Robbie Williams sends inspirational message to creative and performing arts students

 

Global star Robbie Williams was among the voices sharing their advice and insight to aspiring actors, musicians and filmmakers, as part of an exclusive event. Hosted by performing arts and media institution LMA, YOU Festival brought together more than 120 industry experts who led masterclasses, ran workshops and showcased their skills over the course of the three-day event. The festival, which was held at the M&S Bank Arena from 20 to 22 January, was staged exclusively for LMA students and alumni, plus international students, in a bid to help build quality industry connections and pave the way for career success.

 

Kicking off the event was a special video message from LMA co-owner Robbie Williams, who told youngsters how to follow their dreams and believe in themselves.

 

Robbie, co-owner of LMA, said:

 

“Your dreams choose you, you don’t choose them and you are compelled to go and achieve. “I’m sure you have things in your mind saying ‘why me?’ but if not you, then who? I suggest you take whatever dreams you have and multiply them by five – think bigger, always think bigger.

 

“Having dreams is vitally important – it’s the everything.”

 

As part of YOU Festival, Radio 1 DJ and I’m a Celebrity…star Dean McCullough hosted a special 80s-themed after-party on Wednesday to close the event, while comedy duo Dick and Dom led a party night on Tuesday.

 

A range of specialists from various industries were also on hand to share their skills and forge connections with students, both past and present.

 

Among those lending their expertise were major names from the worlds of dance, acting, musical theatre, filmmaking, music and gaming, giving attendees the chance to learn from those at the very top of their game.

 

From performers such as West End royalty Kerry Ellis, and global choreographers such as Duwane Taylor who has collaborated with Sony and Nike, to The Gentlemen actress Ruby Sear and Grammy Award-winning producer Jason Perry, students had their pick of the best of the best.

 

Now in its second year, YOU Festival – a free event to all LMA students – was created as part of LMA’s ongoing growth and integration into industry.

 

Based across two campuses at Metquarter, Liverpool and Here East, London, the performing arts and media institution is home to 2,500 students across media, music and performing arts, delivering qualifications from BTEC through to BA degrees.

 

Last year, LMA London expanded by more than 50,000 sqft to take over three film and TV studios, plus recording and acting studios. In addition to student classes, the studios are now hired out to the likes of EA Sports, Netflix, Prime Video and a range of artists preparing for tours and music festivals.

 

Richard Wallace, who founded LMA with brother Simon in 2009, said:

 

“Building industry connections and hearing from those who are living out what our students dream of is incredibly important for both skills development and self-belief. It is something that we’re extremely passionate about giving to our students.

 

“We launched YOU Festival to do just that and we were blown away by its success and the feedback, not only from students but also from the industry specialists themselves.

 

“The event enables those working on the ground to meet with, and coach, the young talent we have here, helping to create relationships that can lay the foundations for collaborations later.

 

“This year’s festival has been a huge success and it is a true testament to the quality of speakers, performers and exhibitors we have had here. We’re now looking forward to what the next year will bring and we have already started making plans for next year’s YOU Festival, so watch this space!”

 

For more information about YOU Festival, visit the website.

 

https://explore-liverpool.com/robbie-willia...google_vignette

Edited January 27Jan 27 by Sydney11

@1889950325303550009

 

Available now , head on over - https://robbiewilliamsrewind.com/special-be...-jenny-griffin/

 

Special – Better Man Crew Interviews – Jenny Griffin

Assistant Choreographer

 

(Dancer & Dance Captain)

Edited February 13Feb 13 by Sydney11

Video thanks to The Project

Latest episode from ROBBIE WILLIAMS REWIND PODCAST

 

Special – Better Man Crew Interviews – Jenny Griffin

 

You can listen here; https://robbiewilliamsrewind.com/special-be...-jenny-griffin/

 

@1892679625383215290

Edited February 22Feb 22 by Sydney11

What Iv'e Learnt ; ROBBIE WILLIAMS

Robbie Williams is one of the most successful recording artists in the history of the UK. He first rose to fame as a member of boy band Take That before launching a solo career. A semi-autobiographical movie about this life, Better Man, opens in select theatres. Williams, 50, lives in Los Angeles and spoke with Esquire in New York City in November.

