Well done Rob - as a performer he's one of the most popular, I don't think any of us would dispute that fact. However, I find him incredibly over bearing and false - sorry but I do. Give me a performer like Gary, understated, musical and at one with the music any day of the week, but I accept I'm in the minority.

 

Having been raised by parents who listened to Ella, Sinatra, and other classical performers (by the way I'm not saying Gary is in their league) I don't consider someone sitting at a piano boring. Watching performers like Billy Joel, for example, is a joy and a cut above someone thrusting his crotch , swearing and gurning their way through a show.

 

Gary is very generous towards Rob - in my opinion far more than he deserves, but ultimately they've made their peace with each other which is lovely to see. That said, Rob was vile, absolutely vile to Gary and gloated at his demise - something I find detestable. I also find Rob's views and comments about women he's had past relationships with unbecoming and coarse for a man of his age.

 

Elisabeth, I don't think you're going to get any compromise from either Milly or myself where Rob's concerned. :)

 

You are sooooo right about that :D

Elizabeth, you can tell me he has a concert on Mars and I still wouldn't be surprised...well, to be fair, I'd be surprised that the galaxy is populated with so many creatures who need hearing aids, but that's about it :P

If I wanted to see someone perform, I'd go see some clowns at a circus, it would be much better. To be honest, Robbie offers absolutely nothing new on stage anymore in terms of performance - I know all his moves by now.

I'll stick with old, boring, plain Barlow than with the demonic Robbie. Every time he's on stage, he looks like he made a pact with satan.

 

If I were him, I'd avoid Russia for the next tours...and lifetimes :P

I guess he was too coward to address the issues in his own country, so he decided to make a bad parody of another culture. It went oh so well for the French!

Well, the video was published this morning and has already more than 4 million views. The song might not do well at itunes, but he tries something unusual, while normally artists stick to what they always do. By the way, Gary had tweeted him his congrats too. Rob has a stadium tour lined up for Europe. Australia and likely South America again, which says it all. Obviously he has not the voice Gary has, which is indeed great, but...he has personality and is not one moment dull and boring. He never was, which is a reason to be succesful as solo star. I guess he will seel 2.5 million plus with the album and that is an achievment like the 77 million he sold already (aside of the ones with TT). No one can dismiss this.

 

 

Robbie is a showman, his showmanship makes up for talent in other areas. Gary is more talented but less of a showman. Robbie may have all those sales but when comparing directly wasnt it revealed the Gary was richer of the two due to his writing ability.

 

 

Pippa have you been watching Emmerdale?

Rob is far richer than Gary, Pippa. Do you recall Rob's remark when he came out of the record company's office having secured something like an 80 million dollar/pound deal? He shouted along the lines of: ' I'm rich beyond my wildest dreams.' I also recall him making a comment not that many years ago along the lines of 'but I'm richer than you' - directed at Gary, although I think it was tongue in cheek :)

 

Gary was wealthier than the other boys at the time of the bands split in 1995/6 including Rob due to his song writing royalties, but once Rob achieved solo success his wealth quadrupled. He's been touring extensively throughout the 90's onwards and as Elisabeth has stated he's a stadium filling solo artist around the world. It's mind boggling to see the crowds he pulls in. Milly will know more than I about this, but I was staggered to see the size of the crowd for an open air concert of his in Romania back last year.

 

The other boys haven't made that much - well compared to many others in the music business. By no means are they paupers, but their wealth is significantly less that Rob and Gary. Having said that Mark, Howard and Jay for that matter will have earned far more since the comeback than they did in the 90's because of the money generated from their tours 2005 onwards.

Edited September 30, 20168 yr by dylan62

Crikey I just caught about 30 seconds of Rob on the GN show. I saw the bit where he went over to the woman in the audience and sat on her knee. I couldn't take anymore and turned over. Apparently he told a rather risqué story which I fortunately missed. Judging from twitter most preferred his naughty story to the actual song . Rob's a god send for TV chat shows :)

 

Elisabeth I'd hazard a guess that Rob will still be up there performing at the grand old age of 80!!! Either that or he'll be living in a stars retirement home with Gary, telling his naughty jokes and twerking at the nurses with Gary mumbling to himself and shaking his head in desperation. And, having listened to small clip of the song on the GN show I stand by my first assessment of it - it's pants.

