Gata

Great posts .. with enough points in common with the two :)

Robbie og Take That til Parken :) http://www.bt.dk/musik/robbie-og-take-til-parken

Blogs Opinion: Angela Epstein July 19, 2010 So Robbie Williams is back with his band. Well, take that ! Or rather, put it in your pipe and take a puff of one the biggest money spinners to hit the dilapidated music industry in years. But as the original line up of Britain’s biggest ever boyband toast their reunion, I wonder if they’re going to call their £50m album and tour deal something snappy. Desperation sounds a pretty good title. For it has to be desperation, or sheer madness (another potential title) that has driven the decision to welcome Robbie Williams back to the fold. Why else would this cynically commercial rejuvenation ever come to pass ? The history of Take That has always been a chequered one. Gary Barlow, the gifted Cheshire-born songwriter had to fight his demons (and his chubby waist line) when his former band mate shot to impossible heights of super stardom after quitting the band, leaving the remaining members to implode and Barlow’s subsequent solo career to falter. And then, in 2005 and with beautiful irony, the remaining quartet were given a second chance. An ITV documentary about Take That relit their fire and reminded fans what they had been missing. Ironically Robbie Williams decided against appearing alongside his old muckers. But it didn’t matter. Their disappointment melted when the other four reinvented themselves as a man band and were stupendously successful in terms of creative output and live performances. Meanwhile, the Robbie Williams end of pier show eventually spluttered into decline, with the blubbery showman looking particularly spooky when he appeared on The X Factor last year. I’ve never been a huge Robbie fan. Sure, some of his work is passably good. But to inflict funeral favourite Angels on the world was an unforgivable sin. So why are the lads taking this capricious character back now ? Surely they can’t be so desperate for a few quid that they’d compromise their new-found coming of age by taking the unpredictable Williams back for good ( or even a year). Then again, Take That have recently been confounding popular belief, emerging as not quite the lads we thought they were. First, Oldham’s cutesy-wutesy Mark Owen has allegedly been unmasked as an inveterate womaniser who couldn’t keep his hands off booze or bits on the side (one of whom eloquently opened up in yesterday’s papers). Then we find Gary Barlow, a man who once wore his northern, working class credentials as a badge of honour, reinvented as a poster boy for the Tories, happily campaigning alongside David Cameron. What other shockers await? Howard Donald can actually sing ? (Sorry, that takes sarcasm too far). Will the real Take That stand up? But if they do, and they include Robbie Williams among them, it can surely only end in tears. The dynamic will change, and the new bandmate, with his taste of solo mega stardom and a poor track record for loyalty and team spirit, is likely to unglue the secure partnership. This is a mad move and even though the cash tills will be ringing to the sound of their singing, I just can’t see Williams in that man band suit. Nor can I imagine Gary Barlow containing himself when his old pal gets the loudest screams. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnew..._angela_epstein

