robbie williams

For the footballers, see Robbie Williams (footballer).

For the comedian, see Robin Williams.

Robbie Williams (born Robert Peter Williams 13 February 1974 in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) is an English pop singer. He became a member of pop boyband Take That in 1990. Williams left Take That in 1995. He became one of the most successful male solo artists in British history with album sales standing over 45 milllion worldwide.

Biography

Main article: Take That

Williams' early pop career started with the hit boy band Take That. The band was formed in 1990 and had eight United Kingdom Number 1 singles. Their popularity led to a succession of similar bands in the United Kingdom.

Williams' roguish qualities meant that he did not fit into the band[2], and he frequently battled with his fellow band members and his management. After leaving the band in 1995, the final Take That album Nobody Else was re-issued in some markets excluding songs where Robbie Williams was the lead vocalist. The final Take That single "How Deep Is Your Love" is the only one that didn't feature Williams.

In November 2005, ITV1 screened a documentary on Take That, including the reasons behind Williams' departure, including interviews with Williams and his former fellow band members. Williams declined the offer to reunite with the band, but spoke to them via a pre-recorded video message.

Take That, who had reformed without Williams and toured in 2006, have extended an open invitation for Williams to join them on stage if he wishes. Williams has apparently given the reformation his blessing. During a concert in Leeds in September 2006, he observed that while the invitation had "pulled on the heartstrings", he then realised that he'd sold three million concert tickets on his own. He said he was on good terms with his former bandmates, and sang "Back For Good", dedicating it to Gary, Howard, Jason and Mark.

Recent career

In 2002, the UK public voted Williams at number 77 on the BBC's list of the 100 Greatest Britons. He was also voted 17th in Channel 4's 100 Worst Britons poll.

A best-selling official biography written by Chris Heath, Feel, was published in 2004. It chronicled events that led up to the "Live Summer Tour 2003", during which Williams performed live to more than a 375,000 people over three nights in August 2003 at Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire; this has become known as the biggest UK pop concert ever.

Former Take That band member Mark Owen appeared with Williams on the third day, while 3.5 million more watched live on television and on the Internet. Leading up to Knebworth, in December 2003, Williams toured Australia and New Zealand alongside Duran Duran.

In 2002 Williams appeared on the track 'My Culture' on the 1 Giant Leap album, alongside Maxi Jazz.

Since his split with songwriter Guy Chambers, Williams has faced some questions about his own songwriting abilities. Armed with a new writing partner, Stephen Duffy, Williams has penned several new songs, including the UK number 1 hit "Radio" and the more reflective "Misunderstood".

Both tunes are taken from Williams' 19-track "Greatest Hits" album, released in October 2004. In February 2005, Williams received the British music industry's award for the best song of the past quarter century, "Angels", the song Williams credits with giving him a solo career. It was released Stateside as an import title.

In 2004, he performed the song "It's De-Lovely" by Cole Porter in the biopic De-Lovely and recorded the song on the soundtrack.

Williams also performed at the London Live 8 concert in 2005 where he was acknowledged as one of the stars of the show. An amusing incident occurred when he asked the crowd to sing along with his hit song "Feel", which many in the crowd in Hyde Park were not familiar with. He jokingly covered it up and got a well-received laugh from the incident. During his set, the crowd chanted along with Queen's "We Will Rock You" and 'duetted' with Robbie on "Angels" (as has become traditional at his live performances).

Williams' sixth album Intensive Care was a number one in the British charts, before being overtaken by the Westlife album Face to Face.

Robbie Williams claimed the title of Britain's biggest-selling pop act of the 21st century, selling 6.3 million albums since 2000, narrowly beating Coldplay to the top rank. He also set a world record, as defined by the Guinness Book of Records, by selling over 1.6 million tickets for his 2006 world tour in one day on 19 November 2005, beating a previous mark of 1 million tickets set by 'N Sync in 2000. ^[1]

In the UK version of the 2005 movie The Magic Roundabout, Williams voiced the dog "Dougal."

