http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/news/...il/article.html

Monday, October 12, 2009, 08:00

Robbie tipped for number one spot :dance:

 

ROBBIE Williams looks set to reach the top of the UK singles charts for the first time in five years.

 

Robbie's new song Bodies – out today – has been dominating the airwaves since it was first played on Radio 1 last month.

 

And industry insiders believe his performance on last night's The X Factor results show could give him the extra boost to score his seventh solo number one.

If he is successful, it will cap a remarkable return to life in the spotlight for the Tunstall-born singer.

After his live performance of Bodies, Robbie told The X Factor audience: "You looked beautiful tonight. It's good to be back. I loved it. It was great. Thank you very, very much."

 

Since he left the public spotlight three years ago, Robbie has suffered exhaustion following a gruelling world tour, spent time in rehab, started his own football club, LA Vale, and moved home to the UK from Los Angeles.

 

He also faced criticism over his last album, Rudebox, although it still reached number one in the UK albums charts.

 

Now the singer's family say he is enjoying life once more.

 

His dad Pete Conway said: "People often say to me, 'Are you proud of Robbie?'. They mean what he's achieved with his music, and of course I am.

But I am more proud of him for doing what he has done with himself in his life, like getting through rehab and beating his addiction.

 

"Robbie gets knocked for saying what he feels. We can all put a face on things and keep quiet, but Robbie is honest and open."

 

HMV chart expert Gennaro Castaldo has called Bodies a return to form.

 

He said: "I think it has a great chance of getting to number one.

 

"There's an excitement around his release, there is a lot of media receptiveness to his return and the public are looking forward to seeing him.

 

"The single is very good. It is Robbie back to his best and his appearance on The X Factor will give his sales a push – there is no greater stage than that to promote his work.

 

"But if Bodies doesn't make it to number one, it is no disgrace because Robbie is an albums artist now.

 

"The album will definitely get to number one and will be one of the biggest-selling titles of Christmas."

 

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showb...-live-show.html

 

Robbie returns as Rain go down drain

 

ROBBIE Williams, who has acted as a mentor to last night's X Factor acts, performed his comeback single Bodies.

Asked to pick a winner by host Dermot, he said: "I really like Olly, Rachel, Stacey - actually I can't pick a favourite. They are really good."

 

Last year's winner Alexandra Burke also performed on the show. Louis Walsh voted but was absent after the tragic death of Boyzone star Stephen Gately.

 

After being told they were in the bottom two, Kandy Rain were left on stage during the advert break with no one to comfort them as Louis was not there.

 

 

 

:cry: ROBBIE was caught up in an accident outside the X Factor studios last night when a photographer fell under the wheels of his chauffeur-driven car. The cameraman was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

 

 

 

 

As much as Id love that article about it going to be #1 to be true, it looks as though Alaxandra is going to beat him going by downloads so far. Still #2 with strong sales will be a great result. It is #1 all over Europe anyway so he will be delighted :cheer:

 

 

Robbie WIlliams' X Factor comeback marred by accident

Robbie Williams' comeback performance on The X Factor was marred by an accident outside the studio in which a young photographer was run over as he attempted to take pictures of the star.

 

By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor

Published: 2:46PM BST 12 Oct 2009

 

Previous1 of 2 ImagesNext Robbie Williams was said to be in tears after the accident outside the X Factor studios Photo: COPETTI/PHOTOFAB/REX FEATURES

The photographer was taken to hospital but suffered only minor injuries Photo: COPETTI/FOTOFAB/REX FEATURES

Williams looked shaken and tearful after the incident, which occurred as he was being driven away from the television studios.

 

A teenage photographer fell under the wheels of Williams' chauffeur-driven people carrier and had to be pulled from under the car by security guards. He was taken to hospital.

 

 

Related Articles

Williams X Factor comeback A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "A male pedestrian in his teens and a car were in collision. The male pedestrian suffered minor injuries and was taken to hospital as a precaution. No arrests were made."

 

Earlier, Williams had performed his new single, Bodies, on The X Factor results show. It was his first UK performance in three years and he told the audience: "It's good to be back!"

 

The former Take That star also acted as a mentor for the contestants, tipping Olly Murs, Lloyd Daniels and Stacey Solomon as his favourites.