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I did a residency at the Wynn in Vegas, and because North America is not acquainted with what I do pervasively, I had to sell myself to the people who book the acts. I was like: Mate, I’m a swear-y Frank Sinatra with tattoos.

I’m in these stadiums doing these massive shows, but people at dinner parties are asking me if I still do music.

I feel as if I’m a brand-new artist again, and I’m about to experience my business in a way I didn’t the first time around because of mental illness and drugs and shit.

I played the Artful Dodger in a play when I was younger and got a standing ovation every night when I came on. It was intoxicating. I wanted whatever that was.

Dad and Mum split up when I was four. Mum kept the records: Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. That was my library.

For my ninth or 10th birthday, my sister bought me two records: Pink Floyd The Wall and a collection of electro music. I didn’t get Pink Floyd at all, but this electro stuff was like Oh my God, I want to eat and drink it. So the music I heard growing up was a weird mixture of Glenn Miller and Afrika Bambaataa.

My nan taught me what real unconditional love looked like. Without her, I wouldn’t know.

I learned how to charm a room from my dad. He worked on holiday camps—the closest thing you’d get in America is the Catskills, but it’s a trailer park. I learned that a life in the entertainment industry was possible.

I learned how to work from my mum. Real work looked real depressing, because my mum worked all the hours that God sent her. The way my mum moved up out of her economic background—the wife of cannon fodder—to owning her own shop is equivalent or bigger than what I’ve achieved.

If I was born in the creator generation, I’d have been a YouTuber.

You spend the second twenty years of your life sorting out the first twenty years of your life.

I left school when I was sixteen with no qualifications, nothing higher than a D.

If I had been good at math, my mum would’ve pushed me to be a mathematician. As it happens, I was good at showing off, so my mum pushed me in my showing off capabilities. I’m good at getting eyes on me.

If I was born in the creator generation, I’d have been a YouTuber.

I didn’t even dream of music. I auditioned for a boy band, Take That, and got in. So this life in music has happened by mistake.

There were five boys all vying for position in life and the industry. We all loved each other, didn’t trust each other; were friends, but weren’t friends.

And then at home, there was a two-grand contract on my head to kill me, from local people who could do that.

It was because of jealousy. Hood shit.

Literally a hundred girls would book themselves in a hotel to be with me. This is not normal, so my idea of sex and my sexual relationship with women is warped.

Whatever happens when you get the bends is what happens when you become famous.

I don’t know how much a pint of milk is. It’s not my fault.

How do you write a pop song? Practice and get lucky. That’s it. I am one of the luckiest people on the planet.

Leonard Cohen wasn’t a pop-song writer; Thom Yorke isn’t a pop-song writer. Those are the things I wanted to write. What innately comes out of me is pure pop. I can’t help it.

What was the first time I missed? When I released a single called “Rudebox” in 2006. I was in the middle of a massive mental breakdown. When you miss your first shot after not being able to miss, it can buckle your confidence. You can have an existential crisis, which I tend to do.

I don’t think I’m a musical genius. There is a never-ending supply of melody that I find very natural. The tapper hasn’t turned off, touch wood.

How do you write a pop song? Practice and get lucky. That’s it. I am one of the luckiest people on the planet.

If you can write a song, you can be Elon Musk.

I’ve come up with an idea for my own hotel. I’ll do the design for it. Why can I do that? Because I can write a song. That same creativity can also choose bedsheets and wallpaper. That’s not confidence; that’s knowing that I can do it.

I used to be able to sing track seven off the album and the whole stadium would know it. These days I can sing the first single and the stadium don’t know it. It happens in everyone’s career. I don’t like that.

In my particular line of work, it’s not about you; it’s about them. I don’t want to get up and do the same songs every night, but I also want to facilitate the best evening possible because people have paid good money to receive that.

No f***ing way I was getting married; I have, it’s been the making of me.

