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| Thanks to Diario Italiano di RW |
Just Rob's part of the interview on The Telegraph,29 May 2011.
For full interview with all members click here
Robbie Williams has just been asked to reflect on his 16-year-old self. “What was I like?” begins this only son from a broken home with one poor GCSE to his name (a D for English Literature). “I had a high-pitched voice. Sounded a bit like a girl. Spoke with a Stoke accent, tremendously naive. Overconfident. Tremendously overconfident. And underconfident at the same time – really, really bad combination! Gets you places, though,” he adds with a wink.
It’s February 2010, and Williams – now a bulky, six-foot-one, heavily tattooed multi-millionaire – and I are sitting in a luxury flat in London’s Chelsea Harbour. Williams has flown in from his home in Los Angeles to accept the gong for Outstanding Contribution at the Brit Awards. It will be his 16th Brit, the latest accolade in an epically successful solo career which began after he walked out on Take That in summer 1995 in a cloud of booze, drugs and bleached hair.
After a faltering start – the 1997 single Angels saved his bacon – Williams went on to sell 60 million copies of eight albums, broke box-office records for his tours, and signed a record-company contract worth an eye-watering £80 million. He also went into rehab more than once.
But now? Now Williams admits the lustre is fading. “I’m not bright and shiny any more.” The wheels, he says, haven’t fallen off just yet. “But I’m not the omnipresent, all-conquering Robbie Williams of the past.”
The thing is, he adds, he’s not bothered. “I’ve got something exciting planned for the end of the year. Separate to me. And that’s very, very, very exciting.” One of his managers is hovering, and she cautions him to pipe down.
The thing is, he adds, he’s not bothered. “I’ve got something exciting planned for the end of the year. Separate to me. And that’s very, very, very exciting.” One of his managers is hovering, and she cautions him to pipe down.
But as on so many occasions in the past, Williams can’t help himself. He opens up his laptop and plays me two new songs he’s written with Barlow, the Take That alpha male whom he’s spent much of the preceding 15 years publicly abusing. His long-suffering manager shakes her head: “You’re such a sod.”
In the reformed Take That, all men are equal – but are some more equal than others? Williams retains separate management and press representation. Plus, on the Progress tour he’s being allowed a solo slot. The three-hour show opens with a mime act, followed by support artists Pet Shop Boys. Then the four-piece Take That do a short performance, before vacating the stage for a five-song set by Williams. Finally, the five-strong Take That see out the concert.
Today in south London, all five insist that everything is going swimmingly. Certainly there are public displays of affection: each member is merrily ribbed by everyone else. However, Williams concedes that, before they dived into rehearsals, he did have to make a sincere apology to Gavin, who’s worked with the band since the early Nineties.
“Kim Gavin thought I was a pain in the arse. And for the job that he had to do at the time, that’s understandable. Because I didn’t apply myself. But I have a tremendous relationship with Kim now. And I’m applying myself.”
I press Williams on his preparedness for the tour. Last year he had told me of the stage fright that had latterly overwhelmed him. It was still a problem. “I did a tour and an awful lot of people came to see me,” he says of his 2006 outing, for which he sold 1.6 million tickets in one day. “I bit off a bit more than I could chew. And I buckled.”
He says it was “a bit like that feeling when you’re standing on the balcony and you think you’re gonna throw yourself off”. And, he adds: “For many years it was kinda like jumping out of a plane and not knowing whether the parachute was gonna open.”
Now, I read those quotes back to him. Little over a year later, have those feelings about performing changed? “They’ve changed dramatically. I didn’t know at the time that I was ill. And things have changed since going to the doctors. And finding out what it is and sorting it out.” He’s mentioned this mystery ailment before – which left him chronically fatigued – but declines to elaborate.
“Got a parachute,” deadpans Williams, “got rid of the balconies. Now, if anything creeps in that’s slightly negative or destructive for myself, I can get rid of it.” How? “Um. Well, I’m kinda balanced now. So I’ve just got a level playing surface to work from. And it kind of all makes sense. And, you know, this is my job. It’s also my livelihood. Also, in the past, I’ve been quite good at it, ’cause people have come back to see me. And I’m all good. I’m relaxed. Ready to go. Rehearsed up.”
Or, as Williams puts it: “This show’s a piece of p---. It really is. Hit after hit after hit after hit after hit.”
Take That are on tour until July 29. The new album, ‘Progressed’, is released on June 13
Per i nostri amici italiani che non conoscono bene l'inglese facciamo un sunto di cosa ha detto.
Riflettendo sul passato,pensa all'inizio quando era un figlio di separati,scarso a scuola,con la voce da ragazza,terribilmente ingenuo con l'accento di Stoke ed era tremendamente sicuro di sè e al tempo stesso molto insicuro...una brutta combinazione.