Edited September 30, 20168 yr by dylan62

Yup, pls don't remind me, Dylan, that my own people have such bad taste in music :P 60.000 people went to see his concert, God only knows why.

 

Here is the full performance on GN show: https://vimeo.com/185084383 The official video gave it a bit of power, but, without it, it's pretty bland and boring - and I really don't see the experimental side Elizabeth is talking about; to me, it just sounds like all his other songs.

And is it just me or did Robbie sing to a backing track?

 

You know it's not really good when, after performing on a big show, the song doesn't manage to jump in top 10 on iTunes.

 

PS: Am I the only one who finds Robbie highly hypocritical? I mean he accepted a huge sum of money to perform at some Russian oligarch's party and here he is criticizing Putin or whatever else rich mogul.

Edited October 1, 20168 yr by milly

Well I understand that everyone has his/her point of view. But some of the remarks are a bit mean some of you do. I like TT 4 and love TT 5. I am not a fan of Gary no matter how much Robbie likes him. He is not honest. He had painted the truth wrong (you can also say he lied) so often, if it was in hindsight of tours ( in Australia), who joins and so on. And as much as I love Billy Joel, love Ella, I cannot see him anywhere in that league. Have you ever seen Billy Joel performing? Then you know what I mean. And well, I also critisize and not in teh friendliest way sometime when some of you get overexcited and twist truths either. But at least dp I ger my facts right. Robbie owns 160 million pounds and is no 16 on the Sunday Time Musician rich list. Gary is around place 38 with about 60 million. Sorry. And Rob's fortune does not include the profits from his solo tour 2015 in front of 1.2 million in Europe, Abu Dhabi and Australia.

Read the critics and their opinion thorugh years about him as performer....Party like a Russian by teh way is no 4 in Russia by now and had almost 8 million clicks in 24 hours. I think that it is quite impressive despite I still perosnally do not like the song. And I can say that. I do not need to haol anythig and that is what some - not all - of you do. :-)

What truths did we twist, Elisabeth?

 

Sorry, but never, in my whole life, have I met someone so obsessed with money and success - it seems that these 2 justify everything for you. I've reached the conclusion that you simply don't want to understand: we KNOW that Robbie is famous, we KNOW that he is rich beyond anybody's dreams, we KNOW the stupid papers love him - although you do forget that there have been quite a few clever journalists over time who have highlighted Robbie's poor act and his weaknesses!!. What we're trying to tell you is that we DON"T CARE about any of these. People on this forum are into Take That because of their music - what we discuss here is the quality of their music and, when we discuss chart positions, it's also in relation to the quality of the music. I couldn't care less if they stopped being a commercial success as long as the music they're putting out makes me happy. Gary's Finding Neverland album is far from being a hit with the masses, yet it won't stop being my favorite album just because of this.

 

We all agreed on this forum that Robbie is gonna continue to sell even in his 80s, because he has a strong fanbase. That doesn't mean that we can't discuss the quality of what he's putting out at the moment. And what is putting out at the moment...how do I phrase this delicately?!...sucks!

 

I've admitted I'm nasty towards Robbie. Sorry, I simply can't help it. I believe the guy is an idiot and an attention seeker - the way he behaves on stage, the offensive things he says about other artists, the stupid videos he posts on instagram, the stupid egomaniac lyrics he's writing....the guy has absolutely no endearing quality for me.

You say he's a great performer, I say he's a talentless singer who prances about the stage and behaves outrageously in order to distract from the fact that he can't sing. He simply got lucky - there are plenty of people just like him in this world, who have found someone to idolize. "Qui se ressemble s'assemble".

 

I know I'm being harsh, but I won't be a hypocrite and sugar coat what I believe about him. I had actually started to warm up to him a few years ago, but his behaviour in the past 2 years has reminded me of why I couldn't stand him in the first place.

And sorry, but for me, having money and success doesn't equal being a successful human being. Having integrity, dignity, principles, setting a good example for others - that's truly succeeding in life!