Money isn’t the top of the mountain, and the top of the mountain isn’t the top of the mountain. When you get to the top of the mountain in any profession, you have an existential crisis because it didn’t fix you.

Fame won’t fix you. Success won’t fix you. Purpose kind of fixes you.

Money gave me the ability to sit on my sofa with a cashmere caftan on, growing a beard, looking like a murderer, smoking weed, watching Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and looking for UFOs in the evening. It made me lazy. But it also gave me enough space for me to realise, man, you need to do something with your life. I was 32.

No f***ing way I was getting married; I have, it’s been the making of me.

No f***ing way I was having children; I have, it’s been the making of me.

What have I learned from marriage? That I can keep my cock in my pants. I thought that was impossible. So far so good.

When my first kid, Teddy, arrived, it was terrifying for so many different reasons. I couldn’t look after myself. How on earth was I going to look after a precious soul?

There were like 375,000 people at Knebworth, which is like giving birth to 375,000 Teddies. Jesus. Existential crisis. Why are all these people here? What does all of this mean? How am I going to fill this stage? It’s only me. I don’t see what they see in me.

I made my legs walk to the stage when my legs didn’t want to walk to the stage.

The biggest experience of my life right now is being the captain of the good ship Williams. But I’m not overwhelmed by it now because of experience.

This might be incredibly wrong and sick, but there’s something to die for other than my wife and kids, and it’s the job. I don’t know why I find that empowering, but I do.

The job has given me a creative output that is probably saving my life and helping my mental illness.

I feel as though I’m about to get lucky again, and this time I’m grateful and happy. I’m wide-eyed. I’m new again.

What I've Learnt: Robbie Williams - Esquire Singapore

Robbie Williams 'sad' after first bout of depression in years - but tells how 'cloud lifted'

Exclusive: Superstar Robbie Williams opens up to the Mirror ahead of his massive new tour in a wide-ranging interview covering mental health, family life and Oasis

Tom Bryant Associate Editor (Showbiz)

20:00, 07 Apr 2025Updated 20:00, 07 Apr 2025

Opening up: Robbie Williams speaks to the Mirror ahead of his new tour

When in just a few weeks Robbie Williams steps under the lights of Murrayfield on the first night of his tour, he has one clear objective. “I want to make people happy and transport them somewhere else...if only for a couple of hours,” he says. But the singer knows he has more than his army of devoted fans to satisfy. In fact, his biggest critic appears to be his 10-year-old son Charlie.

“I did this gig in Munich to 125,000 people, the place was going wild, and I’m singing Let Me Entertain You ….but Charlie has just got his head down playing on his iPad,” Robbie laughs.

“But at Hyde Park last year, I came off, and afterwards, he was just looking at me with these wide eyes, like he had a moment of recognition that his dad was somebody other than somebody that tells him to stop misbehaving or the dad police.”

Robbie is in terrific spirits as I chat to him from his home in Los Angeles, where as well as Charlie, he lives with wife Ayda, daughters Teddy, 12, and Coco, six, and son Beau, four. Charismatic yet a deep thinker in equal measure, he very much wears his heart on his sleeve. But even so, it takes me by surprise when he admits - straight off the bat - how he was recently forced to confront his first bout of depression for more than 10 years. “The year started with some ill mental health, which I haven’t had for a very, very long time,” he says “I was sad, I was anxious, I was depressed.”

Robbie Williams is gearing up for his new tour(Image: WireImage)

Thankfully, the dark cloud has now lifted. But there’s no doubt it’s been a particularly tough time for Robbie and Ayda, of late, whose parents are all suffering with ill health. His beloved mum Janet has dementia, while his dad Pete has Parkinson’s, and his mother-in-law Gwen, is battling cervical cancer. “My wife would say, ‘if your depression could talk, what would it say?” Robbie explains. “It wasn’t saying, ‘it’s my mum, or dad or your mum.’ “It wasn’t saying ‘it’s life, or tickets or the tour or the pressure or whatever.’ None of that. It just is. It’s just a pervasive feeling.”

