milly

I think Elizabeth voted for Progress :D Because Robbie was in TT :P It would be nice to see why some people voted for III. As you all know, III is my favorite TT album, but it was definitely not my favorite TT era. Aside from the lead single and the tour, everything else was a mess.

For me, the Circus era would have competed with the BW one if it hadn't been for the album itself. I know I'm in minority here, but I think that's their weakest album since their comeback. Said It All is easily the best song on the album, for me, followed by You, Sleepwalking and Circus; I do enjoy Hello, The Garden and She Said as well, but I feel like the tracks on other albums are better than the ones on The Circus. In terms of sales and success, however, it's easily one of my favorite eras :)

Shame on you,Pippa! :lol: Only 10 points? :P I thought they were easily the best on that list, without any bias. I even gave points to Rihanna, Robbie and Britney, in my attempt at objectivity :P

I'll submit my votes this week, Pippa. I have to listen to most of those songs, as I'm unfamiliar with them. Take That will get the higher score, though :) PS: I've submitted my choices. Gosh, these have been some excruciating minutes - most of those songs are unlistenable.

Even if it's a few hundred sales, it's still good - it's a few hundred people more who get to know their new songs. We're so used at looking at numbers and seeing sales in them, that we forget that each sale is actually a person. Seeing that TT's album has re-charted, do you know if the same thing happened to Gary's album?

I don't think we have to worry about that too much: "Robbie says when he tours he will take his family on the road but on the topic of his old Take That bandmates, he says he’s not sure when he will return." “I’m agoraphobic so I’m a lone wolf — which sounds appealing but isn’t. I do have an email relationship with the boys but a friendship? There’s an eternal bond that will go on until we all pass away but I’m not friends with anybody apart from the wife and the kids.” https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/19280...-album-release/

Beautiful World for me too. III may be my favorite album, followed closely by BW, but BW is definitely my favorite TT era, for a few reasons: the CIBM tour performance - mind blowing! -, An Audience with TT and the dvd documentary - the best and funniest they ever did. It helps that they won a couple of Brit Awards too, during that time :) I think they got everything right with the BW tour - the perfect balance between music and staging. It's with the Circus tour that they started to overdo it, in my opinion.

Another great song that bites the dust :( I don't even understand why they bothered to release Higher than Higher as a single, when they knew there would be absolutely no promotion for it and 0 live performances :( But hey, we got a couple of live performances for Hey Boy! :cry:

The last time I watched the Brits was when TT performed Let In the Sun. It was an excruciating experience - worse than listening to top 40 on Radio 1.

As much as I'd like that to happen, I agree with Dylan that it's highly unlikely. Take That have been like a thorn in the Brits' side, regardless of their output. I could never quite figure out why the Brit Awards have been so reluctant to recognize TT's merits over the years. Anyway, I'm not too bothered by the Brit Awards; I'd rather TT won another Ivor Novello.

Does anybody know the midweek sales?

Thank you for explaining :) In that case, they're doomed :( The only way to soften the blow would be for them to release small bits of the single, to get people hyped and aware. Maybe even a tv ad announcing their new single. And some billboards.

Is it an established rule that all artists have to release on air/on sale or can they still choose their strategy? I know that Hey Boy and Cry used the on air/on sale approach, but that didn't exactly go down well - at least not for Hey Boy (although it's doubtful anything would have worked for that song), that's why I was hoping they'd be able to go back to their old approach. Piracy can't hurt them more than the lack of streaming.

For them to benefit from streaming, they'd need to attract large numbers of new young fans. Which would mean compromising their music and alienating the old fanbase. This is a vicious circle. They have to find a middle-ground, to appeal to both teens and more mature music listeners, in order to have a balance between sales and streaming. Of course, they could come up with something so extraordinary that millions of people would buy it and they wouldn't need streaming :) Taylor did pretty well on sales alone. That's why the pressure to make great music is bigger than ever. They rely mainly on sales and, for them to sell a lot, they need huge songs.

I believe Gary had another management when he released SISYL - a lot of thought, money, effort and creativity were put into it and I'd like to see the same thing with TT too. Maybe they should hire the company that worked for Gary. I know I read an article about how they did a marketing study, to see which strategy would work the best and would maximize exposure and sales. It created anticipation and it raised awareness of the album. They need something like that again.

They should at least release some teaser - a few seconds clip of the new single, so we get an idea of the direction they're going into. I really loved the release strategy for SISYL - slowly unveiling all the tracks on the album and promoting it at the same time. I just hope TT stay away from the on air/on sale strategy, like Jay pointed out. It won't do them any good. They should send the track to radios at the end of Oct and release it towards the end of November. And no single pre-orders allowed until the day of release. Meanwhile, they should have the video ready to be uploaded once the song is sent to radios and they should perform the single on Children In Need (although, if they do secure an XF slot, I imagine ITV will want exclusivity for the premiere of the single).

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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 :)

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.

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!

I have no idea how TT's next single is gonna perform, but so far, all of their lead singles made it in top 5 on iTunes - even Cry. Robbie hasn't had a single charting well since Candy - from this point of view, TT seem more marketable, cause at least radios still play all of their singles. There's no doubt that he's regarded as a great performer - I may dislike him, but I do realize how many people idolize him. I don't understand why, but I get it that it's a fact and there's nothing anyone can do about it.