 

Gary lying about tour dates....wow, he really is a big lying jerk! :) If that's the worst you can come up with about him, then I know I made the right choice :)

Edited October 1, 20168 yr by milly

Elisabeth did you actually read my post? I clearly stated that Rob was considerably wealthier than the others and far more popular and I've congratulated him on his longevity. I clearly stated that I wasn't putting Gary in the same league as Sinatra or Ella - so I'm somewhat confused - although these days it doesn't take much :) Neither was I saying that Gary was on par with Billy Joel, merely pointing out that I don't find these kind of performers boring.

 

I don't see how you can defend Rob when it comes to his treatment of Gary. I accept that Gary didn't always treat the lads well in the 90's but he didn't publicity humiliate or try and crush them either - there's a considerable difference in the way Rob behaved to Gary and vice versa.

 

I have a right to my opinion on Rob as a performer and song writer ( as you also do re Gary and TT) and in my view his new song is dire, but I said the same about Hey Boy so I don't see any bias in my approach. I don't think my critique of Rob on the GN was done in a nasty way - more tongue in cheek I thought, but sorry if you thought I over stepped the mark.

Elisabeth did you actually read my post? I clearly stated that Rob was considerably wealthier than the others and far more popular and I've congratulated him on his longevity. I clearly stated that I wasn't putting Gary in the same league as Sinatra or Ella - so I'm somewhat confused - although these days it doesn't take much :) Neither was I saying that Gary was on par with Billy Joel, merely pointing out that I don't find these kind of performers boring.

 

I don't see how you can defend Rob when it comes to his treatment of Gary. I accept that Gary didn't always treat the lads well in the 90's but he didn't publicity humiliate or try and crush them either - there's a considerable difference in the way Rob behaved to Gary and vice versa.

 

I have a right to my opinion on Rob as a performer and song writer ( as you also do re Gary and TT) and in my view his new song is dire, but I said the same about Hey Boy so I don't see any bias in my approach. I don't think my critique of Rob on the GN was done in a nasty way - more tongue in cheek I thought, but sorry if you thought I over stepped the mark.

You're more of a lady than I am :)

Some of my friends have been known to call me 'Doris Day :) Although some of you are probably too young to know who she is !!! I don't think any of us on this forum set out to be mean, we just get carried away sometimes.

 

I just hope TT bring out a fab single and fantastic album - fed up of being critical of their work of late.

Edited October 1, 20168 yr by dylan62

Elisabeth, I usually don't agree with you but I think that you are right about that some of the remarks lately have been quite nasty. I am not a big fan of Rob and I'm not impressed with the new song either but I think that some of the comments lately are a bit too much. Aside from critizing Robbie and his behaviour some comments are also very close to declaring his fans as idiots, which I find somewhat offensive. And I'm not even a fan of him!

 

And Milly, what I don't understand is why you pay so much interest to Robbie. You obviously can't stand him and is detesting him with a passion, why do you torture yourself with watching his videos on instragram? Why don't you just ignore him? That's what I would do :)

Elisabeth, I usually don't agree with you but I think that you are right about that some of the remarks lately have been quite nasty. I am not a big fan of Rob and I'm not impressed with the new song either but I think that some of the comments lately are a bit too much. Aside from critizing Robbie and his behaviour some comments are also very close to declaring his fans as idiots, which I find somewhat offensive. And I'm not even a fan of him!

 

And Milly, what I don't understand is why you pay so much interest to Robbie. You obviously can't stand him and is detesting him with a passion, why do you torture yourself with watching his videos on instragram? Why don't you just ignore him? That's what I would do :)

 

Trust me, I don't go looking for his videos or any of his stuff :) They just pop up on my facebook timeline constantly, from certain TT fans. It's pretty hard to ignore them no matter how hard you try.

 

I don't have a problem with those fans of Robbie's who are able to maintain a reasonable degree of objectivity, my problem is with those who proclaim him the best singer in the universe ever and the best thing since sliced bread - come on, any person would declare those fans lunatic and deluded! I can understand, up to a point, those who like his repertoire or performances, but I refuse to be polite just for the sake of it and pretend that those who say that Robbie is a great singer or other absurdities don't have a hearing problem.

