10/10/03
Despite his much-publicised drug and alcohol problems, his famous, yet all-too-brief love affairs and current battle with depression, Robbie Williams is at the peak of his powers. August 2003 saw Robbie play before 375,000 screaming fans at Knebworth in the UK, prompting the release of his first live album, with the accompanying DVD to follow soon. Brendan Murray takes a closer look at Robbie the man; one of the most successful pop stars of our time and self proclaimed born entertainer.
‘You are about to witness the best show in the world’ proclaims the forthright 29-year old on ”Let Me Entertain You”, the opening track on Live Summer 2003. If the crowd weren’t fully convinced at the opening of the Knebworth shows, they were well and truly at the mercy of Williams’ mesmerizing stage show by the time it closed with ”Angels”, with thousands of voices for an epic, emotive sing-a-long.
From his clap-happy version of Queen anthem ”We Will Rock You” and the slick Rat Pack classic ”Mr. Bojangles” through to crowd favourites, ”She’s The One”, ”Kids” and ”Better Man”, Williams oozes a nonchalant confidence few performers have the aplomb to carry off.
He is every bit as assured delivering high-octane rock’n’roll as he is putting his heart and soul into lighter-raising ballads. His remarkable versatility enhances his appeal beyond a narrow demographic fan-base that allows grandmas and boyfriends, bankers and bikers to enjoy his slightly schmaltzy but ultimately feel-goo-fare.
Live, Williams carries the tunes, the crowd, and his own star into the stratosphere. Make no mistake, when his awesome show hits Australia in December 2003, die-hard fans and curious onlookers alike will be left reeling by the celebrity whirlwind that is the Williams bandwagon. Anticipation will grow with the release of a DVD of the Knebworth shows on November 17, giving Australian audiences an idea of what’s in store for them. When 50,000 tickets for the December Robbie concerts went on sale mid September, Sydney and Melbourne shows sold out in nine minutes. A second Sydney show was hurriedly announced and with the kings of 80’s glamour pop Duran Duran supporting, the events will certainly prove to be spectacular for those who love bright lights, big production and classy stagecraft.
While on stage, Williams carries the air of a man not in the least overwhelmed by his meteoric and slightly unexpected rise to superstardom, whilst off stage the reality is somewhat different.
The limelight has proved a double-edged sword for the eager-to-please entertainer who battled booze, drugs, mental breakdown, weight issues and relationship disasters before scoring one of the largest record deals in history –worth a reported 80 million pounds (AUS$195 million)- and jockeying for a place in the pantheon of great performers such as Sinatra and Kiss.
Since he hopped on the pop rollercoaster with (seven-No.1’s-in-a-row) boy band Take That, it’s been a wild and emotionally challenging ride for Williams. When he exited Take That in June 1995 it was a year before he signed a solo deal with Chrysalis Records. Fifteen months later he released his debut album Life Thru A Lens - a somewhat apocryphal title in hindsight- which proved a slow burner but eventually reached No.1 in the UK album charts 28 weeks after it was released, thanks to a succession of strong singles including “Old Before I Die”, ”Angels” and ”Let Me Entertain You”.
“I’d been cocooned for so long that when I was finally released I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I was very young and very stupid and it was inevitable that I was going to fall on the wrong side of the tracks,” Williams admitted.
It was at the Glastonbury Festival on 1998 that Robbie Williams came of age as a performer and graduated from second-string teen idol to genuine pop prince. Headlining the main Pyramid Stage to the largest crowd ever assembled there, Williams astounded the weather-beaten masses with a triumph of showmanship and boy-next-door cheek. Mass adulation was now accompanied by critical acclaim in the fickle British media.
The follow up album, I’ve Been Expecting You, written while on tour, saw Williams and full-time collaborator Guy Chambers up-the-ante, crafting tunes in an array of popular styles. “When I sat down to write this album the lyrics came out in a whoosh,” he explained. “It was like an explosion. And it still is. It’s coming out all over the place. I didn’t really plan how I wanted it to sound. Guy and I said ‘lets sit down and see where this takes us’. When we started writing I just thought ‘We’ve got it right then. Great!’ and we went from there.”
Around this time he also recognised his potential to exhibit “delusions of grandeur” and off stage his outre celebrity lifestyle was descending into an ego-crushing spiral of tabloid luridness and increasingly erratic behaviour (verbal fisticuffs with rival pop stars, cocaine-fuelled arrogance and paranoia, rumoured breakdowns).
A third album, Sing When You’re Winning was released in August 2000 and its first single ”Rock DJ” debuted at No.1 in the UK charts and cemented Williams’ position as one of the UK’s most successful performing artists. It also paved the way for his follow-up tribute to the big band era Swing When You’re Winning, released in November 2001.
“If I’m being perfectly frank,” said Williams at the time, “I am having the time of my life. I can’t remember being happier, I keep smiling my multi-platinum smile.”
Yet within a few months Williams would be plunged into a downward spiral that would threaten his burgeoning career. After being tempted to slide back into his old drug habits he was diagnosed with depression.
In a recent Q magazine, Williams said, ‘It’s not about the pressure of this or the pressure of that, I used to think it was. But when they went away, it was just about being physically or mentally ill.”
His demons led to his self-imposed exile in Los Angeles where he can rub shoulders with Robert De Niro, Joni Mitchell and Brian Wilson (yet remain largely anonymous to the American public). It also affords him the distance he needs from the rabid and destructive tabloid attention he attracts in his most successful markets.
In November he loudly and famously proclaimed, “I’m rich beyond my wildest dreams,” after signing the mutli-million dollar deal with EMI which executives hope will see him conquer the world.
But Williams has very pointedly declared that the deal does not cover the US and that he is under no pressure to replicate the astonishing success he has had in Europe there.
His last album, Escapology was released in November 2002 and saw Robbie shift from swing back to rock and has since sold six million copies around the world. Having recently dissolved his successful partnership with his co-writer Chambers, Williams is now learning the guitar and collaborating with other songwriters. He’s trying to avoid soulless sex and longs for an intimate relationship with a woman he can trust, despite delighting in his recent allusions to sexual ambiguity.
Being Robbie seems to be a double-edged sword. He simultaneously craves and rejects the attention performance brings him, swinging him from either outlandishly confident or childishly coy. He is a mass of contradictions, funneled through constant self-awareness and thrust out the end onto the stage as Robbie Williams –born entertainer.
Let him entertain you and you will be whisked into Robbie’s world where you will experience his life through the powerful lens of his many talents. As he declares to a rapturous response at Knebworth, “Your ass will be mine”.
"10 things you didn't know about Robbie Williams"
1. Robbie has 11 tattoos.
The Show Must Go On -SAIN Magazine
2. He has a pet wolf, Sid, who has had his testicles removed.
3. He has forsaken casual sex.
4. His first child will be called Sunny, regardless of sex.
5. He will sing the songs on his next studio album in his native Stoke-On-Trent accent.
6. He is prescribed the anti-depressant, Effexor, whose side effects can include drowsiness and nausea.
7. He has sold almost 30 million albums worldwide.
8. Christmas 2001 saw him top three different UK charts with three different releases.
9. Escapology sales in the UK leapt almost 300 percent in days after the Knebworth shows.
10. Robbie claims he once threw 2,000 pounds out of his Mum's pub window as fans of his beloved Port Vale Football Club passed below.