Ora non sono più brillante come una volta,sono ancora in forma ma non più onnipresente e conquistatore come prima.
(la cosa più importante) Non è infastidito,anzi è molto eccitato per i piani che ha per la fine dell'anno.
Anche se Josie cerca di non farlo esporre troppo lui fa sentire al giornalista dei nuovi pezzi scritti con Gary.
Ora è molto più rilassato e maturo,è in forma smagliante e ora le cose che fa hanno acquistato un senso.Ora che si è curato non è più sempre stanco.Ha capito che quello che fa è il suo lavoro,il suo sostentamento e non è più terrorizato dal palcoscenico,anzi è equilibrato e pronto a partire.
The thing is, he adds, he’s not bothered. “I’ve got something exciting planned for the end of the year. Separate to me. And that’s very, very, very exciting.” One of his managers is hovering, and she cautions him to pipe down.
The thing is, he adds, he’s not bothered. “I’ve got something exciting planned for the end of the year. Separate to me. And that’s very, very, very exciting.” One of his managers is hovering, and she cautions him to pipe down.
But as on so many occasions in the past, Williams can’t help himself. He opens up his laptop and plays me two new songs he’s written with Barlow, the Take That alpha male whom he’s spent much of the preceding 15 years publicly abusing. His long-suffering manager shakes her head: “You’re such a sod.”
In the reformed Take That, all men are equal – but are some more equal than others? Williams retains separate management and press representation. Plus, on the Progress tour he’s being allowed a solo slot. The three-hour show opens with a mime act, followed by support artists Pet Shop Boys. Then the four-piece Take That do a short performance, before vacating the stage for a five-song set by Williams. Finally, the five-strong Take That see out the concert.
Today in south London, all five insist that everything is going swimmingly. Certainly there are public displays of affection: each member is merrily ribbed by everyone else. However, Williams concedes that, before they dived into rehearsals, he did have to make a sincere apology to Gavin, who’s worked with the band since the early Nineties.
“Kim Gavin thought I was a pain in the arse. And for the job that he had to do at the time, that’s understandable. Because I didn’t apply myself. But I have a tremendous relationship with Kim now. And I’m applying myself.”
I press Williams on his preparedness for the tour. Last year he had told me of the stage fright that had latterly overwhelmed him. It was still a problem. “I did a tour and an awful lot of people came to see me,” he says of his 2006 outing, for which he sold 1.6 million tickets in one day. “I bit off a bit more than I could chew. And I buckled.”
He says it was “a bit like that feeling when you’re standing on the balcony and you think you’re gonna throw yourself off”. And, he adds: “For many years it was kinda like jumping out of a plane and not knowing whether the parachute was gonna open.”
Now, I read those quotes back to him. Little over a year later, have those feelings about performing changed? “They’ve changed dramatically. I didn’t know at the time that I was ill. And things have changed since going to the doctors. And finding out what it is and sorting it out.” He’s mentioned this mystery ailment before – which left him chronically fatigued – but declines to elaborate.
“Got a parachute,” deadpans Williams, “got rid of the balconies. Now, if anything creeps in that’s slightly negative or destructive for myself, I can get rid of it.” How? “Um. Well, I’m kinda balanced now. So I’ve just got a level playing surface to work from. And it kind of all makes sense. And, you know, this is my job. It’s also my livelihood. Also, in the past, I’ve been quite good at it, ’cause people have come back to see me. And I’m all good. I’m relaxed. Ready to go. Rehearsed up.”
Or, as Williams puts it: “This show’s a piece of p---. It really is. Hit after hit after hit after hit after hit.”
Take That are on tour until July 29. The new album, ‘Progressed’, is released on June 13
Per i nostri amici italiani che non conoscono bene l'inglese facciamo un sunto di cosa ha detto.
Riflettendo sul passato,pensa all'inizio quando era un figlio di separati,scarso a scuola,con la voce da ragazza,terribilmente ingenuo con l'accento di Stoke ed era tremendamente sicuro di sè e al tempo stesso molto insicuro...una brutta combinazione.
Ora non sono più brillante come una volta,sono ancora in forma ma non più onnipresente e conquistatore come prima.
(la cosa più importante) Non è infastidito,anzi è molto eccitato per i piani che ha per la fine dell'anno.
Anche se Josie cerca di non farlo esporre troppo lui fa sentire al giornalista dei nuovi pezzi scritti con Gary.
Ora è molto più rilassato e maturo,è in forma smagliante e ora le cose che fa hanno acquistato un senso.Ora che si è curato non è più sempre stanco.Ha capito che quello che fa è il suo lavoro,il suo sostentamento e non è più terrorizato dal palcoscenico,anzi è equilibrato e pronto a partire.
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