 

Kandy Rain became the first act to be voted off, a day after judge Cheryl Cole lambasted the former lapdancers for wearing skimpy outfits. The judges were deadlocked over whether to send home the girl group or singer Rachel Adedeji. Kandy Rain lost out because they received the lowest number of public votes

 

http://johnnyikon.com/articles/7587-EXCLUS...t-X-Factor.html

 

with some pics....

 

 

LET ME ENTERTAIN TWO

 

Must-see telLY Robbie with pals Ant and Dec

 

 

ROBBIE WILLIAMS has been signed up by pals ANT and DEC for a huge TV Christmas special that will be the highlight of the ITV1 festive schedule. :cheer:

 

The singer has agreed to be star turn on the one-off variety show which the Geordie duo have developed.

 

It is fantastic news for Robbie in the week his single Bodies is being trounced by ALEXANDRA BURKE in the charts.

 

The lad has also come in for a lot of flak for his nervous X Factor appearance at the weekend.

 

But this is an entertainment hook-up made in heaven.

 

Ant and Dec's programme will be just like comedy favourites MORECAMBE and WISE's famous show, which was the absolute must-see of Christmas telly for years.

 

The lads will be laying on an old-school entertainment feast recorded in front of a live studio audience.

 

There will be a mixture of sketches, performances, guests and interviews.

 

Robbie has agreed to sing live and he will get involved in comedy skits with the pair.

 

The big finale will be Robbie belting out a big number with Ant and Dec joining in - just like Eric and Ernie used to do.

 

Excited

 

A source said: "Ant and Dec have been given the green light to make a Christmas special which will be ITV1's big family entertainment show this Christmas.

 

"They came up with the concept and pitched it to ITV. Their own company, Gallowgate, will make it. Robbie is really excited to be on board.

 

"They have already been discussing ideas together.

 

"It is nothing to do with Saturday Night Takeaway, Ant and Dec's previous show.

 

"This is a brand new show. They will be filming it when they get back from the Australian jungle in December after presenting the next series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here."

 

Up to now it has not been the best of weeks for Robbie.

 

Alexandra is stretching out her lead in their battle for Sunday's No1 with every day that passes.

 

By the close of play on Tuesday she had sold 114,000 copies of Bad Boys compared to his 56,000 for Bodies.

 

I don't understand why he chose to release on the same week as X Factor winner Alex.

 

On any other week this year his single would have gone straight to No1.

 

It is shaping up to be his biggest week one sale since he released Rock DJ nine years ago.

 

But his people just didn't Factor in how much love there is for Ms Burke.

 

 

The SUN

On any other week this year his single would have gone straight to No1.

 

It is shaping up to be his biggest week one sale since he released Rock DJ nine years ago.

Fair play Gordon for saying this. Some facts being printed in a tabloid for once. Great to see - I had been wondering when he last sold so much first day/week - nice to know it was Rock DJ 9 years ago. Shows how well Bodies is doing. :yahoo:

 

Great about Ant and Dec too - the more promo leading up to Xmas the better :dance:

 

Robbie has spoken out against claims he was on drugs.

 

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/enterta....-1225787339903?

 

Robbie Williams 'nervous not drunk' during comeback performance

By Cameron Adam

 

BRITISH pop star Robbie Williams has lashed out at criticism of his comeback performance on UK TV show The X Factor.

 

Viewers questioned Williams' "wide-eyed" and "erratic" appearance of his new single Bodies last weekend.

 

"I know people are alluding to the fact I may have been high on something but I can only say I wasn't because I wasn't," Williams said.

 

"Unless someone spiked my drink and I would have noticed - I know what various drugs feel like. It's the same as the deer in the headlight, the deer's not on anything other than fear. I'd had a few coffees before I went on, that's all."

 

Williams revealed he was crippled with nerves at his first major TV appearance in three years playing to 14 million people.

 

"The veil is finally falling," Williams said. "I'm always nervous, but in the past I've been able to look cocksure through the nerves. I'm not sure if I'm able to mask it anymore.

 

"I got on there and had a bit of a wobble. It was overwhelming, the love in the room was palpable but I just didn't know what to do with my arms. I didn't feel like the seasoned pro I am, it just felt a bit alien.

 

"I maybe should have done a few other TV shows before I did that big one. In the script people have written for me there's a lot expected of me. And I expect a lot of myself. One of those things is to look natural. At the minute it just feels a bit unnatural."

