On 02/05/2025 at 01:13, Laura130262 said:

Thanks Tess -I like that interview

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.” 🤣

Yes, It's a really good interview. You are right about Robbie being a good Ambassador for mental health , from what I have seen his drawings are very relatable, thought provoking & make you laugh . I have often seen people in museums sitting on seats looking at for example a circle on the wall & I am thinking 'what are they seeing' cause all I see is a circle , it does not speak to me .

Imagine having your work shown in the same gallery as Andy Warhol, Banksy

or hanging out with David Hockney in LA !

Here is a link to the founder of Moco Kim Logchies Prins if you want to read about her & the museum

Moco Museum Founder Kim Logchies Prins on Making Art Accessible and Opening in London

Edited May 6May 6 by Sydney11

The latest podcast from Lucy & Matt is now available on their website, head on over & have a listen about their exciting visit to Moco London to see Robbie's Radical Honesty exhibition

EP47 – Radical Honesty, Launch Night, Moco, London – Robbie Williams Rewind

or click on video below -

Robbie Williams Rewind

We were incredibly fortunate to attend the launch of Radical Honesty, Robbie’s powerful new art exhibition at the Moco Museum in London. In our latest episode—out now—we take you behind the scenes: from the moment we got the invite, to our experience at the event, and our honest thoughts on Robbie’s striking work. In Radical Honesty, Robbie invites us to embrace the full spectrum of being human, from anxiety and self doubt to self love and mirror pep talks. The exhibition is open until October 2025. Book your tickets at Mocomuseum.com (http://Mocomuseum.com)

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

Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver discuss weight loss drugs, beauty standards at 40, and Robbie Williams’ new art exhibition.

Video thanks to BBC Sounds

Edited May 16May 16 by Sydney11

Another great episode by Lucy & Matt , huge thanks to them both for sharing . How exciting just before the tour begins 😊

Listen on links below

Special – Karl Brazil, Rob’s Drummer & Musical Director

In this very special episode, we’re thrilled to welcome one of the UK’s most in-demand musicians — drummer, songwriter, and musical director, Karl Brazil!

Karl has been keeping the beat for Robbie since 2009 and most recently stepped into the role of musical director for the XXV tour. Beyond the stage, he’s co-written a string of songs with Rob, including the latest single Rocket, penned alongside the legendary Tony Iommi and previous podcast guest Tom Longworth.

In our chat, Karl takes us through his musical journey — from early beginnings to his big break — and gives us an insider look at what it’s like to be MD for Robbie. We dive into the songwriting process, unpack the stories behind the tracks he’s co-written, and even get a few exciting teasers about Robbie’s upcoming Britpop album and tour.

Follow Karl on Instagram @brazil.karl

Get in touch with us at robbiewilliamsrewind.com & @rewindrobbie on Instagram & Twitter. 

Available on all major podcast providers – listen here. (Or watch on YouTube, see below)

Special – Karl Brazil, Rob’s Drummer & Musical Director – Robbie Williams Rewind

Special - Karl Brazil, Rob's D…–Robbie Williams Rewind – Apple Podcasts

Special - Karl Brazil, Rob's Drummer & Musical Director - Robbie Williams Rewind | Podcast on Spotify

Have you already listened, Tess? :)

1 hour ago, Better Man said:

Have you already listened, Tess? :)

Yes & I really enjoyed it. Karl is easy to listen to & a very enthusiastic guy & Lucy & Matt asked him some great questions . Also great to learn there is a new setlist for the tour ☺️

Great!

Should we listen to it or better do it after Edinburgh concert?) I'm afraid to spoil some secrets of the setlist, etc.

12 minutes ago, Better Man said:

Great!

Should we listen to it or better do it after Edinburgh concert?) I'm afraid to spoil some secrets of the setlist, etc.

No secrets diwclosed, just said new setlist.

A 'Purr-fect' Reunion: Robbie Williams, Felix Return For ‘It’s Great To Be A Cat’ Campaign

May 30, 2025 3:22 PMBy Dayeeta Das

Nestlé Purina PetCare Europe's ‘It’s Great to Be a Cat’ campaign has returned with the 'purr-fect' combination as Robbie Williams and Felix the cat team up once again.