Robbie says that he found its return particularly hard to deal with when he thought he had his mental health under control. He was first diagnosed with depression in his twenties, and has undergone high-profile battles with addiction, anxiety and agoraphobia.

“It’s been about ten years...I thought I was at the other end of the arc,” he says. “I thought this was the end of my story, and that I would just go walking into this marvelous wonderland. So for it to return was just confusing.” Robbie began to suspect that his diet could be a contributing factor in how he was feeling.

The star had turned last year to an appetite-suppressant drug to lose weight, and shed nearly two stone. “I’d stopped eating and I wasn’t getting nutrients,” he explains. He was so vitamin C deficient he was even diagnosed with scurvy. “A 17th century pirate disease,” Rob says matter-of-factly.

What did Ayda say when he was getting too thin?

“With body dysmorphia, when people say they’re worried about how you’re looking, you’re like: ‘I’ve achieved it.’ When people say: ‘we’re worried you’re too thin’ that goes into my head as ‘jackpot. I’ve reached the promised land.’”

So in love: Robbie Williams and Ayda Field(Image: Penske Media via Getty Images)

After changing his diet, Rob says his depression gradually lifted. But speaking to the star now, it’s clear the stark reality of his loved ones being unwell clearly weighs heavily on his mind. Like many people in the same situation, he is grappling with feelings of guilt and whether he is doing enough.

Being away for extended periods of time in Los Angeles - where he is now - only seems to add to the complexity of the situation. “It can be overpowering…there are elements of putting your head in the sand and putting your fingers in your ears and going, La La La,” he says.

“Are you doing enough? Are you doing too little? Who deserves what, where and when and how, and what do you deserve?” Ayda, who is incredibly close to her mum Gwen, is finding it equally tough-going.

“We’re a unit…and it’s a lot to navigate through….it’s a lot to be patient, love yourself and love those while they’re experiencing what they’re experiencing,” he says. Ensuring he is in a good place mentally is fundamental.

“The most important thing is for yourself to be okay….. and not causing chaos in mine or anybody else’s life, like I used to back in the 90s and early noughties,” he says. “And if you are okay, then you can attack anything that comes your way.” For the time being his focus is on preparing for his huge stadium tour which kicks off in Edinburgh on May 31, before shows in London, Manchester, Bath and Newcastle. It comes after a frenetic - and highly successful - 12 months for the star promoting last year’s autobiographical Better Man film, as well as his upcoming art exhibition Radical Honesty.

Great parents: Robbie Williams and Ayda Field (Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)

In a twist of fate, Robbie is going to be on the road at the same time as newly-reformed Oasis, with whom he shares a historic rivalry. As well as Noel Gallagher ’s “fat dancer from Take That” comment, things escalated with Robbie challenging Liam to a fight at the 2000 Brit Awards. But peace has seemingly broken out. “Liam’s voice is peerless…he was, and is the voice of a generation,” says Robbie.

“It will be nostalgia on steroids…and hopefully it’ll be healing for the lads too. I was just looking at those songs, especially the first three years worth of songs, and it’s literally a lifetime and decades worth of bangers created over that period. The songwriting is sensational.”

But it sounds like he’ll definitely give the Gallagher brothers a run for the money. “I’ve set myself out with this giant task in my own mind of being the best entertainer on the planet,” he says. “And I know that sounds egoic and narcissistic, but I’m sure that Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi didn’t want to be the sixth best football player in the world if they were given the opportunity.”

World...you've been warned.

Robbie Williams will tour the UK, Ireland and Europe this summer, opening on May 31 in Edinburgh.

Tickets here

Robbie Williams 'sad' after first bout of depression in years - but tells how 'cloud lifted' - The Mirror

Edited April 7Apr 7 by Sydney11

Oh, really? ))

Robbie Williams - OK! Special Collector's Edition (Pre-Order)

£15.99

Robbie Williams, OK! Special Collector's Edition

With over 75 million albums sold, a string of No1s and dozens of awards to his name, it’s fair to say that Robbie Williams is a true global icon. And with a new album and another blockbuster tour of the UK and Europe on the horizon, he shows no sign of slowing down.

