Early Life
Gates was born in West Bowling, Bradford to father Paul and mother Wendy Broadbent (née Farry). He has three sisters, Nicola (born 1985), Charlotte (born 1991), and Jessica (born 1993) and grew up with his cousin James (born 1986) who was fostered by the family. His parents regularly foster other children.
Gates and his sisters attended Dixons City Technology College in West Bowling, Bradford where Gates studied art and music at GCSE level.
He joined Bradford Cathedral choir at age nine. He was head chorister by the age of eleven, singing solo for the Queen when she visited in 1997. Gates achieved Grade 8 in piano, classical guitar and singing. He had gained a place at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester before the finals of Pop Idol.
Read more about this topic: Gareth Gates
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“Progress would not have been the rarity it is if the early food had not been the late poison.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
“One of the most horrible, yet most important, discoveries of our age has been that, if you really wish to destroy a person and turn him into an automaton, the surest method is not physical torture, in the strict sense, but simply to keep him awake, i.e., in an existential relation to life without intermission.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)