 

Williams said stagefright means he will not tour new album Reality Killed the Video Star.

 

His last world tour, which ended in Melbourne in 2006, led to Williams going into rehab for prescription pill addiction the following year.

 

"It was a bad year all round really," Williams says of his nine month world tour. "Before I went into rehab I was very close to death. It's getting more scary since people have been popping their clogs. I can absolutely relate to Michael Jackson or Heath Ledger."

 

Williams' next major TV performance will be playing Bodies at the ARIAs on November 26.

 

The singer will be accompanied by girlfriend Ayda Field, and is prepared to put his music career on the back burner to start a family with the US actor.

 

"I don't know where I stand yet on touring. It's very early days. I've got a missus now, I'm loved up, we're thinking about babies, that'll be coming soon. It depends if they get a daddy who's always on tour or a daddy's who's in the house. It all depends on the next couple of months. I'll see how the ARIAs feel. If it's not taking my fancy anymore it's not taking my fancy."

 

Williams said he and Field have discussed eventually moving to the Australian outback.

 

"The missus and I really dig it down there and could possibly be a place we end up. She had a feeling about us living in the outback.

 

"Coming down to the ARIAs, it's going to be a big gig. Obviously I put a lot of pressure on myself because I'm an international worrier, so I'm not looking forward to the worry, I'm looking forward to getting it done and seeing a few things with the wife."

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol...t=24&page=3

 

SINCE Robbie Williams and fame began their uneasy relationship in the early 1990s, the former Take That star has rarely been alone. Those who know him best say he prefers to surround himself with people at all times. Nights in at home in Los Angeles are regularly accompanied by a dozen hangers-on. It suits his nervy disposition. He likes noise, distraction, adoration.

 

Last week, however, in the moments leading up to arguably the most crucial performance of his career, the 35-year-old pop star stood in the darkened wings of The X Factor studio with nothing but his demons for company.

 

It was billed as the biggest comeback since Elvis (or Dirty Den, at least). For several months, executives at Virgin Records, and its parent company EMI, have toiled with a single purpose: to convince the British public to fall for the Marmite charms of pop’s wayward son once more.

 

The stakes are high. The company signed an £80m recording contract with Williams in 2002, and in an industry where sure-fire hits are harder than ever to come by, superstars are a rarity.

 

Hence Williams had been booked on The X Factor, the TV talent show that routinely attracts more than 13m viewers. But as he stood by the stage waiting to perform Bodies, the lead single from his new album, the sliding door wouldn’t open. Williams managed to elbow his way into the lights but his shaky confidence was already thrown.

 

“So there’s a bad start,” he said afterwards. “I had a whole pose planned and what not. But that went out of the window.”

 

And how. The next five minutes were a car crash of darting eyes and cringe-worthy mugging, with a slick of sweat across his brow that would have done Richard Nixon proud. The song tanked.

 

Perhaps most shamefully, his quivering vocals were eclipsed by the X Factor contestants who had taken to the same stage the previous night. The assortment of single mums, pub crooners and novelty acts had outsung the seasoned pro.

 

Even worse, Williams appeared wide-eyed and jumpy in an interview with the show’s host immediately afterwards. Internet forums quickly filled up with suggestions that he was high on more than the atmosphere. They were strenuously denied by his management team. Nevertheless, a couple of days later, a tabloid newspaper featured a picture of a bug-eyed Williams with the headline: “Mummy, who’s that strange man on X Factor?”

 

It can’t have been what Williams (nor the executives at EMI) had hoped for. He had so much to prove. In 2006, Rudebox, his last album, was released to critical whiplash and lacklustre sales — a million unsold copies of the CD were sent to China to be recycled as road cladding.

 

After a debilitating tour in which he experienced chronic stage fright, a burnt-out Williams sloped back to Los Angeles (where he has lived on and off for years), grew a Rasputin beard and developed a quirky affection for UFOs.

 

Then, earlier this year, a chink of light. After a stint in rehab to wean himself off myriad prescription drugs, Williams returned to Britain and went into the studio with Trevor Horn, noted producer of 1970s and 1980s hits including Relax, for Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and the Buggles’ Video Killed the Radio Star.