The pet food brand has launched a new TV advert and mini movie starring Williams, who enters the mischievous cat's black-and-white world.

He has also recorded a new song, exclusively for the campaign, celebrating feline personality traits we admire, with the aim of inspiring people to experience these traits even more in their own lives.

'My Spirit Animal': Robbie Williams

Robbie Williams said, “It’s a privilege to be back with Felix and to be the first person invited into his black-and-white world, where we can celebrate how great it is to be a cat.

“I love how my cats live their lives exactly how they want, when they want. They’re masters at being mischievous, true to themselves, confident, free-spirited and playful. This definitely rubs off on me – clearly, they’re my spirit animal.”

The campaign will also see Felix hitting the road with Robbie Williams as the headline sponsor of his 2025 European Tour, bringing the cat food and music industry together like never before.

The tour kicks off on 31 May 2025 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Fabio Pietro Degli Esposti, European marketing group director at Nestle Purina, said, “This year is set to celebrate why it’s great to be a cat like never before. One ultimate reason is enjoying irresistible food every day, but it’s also how our cats’ brilliantly mischievous, free-spirited and confident personality traits can benefit us if we all embrace a bit of cat attitude.

“Who better to inspire this than Robbie Williams and Felix; both with these personality traits in abundance. And after Felix previously spent time playing around in Robbie’s world, the new advert shows the pop-star joining our iconic cat on screen – the first-ever human to enter and have a taste of Felix’s animated world.”

The Nestlé Purina portfolio includes various pet foods brands, including Felix, Purina ONE, Gourmet, and Pro Plan.

A 'Purr-fect' Reunion: Robbie Williams, Felix Return For ‘It’s Great To Be A Cat’ Campaign | ESM Magazine

Robbie Williams: ‘My dad doesn’t look after himself – he should have had help long ago’

INTERVIEW As the singer embarks on a new tour, he talks about his complicated relationship with his father, his new critically condemned art career, and new album ‘Britpop’

“People are really f***ing serious about their ‘art’! People are really f***ing serious about their ‘craft’. Two words that I f***ing hate,” says Robbie Williams (Photo: Jason Hetherington)

Craig McLean

June 06, 2025 6:00 am

Four weeks before Robbie Williams descended from the gods onto the stage – upside down – in the opening minutes of the first night of his new stadium tour last weekend, he descended some stairs in a central London gallery to talk up another aspect of his art.

Or even, talk it down. Williams takes his showbiz skills very seriously indeed – at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium on Saturday, he proclaimed that “my dream is to be the best entertainer on the f***ing planet”. But at the unveiling of Radical Honesty, his first UK exhibition, you could divine in his welcome remarks some sense of how seriously – or not – the musician viewed his visual art.

“You know, there’s a lot of negativity when it comes to celebrities doing art,” he began in a three-minute speech delivered, in double denim and triple larky sarcasm, from a spiral staircase on the ground floor of London’s Moco Museum. “In particular a few things have been levelled at me. The question is always: ‘Why?’

“They say: ‘When you’ve had 15 number one albums and you sell out stadiums around the world… When you’ve won more BRITs than anyone else… When you’ve got such beautiful green eyes… When you’re so strong and yet so supple, and do so much important work for charity… When you’re such a loving husband and obviously incredible father’, they say: ‘Why are you doing this, Robbie?’”

To resounding cheers from the assembled artworld hobnobbers, who were drinking alcohol-free Prosecco presumably in respect of Williams’s hard-won sobriety (or because it was cheaper), he went on: “Some may call me a national treasure. I say: what point is there being a national treasure if you don’t give some of that treasure away in the form of affordable yet aspirationally priced prints, numbered one to 100?”