As he prepares to thrill us with his live shenanigans once more, this special edition of OK! celebrates Robbie’s captivating story – from his schooldays as a rising musical star through the choppy waters of fame, and onwards to settling into fatherhood and family life. The title is glossy, 

196 Pages. Dispatch from 24th April.

YourCelebrityMagazines

Robbie Williams - OK! Special Collector's Edition (Pre-Or...

Robbie Williams, OK! Special Collector's Edition With over 75 million albums sold, a string of No1s and dozens of awards to his name, it’s fair to say that Robbie Williams is a true global icon. An...

Looking forward to listening to this Podcast, I hope Robbie also listens to same , I have my fingers crossed that he will ☺️. Thanks to Lucy & Matt for giving us the opportunity to have our say .

RW Rewind Podcast

@rewindrobbie

·

1h

What’s your dream setlist for

@robbiewilliams

2025 tour? Over 30 fans have shared theirs with us in our new episode out now. We also reveal our own ultimate picks. From all the hits to the wild cards, we speculate on what surprises Rob has in store for us! #robbiewilliams

Robbie Williams Rewind

EP46 – Dream Setlists for 2025 Tour – Robbie Williams Rewind

Video thanks to https://www.youtube.com/@rewindrobbie

Edited April 23Apr 23 by Sydney11

I'm staying at the hotel n China now - finally some rest - so want to listen the podcast!

1 hour ago, Better Man said:

I'm staying at the hotel n China now - finally some rest - so want to listen the podcast!

Enjoy Alex ☺️

Thanks, Tess!

Heard it enjoyed :)

---

Anyway,

Uploading Attachment...

I really enjoyed listening to everyone's song preferences for the upcoming tour. Lovely to hear 17 year old Claudia from Austria talk about how she became a Robbie fan, makes me feel really really old 😊but great that his songs touches her heart. She was fun to listen to.

Great idea by Lucy & Matt to do this podcast just before the tour & I hope Robbie gets to hear it . Also great listening to the fans that travel from many places worldwide to see Robbie perform , they are just amazing people

Great song selections, I would think Me & My Monkey appeared on nearly everyone's list, Tripping was also very popular . I think Lucy's idea of a medley is a great idea, I think Laura mentioned the same thing . I hate those covers that he does , such a waste when he has such a back catalogue of great songs himself, he should be proud of them

In the past I've never minded his covers but now I realise they come at the cost of missing out on his original material too much and too frequently

I haven't heard the podcast yet.

I think it was Alex's idea of a medley originally as he showed the medley Robbie did when he won the 2010 special Brit award. 😃

On 23/04/2025 at 14:03, Better Man said:

Thanks, Tess!

Heard it enjoyed :)

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Anyway,

Uploading Attachment...

It mentions the new album there 😗

i

Nice cover ..

The Standard

@theLDNstandard

·

1h

Presenting Robbie Williams 🚨In this week's issue of The London Standard, the singer songwriter

@robbiewilliams

opens up about success, cocaine, trauma and finally growing up Make sure you pick up a copy of the paper today and tomorrow

The Standard (@theLDNstandard) / X

Edited May 1May 1 by Sydney11

National Portrait Gallery

@NPGLondon

·

20h

#DidYouKnow that Robbie Williams' cover for The Face magazine was one of the best-selling issues? Discover more behind the photography of The Face in our current exhibition, The Face Magazine: Culture shift. Open until 18 May. Robbie Williams by Norman Watson, 1995

National Portrait Gallery (@NPGLondon) / X

Robbie Williams: 'I’ve never asked the world to take me seriously'

Story by Dylan Jones

• 1h •

11 min read

The first time I met Robbie Williams I couldn’t get rid of him. It was 1998, I was leaving a big job, and someone was throwing a dinner for me in one of the upstairs rooms in The Groucho Club, the private members’ club in Soho. About an hour into the dinner, Williams burst in, obviously looking for the lavatories. But, pleased by what he saw, namely a lot of adoring young women making purring noises, and extremely attentive waiters, he stayed. And stayed and stayed. He stayed for the rest of the evening, uninvited but outrageously good company — singing, telling jokes, doing cartwheels, and even spending a good 45 minutes discussing the problems with newspaper and magazine distribution with our circulation director.

