Mark Owen Lift Home Caps Tally Bookbinder’s Take That Role
mark owen is part of Tally Bookbinder’s recollection of working as Take That’s personal make-up artist from 1994 to 1996, a two-year stretch that put her inside the band’s daily routine. She says the job took her from photo sessions to concert performances and television slots across Europe, with Gary, Jason, Howard and Robbie in the car and on the clock.
Bookbinder, who was 26 when the work started, says Nigel Martin-Smith first asked her to do a trial with Take That and fly to Italy with them the following week. She said the trial went well and that she was thrilled when Mark told her she had got the job.
Rome, Italy and the bar note
Bookbinder says the Rome trip quickly showed how close the job was to the band’s orbit. In her hotel room, she found a handwritten note from the boys saying, “Tally, welcome to Italy! We’re sitting downstairs in the bar, come and have a drink with us!”
She said, “I have to admit, at that point I s**t myself.” The moment gives the story its friction: the access was intimate, but it also meant being dropped into the middle of five young pop stars’ schedules, travel and public attention without much room to fade into the background.
Top Of The Pops and Back For Good
Bookbinder says her work moved from preparation to presentation. She did the band’s hair and make-up for Top Of The Pops, painted a tattoo on Howard’s chest and got them camera-ready for the Back For Good music video, which shows the group dancing and singing in the rain.
She said, “I travelled the world with the band. One day I’d be doing their hair and make-up for Top Of The Pops, and the next I was painting a tattoo on Howard’s chest. I was even responsible for getting them camera-ready for the Back For Good music video, which famously shows the group dancing and singing in the rain. Sadly, I got so soaked during the three-day shoot that I actually caught bronchial pneumonia!” That three-day shoot is the sharpest sign that the role was physical as well as glamorous.
Mark Owen and the UK flight
After the flight back to the UK, Bookbinder says Mark kindly offered her a lift home and needed to pop in to use the loo when they got to her place. Her sister later said she could have sworn she heard Mark Owen’s voice in the middle of the night, and Bookbinder replied, “I’ve got news for you – you did!”
That is the part of the account that lingers: not a distant celebrity memory, but a work relationship that reached all the way into her home. For readers, the takeaway is simple. Take That’s mid-1990s rise was not only being seen on television and in videos; it was being managed minute by minute by people like Bookbinder, whose job could mean a plane to Italy, a bar note in Rome and a ride home from Mark Owen.