Robbie Williams: “I did a drawing of Jesus with some Procreate pens, and I said to my wife: ‘Is this any good?’ And she said: ‘No.’” (Photo: Gisela Schober/Getty Images for Bunte)

Visual art-wise, Williams is a jack-of-all-trades, very much a master of none, and he wouldn’t pretend otherwise. Talking to me downstairs in the gallery basement, Williams is upfront about the merits and otherwise of his art, a multi-media snack buffet of iPad drawings, punning squiggles, giant knitwear and a sculpture of a tombstone for the artist bearing the inscription “I’m dead now please like and subscribe” (all of which will later receive a kicking from the critics). Still, there was no room at Radical Honesty for any of his ceramics.

“I did a drawing of Jesus with some Procreate pens,” he tells me of one piece. “And I said to my wife: ‘Is this any good?’ And she said: ‘No.’ And this is why I seldom go to my wife to ask her opinion on anything, unless I know it’s a certified banger. ’Cause Ayda will tell me her opinion of it, and her opinion’s worth more than mine, and I’ll go off it… “So I cut out the face, I don’t know why, then it was ruined, and I threw it away. Luckily, I’d taken a picture of it. Then I was going through pictures [on my phone], and the lady that I do ceramics with said: ‘What’s that?’ ‘That’s my Jesus.’ ‘Where is it?’ ‘It’s in the bin.’ ‘Oh, I want to make a version of that!’ So I’m conflicted when I show Ayda stuff. Because, like I say, her opinion’s worth more than mine.”

So, I say, trying to drag fast-talking, yarn-spinning Rob-the-gob back to the matter at hand, he’s outsourced the ceramic-making?

“Yeah, real artisans!” he replies, brightly. “With real talent! And also I get to do ceramics for people from Stoke-on-Trent,” says this proud son of The Potteries. “So that feels good.”

Robbie Williams new album ‘Britpop’ features blistering rock songs, a Chris Martin collab, and even a song written by AI (Photo: Julian Broad)

Right now, Williams isn’t just arting about. His new album, Britpop, is completed and ready for release in the autumn. When I last interviewed him, in December, he played me the first single, “Rocket”. It’s a blistering rock song, featuring Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, which finally came out last month. We were meeting then to talk about his biopic Better Man. Six months on, he’s still justifiably pleased with the film. The international, cinema-going public may not have cared massively for a movie in which one of the world’s most recognisable pop stars appears as a monkey, but the critics did. And Williams is chuffed with how he was able to honour onscreen the complicated relationship with his dad (played by Inside No. 9’s Steve Pemberton), the old-school comedian from whom he learnt much of his stagecraft.

Peter Williams has Parkinson’s disease, and has been confined to his bed by it. Speaking as someone whose own dad has the neurodegenerative disorder, I ask how he’s finding the Parkinson’s journey as a son. Williams is, for once, momentarily lost for words. But only momentarily.

“I’m finding my dad doesn’t look after himself very well,” he says, carefully. “And that’s frustrating. He’s had to have more help [coming in] from this week. But he should have had help a long time ago…” His dad’s health and situation has caused the 51-year-old to reflect on his own future. “I’m looking at my kids, and when I’m older, I’m sure I’m going to be nagged to death anyway. But I want to do them a favour by helping myself [by looking after myself].”

But as ever for a restless man with dyspraxia, dyslexia, ADHD, body dysmorphia and (“obviously”) an addictive personality, it’s onwards and upwards. It’s been that way (mostly) since the lad who joined a new, Manchester-based boy band called Take That in 1990 – at 16, the youngest member – struck out on his own five years later. At first, few fans (or haters) of Take That would have bet on the five-piece’s biggest party animal and show-off, the one who stomped off in a Britpop-era haze of chaos and cocaine, becoming bigger than the group or Gary Barlow, the frontman and chief songwriter.

Take That, 1992. Left to right; Robbie Williams, Mark Owen, Jason Orange, Gary Barlow and Howard Donald (Photo: Tim Roney/Getty Images)

And certainly it took a minute. Williams’s debut album Life Thru a Lens came out two years later, in 1997, and “Angels” – his first huge solo hit – was its fourth single. But from thereon, as a solo act, Williams was unstoppable. Even the occasional bold-but-duff album (hello, Rudebox), or his much-publicised battles with addiction and mental health issues haven’t held back his career. In fact, if anything, his willingness to be upfront about his personal struggles only added to his Knebworth-scale fandom. A superstar, but a relatable one, with the neuroses to prove it.