There were rumours that Williams was about to launch a dance album and 'Swinging II' which would fulfil his commitment to the EMI contract. He released a third single from Intensive Care, "Sin Sin Sin," on 21 May 2006.

Work on the dance album surfaced in the form of first single "Rudebox", also known as "Rudebox '74", a sparse electronic production nostalgic of early 80's hip-hop. The project had been kept tightly under wraps in order to gauge public opinion but when the single was first broadcast anonymously on the Pete Tong show, Robbie's signature voice was easy to spot in the final seconds of the track. Even the album the single is on was not released Stateside, "Rudebox" has been popping up on dance music stations in the country, gaining airplay. The next single has been announced to fan club members as "Lovelight", and the accompanying video was made available to them, and is now accessible on the website YouTube. It follows the dance style evident on "Rudebox", though the vocals are notably higher, prompting comparisions to George Michael, an artist greatly respected by Williams.

April 2006 saw Williams embark on a five month world tour which kicked off in South Africa. The tour will conclude in Melbourne, Australia, where Williams says he will begin a hiatus from touring in the near future. [3] During the tour, he performed for the first time in the Middle east. On May, 2006 he played at a sell out concert in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The performance was held at the world famous Millennium race course. Williams also played a record 5 nights at Milton Keynes Bowl and he managed to raise the highest viewing figures on Sky since 2002 when his Leeds gig was broadcast in high definition.

Lifestyle and love life

Williams has left the UK and now lives in Los Angeles, California. He remains single. Speculation about his romantic life is rampant in the British media. Williams likes to encourage an image as a smooth womaniser and there are numerous widely-circulated Internet accounts, allegedly written by Williams's female sexual partners, claiming his considerable prowess as a lover. He regularly plucks female fans from the audience of his live performances and french kisses them on stage.

Williams, a self-confessed attention seeker, has garnered a reputation for pushing the envelope in regards to male nudity. Williams's tendency to pose provocatively has gone from somewhat light-hearted "mooning" and "pants-down" photos early in his career to more sexually explicit content.

In 2004 the German website set up by his record label to promote his music posted an allegedly nude photograph of Williams with his crotch area blurred out. They promised that if one million people clicked on the photo they would unblur the area and reveal the nudity. Once unblurred it was revealed that Williams was in fact holding some sort of phallus in front of his actual genitals so that they could not be seen; 24 hours later even this was covered by a miniature cut-out of his album cover.

Subsequently Williams has stated in a variety of press interviews that he considers himself to be a naturist/nudist at heart, jokingly commenting that he will "end up being one of those dads who embarrasses" his children. In late 2005 a campaign called "Get More" was launched by Williams's label to promote his album Intensive Care. A video at the website featured thirty seconds of various camera close-ups of Williams' nude body, culminating in a four-second full body shot where he was frontally nude and fondling his penis [4]. This was virtually the first time nudity was so blatantly incorporated in an advertising campaign for a pop singer.

Williams, now aged 32, has had mental health problems throughout his career, most notably his struggle with depression, insecurity and self-loathing. He has been clean from drugs and alcohol for over 5 years. In his fly-on-the-wall documentary Nobody Someday (2001) he repeatedly mocked his flamboyant but puppet like behaviour on stage and felt that the persona and 'brand' of Robbie Williams Popstar was a fake that he increasingly felt uncomfortable with. In more recent documentaries he yearns to become a credible artist in the eyes of the serious music press.

His time as a member of a boyband does not seem to have hampered his cool image. Much of Williams’ success can be attributed to his 'cheeky chappy' persona and ironic sensibility much loved by his UK fans. Williams has said in interviews he hates performing, and compares his style to old-school UK comedian Sir Norman Wisdom. In fact, it doesn't take much of a stretch of the imagination to see Robbie as the heir to British Vaudeville, an end-of-the-pier crowd pleaser. Yet UK fans highlight the energy and entertainment value of his live performances as a major part of his appeal.

