Freddie Matthews writes from London: Is it rude of me to assume you know who I’m talking about here? Robbie Williams is a former member of the British 90’s boy-band Take That.
The band was originally performing between 1990 and 1996. Robbie then parted company with Gary (Barlow), Jason (Orange), Mark (Owen) and Howard (Donald) in 1995. The band split up as a 4 piece in 1996 with each of the original members going on to somewhat mediocre solo success. Nine years later they re-formed as a man-band, as they were far too old to be classed as a boy-band and they haven’t looked back since. By then struggling Robbie was invited back to the band for their 2010 album Progress which can’t have done his solo popularity any harm whatsoever, as it became the fastest selling album of the 21st century but surely that’s been surpassed by now …. please… anyone…?
To be honest, Take That were better off without Williams. He’s a surrogate superstar and by that I mean he’s used other people’s talent to make it big and certainly not his own because, quite frankly, he has none. The now X-Factor (UK) judge Gary Barlow wrote most of the Take That songs and pretty much carried Robbie during his early years as part of the boy-band. Then his solo success was only made possible due to the excellent writing talent that was an amazing musician called Guy Chambers.
When he lived in the UK Robbie lived the celebrity lifestyle to the full with tabloid newspaper full page spreads on his drugs, booze and women. Bad habits were a constant part of his celebrity. A total misuse that started turning the popularity tables against him. His singing is average but what set him apart from all the rest was his ‘cheeky’ manner and his ability to sell shed loads of singles and albums to the teenage girls who fancied him, their mums and dads who saw him as their teenage son and even your gran who thought he was a naughty young man. His appeal was unfathomable which is why he’s sold over 70 million records worldwide. He has been honoured with 17 Brit awards. He’s the best selling British solo artist in the UK and he signed one of the most ridiculous record deals in history, which was reportedly worth £80 million back in 2002, when he signed for EMI hoping to break into America. Did this work out? Well, in a word, “No”. He moved to L.A. to get away from the UK press and media attention but Robbie Williams made a massive mistake when he parted company with the man who had ‘co’-written some of his most prolific singles. I say ‘co’ because I don’t believe Robbie was involved in the slightest in the writing process. The huge talent that was Guy Chambers was booted out. Robbie had £80 million in the bank and would never emulate that success ever again. One of the biggest cock-ups in modern music history
Was he so untouchable and arrogant that no one could tell Robert Peter Williams just what a complete idiot he had been?
Now all we can expect is appearances from him just in time for Christmas year after year which brings us back nicely to the news that Robbie Williams has three UK dates for you to put into your music calendar, or hopefully not. We can no doubt look forward to an appearance, in some way, on the X-Factor in the coming weeks with his old mate Gary Barlow from Take That. Avoid it if you can, as he usually appears during the ‘Judges’ Houses’ episodes and then again near the end of the show when the contestants duet with big names. It’s all SO predictable that I really hate the X-Factor.
If you haven’t fallen asleep already, apparently Robbie’s playing a rare run of small UK shows in September. The one-off club gigs will see him return to venues he played on his first tour as a solo artist 15 years ago. Haha. This can only mean that he’s struggling to find fans to sell tickets to in 2012. Whatever happened to selling out stadiums Robbie?
–End–
http://www.stirringtroubleinternationally.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/robbiewilliams-300x169.jpg comedy, news, satire August 30, 2012 at 12:18AM via Posterous http://kohlerfyre.posterous.com/the-ego-returns-robbie-williams-announces-his
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