http://www.musicweek.com/Pictures/web/f/s/t/Robbie_Williams.jpg Robbie Williams: win when you're singing 16:32 | Monday February 22, 2010 With eight chart-topping albums and multi-million units shifted in his name, it is hard to think of a more worthy recipient of the Outstanding Contribution Brit award than Robbie Williams. We look back at the ex-Take That man’s remarkable career which shows little sign of abating What a difference a year makes. Just 12 months ago, Robbie Williams was being written off by the nation’s critics. Fast forward a year and he has been honoured with an Outstanding Contribution to British Music Award at the Brits. Last April, the massed music critics of the country seemed supremely sure of their facts. After all, they pointed out, Williams’ last album, Rudebox had flunked miserably, while his old bandmates Take That were now dominating the albums chart with The Circus. A closer look at the statistics, however, suggests that Williams was suffering from Jacko syndrome; a curious affliction whose symptoms can make a conspicuously successful artist look like an abject failure if he does not maintain his own previously huge levels of success. Robbie has sold more concert tickets in a single day (1.6m, for his 2006 world tour), won more Brit Awards (15) and sold more albums in the UK than any other British solo performer. Jacko Syndrome, however, means that Rudebox was rated a flop despite having debuted at number one in the UK albums chart, having become Europe’s fastest platinum-selling album of 2006 and having reached number one in 14 countries. It was a flop for being only the 18th best-selling album worldwide. That is the kind of failure most artists would give their eye teeth for. Since then, of course, he has released another album, the Trevor Horn-produced Reality Killed The Video Star which, EMI UK Ireland president Andria Vidler points out, “is well on the way to being triple-platinum within a couple of months of release and has already sold more than 1.3m albums overseas.” So maybe that Outstanding Contribution award is not a Brit too far after all. BPI chairman Tony Wadsworth says, “I’ve heard people ask why someone so young is getting an outstanding contribution award. Yes, he’s only 36, but Robbie has been a superstar for 15 years, which is remarkable by any standards”. Williams’ decade-and-a-half on top has been all the more remarkable because his achievements have always been subjected to intense scrutiny, much of it unflattering and some of it, even he would admit, self-inflicted. The boy from Stoke-on-Trent first tasted fame with Take That, helping them sell more than 20m records between 1991 and 1996. His well-publicised and acrimonious departure from the fold in July 1995 was followed by a period of relative inactivity because, although he was quickly courted by EMI, a clause in his former contract prohibited him from recording as a solo performer until Take That were officially dissolved. One vital step was to find a management team that would take him seriously, which he did in November 1996. “He came to our offices,” remembers his co-manager David Enthoven of IE Music. “We had a good long chat and recognised straight away that there was something very special about him. He really did have the aura and charisma of a star.” Enthoven’s partner Tim Clark, adds, “At our second meeting, he played us some rough demos which were great, but what really caught our attention was when he recited his poetry. We knew then that he had the makings of an amazing songwriter.” It was at this point that EMI A&R Chris Briggs first encountered Williams and realised almost immediately that he was dealing with much more than a pretty face. “He was living in a basement flat in Maida Vale,” remembers Briggs, “I went round there and he immediately started playing me music he loved. He jumped from Nat ‘King’ Cole to Neil Young to Dr. Dre, a fantastically varied range of styles, so right away I realised that he didn’t think in genres. He just thinks about what he loves. “He showed me an exercise book crammed full of lyrics. I opened it up and starting reading a couple and they were like ready-made songs." It transpired that much of Williams’ dissatisfaction in Take That had stemmed from the impossibility of having his musical ideas taken seriously in a band whose fortunes rested so solidly on Gary Barlow’s songwriting gifts. When Take That split in February 1996, Williams was free to start his own recording career but there were other problems that would surface from time to time throughout his solo career. In the first few months of his relationship with EMI, he spent time in rehab, recovering from addiction problems. “It’s on the record that he went into rehab,” acknowledges Briggs, “and that he had to be given permission to come out to make the video for Lazy Days.” There was debate within EMI about whether he had been a wise signing, but Briggs had already seen encouraging signs of his potential as a songwriter. “He had disappeared that Christmas,” reveals Briggs. “He was not happy. He’d fallen out with his girlfriend and just needed to get away. He called me from Dublin one night, quite drunk, and over the phone he sang me what he was then calling Angels Instead. The line that became the chorus hook was in there, but it was the middle eight.” Their spectacularly felicitous collaboration went on to spawn five number one albums, with Guy Chambers co-writing some of Williams’ signature smashes, including Rock DJ, Feel, Millennium, Let Me Entertain You, Angels, Supreme, No Regrets and Eternity. “From a retail perspective, he’s been one of our most significant artists in terms of sales during the past 15 years,” observes HMV head of music Rudy Osorio. “Many of us occasionally forget just how many fantastic albums Robbie has delivered since he embarked on his solo career – generating tens of millions in revenue for our industry – here in the UK and internationally." But back in 1996 it was not quite so clear cut. His first single was a cover of George Michael’s Freedom, chosen because it represented what he was going through. “Robbie didn’t care for it,” admits Briggs, “because it wasn’t one of his own songs.” Although Freedom provided that essential first solo hit, the next two singles were clunkers. Despite Briggs’ certainty that Angels was the biggest hit on the album, it had been held back. Tony Wadsworth, who had just taken over as chairman and CEO of EMI, explains why. “Robbie still wasn’t in the healthiest of states, as far as things like having the stamina to take on America.” Angels, finally released in December 1997, turned everything around, provided him his first Brit, going on to be voted the best song of the past 25 years by the British public and creating the foundation on which his multi-platinum career has been built. But even the success of Angels was tinged with emotional distress for Williams. “It pees me off,” he declared later, “because everyone thinks Guy penned Let Me Entertain You and Angels, but they’re my songs.” Chambers is the first to concede that, for all his own invaluable input to the process, Williams is a remarkably driven songwriter. “He’s very intense about his songwriting,” he says. “We would write constantly, on tour buses, in TV stations, wherever the inspiration came to him. Me And My Monkey on Escapology, for example, was written literally five minutes before we went on stage in Taiwan. He’ll go through a whole pack of cigarettes before we finish a song.” There is no denying that Williams works on instinct and that often, these instincts can set him on a collision course with those around him. For example, just after signing his massive new deal with EMI in 2002, he blithely stated that he had no intention of cracking the US; he announced onstage in France that he and Guy were gay lovers; and who can forget him inviting Liam Gallagher to join him in a boxing ring? “It’s his unpredictability that makes him so exciting,” laughs Wadsworth. “He’s an extraordinarily charismatic star but he also knows it’s all an illusion. He sees it for what it is. Besides, he’s still young and I believe he can still make it in America. Of course, he’d have to want to.” “There’s no denying that Rob is sensitive to criticism, and he is very ambitious,” reckons Briggs. “I think Rudebox underperforming definitely knocked him back a bit, so he’s genuinely very chuffed that Reality Killed The Video Star has been so well-received. And I think that goes back to the first thing I realised about him, which is that it’s all intuitive. It’s about his personal taste. If he’s not into a song he can’t do it with any conviction. As with most artists, he’s really pleasing himself first and foremost, and that’s when he’s at his best.” http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?section...1040153&c=2

