Editorial 

In praise of … Jason Orange

Editorial: He might be modest, but that very modesty evidently prevented him seeing himself as someone to whom the rules that govern ordinary people do not apply
  
  


Take That's story is often reduced to a simple binary: Gary Barlow versus Robbie Williams. The quiet, sturdy, rather dull songwriter who steered the group, against the flashy, insecure, deliberately provocative star who left it. But there is another hero in Take That, as the stories about the group's tax avoidance schemes show. Two members did not participate in the "Icebreaker" plan: Williams – who rejoined Take That in 2010 – and Jason Orange. Orange does not sing lead on any of the group's big hits – it was even a news story when he was allowed to sing on a B-side in 2009 – being consigned to the role of dancer. He might be, as Churchill reputedly once said of Attlee, "a modest man with much to be modest about", but that very modesty evidently prevented him seeing himself as someone to whom the rules that govern ordinary people do not apply. A Barlow song once advised: "Never forget where you're coming from." Orange, it seems, did not.

 

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