16]
Gates performed at the charity event "Broadway To West End by Special Arrangement" on 4 October 2009 at the Drury Lane Theatre, singing "Why God, Why?" as a solo and "The Last Night of the World" as a duet with Ima Castro. Both songs come from the musical Miss Saigon. The event was to honour the work of orchestrator William David Brohm and raised funds for CLIC Sargent Cancer care.
In 2008, Gates appeared on ITV1's Dancing on Ice with skating partner Maria Filippov, finishing fourth, losing a place in the final to Zaraah Abrahams and dancing partner Fred Palascak.
On 7 September 2008, Gates played for England in Soccer Aid 2008 at Wembley in aid of UNICEF. He was substituted by Tom Felton. England beat The Rest of the World 4-3.
Gates played 'Prince Charming' in the pantomime 'Cinderella' at New Wimbledon Theatre, from December 2008 to January 2009.
In December 2009, Gates took part in ITV's All Star Family Fortunes, along with wife Suzanne, mum Wendy, sister Nicola and best friend Matt, altogether winning £30,000 for the Bobby Moore Fund for bowel cancer.
It was reported that Gates lost his virginity to glamour model Katie Price during the 2002 Pop Idol. Gates initially denied the rumours but finally admitted the relationship in 2003.[17] [18]
Gates lives in Chiswick, West London, with wife Suzanne Gates (née Mole), a dancer whom he met at the Record of the Year awards in 2002, which he won for Unchained Melody. In October 2006, The People newspaper incorrectly reported that they had secretly married.[19] Gates and Mole got engaged on New Years Eve 2007 and were married on 18 July 2008 in a private ceremony for family and friends. The couple had their first child together on 6 April 2009, a girl they named Missy.[20]
Gates qualified as a speech coach and latterly as a course instructor with the McGuire Programme where he helps those with stammers similar to his own. He co-led his first full course in February 2005 and in August 2006 he instructed his first course single-handedly in Galway, Ireland.[21] He led his second at Bournemouth in November 2006, and continues to lead courses in the UK and Ireland, the most recent of which was in June 2009.
Gates is a patron of the HIV/AIDS charity Body and Soul and of the Bobby Moore Fund,[22] which supports research into bowel cancer. He took part in the 2009 Cosmo Everyman campaign to raise awareness of prostate and testicular cancer.
In 2009, it was reported that Gates has made an estimated £6.5 million during his career to date.[23]
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   | Chart battle for Pop Idol finalists - BBC News | MUSIC | Chart battle for Pop Idol finalists |
| | Pop Idol's Gareth is number one - BBC News | MUSIC | Pop Idol's Gareth is number one |
| | Gates admits Jordan relationship - BBC NEWS | UK | Gates admits Jordan relationship |
| | Official MySpace - Invalid Friend ID |
 | Gareth Gates and Sian Solanas (2002) Right From the Start. Virgin Books, London. - Virgin Books - Home |
| | title=Pop - BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Pop singer Gareth Gates to marry |
| | McGuire Programme - Ireland - Irish McGuire Programme: Stammering dot ie |
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