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8480125.stm

Thanks, but continuous :wacko: Thanks Scotty :D

James Blunt makes decade's best-selling albumWithout it, we would never have had You're Beautiful. But while Back to Bedlam was the UK's noughties favourite, Robbie Williams sold most CDs overall Sean Michaels - Wednesday 30 December 2009 The markets will crash, the seas will rise, and the Four Horsemen will surely approacheth, because it's official – James Blunt's Back to Bedlam was the UK's bestselling album of the decade. Blunt's 2004 debut, seen by some as an easy-listening masterpiece, by others as a banal and soppy travesty, beat out Dido's No Angel and Amy Winehouse's Back To Black to be named the noughties' most successful release by the Official Charts Company. In the United States, Americans had the decency to make the Beatles' compilation disc, 1, top of their 10-year chart. In Britain, however, the Fabs only came in at number six with the rest of the UK's top 10 filled by Leona Lewis, David Gray, Coldplay, Scissor Sisters, Take That, and one more Dido record. While James Blunt has every reason to celebrate, he was not in fact the decade's most successful act. Counting across releases, and including back-catalogue sales, according to Music Week the trophy belongs to Robbie Williams. The former Take That singer sold 12.18m albums between 1 January 2000 and 26 September 2009 (when data was last tabulated), followed by Westlife at 10.14m, Coldplay at 9.12m and Eminem at 8.01m. Eminem also topped the Americans' 10 year sales list, edging out the Beatles. Williams is also the artist with the most albums – five – in the noughties' top 100. Putting the list into further perspective, Susan Boyle's recent (albeit record-breaking) debut is already at number 56. For better and for worse, Blunt gets to have the smuggest grin on his face. When Back to Bedlam was released in 2004, first-week sales were just 482. It didn't crack the UK albums chart until the following year, when radio plays of You're Beautiful drove the maudlin ballad deep into Britain's collective consciousness. That song – and the album from which it's taken – went on to sell more than 3m copies in the UK. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/dec/3...blunt-top-album Congratulations to James Blunt! Bravo Robbie!!! Happy New Year! :)

