The reasons for Robbie Williams leaving boy band
Take That may be unclear- was he pushed or did he jump? - but he is determined
to make it as a soloist, writes Mansha Daswani
Court cases, drug addiction and scorned women are
normally not associated with a teenage pop icon. About two years ago, Robbie
Williams went to a music festival and simultaneously changed the course
of his life, and his image as the boy a girl could bring home to meet
daddy. On that much-talked-about day in July 1995, Williams
- his dark brown hair newly bleached blond and driving a black Jaguar
- attended the Glastonbury Music Festival. On his trip to meet his
hero, Liam Gallagher of Oasis, Williams was spotted drinking and smoking.
Fairly average for young British men. But with his behaviour, Williams gave
the tabloids plenty to pontificate about and he lost his job a few days
later, on July 18 Williams has committed a cardinal sin: he has tarnished
the impeccable image of squeaky clean boy group Take That.
His days with Take That are long gone and he wants
to keep it that way. "That was all two and a half years ago. If you want
to know how I feel about Take That, read the press clippings and take a quote
from there," he said during a recent phone interview from London.
Why the hostility? Apparently the cameraderie between the British
pop machine's five members and their manager Nigel Martin-Smith as depicted
in the press was a facade.Underlying the 'boys next door' image
were issues of control and resentment that would lead Williams to the alleged
intemperance at the infamous Glastonbury festival.
For Williams, who joined the group at 16, the Take That atmosphere was<
stifling and repressive. In interviews conducted shortly after his departure
from the hit machine, the band's youngest and most popular member spoke
of his discontent with the lack of personal freedom, which he voiced in
his 1996 remake of George Michael's Freedom 90. But he then overdosed on that
freedom - and plummeted into the very un-Take That world of drug and alcohol
abuse. Even earlier this year, Williams was still enmeshed in his self-destructive
behaviour. "I think I'm going to die before I'm 30," Williams, 23, said in an
interview in July with London's Sunday Mirror.
Williams is now on the wagon and his debut solo album will be released at
the end of the month. Now that he is cleaning up his obnoxious image, he
claims to be much happier.
"I'm doing very well. I have learned not to take all of this too
seriously or too personally," he says."I value other people's opinions if it
can help me, but I'm really only concerned with what I think about myself."
The debut, Life Through A Lens, is very much a pop affair with only a few
hints of the rock music many expected Williams to turn to. His musical influences
- ranging from hip - hop to Radiohead - are faint on the album. What is present,
however, is Williams making a statement about his life. " Why Life Through A
Lens? My life since the age of 16 has been in the public eye. All my experiences
have been in the public, so the name seemed appropriate."
Written in seven days, the lyrics in particular reflect this young star's
personal tribulations. There is the futility in Old Before I Die: "I hope
I'm old / before I die / I hope I live to relive the days gone by / But
tonight I'm gonna / live for today / so come along for the ride," and the
strangely disturbing Clean reflecting the singer's drug and alcohol rehabilitation. So is this album a form of therapy?
"It's just songwriting. It's the only way I know how. I would not really describe
it as anything. It is just an album of pop songs. Pop music is accessible to
people. You instantly get it, it's melodic. That's why people like it. "Therapeutic
or not, this is an album Williams has defined for himself and despite being a
pop album, thankfully lacks the saccharine love songs Take That used to churn
out.
All the drama is not quite over: Williams is being sued by former manager
Mr Martin-Smith for 78,000 pounds in royalties, advances and cuts from his
earnings till 2006. He claims he was forced out of Take That by the manager
and other band members. Mr Martin-Smith, who formed and managed the band, claims
Williams would show up at rehersals hung over and that he had become increasingly
difficult to work with. Mr Martin-Smith also asserts Williams walked out on his
contract. And then there is the matter of a supposed on -going rivalry between
Williams and former co-member Gary Barlow. On a recent trip to Hong Kong, Barlow
claimed he was proud of his ex - partner's success and still retained fond memories
of the now-defunct group's past. Williams is not so enthusiastic. "It's inevitably
written that someone is bound to be screwed financially or metally the way I
was," Williams says. "All young people in the industry think that being famous
makes them somebody. Things go wrong when you realise you are famous but you
aren't somebody. You've got what you always wanted, and now what?"
Since Take That's mammth success - they sold more than 10 million records worldwide
-there has been a British explosion of teeny-bopper boy groups. Williams is not
proud of this trend but admits the boy-band market is an important one.! "As
long as somebody is happy, they're serving a purpose. Boy bands were >never
meant to change the world, or change the face of music; they are there for people
to enjoy. People enjoy being entertained by them. People critise boy bands
when they're looking for talent, the talent is the entertainment. It doesn't
matter that I don't think they're any good."
Williams sounds incredibly jaded. His years in the limelight, despite the
enormous worldwide success of Take That, appear to have worn him down. He is
blase about his fans and completely unconcerned that what has happened to him
could happen to others. "The system is that no matter what you say, some mistakes
will be made. I don't want to give anyone advice, I won't give advance, because
mistakes will be made."
It is not all negative: this Stoke-on-Trent native who failed his GCSEs knows
that if it were not for Take That, he would not have been a teen millionaire.
"I've travelled the world, I always wanted to be famous, a pop star, an actor,
whatever ... I live a very comfortable life, I've met loads of very interesting
people, and I've met my heroes, so it wasn't all bad."
So what does the future hold for this pin-up boy?
"As a young man, I've spent a lot of my time projecting into the future. Right
now I'm more interested in today. I have interviews today. I'm watching the the
video we just recorded, I'm just happy with today. I don't want to say where
I will be in two years or five years, I might let myself down," he says.
What the future does hold though is a happier Robbie Williams. The young man
who went from being the Take That fan-and-media favourite to sullen and obnoxious
appears to be returning to his cheeky self. "I was going to call the album The
Show-Off Must Go On, but I got bored with that."