The SingStar games are a series of karaoke-inspired releases for the PS2 and PS3. They feature the music videos for various songs, usually fitting a certain genre such as Rock or R’n'B, with the words displayed on screen. A rough approximation of the notes is also shown, and you can score points by hitting them as they appear.

There has been over a dozen installments of the game so far, two of which have focused entirely on one particular group. Now, SingStar: Queen and SingStar: Abba are being joined by SingStar: Take That. Yes, Britain’s most popular and probably best ever boyband are getting their own video game.

SingStar: Take That is set to feature songs covering the full range of Take That’s career, including Shine, Back For Good, Never Forget, and Could It Be Magic. This should please both the old-school fans who liked the gay, leather chaps and fat Gary Barlow look, and the new fans who are more fond of the middle-aged, sharp-suited and slim Gary Barlow version.

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It may be just a couple of simple lines uttered on a television show but Gary Barlow’s latest answer to the question of whether Robbie Williams will be rejoining Take That has changed everything. It seems that Williams isn’t actually welcome.

Back in December, 2008, Barlow suggested that Williams would one day rejoin Take That. It was more a case if when than if. Then just last month Williams seemed to think it was a done deal stating that it was, “looking more likely by the week,” and how “it would make sense for it to happen some time over the next year.”

But for whatever reason it now looks highly unlikely, at least according to Gary Barlow.

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If you’re of a certain age, you will well remember the day Robbie Williams upped and left Take That. The biggest boyband the UK has ever produced suddenly lost its most outgoing member, and it wasn’t long before the rest of the group decided to go their own separate ways.

Williams then went onto have phenomenal success as a solo artist, having broken free of the confines of being in a clean-living, controversy-free boyband. Gary Barlow’s career faltered; Mark Owen appeared on Big Brother; and the other two disappeared into obscurity once again.

But then something bizarre happened. Robbie’s career went into free fall, with poor album reviews and constant press speculation over his drug addictions/relationships/L.A. lifestyle taking over as the main thing we knew him for. And Take That re-formed.

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21:01 - It’s Take That’s turn to take to the stage. And they clearly need no introduction, coming straight on after Kings of Leon finish their acceptance speech. They descend from the ceiling singing Greatest Day. They’re all wearing spectacles and look like geeks. Have I missed something?

21:06 - James Corden looks like a penguin in his suit, while Matthew Horne looks like he belongs in the 1980s. Nick Frost arrives on stage with very long, straggly hair to present the award for ‘British Live Act’. If Scouting for Girls win it, I swear I’ll scream. And the winner is… Iron Maiden. Really. Nice. How very old school. The band are on a world tour and accept the award via video.

21:10 - David Hasselhoff on stage to present the award for ‘British Group’. He rambles on in a bizarre fashion when we just want to hear the nominations. The Hoff drunk and rambling? Never. And the winner is… Elbow. Ooh, a surprise for me, although they have already won the Mercury Music Prize this year. A brilliant band finally getting the recognition they deserve.

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Alcohol is responsible for many things: late-nights fights; unwanted pregnancies; Take That reforming. Seriously, drinking is an evil that needs to be stamped out at all costs - bring back prohibition!

I’m kidding, plainly. But it has been revealed that the consumption of alcohol is how Take That came to reform. Personally, I thank the power of booze at this juncture because for my money Take That have been better than they ever were since they made a comeback.

According to The Sun newspaper, the four (excluding Robbie) members of Take That were reunited in 2005 when filming for Take That: On The Record, a documentary to commemorate the group’s ten year anniversary.

Up to now, many fans have speculated that it was this moment which brought the group back together and sparked the reunion. And it was, to a point, with a boozy session afterwards which was actually to thank.

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The UK has produced an inordinate number of talented songwriters over the past 50 years, especially when you consider the small size of the population. But who are the best of the best? Who are the people whose songs have shaped and defined Britain through music?

Artists come and go all the time, one bad album and that can be it. But the ones that endure, either staying together for years (Oasis, Rolling Stones) or whose music lives on for generations (The Beatles) are the ones who are capable of pumping out magical song after magical song.

Songwriting is a special talent that generally cannot be taught. Which is why those manufactured stars from reality shows such as The X Factor have to rely on dedicated word smiths and musicians to write their songs for them.

According to Digital Spy, OnePoll recently carried out a survey to find people’s opinion as to Britain’s greatest songwriter. The results stand up as a testament to the incredible range of talented songwriters the UK possesses, but the winner may be a surprise to some.

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Band reunions are a strange beast: they are a mix of doing it for the fans and doing it for the money, they rarely last very long, and they even more rarely live up to expectations. But despite all of this, millions of people want to see their favorite groups reform.

British groups seem to be making a habit of reforming. Since I’ve been writing Brit Music Scene, we have seen The Verve, Boyzone, Led Zeppelin (for a one off concert), The Police, The Sex Pistols, The Spice Girls, Blur, and Take That all get back together in some form.

Then there are the ongoing rumors surrounding further reunions. The big ones are Led Zeppelin, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, and Robbie Williams rejoining Take That to make it a proper reunion. So no surprise then that those four bands were all included in a recent MTV poll to find out which group most people would like to see back together.

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2009 is approaching fast and so it’s time to look back at 2008. Here we’ll see the high and lowlights of Spring, with a selection of stories we covered between April and June.

April

The month started, as it always does, with April Fool’s Day, and while Brit Music Scene didn’t hoodwink its readers, YouTube did. I detailed the prank in a post entitled The Day Rick Astley Ruled The World.

I shared my Soundtrack For A Day in the middle of the month, and was joined by other b5 Music bloggers. Meanwhile, Boyzone announced their reunion shows, an event I was ecstatic about… yeah right.

The end of the month saw Amy Winehouse accused of assaulting people on a night out in London, and this was just the first time she got up to mischief while drunk during 2008. Phil Collins also announced his retirement even though most people assumed he had already retired years ago.

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2008 has been dominated by groups reforming and getting back together. But not many have split. 2009 could see the two trends switch places though, with more British bands splitting than reforming. But which are likely to break up?

The bookies are rarely wrong, mainly because it’s their job to be right, with an incorrect verdict when setting odds costing them money. Paddy Power, an Irish bookmaker who specializes in bizarre or out of the ordinary bets, has published its odds on which bands are likely to part ways next year.

The two biggest girl bands in the country, Girls Aloud and Sugababes are top of the pile, while there’s an influx of boy bands, two of which have only recently reformed, not far behind them. Two rock giants complete the list.

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Ever since Robbie Williams left Take That way back in 1995, there have been calls from the fans for the group to reunite as one again. But while Take That have indeed come back together as a foursome, there’s still no sign of Robbie rejoining. Instead, he seems determined to carry on attempting to crack America as a solo artist.

A full reunion was never really on the cards seeing as Williams left Take That suddenly, leaving relationships strained. But Gary Barlow and co seem to have now got over the bad feelings they may have felt towards Robbie, and have started to rebuild their relationships with the L.A. based singer.

Last month saw Barlow and Williams spotted together for the first time in over 10 years when they met at a football match. The pair agreed to be interviewed live on Sky Sports, and shared a hug, a joke, and a laugh.

But is the new friendliness between the former band mates a sign of a reunion to come? While Take That are doing fantastically well since they reformed in 2005, Robbie has been having a bit of a torrid time, with his last album panned by the critics, and personal problems still plaguing his day-to-day life.

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