Cue, then, another series of enormo-shows. Williams’s new tour, also titled Britpop, is a 37-date, four-month stadium run that comes to London this weekend, and ends in Athens and Istanbul in early October. To help him get gig-ready for what’s been designed as a circus maximus pop spectacular – no hiding his “art” light under a bushel here – he’s clearly been putting in the gym time. Plus, he and Ayda, his wife of 15 years, have just been on holiday to Miami and the Bahamas with their four children, Teddy (12), Charlie (10), Coco (six) and Beau (four). For a working-class kid from a broken home, it was a salutary reminder of the privilege those 15 number one albums and multiple Brits have brought his own family.

“With my kids, it’s very interesting to hear Beau, the four-year-old, saying: ‘Are we going to go on the plane with the people, or without the people?’” So a plane “without the people” means his youngest has awareness and experience of private jets?

“Yes,” Williams nods.

You’ve spawned monsters, I say.

“Yeah, we really have. ‘No, this one’s with the people, Beau.’ ‘Awww.’ [But] whatever works for them works for me.” (To be clear, Mr and Mrs Williams clearly haven’t spawned monsters. When his family arrives towards the end of our interview, Teddy introduces herself to me very politely, even coming in for a friendly hug.)

When we speak, he’s also mulling another impending award. At last month’s Ivor Novellos, Williams was awarded the Music Icon statue, his fifth award from the songwriting organisation. Exactly 30 years since he quit Take That, frustrated at his lack of options for songwriting (and lack of options for partying), how meaningful is it for him to be recognised for his songwriting? Not performing, not being a pop star, but the actual writing?

Robbie Williams, Jason Orange, Mark Owen, Gary Barlow, and Howard Donald as Take That in 1991 (Photo: Michael Putland/Getty Images)

“It’s quite confusing, to be honest with you. I never feel as though I’ve been allowed in. I never feel as though I’ve been considered a songwriter. Guy Chambers has always been the genius behind Robbie Williams,” he says of his onetime writing wingman. “If I did anything marginally good, Guy Chambers did it. If I did anything shit, I did it.” He laughs.

“Look: awards are very confusing,” he continues with the full-force candour and self-awareness that characterised his 2023 Netflix documentary series Robbie Williams. “They’re really good for your profile. And good for press that day. But I feel very awkward about receiving them, especially from a side of the industry that hasn’t been too kind about my talents. That’s my truth. But I’m saying yes [to the award], because it’s good for my profile.”

To be fair, it was perhaps unavoidably a slow start for Williams as a songwriter, because he had the misfortune of being in a band with Gary Barlow, who could write pop bangers and ballads in his sleep.

“I never feel as though I’ve been considered a songwriter. Guy Chambers has always been the genius behind Robbie Williams,” Williams said. (Photo: Epsilon/Getty Images)

Williams exhales and nods. “Also: before I actually knocked together some words and maladies,” he says, deliberately erroneously (I think), “I thought that, if you were writing songs, you’d been touched by the special unicorn. Happens that that’s not the truth.”

“All you’ve got to do is have a melody in your head and a song in your heart. So I can understand why most people outside of the music industry, and most people outside of songwriting itself, would think that it’s a magical talent that exists in rarefied air.”

His point being: it’s not. “Also, people are really f***ing serious about their ‘art’! People are really f***ing serious about their ‘craft’. Two words that I f***ing hate.”

That said: thinking again of Better Man, the Robbie Williams origin story it depicted did suggest that while he felt marginalised in Take That because Barlow, very much not unreasonably, got the lion’s share of the songwriting, that was also a spur to Williams. The idea of: “You know what? I can do that, too.”

“Yeah,” agrees Williams, but only half-heartedly. “But you know, cocaine can make you think you can do anything. Genuinely. But I was writing poetry and stuff. Then I just had to figure out how to turn that into a song.”

