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Robbie Williams · S2 E6
Do What U Like
The debut single nobody remembers — and why it matters more than you think
Vector Television studios, Heaton Mersey, June 21, 1991. Five boys in faux bondage gear and studded leather codpieces are being smeared with jelly and custard by women in little black dresses. This is how Take That introduce themselves to the world.
Do What U Like (1991). Take That's debut single. Five boys, bondage gear, jelly, custard, and bare backsides. Banned from daytime TV. Peaked at #82. The most important flop in British pop history.
The Gamble
No major label will sign them. Nigel Martin-Smith remortgages his own house, creates a label called Dance UK, and funds the single himself. The strategy is simple: do something so outrageous that people have to talk about it.
“I was cleaning jelly out of my arsehole for the next two years after that video.”
— Howard Donald, Take That: For the Record, 2006
TAP TO REVEAL: Whose idea was the nudity?
Once You've Tasted Love -- Take That
Their third single, January 1992. Peaked at #47. The forgotten middle child between the debut flop and the breakthrough hit. Three singles in, still no Top 40 entry.
Do What U Like: The Numbers
Why was the "Do What U Like" video banned from daytime TV?
Five boys in jelly and leather. A video banned from daytime television. A single that peaked at 82. And from here, against every expectation, they became the biggest band in Britain. Next: what it actually felt like inside the machine.
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