I am embarrassingly well informed about the group that Robbie Williams was once part of, though mostly in the years after it revived itself spectacularly (and more respectably) as a 4-piece without him, then briefly with all the original 5, and finally as a 3-piece.
From the time I started looking into them, I couldn't stand Robbie, and i…
I am embarrassingly well informed about the group that Robbie Williams was once part of, though mostly in the years after it revived itself spectacularly (and more respectably) as a 4-piece without him, then briefly with all the original 5, and finally as a 3-piece.
From the time I started looking into them, I couldn't stand Robbie, and it was mainly because he's such a preener, always with a "look at me, I'm great" expression and posture, even in the "better" version of him. In a video from the 1990s, the five are asked what they'd be doing if they hadn't been chosen for a manufactured pop group. Four gave modestly realistic answers, while Robbie said "I would still be a celebrity - either a footballer or a pop star."
In those years, it apparently rankled him that he, the youngest and least disciplined member of the group, was not THE star but had to be subordinate to a more mature person (Gary Barlow) who'd been single-mindedly preparing himself for a musical career. Barlow admits that he was himself becoming arrogant, but nothing justifies the vindicative nastiness that Robbie inflicted on him for many years when Gary was floundering while Robbie was soaring into superstardom.
There's also a revealing story about the origins of the song "Angels,' which revived Robbie's solo career when it was faltering. The song started as someone else's, and then the two worked it over and made a demo - and then Robbie took the demo and ghosted the original author, had Guy Chambers work on it some more, and released it without crediting the person who gave him the core of the song. IMO, Robbie is still lying about it.
Incidentally, he was not actually married to Nicole Appleton. To his credit, he appears to have a solid family life now,
I am embarrassingly well informed about the group that Robbie Williams was once part of, though mostly in the years after it revived itself spectacularly (and more respectably) as a 4-piece without him, then briefly with all the original 5, and finally as a 3-piece.
From the time I started looking into them, I couldn't stand Robbie, and it was mainly because he's such a preener, always with a "look at me, I'm great" expression and posture, even in the "better" version of him. In a video from the 1990s, the five are asked what they'd be doing if they hadn't been chosen for a manufactured pop group. Four gave modestly realistic answers, while Robbie said "I would still be a celebrity - either a footballer or a pop star."
In those years, it apparently rankled him that he, the youngest and least disciplined member of the group, was not THE star but had to be subordinate to a more mature person (Gary Barlow) who'd been single-mindedly preparing himself for a musical career. Barlow admits that he was himself becoming arrogant, but nothing justifies the vindicative nastiness that Robbie inflicted on him for many years when Gary was floundering while Robbie was soaring into superstardom.
There's also a revealing story about the origins of the song "Angels,' which revived Robbie's solo career when it was faltering. The song started as someone else's, and then the two worked it over and made a demo - and then Robbie took the demo and ghosted the original author, had Guy Chambers work on it some more, and released it without crediting the person who gave him the core of the song. IMO, Robbie is still lying about it.
Incidentally, he was not actually married to Nicole Appleton. To his credit, he appears to have a solid family life now,