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Robbie & Guy Chambers

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in Robbie Williams and Take That

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Recent interview by Guy , wonder how his new opera is going

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p063hfc8

Thanks to http://forum.robbiewilliamsmusic.ru/viewto...?id=214&p=5 for post

Could only find one review so far on the opera itself, I hope it goes well for Guy http://www.onstagenorthants.co.uk/the-self...hambers-review/

Ive listened to the snippets on twitter. It sounds rather lovely actually. :) . I listened to an interview he gave last week. Both his mum and dad were involved with classical music at the highest level. Music really does run through his veins. Very talented man. I also didn't know he has four children. I like Guy. There's a lot of class about him and he seems very calm and measured.

Ive listened to the snippets on twitter. It sounds rather lovely actually. :) . I listened to an interview he gave last week. Both his mum and dad were involved with classical music at the highest level. Music really does run through his veins. Very talented man. I also didn't know he has four children. I like Guy. There's a lot of class about him and he seems very calm and measured.

 

 

Guy always comes across as nervous when he is being interviewed , does he carefully choose his words when talking about Robbie & their past ...

Guy always comes across as nervous when he is being interviewed , does he carefully choose his words when talking about Robbie & their past ...

 

I think certainly he did when they first got back together.

 

RW only got a small mention at the end when Guy was talking about those he had worked with which is right and proper as the interview wasn't about Robbie. When asked Guy said Robbie was unique, a great wordsmith and very, very funny.

  • 1 year later...

“I’m still intimidated by him”: what it’s like to be the ghostwriter behind some of pop’s greatest hits

 

After a successful career writing songs for Robbie Williams, Guy Chambers has just released his first album. But what is it like to be ‘silent’ partner in a songwriting collaboration with a megastar—and how do you strike out on your own?

 

http://i68.tinypic.com/2qs3w39.jpg

 

Robbie Williams performs live in concert at L’Alhambra in Paris, France.

 

Behind many of our favourite tunes, there’s often a songwriter who receives none of the onstage glory, the breathless autograph requests, the chance to make it onto the covers and homepages of music publications. What is it like to be ‘silent’ partner in a songwriting collaboration with a megastar?

 

Guy Chambers knows. He’s just released his first album, Go Gentle Into The Light at the age of 56, after a successful career writing songs with Robbie Williams. The album is a selection of Chambers’ classic songs played as piano instrumentals.

 

Chambers collaborated as songwriter, producer and musical director on Robbie Williams’ first five solo albums, all of which reached number 1 in the United Kingdom album chart and have sold over 40 million records globally. Their hit singles include “Angels,” “Let Me Entertain You,” “Millennium,” “Feel” and “Rock DJ,” among others.

 

In 1995, Chambers’ own band, The Lemon Trees, disbanded. Describing how he first met Williams two years later in 1997, he says that it happened “through my publisher, Paul Curran, who was a friend of Robbie’s manager, Tim Clark. Rob called me up and asked me if I could write ‘dirty pop,’ I said ‘yes’—and the rest is history.”

 

In a 2005 Guardian profile, Chambers explained their dynamic more fully: “I was intimidated by [Williams]. Just like he was intimidated by me. It was mutual intimidation. I’m still intimidated by him. He’s got this persona, you never know what he’s going to say or think. He’s edgy. But that’s quite good for me creatively. It woke me up a bit.”

 

It was also around this time that Chambers started working with award-winning singer-turned-songwriter Cathy Dennis. A pop performer in her own right, Dennis was called “a half-remembered 90s star” in a 2008 Guardian profile, which then adds: “she had 10 consecutive UK top 40 hit singles in the 1990s,” the most famous of them being “Touch Me (All Night Long)” from 1991.

 

It was only the year after, however, that another song she wrote was in the charts—but this time, sung by someone else. Dannii Minogue’s 1992 “Love’s On Every Corner” was the first song Dennis wrote for someone else.

 

Talking about the years in which she’s sold her songs to other singers, she said: “I think I naturally thrive in situations where I feel that I’m the underdog—that’s the kind of thing that drives me.”

 

Dennis went on to work with S Club 7 in the 1990s, writing end-of-the-night anthems such as “Reach” (2000). She continued to pen a string of 2000s bangers, for Kylie Minogue (“Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” in 2001; “Come Into My World” in 2002), Britney Spears (“Toxic” 2003) and Katy Perry (“I Kissed A Girl” 2008).

 

This year is heading back onstage for the first time since the early 90s. After years away from the performing spotlight, winning multiple Ivor Novello Awards for her songwriting, Dennis will be celebrating her 30th anniversary in music this summer by playing the Mighty Hoopla Festival in London’s Brockwell Park on June 8.