 

Could Williams, a man with 15 Brit awards, who has sold a remarkable 55m albums (16m in the UK alone) and is in the Guinness Book of Records for shifting the highest number of concert tickets in one day (1.6m), do it again? Fans and industry bods held their breath.

 

Last week they exhaled. Sadly, it was with less of a sigh, more a whimper. After a marketing campaign more ruthless than any political party’s, the Stoke-on-Trent-born singer’s single was likely only to reach the No 2 spot in tonight’s singles charts, outsold two to one by last year’s X Factor winner. By the end of last week Alexandra Burke had sold almost 90,000 copies of Bad Boys; Williams had sold fewer than 43,000 copies of Bodies.

 

By yesterday Bodies had been overtaken in the top 10 most downloaded songs on iTunes by the 18-year-old rapper Chipmunk with his song Oopsy Daisy. Add to this an iffy buzz for the new album (Reality Killed the Video Star, released on November 9) and panic has set in. Have the wheels already come off the Robbie comeback?

 

“It is in all our interests to do a good job,” said Shabs Jobanputra, president of Virgin Records, last week. “It is an important release, not just for Virgin and Robbie, but for the market as a whole.”

 

Tim Clark, one half of Williams’s management team, was also feeling the pressure. “Of course, if you have been out of the public eye for three years there is bound to be speculation and a certain fear with everybody in this camp,” he said.

 

And it seems that the fear could be realised. What has changed? Is it a harsher market place? Are the songs simply not good enough? Or — whisper it — have we all simply had enough of Robbie?

 

TO BE fair, the relationship between star and public has been patchy in the past. When Williams quit Take That in 1995, as their success was cresting, to grow his hair long and get boozy with Oasis, the record-buying masses were largely unmoved by his cover of George Michael’s Freedom. But with a dogged resilience and a gift for showboating he soon overcame the limits of his voice to become what, from Sir Cliff Richard to Kylie Minogue, Britain loves best: a personality-driven cabaret turn with a comforting touch of mediocrity to make us feel they’re just like us.

 

Martin O’Neill, the football manager, seemed to sum up the nation’s feelings towards Williams in 1998 when the two men were pundits for the BBC during that summer’s football World Cup. “To be fair, you’ve done really well, because I thought you’d really struggle after Take That,” O’Neill told a stunned Williams. “Someone who can’t play, can’t write, can’t play a guitar — I thought you’d struggle.”

 

Yet the hits started to roll out. Let Me Entertain You, Millennium, She’s The One, Rock DJ and, of course, the inescapable Angels. Twelve years after its release, the tooth-rottingly sweet ballad is still the third most popular choice for a couple’s first dance on their wedding day and, at the same time, the top choice for funerals.

 

In 2003, Williams played three concerts at Knebworth House, Hertfordshire packing in 375,000 people over three nights in what is reputedly still Britain’s biggest concert. But as the decade marched on, he started to lose his touch. The songs became less memorable (not helped when he fell out with Guy Chambers, his long-term writing partner) and Williams became more famous for his lively array of neuroses.

 

You name it, he’s struggled with it — drink, drugs, relationships. Though he hasn’t touched booze in years, in the wake of the Rudebox debacle and high-pressure tour, other appetites got the better of him.

 

“I just buckled under the weight of it,” he said in a recent interview. “Even before it started it felt like getting on the Titanic. Then I got stage fright. And stage fright in front of 80,000 people is horrendous.”

 

He started popping sleeping pills, prescription painkillers and Adderall, a drug used to combat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder that, for the non-sufferer, acts like speed.

 

“I would have died,” he said of the days leading up to rehab in February 2007. “A heart attack, I think. My left arm was going numb. Chest was contracting.”

 

Meanwhile, Take That had dusted themselves down from years of ignominy to knock out fresh hit after fresh hit. After a more than a decade of badmouthing his former bandmates from the lofty outcrop of superfame, Williams was beginning to resemble the underdog.

 

Certainly, the music business had changed in the years since his last release. Though downloads were prevalent when Rudebox came out, CD sales have since slumped.

 

Take That, interestingly, are a good example of how to succeed when people don’t buy music in the way they did (or simply download it free). Give the public radio-friendly hits to whet the appetite then head out on a spectacular — and spectacularly lucrative — concert tour.