“I would have been high on cocaine, and I would have needed an audience,” he says, thinking back. “The Groucho was somewhere I went nearly every night for 18 months. I enjoyed it because I found a kinship with people that I respected highly that allowed me to be a member of their fraternity without judgement. I was sometimes 20 years younger than them, sometimes 10 years younger, but they were all people I highly respected. It was all people who were mentally ill and addicts, most of them anyway. But to be allowed into the fraternity of people who had made me laugh or made me think without judgement felt special. While I was ruining my life at the same time.”

As I would learn over the coming years, his performance that night was very Robbie. I’ve since interviewed him a few times, and the interviews usually disintegrated quite quickly into therapy sessions, which, obviously, tended to make them more revealing. When I spoke to him on Tuesday this week, and asked him how he was in reference to his mental health, he was as positive as I’ve ever seen him.

(Jason Hetherington )

“How am I? I’m good.

My story arc is at the other end. I’m now looking back and talking about what was. Now I get to explain myself. I am a journalist, and I have one subject and it’s me. And I’m reporting live from the scene, whenever I decide to turn the camera on.”

Recently, you’ve probably been reacquainted with Williams. Whenever he speaks to the press he appears to be drawn into conversations about his mental health, he remains a ridiculously popular live attraction, and not so long ago there was the biopic where instead of an actor playing him, there was a chimpanzee instead. That’s right, maybe you saw it, or more than likely you didn’t. By all accounts it didn’t break any box office records, and apparently didn’t perform well in the US, one of the few places in the world where Williams can walk down the street unmolested.

“I am a journalist, and I have one subject and it’s me. And I’m reporting live from the scene”

Robbie Williams

On that topic, I remember sitting in a hotel room in Belgravia in 2003 with David Bowie, and all he wanted to talk about was Williams’s extraordinary success. Bowie lived in New York at the time, a city immune to Williams’s charms, and Bowie just did not understand why he was so popular.

As for the film, although it was a canny enough idea, unfortunately the script and the narrative were a little too pedestrian for the film to really work. But it’s certainly not unenjoyable.

“I was incredibly pleased by the profound effect it’s had on people, as well as the critical response,” says Williams, with genuine pride. “It could have been shit, and it’s not. That feels good in my soul, and it’s therapeutic. The monkey idea came out of [director] Michael Gracey’s brain. He asked me one day what my spirit animal was, and when I said lion, he looked at me with a cocked head. ‘Really?’ And I said, okay, monkey. And that was the idea. Instantly it played into my whole career, as it’s all been built on audacity.”

(Jason Hetherington )

Regardless of how you might feel about Williams — and there may be huge swathes of you who think they know everything there is to know about the man, too much possibly — I encourage you to pause judgement until you’ve seen him live. Over the past two decades I’ve seen him perform a number of times — Wembley Stadium, Fashion Rocks at the Albert Hall in 2003, the rehearsal for a private performance in LA about a decade later, yada yada yada — and he has never been less than extraordinary.

There are many things Williams isn’t, but there is no one who can control an audience like he can. All those clichés about his days in the working men’s clubs paying off are true: there is literally no one who can walk on to a stage and own an audience so quickly and so comprehensively. You might not like his music (you’re wrong) and you might just think it’s the kind of stuff you listened to 25 years ago when you couldn’t escape a day without hearing Angels blaring out of a car radio, a café or a TV screen — but watching him live is something everyone should once in their life. Even if only for 10 minutes.

He obviously still gets a massive buzz out of it. “The feeling you get from performing in front of hundreds of thousands of people changes over time, because when it first started to happen, the dramatic imposter syndrome couldn’t work it out and reacted against it, in disbelief,” he says, thinking deeply about his response.