Where is the data wrong? :blink: I've Been Expecting You 2,563,411 Sing When You're Winning 2,246,645 Swing When You're Winning 2,188,385 Escapology 2,049,281 Life Thru A Lens 2,081,049 Intensive Care 1,610,494 Greatest Hits 2,117,949 http://fatherandy2.proboards.com/index.cgi...9333&page=2

European Hot 100 - Charts Robbie Williams--------- Bodies #1 Alexandra Burke ft. Flo Rida------Bad Boys#5 :P http://www.billboard.com/charts/european-h...uropean-hot-100

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a356/Gagata/hello1.gif Very good article/review http://www.therobbiewilliamssite.com/clapping.gif GQ. Live review: Robbie Williams at the Roundhouse Alex Bilmes 21 October 2009 11:45 A lot of tosh has been written about Robbie Williams since his appearance on ITV's The X Factor ten days ago, with various invertebrate journalists and "industry insiders" (other invertebrate journalists, usually) gleefully writing off his comeback on the strength of one calamitous TV spot. Few of these naysayers have heard the album Robbie is shortly to release, and even less can be said to be acting from the purest of motives. Much of the negative comment is motivated by anger at missing out on interviews or promotional tie-ins. It's always this way: give an interview to The Sun, risk being slated in The Mirror; giveaway a CD in the Mail on Sunday, risk a vituperative hatchet job in the Sunday Times. Newspaper readers can be forgiven for not spotting the joins, though, and noxious press coverage ahead of an album release - even such obviously lazy hackery - can be damaging, as Robbie discovered in 2006 when Rudebox, his last album, was effectively strangled in the womb by a single negative notice in the Sun. That's not just the fault of journalists: the British public doesn't need much encouragement to kick a man when he's down, and in Robbie's case the nation piled in like cowardly ruckers in a closing-time car park. Still, The X Factor was a strange choice of venue to reboot his career. Robbie is a hugely charismatic and talented entertainer but he's also awkward and restless, forever battling between sincerity and sarcasm, and it's that strange and combustible combination that makes him so compelling. The X Factor is not at home to oddness and irony. It does neither sincerity nor sarcasm. Instead it seeks to create bland facsimiles of pop stars, witless Whitney and Mariah knock-offs who might enjoy brief success, like current incumbent Alexandra Burke, before disappearing. The song Robbie performed, new single "Bodies", has a propulsive Frankie thud and a challenging lyric. The X Factor audience would rather watch underprivileged kids warble tunelessly through "I Believe I Can Fly" before bursting into tears. It's worth noting that Whitney herself came a cropper the week after Robbie, her own comeback performance being somehow upstaged by Cheryl Cole's solo debut. This is the popworld in which we now live. The fact is that "Bodies" is Robbie's fastest selling single since Rock DJ, in 2000. But this encouraging news is lost amidst crowing over the fact that Burke's single, an almost dementedly unremarkable stomp, sold even more. Someone at Robbie's record company needs to rethink this strategy of scheduling releases against products of the Simon Cowell hit factory. They may not like it, but they can't win. All eyes, then, on last night's show in north London for the BBC's Electric Proms, Robbie's first concert for three years. I don't know what it looked like to the many thousands watching on TV and in 250 cinemas across Europe, but from the floor of the Roundhouse, it seemed a powerful and conclusive restatement of the qualities that made Robbie Britain's biggest, brightest pop star of the Nineties and Noughties. From the moment he took the stage, backed by a 38-piece band led by producer Trevor Horn, as well as an orchestra, Robbie was in control. He looked lean and hungry and, crucially, comfortable in his skin. Here was a man among friends, and he rewarded us with a set that included plenty of new material - "Bodies"; the Beatlesy album opener, "Morning Sun"; the lovely "Deceptacon" - but also Robbie standards "Come Undone", "Feel" and, inevitably but no less magnificently, "Angels". All this punctuated by Robbie's trademark showbizzy rambles. At one point he demonstrated "George Michael dancing", encouraging the audience to have a go. At another he dedicated a song to his Auntie. She'd be looking down on him tonight, he reckoned. "She's not dead," he clarified. "She's just really, really condescending." You don't get that kind of punchline from Leona Lewis. By the time of the final encore, a brilliant version of Horn's "Video Killed the Radio Star", the headlines were already written: Robbie's back, and not before time. If we're prepared to give it the chance it deserves, the album will be a huge hit (I've heard it; it's terrific) and The X Factor fiasco and attendant rubbishing won't even be a footnote. http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/gq-daily-news...roundhouse.aspx