 

Isn’t this what Williams should be doing now to reconnect with his fans? “At some point Robbie actually needs to get back on the road again,” agreed Gennaro Castaldo, head of press at HMV and a respected industry sage.

 

“He’s clearly a confident performer. He’s at his best when he feels he’s being adored and people value him. He needs that level of validation — and the best way for him to get that is when he’s out on the road with his audience. The sooner he gets out onto the stage the better. It will really push his career forward because the days of mass marketing have passed us by.”

 

HERE, perhaps, is where Williams’ carefully orchestrated campaign went awry. It was an old-school strategy that assumed a star’s sheer wattage would see fans flock to whatever promotional activity they provided. A careful rosta of television and radio appearances was set up, drip feeding the public a first play on Radio 1, then a first look at the video on GMTV.

 

Magazine and newspaper interviews, detailing his struggles during his time out of the spotlight, and a giveaway CD of greatest hits, followed with the regularity of machinegun fire.

 

But there was little in the way of in-store appearances and, crucially, no tour. Finally came that high-stakes X Factor gamble where Williams’s vocal ability was always going to be compared against that of the contestants, who, if they can do nothing else, can at least belt out a live song.

 

“Um, I didn’t think the X Factor appearance was his finest,” said a diplomatic Stuart Clarke, talent editor of Music Week. “Obviously it’s disappointing that it then goes in at No 2.

 

“For the record company, this album is key,” he said. “It’s a big part of its fourth-quarter release schedule, that all-important period with Christmas coming up — that’s the time when your music fan who only buys one or two albums a year will make that purchase.”

 

What else could give Williams momentum? “Robbie and Take That getting back together again, even for one concert, is the story waiting to be written,” said Castaldo instantly.

 

For Williams, it had better be sooner rather than later. “That will further galvanise his career,” said Castaldo. “He needs that excitement.”

 

He also needs it for the sake of his future. His contract with EMI ends with this album and, if it flops, he will find few takers for a similar so-called “360 deal”, taking in concert and merchandising revenues as well as music sales, in the future. According to The Sunday Times Rich List, Williams’s fortune declined by £25m last year to £80m. He will not want to continue tracking the fate of the music industry so closely.

 

Not that Castaldo has written him off just yet. “Robbie still has sufficient profile to come back with a bang and connect with a huge audience. We fully expect [his album]to be among the biggest sellers this Christmas.”

 

You can understand the bravado. If Williams and his ilk can’t shift music, then Castaldo and his are out of a job too.

 

 

-_- :arrr: :arrr: :arrr:

That fu****g article is not going to do much for Robbies confidence is it.... :angry:

 

I hope that Robbie has a stormer of a show next Tuesday ... ;)

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=109176

 

Rolling Stone Magazine Set for November Launch in Bulgaria

 

 

The singer Robbie Williams grants an exclusive interview in the new Bulgarian issue of Rolling Stone, due out on November 9. f File photo

 

One of the most popular magazines in the music world, Rolling Stone, is set to appear in a Bulgarian language edition on November 9, 2009.

 

The cover of the first Bulgarian issue of the Rolling Stone will feature pop idol Robbie Williams, whose photos and interview are exclusive for the country, the Pari Daily has reported. Its debut here coincides with the magazine's 42nd. birthday.

 

Rolling Stone is expected to play a significant role in covering the musical and entertainment interests of the young people of Bulgaria, as it has successfully done in the US for more that 40 years.

 

"We are happy that our readers continue to expand in number. We admire the optimism and enthusiasm of the Bulgarian team in this unfavorable economic climate," says Jann Wenner, founder and Editor-in-Chief of the magazine, which appears in eight languages in over 15 states around the globe.

 

Anelia Ilieva is Editor-in-Chief of Rolling Stone Bulgaria, and the license for publishing the magazine is owned by Sivir Publications.

 

:w00t:

 

50 Cent: I want to work with Robbie

Fri Oct 23 2009 18:41:18

ITN News

 

50 Cent says he would like to work with Robbie Williams.

 

The rap icon made the revelation while congratulating the singer on getting the highest honour at the Brit Awards.

 

The Rock DJ will receive an outstanding contribution prize at next year's show.

 

The US star said: "Robbie is a great artist. I actually tried to work with him during the Curtis album, but at that point he was going to rehab. So it didn't work out."