“Childhood trauma doesn’t understand 80,000 people beaming back love to you”

Robbie Williams

“It created an acute existential crisis. But when the first child arrived, and then the fourth, imposter syndrome took a back seat. And necessity comes forward. There is no place for the panic about your place on the planet or within the music industry. You’re facilitating a beautiful life for your children and your family. Childhood trauma doesn’t understand 80,000 people beaming back love to you, and that’s how strong that feeling is. The trauma sent me off in a not good direction.”

Williams is coming round again, appearing in London in a month’s time, but he’s also in town because — that’s right, you’ve guessed it — he’s here to celebrate his first art show. Because Williams is now an artist. Taking over the massive Moco Museum, the public gallery at the Hyde Park end of Oxford Street, he’s trying his hand at something completely different.

According to the gallery, Williams’s “expressive style manifests as striking physical pieces that use a mix of materials and layered textures that expand his visual language of sarcasm, self-deprecation and playful irreverence”

.Okay, got that. What else?

“From a marble depiction of anxiety and a seat designated for uninterrupted introversion to a monumental jumper of mixed feelings and vibrant canvases that explore personal narratives — it’s all there, blunt and unpolished, yet oddly comforting.”

(Jason Hetherington )

Comforting? Using his epigrammatic skills and his fondness for modern “pop” style poster imagery, he’s created a series of artworks that reflect how he feels about… well, Robbie, just what do they reflect?

He has previously said this work is about all those things which make us human — anxiety, self-love, introversion, morning mirror pep talks. In a world obsessed with keeping it together, embracing the chaos, facing self-judgement and enjoying the disorder.

“What I’m finding is that I’m an entertainer with a compulsion to entertain and this is perfect”

Robbie Williams

“I’d been doing things in secret in my garage since 2006 and was too scared to show it. And then for some reason nearly two years ago I had this drawing of three people on a podium and the joke was, ‘She came first at the Ozempics’. And I became neurotic about getting that joke out there first before somebody else did. So I put it up on Instagram and got such good feedback that I carried on doing it. And Instagram makes you more prolific because it needs feeding. I’ve only just joined the ranks of people using social media. I’ve previously existed in the 1990s, but I’m now a fully-fledged member of the new age in which we find ourselves. And what I’m finding is that I’m an entertainer with a compulsion to entertain and this is perfect. I get to entertain in a new fashion every day. Previously I thought it was a bit ‘pick me, pick me’, and I’ve always been ‘pick me, pick me’, but I think my ego might have thought I was above it.”

(Jason Hetherington )

“Kim [Logchies-Prins] at Moco saw the value of the mental health aspect of the stuff that I do, and feels that it’s of its time, and the conversation that’s happening socially in the world right now.

“I haven’t monetised it yet, but there does need to be a plan. I need my creativity to have a destination, and sometimes that destination is people telling me how much the film moved them, or they liked a gig or how much a song meant to them. But sometimes it’s just cynical commercialism. It feels a bit icky commercialising it because most of my art revolves around mental illness, but of course I will. There is a huge back catalogue of failures, so it took me a while to make a go of it.”

“It feels a bit icky commercialising it because most of my art revolves around mental illness”

Robbie Williams

I had figured that his exploration was a mere whim, but Williams was actually encouraged to pursue his art by one of our most famous and accomplished artists.

“The reason I thought I could do it is because I was hanging out with David Hockney at his studio in LA and he showed me how he draws on an iPad. If it wasn’t for Hockney, I wouldn’t have thought that iPad drawings would have been a medium that would be considered worthy. I’ve got all these boxes of pens and paints and canvasses and glue and typewriters, but you use an iPad, and it becomes simple and quick. And my brain works so quickly and gets bored so quickly, you don’t get a chance to get bored. Hanging out with him was like hanging out with a Beatle, it was incredible.”

