There was a moment recently when Robbie Williams
graduated from being merely and infamous former teen star with a successful
solo and a brace of hit singles under his belt into a genuine bona fide pop
icon. You can pin-point the actual instant the nation took him conclusively
to their hearts because it happened at this year's Glastonbury festival in
front of the biggest Pyramid stage ever assembled.
And as Robbie launched into 'Let Me Entertain
You' he managed to unite the most disparate of audience with one rather old
fashioned conceit: classic pop showmanship. It was here that Robbie
proved himself to be this country's supreme pop performer.
Finally, publicly, Robbie had managed to
lay to rest his turbulent rollercoaster past. Take That, booze, drugs, rehab,
celebrity shags and a catalogue of lurid tabloid headlines - Robbie
made all this irrelevant by displaying a deeper understanding of the pure
adrenaline rush that only the most brilliant pop music can produce - of course,
Robbie says that he's known all along that he had it in himself to
be a world class performer. It just took a while for the rest of us to catch
up.
"I'm an old fashioned entertainer," he says. "
There's nobody else around like me. And I'm serious when I say let me entertain
you - I'm not joking - let me do it - and I guarantee you'll have a fantastic
time."
More than a year later his debut solo album, 'Life
Thru A Lens' became the sleeper hit of the year. Over coming its slow start
it has almost reached quadruple platinum status and continues to sell strongly.
The turning point was 'Angels', the single which tipped the album from
respectable into stratospheric sales.
All he had to do next was do it all again.