Britain’s Barry Manilow and Take That front man started Tweeting yesterday at 21:14 with a tweet that said “Hello everybody. This is my first tweet!” which was followed up at 21:39 by tweeting “I’m overwhelmed! Many tweets to follow….”.

Gary Barlow from Twitter

By 23:53 he had very nearly 250,000 Twitter followers.

There is, of course, no certainty that this is a Twitter account owned by THE Gary Barlow of Take That – and now X Factor – fame.

But his – or possibly her -following must surely set a record for garnering the most followers in the shortest time.

You can follow his two tweets by signing up at @GBarlowOfficial. Possibly he will tweet again and, whilst not guaranteed, there is strong possibility that, as one of Britain’s greatest and most successful song writers, he will become the next big ‘must follow’ on Twitter.

There is, however, the risk that @GBarlowOfficial will rank among the grandest hoaxes in Twitter World since Twitter began.

Approach with caution.