Robbie Williams

Album cover for Williams' 2004 "Greatest Hits"

Robert Peter Williams (born February 13, 1974 in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) is a British pop singer. Originally a member of the hit boy band Take That, he was fired from the group in 1995 and quickly launched a solo career following a highly publicized battle with drug and alcohol addiction during which he put on nearly 40 pounds (18 kg) and was often seen in public poorly dressed, dirty and unshaven.

1 Solo career
2 Discography
3 Notes
4 External links

Solo career

Before his rising as a solo superstar, Robbie was seen at Glastonbury in June 1995, drunkenly carousing onstage with the Gallagher brothers – Noel and Liam of the famous Britpop band Oasis, and he swiftly returned to their company after his offical departure from Take That. "I was really depressed," Robbie reflected on the period. "People kept on telling me I wasn't going to make it on my own, but Noel's been really supportive. They're a top band."^[1] It was rumoured that his first solo single was to be written by Noel Gallagher.

In the heady Britpop summer of 1996 Williams' contractual obligations with Take That's management expired and he signed a big-money deal with Chrysalis Records. He released his first solo single "Freedom", a cover of the 1990 George Michael hit, and instantly hit UK #2.

After spending the next six months hid away with new-found writing/production partner Guy Chambers, Williams re-emerged in April 1997, with the Oasis-inspired hit "Old Before I Die", another UK #2. His two subsequent singles didn't do as well however, and his debut album "Life Thru A Lens" failed to hit the Top 10 upon its release in September 1997. It was not until the release of the piano-driven ballad "Angels" later in the year that his solo career took off, especially in Europe.

Although it reached number one in many countries, "Angels" only managed to get to number four in the official UK singles charrt; he would have to wait until September 19, 1998 for his first number one with "Millennium", which also charted in the USA. The song was built around a swirling string sample from the theme to the James Bond film "You Only Live Twice", and the accompanying video featured numerous 007 references.

Williams quickly became a major celebrity in the UK with numerous top ten singles. His second album "I've Been Expecting You" continued the James Bond/spy theme and topped the UK charts in October 1998. In 1999 he collabarated with singer Tom Jones for a track on the album Reload.

He had a minor hit in the United States in 2000 with the song "Rock DJ", but has never achieved the same level of fame and success there as he did in the UK. The video for the song featured Williams in a roller disco as he stripped nude and then proceeded to 'strip off' his own flesh, muscle tissue and organs until he was a dancing skeleton.

It is said that the frontal nudity was edited out in the US while the gore was left in, whereas the opposite was true for the UK. The video's ending was cut by many TV stations around the world and the whole video was forbidden in some countries (VH1 Europe even made their own video out of recording studio footage). Williams has built quite a reputation for appearing nude (or nearly nude) in photographs, videos and live performances.

After a smash third album with "Sing When You're Winning" in the summer of 2000, Williams' genuine global success was cemented in 2001 after a duet cover version of the Frank and Nancy Sinatra song "Somethin' Stupid" with Australian actress Nicole Kidman, who was fresh off of her Oscar-nomnated performance in Moulin Rouge.

Also in 2001 he released a whole album of classics entitled Swing When You're Winning in which his image was tamed down and polished as he breezed through jazz, blues and pop standards from the fifties and sixties including "Ain't That A Kick In The Head" and "Mack The Knife". Williams' cover of the Bobby Darin classic "Beyond the Sea" from the album was later included on the Finding Nemo soundtrack in 2003.

In 2002 Williams stopped working with his long-term writing partner Guy Chambers. However, they reunited six months later to work on the next album, Escapology, which was released in late 2002. The first single from it, "Feel," was a massive European hit, accompanied by a stylish black & white video featuring Darryl Hannah.

The video for the next "Escapology" single, "Come Undone," was heavily censored by MTV Networks Europe for depicting a debauched (but fully-clothed) Williams having three-way sex with two women. The video also showed unsettling images of insects and reptiles. During such furores at this time, it was confirmed that Williams and Guy Chambers were to officially part ways.

In 2002, the UK public voted Williams to be on the BBC's list of the 100 Greatest Britons.

A best-selling official biography written by Chris Heath "Feel", was published in 2004, and chronicled events that led up to to the "Live Summer Tour 2003", during which Williams performed live to more than a million people over three days in August at Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire; 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.

Since the split with Chambers, Williams has begun to set out to prove his naysayers wrong. Armed with a new songwriting partner, Stephen Duffy, Williams has penned several new songs, including the retro electro-throb of the UK #1 hit "Radio"

The tune is 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 career.

Williams is currently single and now lives in Los Angeles, California. Speculation about his ambiguous sexuality and romantic life is rampant in the British media. Williams seems to encourage an image as a smooth womanizer and there are numerous widely-circulated Internet accounts allegedly written by Williams's female sexual partners (e.g. [2]), extolling his considerable prowess as a lover. A regular feature of his live performances is full-on french kisses with female fans plucked from the audience.

Bearing in mind the persistent rumours about his sexuality and the appearance of so many column inches devoted to Williams's real or imagined romantic conquests, whether gay or straight, it is interesting to note that these accounts typically coincide with the release of a latest album, single, or live performance. Coincidental or not, much of what is written is utterly made up and probably attributable to a phalanx of publicity agents hired to get Williams's name in the papers when he is trying to market his new project.

Discography

Studio Albums

Life Thru a Lens (1997); #1 UK
I've Been Expecting You (1998 (UK) / 2002 (US)); #1 UK
The Ego Has Landed (1999); #63 US (North America only release)
Sing When You're Winning (2000); #1 UK, #110 US
Swing When You're Winning (2001); #1 UK
Escapology (2002); #1 UK, #43 US

Lives and Compilations

Robbie Williams – Live At Knebworth (2003); #2 UK
Greatest Hits (2004); #1 UK

UK hit singles

Aug 1996 "Freedom" #2
Apr 1997 "Old Before I Die" #2
Jul 1997 "Lazy Days" #8
Sep 1997 "South of the Border" #14
Dec 1997 "Angels" #4
Mar 1998 "Let Me Entertain You" #3
Sep 1998 "Millennium" #1
Dec 1998 "No Regrets/Antmusic" #4
Mar 1999 "Strong" #4
Nov 1999 "She's The One/It's Only Us" #1
Aug 2000 "Rock DJ" #1
Oct 2000 "Kids" (with Kylie Minogue) #2
Dec 2000 "Supreme" #4
Apr 2001 "Let Love Be Your Energy" #10
Jul 2001 "Eternity/Road to Mandalay" #1
Dec 2001 "Somethin' Stupid" (with Nicole Kidman) #1
Apr 2002 "My Culture" (1 Giant Leap feat. Maxi Jazz & Robbie Williams) #9
Dec 2002 "Feel" #4
Apr 2003 "Come Undone" #4
Aug 2003 "Something Beautiful" #3
Nov 2003 "Sexed Up" #10
Oct 2004 "Radio" #1
Dec 2004 "Misunderstood" #8

The highest position in the US charts was #41 for "Angels".

Notes

^ Mick St Michael (1996). Oasis. Sound and Media Limited. .

External links

Categories: 1974 births | British musicians | Gay icons