 

50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, is still hopeful that they might team up in the future.

 

The hip hop mogul, who is in London to promote new film Dead Man Running, added: "If the concept or the song comes up I'd reach out to him, because the last time I did, everyone was receptive to the idea."

 

Ugh. It seems everytime Fiddy has something to promote he harps on about wanting to work with Rob. Dont ever work with him Rob :lol: Tbh, I think the last time I even heard of Fiddy was the last time he said this. Where has he been? Kanye definatly seems to have taken over.

 

Great about Rolling Stone mag. I would just love if Rob was on the cover of next months 'Q Mag, but as he is not 'rock' or on drugs like he was back in the 90's he is prob not seen as being 'cool enough' :rolleyes:

ROBBIE ON SWISS TV...

 

 

 

http://bazonline.ch/kultur/pop-und-jazz/...../story/24037030

 

 

 

 

http://videoportal.sf.tv/video?id=09f9b95b...76-757a3ab38728

 

 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/hjt2m1z5nn1/...4%20OTTOBRE.avi

 

 

 

Thanks to TRWS ;)

Edited October 25, 200915 yr by staralliance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vRneKOVGJQ

 

and you tube

 

http://www.20min.ch/diashow/27105/7977487-c6261bf591733720b2fe7cc50fdf26b9.jpg

Still the brown shoes..... :lol:

It's funny how there's always one article of clothing that he wears over and over again. A few years ago it was the ripped up shirt. Then it was ascot's :puke2: . Now, the brown shoes!

 

:lol: :lol:

 

Robbie, don't you know you're a gazillionaire?!? You are NEVER to wear the same piece of clothing TWICE!!!! For SHAME!!!!

Edited October 26, 200915 yr by dazzleland

THE ENTERTAINER IS BACK

 

ROBBIE WILLIAMS MAKES A TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO THE STAGE

 

 

“The thin line between success and failure is timing,” said a former dotcom millionaire after his fortune was wiped out in the crash of 2000. The same maxim could equally apply to the career of Robbie Williams. Tapping into the prematurely stymied popularity of his former band Take That, Williams became the poster boy of the swaggering ‘Cool Britannia’ era: the highest selling British solo artist ever who in 2002 signed a landmark record deal with EMI records for £80 million pounds.

 

The world and the music scene are a different place now and Williams is seen as artist trying to make a comeback after declining record sales, the resurgent success of the rest of Take That and a sojourn to LA where he grew a beard and hunted aliens in the desert.

 

Following a nervy appearance on the X-factor to promote his first single Bodies there was an extra-frisson of anticipation for Williams’ first UK gig in three years. Kicking off the BBC Electric Proms series, the North London venue could only have seemed pokey to the performer who once played in front of nearly a quarter of a million fans at three gigs at Knebworth. Yet there was nothing of the wide-eyed mad man as Williams launched into the same number with an air of calm confidence, injecting the odd song with much needed warmth and energy and setting the tone for a quietly triumphant night.

 

Williams may have passed his commercial peak but arguably his musical creativity has grown in the latter part of his career. New album Reality Killed the Video Star, helmed by renowned producer Trevor Horn, returns to more intimate song writing, including an old number from Williams former musical partner Guy Chambers. Catching the familiar styles echoing around Williams’ songs – from the Beatles to George Michael and the Pet Shop Boys – is a bit like turning into a classic hits radio station. But where there was once the shouty, manic bombast of Rock DJ and Millennium, there is in the new songs, a wistful poignancy and beautiful restraint.

 

Spliced in between his older hits, songs like Morning Sun and Deceptacon sound more like the vulnerable ballads Take That has made a comeback with – Williams pure croon even sounded like Gary Barlow at times. But it is the strange fridge magnet poetry of Williams’s lyrics that makes them more intriguing, a style that manages to be absurdly elliptical and yet strangely resonant.

 

He may no longer be flavour of the month but dressed head-to-toe in denim, showing off the grey flecks in his hair, Williams seems to be ageing into a much more relaxed performer, bantering with the crowd as if they were old friends, timing his jokes and songs perfectly. “Thank you for making me feel so comfortable,” he said as the audience gave him a standing ovation. The feeling was mutual Robbie.

 

THE TELEGRAPH

 

Published: 3:58PM GMT 26 Oct 2009

 

 

Robbie eyes festive No1

The Sun 26th October.