I raise the prospect of the threat to songwriting of AI. What does he think an AI Robbie Williams song would sound like?

“I know what it sounds like,” he shoots back.

“Is there one on the new album?”

Williams nods.

When we talked in December, he told me the album featured, as well as Iommi, “a guy called Freddy Wexler, too, a songwriter-producer in the States that got Billy Joel [back in the studio]. So Freddy’s becoming the dinosaur whisperer. Oh, Gaz Coombs! And Chris Martin’s played on something. Glenn Hughes from Deep Purple’s played on something”.

I ask him now: is the AI one the one with Chris Martin?

“No! But did I play you the Chris one? Can I play you it?”

And with that, Robbie Williams cracks open his laptop and presses play on a track that, yes, sounds exactly like a cross between a Coldplay singalong and a Robbie Williams confessional. It will, undoubtedly, be massive.

Robbie Williams is on tour now (robbiewilliams.com) Radical Honesty is at the Moco Museum London, until 24 October (mocomuseum.com)

Robbie Williams: ‘My dad doesn’t look after himself – he should have had help long ago’

For episode with Guy click on link below

S4 Ep10: I Never Thought It Would Happen - Guy Chambers • I Never Thought It Would Happen

This sounds really exciting 😊

RW Rewind Podcast

@rewindrobbie

We invited some of our podcast guests to a Britpop listening party with

@robbiewilliams

. The new album has ‘Life Thru a Lens’ vibes—raw guitars, Britpop edge, and classic pop bangers. Interview coming this Autumn! #robbiewilliams #britpop

RW Rewind Podcast (@rewindrobbie) / X

Edited June 13Jun 13 by Sydney11

Really looking forward to this album.

I'm sad to read Pete is now bed bound. ☹️

17 hours ago, Laura130262 said:

Really looking forward to this album.

I'm sad to read Pete is now bed bound. ☹️

Me too Laura, I hope he is doing ok

Robbie Williams urges Stokies to do one thing in Stoke-on-Trent 100th birthday video

Story by Hayley Parker

• 34m •

Robbie Williams is urging fellow Stokies to help set a new world record by taking part in the biggest ever tea party. The pop megastar will be raising his best Stoke-on-Trent teacup to raise a toast to his home city.

And the Port Vale fan is now urging everyone else in the Potteries to take part in the Big Centenary Tea Party too. It will see schools, businesses and communities come together over a cuppa to celebrate 100 years of city status on July 8 at 11am.

The aim is to gather the largest number of people taking part in a simultaneous cream tea party across multiple venues - from garden gatherings and office events to street parties and family get-togethers. There are two ways to get involved from hosting your own tea party or by joining the world record attempt.

Urging people to take part in a video released a week before the bid, Robbie, 51, who grew up in Burslem and Tunstall, said: "Hello Stoke, I hear you're all having a brew to celebrate 100 years of our brilliant city, Stoke-on-Trent.

"It's going to be loud with over 11,000 Stokies joining the party. We all have things going on in our lives but what a great opportunity for everybody to take a moment to get together, talk and share stories. maybe your tea tastes tremendous in your finest made in Stoke-on-Trent teacups. Time to raid your nan's cupboards. Come on Stoke, let's smash a world record too. Happy 100th birthday to you, Stoke-on-Trent."

There are two Big Centenary Tea Party hubs at Hanley's Double Tree Hotel and at the Victoria Hall where food and drink will be provided for free. People can also register to host their own event. Registrations are open until Wednesday, July 2.

The current record is held by Yorkshire Building Society, secure in 2015, with 667 members of staff taking part across six different sites. The event is also being supported by Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce, the Community Foundation for Staffordshire, Made in Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent College, VAST, and Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Ambassador Theatre Group.

For more details, click here and here

Robbie Williams urges Stokies to do one thing in Stoke-on-Trent 100th birthday video

Nice video ❤️

Head on over to Robbie Williams Rewind Podcast where Lucy & Matt chat to Owen Parker

Link RWR Special - Owen Parker - Ro…–Robbie Williams Rewind – Apple Podcasts

We’re back with another special episode of Robbie Williams Rewind, and this time we’re joined by the brilliant Owen Parker!

Owen has been Robbie’s keyboardist since 2019, joining the band for his Las Vegas residency and the epic XXV Tour. A vital part of Robbie’s musical team, he’s also co-written and worked closely with Robbie and Karl Brazil on The Christmas Present including tracks like “Home,” “Darkest Night,” and “Can’t Stop Christmas”, and more recently, on Robbie’s upcoming album Britpop.

In this episode, Owen gives us a behind-the-scenes look at life on tour and in the studio with Robbie, and he shares fantastic stories from his career working with music legends like the Pet Shop Boys, Simple Minds, Girls Aloud, and many more.

Follow Owen on Instagram @owenparker74 

Get in touch with us at robbiewilliamsrewind.com & @rewindrobbie on Instagram & Twitter. 

& Yes, Owen is a Pink Floyd fan 😊

Edited Monday at 13:004 days by Sydney11

11 hours ago, Sydney11 said:

Head on over to Robbie Williams Rewind Podcast where Lucy & Matt chat to Owen Parker

Link RWR Special - Owen Parker - Ro…–Robbie Williams Rewind – Apple Podcasts

We’re back with another special episode of Robbie Williams Rewind, and this time we’re joined by the brilliant Owen Parker!

Owen has been Robbie’s keyboardist since 2019, joining the band for his Las Vegas residency and the epic XXV Tour. A vital part of Robbie’s musical team, he’s also co-written and worked closely with Robbie and Karl Brazil on The Christmas Present including tracks like “Home,” “Darkest Night,” and “Can’t Stop Christmas”, and more recently, on Robbie’s upcoming album Britpop.

In this episode, Owen gives us a behind-the-scenes look at life on tour and in the studio with Robbie, and he shares fantastic stories from his career working with music legends like the Pet Shop Boys, Simple Minds, Girls Aloud, and many more.

Follow Owen on Instagram @owenparker74 

Get in touch with us at robbiewilliamsrewind.com & @rewindrobbie on Instagram & Twitter. 

& Yes, Owen is a Pink Floyd fan 😊

Really enjoyed this interview ..

Freddie Pig 🐽

@TeamFreddiePig

23m

If you are a fan of Robbie Williams, you simply have to check out The Robbie Williams Rewind Podcast!

https://t.co/FlfyiBNiDL

‘I’d broken out of the cult’: How Oasis, addiction and Gary Barlow pushed Robbie Williams into quitting Take That

Story by Mark Beaumont

• 3h •

8 min read

The hair was spiked and crusted with peroxide. The eyes were dark, hooded and glazed by fatigue. The outfit was pure Adidas Lad and he appeared to have a tooth missing. Resembling the delinquent love child of 2D and Murdoc from Gorillaz, the geezer – arguably the pinnacle of the form – looked for all the world like a drug dealer who’d jumped the fence and somehow blagged his way backstage pretending to be Robbie Williams from Take That.

Yet this was indeed the formerly clean-cut, cheeky-grinning boyband heartthrob, snapped relentlessly at that fateful Glastonbury of 1995 by the eager papparazzi – beer bottle in hand, cigarette in gob and either throwing an arm around Noel Gallagher or receiving a smacker from Liam. “Because I’m in the sort of band I’m in, people are looking at me like, ‘You’re not supposed to be here’,” he told the news cameras, seemingly unaware of the disapproving storm brewing back in the real world, too.

In just a few photos, Williams – by curling his Pilton-encrusted fingernails through the flimsy façade of squeaky-clean boyband perfection – exploded the great pop myth more than any Beatle beard. Within weeks of waggling his backside onstage with Oasis, he was ejected from Take That and the band was set on course for collapse, splitting just seven months after his departure. Yet Robbie’s rebellious departure – 30 years ago today – was more than just a heartbreaker for fans and a huge upheaval for the pop world. It stands today as arguably the ultimate expression of Nineties lad culture and a definitive image of the hedonistic abandon of the age.

For Williams himself, his real-me emancipation had been a long time stewing. “I’d broken out of the cult,” he said in last year’s Boybands Forever documentary. “[Oasis] were the antithesis of Take That and that very much appealed to me … There were lots of rules and eventually when there’s that many rules, you’re gonna break rules.”

A keen stage performer as a child (his Artful Dodger reportedly stole the show at a school production of Oliver!), Williams was just 16 when a typically endearing wink at the end of an otherwise underwhelming audition for manager Nigel Martin-Smith landed him a place as the youngest member of Take That. The band had been put together largely as a vehicle for the songs of Gary Barlow, and Williams soon found himself relegated to the lower end of the band’s hierarchy. “Gary was Nigel’s cash cow,” Williams said. “I was resentful.”

Lacking a dance background, Williams struggled to learn the band’s overly intricate dance routines, and when he dared to add a rap verse to a song, he was warned not to ask for any publishing income from it. “You learn your place,” he said, and his place was shaky from the start. He claimed he was warned by Martin-Smith that he was easily replaceable if he messed up: “It made me feel like my place within the band was never safe and guaranteed,” he said. He was left feeling “not loved, not even liked. And I was 16.”

Five uneasy pieces: (from left) Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Mark Owen, Williams and Jason Orange during Take That’s heyday (PA)

Williams likened his experience in Take That to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, not least due to the animosity that developed between him and Barlow. Tensions were stoked by the fact that it was the younger, 18-year-old singer, not his controlling, self-serious bandmate, who fronted the band’s first top five hit, a hi-NRG cover of Barry Manilow’s “Could It Be Magic”.

“I knew that he didn’t like me or felt threatened by me,” Williams said. Barlow explained further in a 2024 podcast: “My friends were Jason [Orange] and Howard [Donald], it was the three of us, we were the older ones, we got on,” he said. “Mark [Owen] and Rob were always a bit removed for us. They were cool, younger … and they were the naughty ones … always off doing something else.”

The immense fame that the success of Take That brought only compounded Williams’s insecurities. “The tremendous gift that was bestowed on me and the other boys turned into a nightmare,” he said. “There’s something psychically that happens with having immense notoriety. It’s the opposite of breaking the fourth wall, it’s going back through and inhabiting this strange place that wasn’t what you thought it was … Nobody goes through that level of fame and comes out the other side completely sane or not mentally affected.”

Age-old story: by his early twenties, Williams had turned to drink and drugs. Until then, Take That had operated as a relatively strict, hermetic, almost monastic group. “I said to the boys right from the beginning to build a wall around the six of us,” Martin-Smith told news crews early in their career. “When, for example, girlfriends started getting involved in what should be happening with the band, that’s when I’ve seen so many bands start falling apart.” This one fell apart, however, because one member needed to escape. “My particular brand of seeking salvation and safety came in the form of substances and alcohol,” Williams said. “I’d become feral. Lots of coke, lots of darkness, lots of comedowns that were hellish.”

Suits you, sir: Take That performing at the Brit Awards ceremony at Alexandra Palace, London, in 1994 (PA)

As his substance abuse intensified and Williams entered what he’d later describe to the BBC as “a nervous breakdown, my first of many”, he began missing rehearsals, or turning up in no fit state to perform. “I was ingesting everything I could get my hands on,” he told a 2023 Netflix documentary about his life. “I [was] literally drinking a bottle of vodka a night before going into rehearsals.” His bandmates would pull him up for letting the side down. “I was told this is not how you behave in a boyband,” Williams said. “The sense that I wasn't ready or capable to fulfil the role that was being asked of me was palpable.”

“We’d all had our different journeys,” Barlow said, “but it had just [got] too much for him. The day in, day out, the work, the stress of it all, me leading everybody and telling them what to do, it… I was unbearable. They put up with a lot [from] me. I was right all the time and I was the leader all the time. That original role I’d been given, I didn’t give any of it up as the years went on. The band needed to end.”

