Likeable, puppy-faced Louis Walsh agitator Gary Barlow has recently been busy making a name for himself as a TV personality with his role on The X Factor. It must seem a far cry from the late 1990s when the (then) former Take That frontman couldn't get a table at his local Harvester.

Fifteen years later and three stone lighter, Barlow has quickly become a popular fixture on prime time weekend TV and, five years or so into a second career with Take That, the 40 year old is revered as one of the best writers of pop songs of his generation, if not the best.

Gary Barlow's stock has risen so highly that Simon Cowell and Robbie Williams, both once unassailably unsuccessful, have been quick to hop aboard the Barlow express. With Take That's global sales heading steadily toward 50 million albums, an Ivor Novello award for songwriting shining brightly once again and with history beginning to reflect more kindly on a solo career that saw Gary Barlow produce two No 1 singles and a chart-topping album, the songwriter from Frodsham is king of all he surveys.

If there is any bitterness about his time in the wilderness, it doesn't show, and Barlow continues to be considered among showbusiness' most charitable and benign figures. It comes as little surprise then that he will be performing two huge gigs this December in support of The Prince's Trust.

The two shows are on Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th December at London's Royal Albert Hall. We will have tickets available for both dates when they go on sale at 9AM on Friday 28th October, priced from £40 to £95.

As with all things Barlow, tickets are expected to sell out very quickly.