 

Besides, at the end of the day, I'm not the one going on a Robbie Williams thread or page or forum or anything, posting remarks about him, unlike some other posters. I simply posted my opinion about him in a discussion that arose naturally on this forum. My intention is not to be offensive to Robbie's fans, but I honestly cannot understand those who would idolize someone with so many flaws and issues.

 

But I think I made my point more than clear, so I'll stop here.

 

 

Elisabeth, I usually don't agree with you but I think that you are right about that some of the remarks lately have been quite nasty. I am not a big fan of Rob and I'm not impressed with the new song either but I think that some of the comments lately are a bit too much. Aside from critizing Robbie and his behaviour some comments are also very close to declaring his fans as idiots, which I find somewhat offensive. And I'm not even a fan of him!

 

And Milly, what I don't understand is why you pay so much interest to Robbie. You obviously can't stand him and is detesting him with a passion, why do you torture yourself with watching his videos on instragram? Why don't you just ignore him? That's what I would do :)

 

 

Thank you. I wasn't going to comment at all because Im so unbelievably bored of all the TT v RW stuff on the Internet. But all I'm going to say is please don't put "Robbie chat welcome too" at the top of your forum if it's going to be so unwelcome to Robbie fans like me. Reading pages of insults doesn't make me feel welcome.

I can understand the odd comment but pages and pages of the stuff?

 

There's room in the pop world for both acts. Lets just accept that we all like different things in our pop stars, the boys have made up and Enjoy the supportive texts from both Gary and Mark to Robbie. That's the biggest positive. They're all friends again and have moved on. It's a shame fans on both sides still don't seem to be able to. Life really is too short.

Let's be honest here. I, for one, admit I haven't been kind to Robbie and I've been pretty blunt about how I feel, but some of the posters on this forum have, in the past, trashed Gary and called him all sort of names, on various threads and none of us here said anything.

We've been pretty fair to Robbie, I think, as we all have admitted he's managed to build a strong fanbase all over the world, a good reputation as a performer and he's had a long career. We were just venting a bit of our frustration when it comes to his singing/songs and behaviour, that's all. It's pretty hard not to react and to keep being diplomatic when Elizabeth keeps reminding us all the time that Robbie is no 1 all over the world and TT are not worthy of wiping his boots.

Elisabeth/Laura I've never intended to suggest that Rob fans were in any way 'idiots', I don't think anyone has intended to do that. Comments made have often been in response to posts and most have been opinions regarding his current single (which is of course a subjective thing) and mostly his stage persona which by and large is factual because he does do the things I've alluded to in my posts.

 

I'm a little upset to think that people perceive any of my comments as nasty (I certainly didn't mean them to be), so I wont post any comments about Rob on this thread in the future. I wont even comment on Rob when he returns to TT. Hopefully that will placate Rob/TT5 fans who come onto the forum, as I'd like to think it's open to Gary and TT 3/4/5 fans to enjoy and participate in.

 

 

I don't think they were referring to you, Dylan, but to me, cause I alluded that some of his fans are similar to him.

 

But I'll try to temper down my views on Robbie in the future, cause I don't think I have anything constructive to say. If he'll ever release something I like, I'll give credit where is due, no matter how I feel about him.

 

I make no promises, though, because I'm pretty hot tempered and Elizabeth really has a way of stirring me up :)

 

I'll just put this out there: I don't like Robbie or his current music, but I don't hate him or wish him ill. There's plenty of room for both him and TT on the music scene and, as long as I don't have to read that TT are irrelevant, I won't feel the need to justify why I don't like Robbie.

No problem, Milly. All in all I think the best strategy for me is to stay clear of posting anything which involves Rob. I'll stick to criticising TT3 :)

 

No problem, Milly. All in all I think the best strategy for me is to stay clear of posting anything which involves Rob. I'll stick to criticising TT3 :)

If they keep on putting out songs like Hey Boy instead of WYBTFM and CMH, we'll have plenty to talk about :lol:

Oh please, please, please let the next song be a good one!!! A lovely little ballad will suit me down to the ground- boring as that sounds.

 

Not long to wait and I think Gary has also tweeted about possible tour news at the end of this month. I think they'll use a similar strategy as last time with people who pre-order the album having priority tickets for the tour.