 

ROBBIE WILLIAMS is launching a bold bid for the Christmas No1, going head to head with the eventual winner of the X Factor.

It's a risky gambit, as the TV talent show champions have had the festive top spot sewn up over recent years.

 

But the Stoke lad - who played a triumphant London show on Tuesday - is issuing You Know Me from new album Reality Killed The Video Star on Monday, December 14.

 

It's going to be a great fight.

 

 

 

REALITY BITES FOR ROBBIE WILLIAMS

 

 

.ROBBIE Williams' last world tour ended in Australia in December 2006.

 

Less than three months later, Williams was close to ending his life.

 

The gruelling, record-breaking nine-month stadium tour tested Williams.

 

He cancelled shows due to exhaustion and, by the time the finish line was in sight in Australia, he was just going through the motions.

 

It wasn't a memorable time in Camp Robbie.

 

His 2006 album Rudebox was savaged by the media, the title track - an experimental rap released because, well, he could - was labelled the worst song ever by one UK newspaper.

 

Back home in LA, decompressing from the tour, Williams - who'd beaten alcohol and cocaine addictions in the past - started downing dangerous amounts of prescription drugs, including the addictive painkiller Vicodin (he was taking up to 20 each day) and ADHD-stimulant Adderall in the cocktail.

 

The legal haze ended abruptly on Williams' 33rd birthday in February 2007, when his management had a special present for him - a trip to rehab.

 

"I know it gets sensationalised when I say 'I was very close to death', but I was," Williams says.

 

"It was a scary time.

 

"It's scarier since people like Michael Jackson and Heath Ledger have been popping their clogs."

 

Williams was burnt out.

 

The album he said was more "him" than any other hadn't sold like its predecessors.

 

("Not to be vulgar, but it did sell 2.5 million copies," Williams clarifies of Rudebox. "Ninety-nine per cent of the industry would die to sell that many albums.")

 

And the showmanship he'd charmed the world with wasn't coming naturally.

 

"Three years ago I didn't want to be a pop star anymore," Williams admits now.

 

"A lot of stuff happened on the last tour and I think I'm still recovering on the old performance front from that. It was too much of a big tour for someone as mentally crippled as me. I say that with a laugh. And half seriousness.

 

"Rudebox had got a major kicking. The tour had ended and I'd ended up in rehab.

 

"I pretty much thought 'Is this worth it?' It was obviously not making me happy.

 

"The definition of insanity is repeating the same things and expecting a different result.

 

"At the time I thought, with the kicking and the rehab, maybe there's other things in life?"

 

Did he have a valid plan B?

 

"Nothing made it's way to me," he says.

 

Nothing except one important thing - love.

 

Williams met actress Ayda Field in LA, one of the few places in the world he can fly under the radar and have what passes for a normal life.

 

Before long, Field moved into his LA mansion. Williams and Field christened their relationship with chocolate. Lots of it.

 

"Yeah, I got big," Williams says of his fat period.

 

"Normally the woman gets bigger once they've fallen in love. They call it the honey trap - 'I've got him, I'll sit on the sofa and eat what I want'.

 

"It happened in reverse this time. I found the woman I love and thought 'OK, I don't have to fit in these trousers' and did the eating thing.

 

"She did too, but she's got far better genes."

 

In between comfort eating, Williams began making music for fun again, reuniting with hometown mates Soul Mekanik, who wrote some of the more electronic material on Rudebox.

 

An album was finished. However, Williams realised it would have finished his career if it had been released.

 

"It was not very melodic. A bit strange," Williams admits of the shelved album.

 

"It would have probably been described as self-indulgent and a career-ender. It would have terrified the record company and my fans.

 

"I really liked it though. Maybe I had to go there to come back."

 

One of his Soul Mekanik mates had a brother "who wrote proper songs on guitars and piano" and the team finished Reality Killed the Video Star - Williams' eighth album and one he's helpfully described as "old Robbie, new Robbie and a Robbie we've never met before".

 

"It won't scare the record company or the fans," he says.

 

"They would have been worried if I'd delivered this album a year ago in the form it was in."

 

In a masterstroke, Williams recruited Trevor Horn to produce the album. Horn's CV includes classic records by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Seal, ABC, Pet Shop Boys and the Art of Noise - all touched by his love of lush, orchestrated and electronic sounds.

