Take That star Gary Barlow teams up with Northampton musician for virtual duet

A Northampton musician and producer who has set up a series of online duets during the lockdown managed to collaborate with Gary Barlow.

Tommy Gardner, who produces the annual talent show Northamptonshire’s Rising Star, saw that Gary had also been performing duets online, so asked if they could team up.

The 27-year-old, from Northampton received a positive response from the Take That star who sent over a video of him signing ‘Somewhere Only We Know’.

Tommy then added piano and strings to create the music video that was an instant hit, receiving more than 30,000 views and a retweet from Gary himself.

He said: “In the past I’ve done musical duets with local musicians where I’ve played keyboards and they have sung.

“As soon as lockdown started I thought what can I do to stop myself going crazy and lift people’s spirits at the same time?

“At the time, there was so much negativity online and I wanted to do something to put a smile on people’s faces.

“I’ve always loved music so I thought why not try and produce virtual duets?

“The experience was surreal.”

The video was the fourteenth in Tommy's ‘Home Sessions’ series, which has been going since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in collaboration with mostly local musicians including, Amii Dawes and Robyn Wilson.

All the videos of the ‘Home Session’ series can be viewed on Tommy’s website, where local musicians can also find ways to contact Tommy if they want to get involved.

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