 

Speaking to the Sun last month, she said: “I haven’t done it for a very long time and I enjoy it … I don’t really understand why I’ve neglected it as much as I have.”

 

Guy Chambers seems a bit more low-key than Cathy Dennis, and he doesn’t appear to be bringing The Lemon Trees back any time soon. Yet while Chambers and Williams continue to work together, it’s the songwriter who has the new album out, while Williams is about to kick off his first-ever Las Vegas residency.

 

Apart from old friend Dennis, which other songwriters out there should we be paying more attention to? Chambers doesn’t hesitate to name names: “I admire anything Max Martin does, and Coldplay. They’re the most successful band in the world so you can’t deny their collaborative magic works.”

 

While it’s true that Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has written songs for an impressive variety of acts—Embrace, Jamelia, the Streets, Jay-Z, Dua Lipa—Max Martin’s back catalogue reads like the greatest hits of early 21st-century pop. By the turn of the century, he’d written Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time” (1998), The Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” (1999) and NSYNC’s “It’s Gonna Be Me” (2000).

 

More recently, he’s worked with Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift and The Weeknd. He is the songwriter with the third-most number-one singles (22) on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, behind only Paul McCartney (32) and John Lennon (26). Oh, and he’s the 99th richest person in his native Sweden, making US$19 million in 2016.

 

He could buy plenty of time on a stage if he wanted it—but unlike Chambers and Dennis, Max Martin hasn’t shown any signs of wanting to perform.

 

So what does Chambers’ own album sound like? Talking to Music Week, he explained how he put Go Gentle Into The Light together: “I chose the music that I thought would lend itself to solo piano, they were not chosen as part of a greatest hits exercise. I learnt a lot about the songs. I thought it would be nice for them to be heard in their pure melodic form. It was a little gift to myself.”

 

That’s what the album is—Chambers’ work, with Robbie Williams removed. That works particularly nicely on tracks, like “No Regrets’, “Feel” and (surely his lost Bond theme) “Millennium,” where Chambers’ intricate piano work has always taken centre stage.

 

Perhaps it was a mistake to leave “Angels” in, though, because the stripped-down version is a four-minute reminder that Robbie Williams’ surprisingly vulnerable turn on this song, on the edge of his voice cracking with emotion, is what makes it an enduring hit. It was this song, from his first solo album, that cemented Williams’ post-Take That career, and made the rest of his partnership with Guy Chambers possible.

 

In an industry known for being cutthroat, accepting that someone else will be performing songs you wrote seems refreshingly altruistic. Was Chambers ever annoyed about remaining in the stage wings all those years, while Williams was getting screamed at adoring fans?

 

“There are no frustrations not being the performer,” Chambers says. “I’m just glad that artists want to perform something I’ve written. I always see that as a bonus.”

 

 

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/arts-and...riter-pop-songs

Interesting article. Thanks Tess. :)

 

These article writers though - just can't resist the "writing for" Robbie Williams slant instead of the "writing with" can they? <_<

 

 

Interesting article. Thanks Tess. :)

 

These article writers though - just can't resist the "writing for" Robbie Williams slant instead of the "writing with" can they? <_<

 

 

Robbie spent too many years not taking himself seriously enough Laura , that kind of attitude rubs off & people have used it against him. I agree these articles are always edited in a certain way by the authors ...

 

 

I always think the relationship between Guy & Robbie is a delicate one & something that could very easily be broken again ...

I always think the relationship between Guy & Robbie is a delicate one & something that could very easily be broken again ...

 

Do you Tess?

 

I don't feel that.

 

I think they have enough space that each can go and do their own thing and just come together when they feel it's right.

 

I hope that's the case anyway. I like Guy being around. It feels "right".

 

Just as it doesn't feel right not having JW around :(

  • 3 weeks later...

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'I don't do budget': Musician Guy Chambers on touring with Robbie Williams and his favourite UK bolthole

 

The songwriter recalls rowing the Danube with Robbie Williams, diving in Jamaica and a boys’ trip to Rhodes gone wrong.

My greatest melodies have taken root while travelling. I’m always looking for new chords and new harmonies, and being in different countries, particularly France, Austria and Hungary, can be inspiring. My job has taken me all over the world – though I’m still hankering to visit mainland China – and I get to travel a lot. I’m truly relaxed when holidaying or visiting Sussex

As a child, I used to go every year with my family and we would spend the entire summer there. Each year my dad, a flautist, would play at Glyndebourne and we’d spend long days paddling at the beach in Seaford. We have a country house in Lewes and I find spending time in our garden there is the perfect antidote to work stress: It’s my favourite place in Britain.