(Jason Hetherington )

The show is called Radical Honesty, although I’m not sure how radical it is. His paintings look like the kind of things you might find in a primary school show, using the kind of maxims and adages adopted by the likes of David Shrigley or Hayden Kays, although Williams’s are all about… Williams. To wit: “Just because you’re dyslexic doesn’t mean you’re not stupid; Violets are blue, roses are red, lock the pill cabinet or I’ll steal your meds; I will not be honouring my commitments today and I will be feeling marvellous about it; Be yourself (restrictions apply); Just off to have a nervous breakdown — does anybody want anything?” Etc etc. You’ve seen similar things on Instagram, and they all seem to exist solely to house the aphorism. In fact, imagine your local GP waiting room redecorated by the set designers on Sesame Street, and you’re halfway there. I’m not sure how great they are, but I quite like them.

“Most celebrities’ artwork… I don’t rate it. I thought, I must be shit too”

Robbie Williams

His funniest piece is a painting of a portaloo, with the caption: “Portaloo, couldn’t escape if I wanted to, Portaloo, knowing my fate is to be with you.” Better are the ceramics he has made with 1882, which are very Yellow Submarine-esque, and actually the kind of thing I wouldn’t mind at home.

Is he remotely bothered by what the critics might say?

“I do worry about criticism which is why it took so long for me to show the work. Also, my own thoughts about celebrities doing art is not very positive. I didn’t want people to shame me. Most celebrities’ artwork… I don’t rate it. I thought, I must be shit too. When a lot of celebrities do art, they have a need to be taken seriously, but I’ve never asked the world to take me seriously. And they’ve repaid in kind. But with my art, it’s not serious, it pokes fun. I hope my stuff is ridiculous and shows us how ridiculous we are. I’m not saying my stuff is any better, I’m just saying why it took me so long to show it to people.

(Jason Hetherington )

“Myself, I like Jonas Wood, but most of what I like is the greatest hits of the people we all like. I like Pop Art. Warhol, Haring and all the people you see on posh people’s walls. I’ve bought some art but I don’t collect art. What I find interesting is that in England, Damien Hirst’s spot paintings are on the wall of every house I’ve looked at to buy. In California it’s Ed Ruscha. And in Miami it’s Kaws. It’s money see, monkey do. With me it’s about you know, walking into somewhere and seeing something and going, I could do that, so I’m going to. I love looking at something and going, I can do that.”

So, Robbie Williams is at it again, lost in a world of his own making, seemingly still unable to make sense of the tumultuous effect fame has had on his young mind and body, and his ongoing struggles with anxiety, relationships, rejection, popularity, unpopularity and his seemingly innate desire to get everyone in the world to love him. Have a look at the art and take it for what it is (he’s a better artist than Bob Dylan) but don’t let it affect any desire you may have to go and see him live. Trust me, you won’t regret it. If you do, tell Williams. Because I can guarantee he’ll want to talk about it.

“For me, it’s just one finger in a bunch of pies I’ve got,” he says, as we wind up the interview. “All I know is that when I’m thinking of things to draw, I’m not thinking about me. I don’t get much of a break from thinking about me, so the therapeutic value of what I’m doing is incredibly important to me. And if I can make an honest or a dishonest penny from that, great. How far it can go, I have no plan.

“My ambitions have got bigger. I want to start a university of entertainment, and I want to write the syllabus. I want to go and get revenge on the educational system that failed me. And I want to build my hotels and put my own entertainment venues in them, and I want to design them. I need another carrot in front of me and I need dramatic purpose. Without it I’m left to my own devices and the chaos of my own mind. Thinking about art means I’m not delving into the place my brain can take me. I’m not in the pocket anymore, I’m not in my pomp and pop music is for young people. You’re in a hinterland until you’re celebrated for still existing. You can’t be lucky enough to have the career I’ve had, to stay around for this length of time, without being in some people’s minds national treasure-ish. I’ve meant a great deal to a great deal of people. But we’re British and we shouldn’t lean into praise.”

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https://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/style/robbie-williams-on-success-cocaine-trauma-and-finally-growing-up/ar-AA1DYYqF?ocid=BingNewsVerp

Edited May 6May 6 by Sydney11

Thanks Tess -I like that interview