Not very well located <_< better dance charts http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a356/Gagata/discoteca_21.gif Thanks again Ben ;)

iTunes Germany (03-04-2009) single #16 http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/7330/single16.jpg album #4 http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9863/album4g.jpg Dance single #1 #9#14 http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/8324/dance1o.jpg Dance album #1 http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9439/dancealbum1.jpg iTunes

New Song: "Close your eyes" Written by: Administrator Friday 13 March 2009 at 10:16 clock Robbie Williams published on 27.03.2009 in Germany, a new song: Close My Eyes The song is a Koloboration with Dutch DJ Sander van Doorn. The song has already been published in Holland and then climbed into the top 10 Charts. We are curious where the song will land in Germany. The new video for the song you'll find on YouTube: (google translation) Thanks for alerting Fans Supreme: fans-supreme Close My Eyes - Sander Van Doorn & Robbie Williams iTunes of Germany 02-04-2009 Album #10 http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/350/listaalemania2.jpg Dance # 3/9/14 http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/6646/listaalemania.jpg Single #23 http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/6716/listaelemania1.jpg iTunes

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/313/cr2009.jpg Robbie Williams and Catherine Tate Provide Comic Relief! 10th March 2009 Get ready for the best Comic Relief night of TV you’ve ever seen this Friday night! The fantastic line-up has just got even better now that David Walliams and Matt Lucas are coming back to our shores with two exclusive Little Britain sketches for the big TV show. The Little Britain duo will be joined by the sensational pop star, Robbie Williams and comedy genius, Catherine Tate for a perfect comedy collaboration! In the Uber Carol sketch, the credit crunch comes to Little Britain - and Carol (David Walliams) is summoned to her boss Dawn’s (Catherine Tate) office. Will Carol keep her job or will Dawn’s computer evaluation of her skills lead to the immortal line “Computer says no”? And the second sketch will see Ellie Grace (Matt Lucas) get her friend Candy Marie-Candy (Robbie Williams) to sleepover. Whilst Mom (David Walliams) is cooking breakfast they begin to play a game of ‘I love you more…’ with some interesting results! On filming the sketch, Robbie said, ‘It’s hard to say no when asked to take part in a Little Britain sketch for Comic Relief. But I have to admit that dressing up as a small American child in a pretty dress made it all the more appealing!’ These two brilliant sketches will form just part of a whole night of comedy gold in a one-off extravaganza of top telly treats on Comic Relief – Funny for Money, this Friday on BBC One from 7pm. Make sure you tune in! rednoseday.com

:) http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/6116/golf1.jpg 'Robbie to return for Comic Relief' Thursday, March 5, 2009 Robbie Williams is poised to make his long-awaited return to the limelight for Comic relief next week. The fallen Take That singer will reportedly team up with Little Britain stars Matt Lucas, David Walliams and Catherine Tate for a Little Britain USA comedy gig. It will be the first public appearance Williams has made since leaving LA and moving into his Wiltshire mansion earlier this year. metro.co.uk Another article much the same... nowmagazine.co.uk gigwise.com/news