 

I’ve lived in London since I was 18. I’ve grown up in the capital, surrounded by the most amazing museums, galleries, theatres, concert halls and parks – the Hampstead ponds are a must for visitors. There are endless opportunities to have fun and I have no inclination to move. Almost every year we trundle down to Cap Ferret in France. We rent a house in this stunning location, looking out over the peninsula. It combines the best things about France – the food, the wine and that “je ne sais quoi” style. Everyone is always out cycling, too, which suits me just fine.

 

I like to have a piano wherever I travel in the world. I do a lot of writing when I am away. For instance, Robbie Williams’s Go Gentle track, which was released as a single a few years ago, was penned in the house we rent in Cap Ferret. Robbie and I had the best time at a festival in Budapest. It wasn’t your Glastonbury-style experience. We actually stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace, and in between sets Robbie rented a boat which we took out on to the Danube river. It was a lot of fun. Budapest is such a delightful city. It has lovely outdoor baths, a magnificent opera house and amazing “Ruin Bars” which are unlike anything you will find anywhere else in Europe. The buildings are semi-derelict shells that have been taken over and refurnished with old junk. They are very atmospheric.

 

The beautiful hilltop town of Barolo in Italy is a magical place to play a gig. I had an amazing time when I visited the town’s festival. I’m a big wine nut and I always like to buy a bottle of local wine when travelling, but people there were stocking up on the stuff like it was going out of fashion. People thought I was the hotel pianist in Venice. My wife and I have visited the city for the past 20 years and we always stay at the Belmond Hotel Cipriani, which has the most remarkable view of St Mark’s Square. One of the first things I do each time is head for the piano. On our last visit, I decided to try out some of the songs on my new album. They went down well but did leave my fellow guests a little confused…

 

Budget trips aren’t my thing, nor are adventure holidays – too stressful. I always go luxury. My favourite thing to do is to flop out on a sun lounger with a book. I tend to read about six books over a fortnight, which is a real score compared with my London average. My favourite hotel in the world must be The Hôtel Costes in Paris. It’s dark, glamorous and has a beautiful underground swimming pool in the old cellar. I was one of the first guests to play there back in 1997 and I’ve returned for the odd long weekend many times since.

 

There's more to Las Vegas than slot machines says Guy, Las Vegas is a tremendously ugly city, But it actually has another, more foodie-focused side to it. I visited a few years ago and was surprised to discover that I actually enjoyed the experience. Grace Jones was our neighbour in Jamaica. We rented a villa at the GoldenEye hotel in Jamaica and she happened to be there at the same time. I have four children and we had the most amazing holiday there last August. When we weren’t sleeping or eating, we were scuba diving and deep-sea fishing. It was bliss.

 

A boys’ trip gone wrong stands out as my most calamitous holiday, ever. I went to Rhodes with my brother and one of our mates, on an “allocation upon arrival” package holiday before I got married. I didn’t like the first place we stopped at, so we moved to another. Then we moved pretty much every day. It was the last time I ever did that.

 

My best advice for coping with jet lag !!

Resist the temptation of an on-board beverage, keep your laptop out of reach, try not to work, and sleep as much as possible. And then exercise as soon as possible after you arrive.

 

Guy Chambers’s album Go Gentle Into the Light is out now on BMG.

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/celebrit...avel-interview/

"People thought I was the hotel pianist in Venice."

 

:lol:

 

Made him feel humble I'll bet :lol:

 

  • 4 weeks later...

isc051s.jpg

 

Guy Chambers

@guyachambers

·

 

I am delighted to be playing this special one-off gig in partnership with @TheRSC where I will be previewing songs from The Boy in the Dress musical and from my album 'Go Gentle Into The Light'.

I wonder if the music from Boy in the Dress will be available online?

 

I'm guessing yes?

I wonder if the music from Boy in the Dress will be available online?

 

I'm guessing yes?

 

They will most likely be selling CD's at the shows dont' you think , it's a RS production so I guess they will be in charge of all that along with David W. We might get to hear a snippet from the GC performance in October :unsure:

 

They will most likely be selling CD's at the shows dont' you think , it's a RS production so I guess they will be in charge of all that along with David W. We might get to hear a snippet from the GC performance in October :unsure:

 

Yes - that sounds right Tess - they'll sell them on the night in the Foyer - with the cast recording.

Excellent, will do a bit of shopping then in December :)

 

Hopefully from the foyer Tess ^_^

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