Robbie has always had tabloid speculation about his sexuality, tabloid rumours have existed for years about whether or not he is homosexual. These aren't helped by the fact that he has been embraced by many in the gay community as a gay icon. He has repeatedly denied the rumours, though they still persist. Williams himself has added fuel because of his seemingly 'show-off' behaviour with women, behaviour which has led many to speculate that he has something to hide. He questions his own sexuality in two well known songs including his raunchy duet with Kylie Minogue 'Kids' where he can be heard saying: '...Press be askin do I care for sodomy...I dunno yeah probably' He won a libel case against MGN and Northern & Shell in December 2005 relating to articles which had reported he was a secret homosexual [5]. In the libel action that resulted from this, Williams accepted substantial damages and the publishers accepted that the stories were untrue. His counsel, Tom Shields QC, told the court: "Mr Williams is not, and has never been, homosexual". Feel is an account of the performer's life told, with Mr Williams’s co-operation, by Chris Heath, who lived alongside his subject from 2002 to 2004. Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell called for any damages paid out from the libel case to be donated to gay charities, claiming Williams' legal actions had created the impression that it is "shameful to be gay" [6]. Williams openly admitted that he was not bothered about being labelled gay, and he would have taken the same action had it been about a female relationship. Williams also donated all of the damages directly to his charity Give It Sum.

Robbie is a life long supporter of Port Vale football club, based in his home town of Stoke-on-Trent, and in February 2006, bought an undisclosed number of shares in the club. The investment was confirmed by Port Vale chairman, Bill Bratt, who said that "it clearly shows that he cares about Port Vale FC and its future."

According to The Sun, he spent £8 million on a 115ft Athena cruiser from Italy's leading boat company, Riva.

Robbie with the help of his best friend Jonathan Wilkes recently organized a charity football match in an attempt to raise funds in Africa. This match was played in May 2006 at Old Trafford, Manchester. The participants were an England team full of both legends and celebrities against the rest of the world of the same content. It was a very successful event raising over a million pounds for the charity aid.

2006 Close Encounters Tour

Robbie is currently on his Close Encounters World Tour which sees him playing to more than 3 million people around the globe. He broke the World Record for selling 1.6 million tickets in a single day. He kicked off the tour in South Africa and so far has played over 40 shows. But there have been issues with ticketing BBC Probe & [http://www.robbiewilliamssucks.co.uk Fans Protest.Orson and Basement Jaxx are the support acts for his British Dates.

Discography

1. 1997 - Life Thru A Lens
2. 1998 - I've Been Expecting You
3. 1999 - The Ego Has Landed
4. 2000 - Sing When You're Winning
5. 2001 - Swing When You're Winning
6. 2002 - Escapology
7. 2003 - Live At Knebworth
8. 2004 - Greatest Hits
9. 2005 - Intensive Care
10. 2006 - Rudebox

References

• Q103 Cambridge
• AllMusic Guide biography
• [7] BBC Top of the Pops biography
• [8] "The second coming of Robbie Williams", Advocate Magazine cover story, 13 May 2003

External links

• Official website
• Robbie Williams Italian Fans Club
• Robbie Williams Live
• Robbie Williams Message Board
• Robbie Williams Buzzjack Forum
• Robbie Williams
• Robbie Williams at the Internet Movie Database
• Robbie Williams Lyrics
• Robbie Williams Russia
• Robbie Willams Turkey
• PureRobbie.com
• Robbie Williams Fan Club
• Fans Supreme
• Robbie Williams' Lyrics, links and videos
• RobbieWilliams.nu
• French site about Robbie
• Robbie Williams Rudebox by cosmopolis.ch
• Robbie Williams Spanish
• Robbie Williams Orkut Community