 

"In the past I thought Trevor was on some golden cloud never to be obtained by me," Williams says.

 

"But after seven studio albums I thought it was time I asked a grown-up to produce one of my records."

 

The album contains Williams' first attempt at a proper love song, Won't Do That - his gift to Field.

 

The title comes from Williams promising he won't treat her as he has women in the past (he admits "there's been a few") before singing "I don't trust too much, I don't love enough, but I'm giving up all this giving up".

 

"I committed to our relationship the day I sung the vocals," Williams admits.

 

"I'd been enjoying the single life and then this lady came into my life who is absolutely amazing.

 

"I had to make the transition from being old me into committed me.

 

"The minute I laid down that song is when that happened."

 

Field, Williams says, loves the song.

 

"She thinks it should be the first single. She thinks it should be the only single," he says.

 

During this phone interview he's lying in bed in his London apartment with Field watching football, with his girlfriend helping him with answers.

 

In the song he calls her his Swiss army wife "because she's able to do everything apart from ride a bike and be around birds - she's got a phobia of birds".

 

"Apart from that, very useful."

 

In Feel , Williams sang, rather sadly, "before I fall in love I'm preparing to leave her".

 

"This song's almost the sequel to Feel," Williams notes.

 

"With this relationship, that isn't the case. It's just that indefinable feeling you get - it's safety and love and trust."

 

Field says in the background "unconditional love".

 

"Ah," Williams says. "We have a very sloppy kind of love. That's how it goes down in the Williams' household. We're kinda cheesy. Very cheesy."

 

Field plays a familiar role in the video for his comeback single Bodies - his love interest.

 

Williams' string of relationships in the past ranged from celebrities (former fiancee Nicole Appleton, Rachel Hunter, rumoured liaisons with Geri Halliwell and Nicole Kidman) to a string of women who kissed, told and sold lurid intimate details of romping with Robbie ("I'm glad that spending a night with me guaranteed you celebrity," he sang in Monsoon).

 

Enter Field. Williams frankly admits he told her of all his previous relationships and dalliances.

 

It was, you assume, a long night.

 

"We discussed my past and where my head has been," Williams says. "I was a thoroughly single man and intended to be for all time really."

 

Has he missed one night stands?

 

"It hasn't played on my mind as much as I missed drink. And I haven't had one of those in 10 years," he says.

 

The new, open-book Robbie Williams also confronted another demon from his past - Take That.

 

He famously left the boy band in 1995 at the height of their fame. His dysfunctional relationship with band leader Gary Barlow was played out in the press with a string of nasty insults and backstabbing.

 

In this autobiography, Barlow admitted watching Williams' solo career rise while his fell was incredibly difficult. Ironically the reunited Take That outsold Rudebox and Williams refused to meet the band on camera for a documentary on their reformation.

 

Those days are over. The wounds have healed and Williams is now one of Take That's biggest fans.

 

Williams was photographed in New York last month coming out of a studio where Take That were recording new material. Whispers suggest he's finally writing with Barlow and his former bandmates on a new Take That song.

 

For the only time in the conversation Williams gets coy when asked if there's any progress on his re-entry to the Take That fold.

 

"Progress is an interesting word (long pause). There is progress where there once was not," he says.

 

"It's something I'd like to do. I'd like to see what it feels like to share the pressure (in a band) and to have a complete circle on something."

 

Williams' first major launch for Reality Killed the Video Star was performing Bodies on the UK TV talent show The X Factor.

 

While he's always claimed to be nervous, this was the first time he couldn't hide his stagefright.

 

The fear, he admits, has gotten worse with age - where it used to disappear as soon as he would walk in front of an audience, by the last tour he was battling with it until the encore. This pressure added to his "nervous breakdown" and resulting rehab.

 

"In the last three years the only time I've gone out was for doctor's appointments, otherwise I've just been in the house with the missus," Williams says.

 

At the moment he has "no interest" in a world tour to promote Reality Killed the Video Star.

 

"I've got a missus now. We're thinking about babies. They'll be coming soon."

 

Reality Killed the Video Star (EMI) out November 6

 

WOW...GREAT interview! He needs to be careful with how open he's being about his personal life though. He tends to babble when he's happy, LOL!