Gary Barlow: 'Coldplay inspired Take That reunion'

Gary Barlow has credited Coldplay with inspiring him to return to the stage with Take That.

The X Factor judge admitted that he had given up hope of performing again before he discovered Coldplay's debut album Parachutes and frontman Chris Martin's vocals.

"I spent years telling everyone around that I didn't want to be an artist again. I didn't sing for six or seven years," The Sun quotes Barlow as saying.

"I seldom sang on demos and if I could get someone else to sing then I would - right until I heard the first Coldplay album.

"I realised that you could be in a rock band and not have a husky rasp - Chris has the most beautiful voice. I thought for the first time, 'I could see myself doing that again'.

"For the first time in years I could see that place. I have told Chris that story - it's all part of the journey, passing the baton from band to band."

Barlow said that Take That's 2006 comeback album Beautiful World began to take shape after he realised that the '90s boyband could find success with a similar sound.

"I was so inspired by that stuff," he added. "I used to play and sing it on my own. So when I came back I imagined that sound and the guitars and imagined the stadium sound of a Coldplay song.

"I thought that could work for us, especially as a vocal group as well. Obviously there are not usually many harmonies with Coldplay but I hear them and I could hear where they would fit. I thought that was very much a direction that could work for us."

Barlow has since performed with Coldplay on stage at the War Child benefit gig in London in 2009, and at a Crisis charity gig in Liverpool in 2010.

Martin has also praised Barlow in the past, and even claimed that Coldplay would be happy to open for Take That on tour.

> Gary Barlow wrote "rubbish" songs after Take That split

Watch the video for Coldplay's first single from Parachutes, 'Shiver', below: