awww poor Howard! <_<

TAKE THAT ROBBIE, I'M BACK

The Express

October 6, 2007 Saturday

 

Tipped to win an Oscar, Gary Barlow's comeback is all the more satisfying for coinciding with the career decline of Robbie Williams, the ex-bandmate who became his most savage critic

 

STROLLING down the red carpet with the screams of adoring fans ringing in his ears, Gary Barlow could hardly wipe the smile from his face. At the London premiere of Stardust this week, he looked tanned and lean as he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Sienna Miller. Rule The World, his theme song for the movie, is a near certainty to top the UK charts.

 

In the past 18 months, there has also been a sell-out tour, a Brit award and it has just been announced that Barlow and his fellow Take That members are the new faces of Marks & Spencer menswear.

 

It's widely predicted that Barlow will again be mixing with the stars - this time in Los Angeles - when he picks up a songwriting Oscar for Rule The World early next year. An Academy Award, which would be the springboard for an elusive breakthrough in the US for Take That, would put the seal on one of pop's most remarkable comebacks.

 

Life is undeniably good at present for Gary Barlow but, barely two years ago, he seemed washed up.

 

He was always regarded as the "talented one" in Take That as the band enjoyed unprecedented success in the early Nineties, selling 19 million records. He wrote most of the hits, including Back For Good - the only single to break into the US Top 10.

 

Millions of pounds flowed into his bank account and the Take That boys were invited to have tea with Princess Diana at Kensington Palace.

 

But behind the all-mates-together façade, tension between Barlow and Robbie Williams began to tear the band apart. When Williams walked out in 1995, Take That lurched on but called it a day the following year.

 

No doubt Barlow was confident that he could continue his success as a solo artist. His first two singles went to No 1, there was a successful album and he was tipped to become the next George Michael.

 

Then, almost inexplicably, Barlow's world imploded. The hits dried up just as Williams announced his arrival as an international star with the song Angels. By now the fall-out between Barlow and his former friend had escalated into a full-scale feud. They didn't speak for more than a decade.

 

Williams missed few opportunities to twist the knife, even including a track at the end of his 2002 album, Escapology, featuring the lyrics: "Where has Gary Barlow gone?" It was a hurtful but valid question.

 

Barlow's record label, BMG, had dropped him in 2000 without bothering to release his final single. Gary Barlow was written off at 29.

 

"For months I would slob about, unshaven, in the same tracksuit every day, " he says. "Nobody called or stopped by and I wouldn't have wanted to see them if they had. I was smoking 15 spliffs a day. At the end of the night, I'd smoke only half my last joint so when I woke up I could have the other half before reality set in. I'd find myself studying my old songs, trying to find the art I had completely lost. I couldn't stop crying." Worst of all, he was watching powerlessly as his nemesis flourished.

 

"With me and Rob it became a competition, " he admitted recently. "I lost my confidence and ended up losing my own career. Watching Rob's success was difficult for me. Nobody wanted to know me. To watch someone else have that sort of success while you can't get anyone to return your call is hard. My weight went up and I didn't care. I'd been dropped by the label and I didn't think I needed to look good." At one stage, in his early 30s, he weighed 16 st.

 

For Barlow, the low point came when he discovered that Madame Tussauds had melted down his waxwork to create Britney Spears.

 

He retreated to his home, Delamere Manor, Cheshire, to lick his wounds, deciding to step out of the limelight and write for other artists. He vowed never to set foot on stage again.

 

Barlow sought solace in family life after marrying former Take That backing dancer Dawn Andrews in 2000. The birth of his two children, Daniel, in the same year, and Emily, five years ago, helped him keep a sense of perspective.

 

His parents Colin and Marjorie, who live nearby, also helped him survive his darkest days. But, he admits, he found it difficult languishing at home while his wife went to work.

 

Also eating away at Barlow was the hostility from Williams. "Robbie said some horrible things, " he says. "But the hardest time was when it had stopped just being him doing all the nasty stuff and then everyone jumped on the bandwagon. It was as if he'd shown everyone where I lived and said: 'Go on, get on with it now.'" One Christmas, tired of the bickering, Barlow attempted to contact Williams. His calls were not returned.

 

The first step to redemption for Barlow came in the form of a television documentary in 2005 about the fate of Take That. Robbie wanted nothing to do with it but the others, frankly, had little better on offer.

 

Perhaps because of their years in the pop wilderness, Barlow, Mark Owen, Jason Orange and Howard Donald came across as thoroughly likeable and down-to-earth lads.

 

The documentary, which spawned a greatest hits album, introduced the band to a new generation of fans and reminded the old ones what they were missing. Take That decided to re-form and tour. Revivals are often sad affairs, played out in obscure venues, but the band captured the public's imagination.

 

THE tour surpassed all expectations and an inspired Barlow rediscovered his songwriting touch. He was also running four miles a day and regained the looks that made him a heart-throb.

 

The ballad Patience, released last year, was Barlow at his best, winning a Brit award for the single of 2006.

 

On the day he picked up the honour, it was announced that Williams was going into rehab in LA. Some suggested the timing was designed to steal Take That's thunder.

 

Williams, who owns two mansions in Los Angeles, signed an GBP 80million record deal with EMI in 2002. But his last album received mixed reviews, his single only reached No 4 in the UK and he cancelled the Asian leg of his world tour, citing exhaustion. He confesses that his personal life is a mess, littered with brief relationships.

 

He will delight in proving his critics wrong but, it seems, that the renaissance of Barlow has coincided with the decline of Williams.

 

Peter Robinson, editor of the website Popjustice. com, says: "The turnaround in fortunes for Gary in the past 12 months has been like something out of a pop fairy tale but the story's not over. Robbie's incredibly driven and, while this round may have gone to Gary, I think it'll fire Robbie up to pull something out of the bag."

 

WHILE Barlow's incredible revival may owe a little to good fortune and the fickle hand of pop fate, Robinson insists he must be seen as a great songwriter.

 

"We've probably all got a Top 10 hit in us somewhere but it takes real talent to strike gold time and again. I don't think you could look at his mantelpiece full of Brits and Ivor Novellos and put it down to luck." Barlow takes no satisfaction from the slump in his friend's career, saying: "He's hurt me more than anyone else has but as an adult and a father I'd hate to see him go through what I've been through." The pair's 11-year feud is said to have been ended with a hug as plans were made for Take That to re-form and it was reported that Barlow subsequently visited Williams in LA.

 

Robbie snubbed offers to join Take That during the comeback tour, however, hinting that he was too big a star. He has continued to make jibes about Barlow, who knows they will never again be true friends.

 

In a rare gesture of warmth, Williams once admitted that he'd swap his vast fortune for Barlow's life.

 

As Barlow reflects on how much sweeter success tastes second time around, he is convinced that the bad times were all part of the process.

 

"Had I carried on being the person I was before, I wouldn't have got married or had kids. Now I've got everything. I can walk around proud again.

 

For 10 years I couldn't do that."

 

The Mirror via PR

October 6, 2007 Saturday

 

 

'DAY I FEARED ROBBIE WAS GOING TO BEAT ME UP'

LOUIS BOOK EXCLUSIVE

 

 

LOUIS Walsh is famed for his barbed comments and sharp put-downs to X Factor contestants.

 

But his cheeky outbursts came back to haunt him when Robbie Williams almost started a punch-up with him in a posh hotel.

 

In the music mogul's sensational new book, Louis Walsh's Fast Track To Fame, he reveals how Robbie was fuming and gunning for revenge after he had branded him a "karaoke singer".

 

Louis confessed: "During a press interview I was asked what I thought about Robbie Williams. I replied that I thought he was a karaoke singer, and I attributed much of his success to his former songwriter, Guy Chambers.

 

"Months later, as I was walking through the lobby of the Conrad Hotel in Chelsea, a very agitated Williams, who was surrounded by his entourage, confronted me.

 

"He stuck a tape recorder in my face and demanded I repeat what I said in that interview.

 

"It was all very intimidating but I did it - and I stick by what I said.

 

"It was a very bizarre encounter - I thought for a minute I was going to get beaten up by Robbie.

 

"He can dish out criticism, but it's clear he doesn't like taking it.

 

"That shows how remarkably insecure he is, despite having so much success.

 

"I still don't know why he got so upset by my remarks. Touchy guy, that Robbie."

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Two VERY annoying articles to end a great Rob week. <_<

 

That Barlow one is among the most bias articles I've read in a long time. The journalist, as almost always when it comes to Rob, is highly unprofessional, did so little research, and is resorting to taking quotes out of Barlows book which has been out over a year I think. Clearly all this effort just to slag Rob off. So completelly disgusting but typical of the UK media as always. :rolleyes: It seems articles simply cannot be written about TT without there being some dig at Rob, which says alot. The article makes it sound as though Barlow is a solo artist coming back when he is a member of a band, not a solo superstar. Big difference which the article fails to show. And the usual and predictable c**p about Rob being in a decline. Wow, such a sad decline that his non-promoted experimental album sold twice more copies globally that TT's, and topped 13 more charts. Poor Rob. He must be so devastated he won't be able to model for Marks and bloody Spencers :rofl: Overall, such a laughable article from start to finish. :lol:

 

And as for Louis bloody Walsh :puke2: The man is the single most deluded piece of $h!t to ever live. He seriously believes his own press, and thinks people are actually stupid enough to actually believe that he says. His story about Rob is just completely not how it happened. Chris Heath was there and he was the one who was recording it for the book as I recall, and Louis did not repeat what he said. He came up with such pathetic exuse saying something like "Oh Rob, you know how the media take things out of context" :rolleyes: He is such a pathetic little man making up stuff to make himself look better :puke2:

Marks and Spencers. Rock n Roll

 

Can anyone honestly see Robbie modelling for Marks n Sparks? No harm to them. I buy my knickers there. But Robbie modelling their cardigans? :blink:

I'm sorry to say this, but Take That promoting Marks & Spencer gear has made them a laughing stock in my house. My boys think it is well funny, they said it made the band look 'uncool' but having said that were TT ever 'cool' :naughty:

 

Bloody hell, I would have been put off Robbie big time if he did Marks & Spencer. :blink:

Maybe he's holding out for the Edinburgh Woolen Mill contract? :unsure:

Edited October 8, 200717 yr by Jupiter9

Marks and Spencers. Rock n Roll

 

Can anyone honestly see Robbie modelling for Marks n Sparks? No harm to them. I buy my knickers there. But Robbie modelling their cardigans? :blink:

I just hope Barlow will be left to model the cardigans and NOT the underpants :puke2: :rofl:

 

I'd imagine M&S would want to attract people not repulse them :P

An Academy Award, which would be the springboard for an elusive breakthrough in the US for Take That, would put the seal on one of pop's most remarkable comebacks.

 

Give me a break...I've never heard the song once, so just because you win a movie award for it doesn't mean it will be a hit.

 

Morons.

 

What is Mark & Spencer's?

Give me a break...I've never heard the song once, so just because you win a movie award for it doesn't mean it will be a hit.

 

Morons.

 

What is Mark & Spencer's?

Its a department store kinda like our Macy's but more unhip and unstylish LOL

 

I think they're best known for their undies and food. Both of which I highly recommend, other than that its nothing to write home about. Clothes wise I think they appeal more to the older (senior) crowd :lol:

It's a posh clothes and food shop in the UK and Ireland. Not very cool and generally for older people. Put it this way, if Rob modelled for them, he would be slagged off hugely by the media and public. It is quite shocking TT agreed to it. Although the chocolate cookies in there are AMAZING :lol: :P

 

And I agree, and they have had very little success in most places outside the UK, so how would breaking the US be putting a seal on it. It seems journalists only count the UK and US as important coutries :lol:

 

Besides, Oscar nominations are not announced till January, no-one knows what will be nominated, and tbh, the chances of an unknown band, winning with a song that is not even on the soundtrac from a film which underperformed in the US, are quite slim. Although saying that, their new single is the only song I really like since they reformed, although I am sure in a month or two, when I've heard it endlessly on the radio, I will be sick of it :lol:

Wossy has Q of celebs in sights

The Sun via TRWS

9/10/97

 

http://www.virginmedia.com/images/jonathanross-gal-qawards.jpg

 

CONTROVERSIAL awards host JONATHAN ROSS was on his usual scandalous form at the star-studded bash.

 

He ripped apart everyone from AMY WINEHOUSE and ROBBIE WILLIAMS to RICKY GERVAIS and LED ZEPPELIN – and had a special dig at the SPICE GIRLS.

 

No-show Amy took the brunt of his first mauling as he slated her for not turning up to accept her award for Best Album.

 

She had apparently got her beehive stuck in Paris and couldn’t make it in time.

 

Jonathan started with a tasteless joke: “I was on a 3-1 bet that Amy would die before PAVAROTTI. I’m really annoyed with Amy that I lost.”

 

Later, Jonathan took aim at the SPICE GIRLS, smirking that they “are like reformed meat that they serve in school dinners as chicken nuggets.

 

“They should be referred to as Atomic Mutton.”

 

Referring to the abysmal performance of pal Ricky Gervais at July’s Diana concert he sniped: “It wasn’t just a memorial for Diana that day, it was celebrating the death of Ricky’s career.”

 

Rock gods Led Zeppelin were up next as he quipped: “There were millions of hits on the website to register for tickets to their gig. It was probably all the pensioners suffering from Parkinson’s clicking the mouse more than they should.”

 

Even stars from over the pond were not safe from his hilarious acid tongue. He slated BRITNEY SPEARS, saying her young sons were in Prehab - just awaiting the time they end up like the rest of the messed-up Hollywood clan.

 

 

And Robbie Williams got a kicking too. Talking about the Q Hero award – which deservedly went to the late TONY WILSON – he joked: “The Q Hero award should really be deserved by superheroes.

 

“Robbie Williams should get a superhero award – for being invisible in America.”

 

 

:rofl: You gotta admit, he's hillarious. :lol: :

 

 

Rock gods Led Zeppelin were up next as he quipped: “There were millions of hits on the website to register for tickets to their gig. It was probably all the pensioners suffering from Parkinson’s clicking the mouse more than they should.”

 

:rofl:

I loved that one :rofl:

 

The one about Rob was not bad at all if you ask me, as it is not like Rob is trying to crack America, it's his intention to be unknown so not much of a joke :lol: His joke about Amy was a bit low though.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Yea, the bit about Amy was uncalled for...

The stuff about Amy was just plain mean and nasty.

 

The stuff about Rob was completely stupid and uncalled for and I like Jonathan Ross. I didn't find it at all funny. I really don't get why Rob is always used as a punchline to jokes. There was no point or purpose to his comment. If anyone else had said that fans would be bitching and moaning.

I thought howie couldnt sing like a front man anyway?? ^_^

 

about the howard news thingy!

Edited October 13, 200717 yr by Supreme

and about the two rob bashing articles!!

 

If you guys could only hear what im thinking

you would all blush!!!!! http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g107/supreme_album/most%20used%20smileys/blackanger-2.gif