A fateful meeting in the summer of 1995, addressing Williams’s behaviour, proved the breaking point. “It felt like I was in some sort of burning building and I needed to get out,” Williams recalled. “I was like, ‘OK, I’ll do this tour and then I'll leave.’ And they actually went, ‘Actually, if you're going to leave, can you go now?’.”

Smiling assassins: ‘Actually, if you’re going to leave, can you go now?’ (PA)

His Take That bandmate Donald points to a fundamental lack of understanding and empathy behind the decision. “To have someone close to you that you can speak to about your feelings, that's one of the things we never ever did in the Nineties, hence why Robbie left,” he told the Daily Express. “We never discussed what he was feeling before he left that room. We look back at that moment and [wish] we could have talked more. I wonder if it could have saved him [from] leaving.”

“ROBBIE: I QUIT TAKE THAT!” The Sun splashed. The outpouring of grief among fans at the news of Williams’s departure was unprecedented for the age. “One of my friends was off school for days,” one fan recently posted; “I cried for a week,” admitted another.

“It was a big shock to us all,” Donald told the ITN cameras as the band regrouped as a four-piece, while Barlow assured viewers: “We’re gonna be here as long as the fans want us here.”

What Robbie Williams did by leaving on his own terms – and in such a dramatic way – was to set himself up for a much better future than the rest of the band

Mark Sutherland, music critic

“It was pretty seismic,” says music writer and columnist Mark Sutherland, who was working for Smash Hits at Take That’s peak. While it wouldn’t be until the final split of the band the following year that helplines would be set up to counsel distraught fans, Sutherland argues that Robbie leaving was the bigger moment. “The chemistry had been unbalanced by Robbie leaving. And what he actually did by leaving on his own terms – and in such a dramatic way – was to set himself up for a much better future than the rest of the band. When Take That eventually fizzled out, they were left a bit flat-footed. Robbie was already off and running.”

Indeed, Williams’s solo career would become a late-Nineties phenomenon. Launching out alone with a cover of George Michael’s “Freedom” just as his old band were disintegrating, he’d soon have huge hits with singles such as “Let Me Entertain You”, “Millennium” and “Angels” and go on to sell 75 million records worldwide as one of the best-selling artists of all time. Within years, he’d become the blueprint for successfully escaping the pop band shackles.

In the pink: Williams became the blueprint for escaping the pop band shackles (AFL Photos)

“Robbie paved the way for members of other Nineties groups to leave, like Geri Halliwell, Louise, and Brian McFadden,” says Simon Jones, who has worked as a publicist for some of the country’s biggest pop acts, including the Spice Girls and One Direction. “I can remember being in record company meetings years later where the question would always be: would their solo career end up ‘doing a Robbie’?”

Jones recalls Williams offering help and advice to other singers who felt like the odd one out in their own bands: “Louise [solo artist and former member of the R&B group Eternal] has spoken openly about how Robbie was a kindred spirit for her.”

Perhaps the greatest impact of the manner of Williams’s fall from pop-god grace, though, was in exposing forever the myth of the squeaky-clean boyband image. In that black-toothed Glastonbury grin lay all the human strains, pains and failings so often glossed over by the pop machine. It was only after his Glastonbury breakout, for instance, that the Spice Girls could put on such a genuine and forthright front, and George Michael could own his 1998 arrest for cottaging in LA in the self-mocking lyric and video for subsequent single “Outside”.

The butter-wouldn’t-melt image of the Nineties boyband was always an illusion, Sutherland says. “If you worked for Smash Hits you kind of knew that the gap between the public image of these people and what they were really like was quite wide. But there were a lot of music industry resources devoted to making sure the public never became aware of that gap.” By shattering the facade, though, Williams forged a new level of trust and connection with his fanbase. They unequivocally knew that in his cheeky, charming yet knowingly flawed performance, they were getting the real Robbie – untamed, unfiltered, and defiantly off the chain.

‘I’d broken out of the cult’: How Oasis, addiction and Gary Barlow pushed Robbie Williams into quitting Take That