Robbie Williams Biography
The following biography
is from
Wikipedia.org
“The
Free Encyclopedia.”
Robbie Williams (born Robert Peter Williams
on 13 February 1974 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) is a pop singer
from the United Kingdom. His full name, Robert Peter Maximilian
Williams, is actually not his birthname. Robbie added Maximillian
because he thought it sounded well.
****
Biography
Take That
Williams' early pop career started with the
hit boy band Take That. The band was formed in 1990 and proved to be
highly successful, with 8 United Kingdom Number 1 singles to their
credit. Their popularity led to a succession of similar bands in the
United Kingdom.
However, it has since been suggested that
Williams' roguish qualities meant that he didn't fit into the band, and
he frequently battled with his fellow band members and his management.
He left the band in 1995. After leaving the band, the final Take That
album Nobody Else was re-issued in some markets excluding songs where
Robbie Williams' was the lead vocalist. The final Take That single How
Deep is Your Love is the only one that didn't feature Robbie.
In November 2005, ITV1 screened a
documentary on Take That, including the reasons behind Williams'
departure, including interviews with Williams and his former fellow band
members. Robbie Williams declined the offer to reunite with the band,
but spoke to them via a pre recorded video message.
Take That, reformed without Williams and
due to tour in early to mid 2006 have extended an open invitation for
Williams to join them on stage if he wishes to. Williams has apparently
given the reformation his blessing.
Solo career
After Take That
After leaving Take That, Williams immersed
himself in the pop lifestyle. This included an affected swagger and an
infamous appearance during Oasis's headlining set at Glastonbury in
1995.
This led to a highly publicised battle with
drug and alcohol addiction, during which he put on nearly 40 pounds (18
kg) and was often seen in public poorly dressed, dirty and unshaven.
At the time, the British media speculated
that Williams would not be a success as a solo singer.
Life Thru A Lens
By 1996 Williams was ready to launch his
solo career proper. His first single, Freedom '90 (a cover of the
popular 1990 George Michael tune) was released in August 1996. After a
period in a drug rehabilitation clinic, this was followed up by Old
Before I Die in 1997.
Both singles reached number 2 in the United
Kingdom charts and were considered successful. He then released the
singles Lazy Days (Number 8) and South Of The Border (Number 14), but
they were only moderately successful due to their poor chart positions.
This led to his first solo album, Life Thru A Lens, later that year.
Angels
The next single from Life Thru A Lens was
"Angels", released in December 1997. The song's popularity propelled the
album to number 1 on the album charts, 28 weeks after the album was
first released. The 'ballad'-style song, and has proved to be his most
popular to date, although it never reached the top of the UK Singles
Chart, peaking at number 4.
"Angels" was voted best song of the last 25
years by BBC Radio 2 listeners, and received a special award at the 25th
Brit Awards ceremony, held at Earls Court, London, in February 2005.
Williams quickly became a celebrity in the
UK with a number of other top ten singles, which would typically gather
only minor interest in the USA.
Millennium, built around a sample of the
James Bond theme You Only Live Twice, was a United Kingdom #1 hit in
late 1998, but only peaked at #72 in America.
I've Been Expecting You
His second album, I've Been Expecting You,
continued in the James Bond/spy theme and topped the UK charts in
October 1998.It remains Robbie's best selling album in the UK selling
over 2.7 million copies. In 1999 he collaborated with singer Tom Jones
of the Lenny Kravitz song, "Are You Gonna Go My Way?" on the album
Reload, which they also performed together at the Brit Awards.
Sing When You're Winning
Williams' next album, Sing When You're
Winning, was released in 2000. The album contained the controversial
single Rock DJ, which reached number 1 in the UK charts and was a minor
hit in the United States.
Some controversy surrounded the single's
accompanying music video, which featured Williams in a roller disco
surrounded by ravenous female fans. In the video, Williams strips nude
for the fans, then (using CGI technology) he is shown 'stripping off'
his skin, muscle tissue and organs and feeding them to the female
dancers. The video ends with Williams, now nothing but a skeleton, still
dancing to the music.
The video was nominated for an MTV Video
Music Award, but the combination of nudity and violence led to a
negative public reaction, which has been cited as temporarily ending his
career's momentum in the US.
It is said that the frontal nudity was
edited out in the US while the gore was left in, while the opposite was
true for the UK. Even after the editing, the video's ending was cut by
many TV stations around the world, and in some countries the whole video
was banned (VH1 Europe made their own video for the song out of
recording studio footage). Williams has since built a reputation for
appearing nude (or nearly nude) in photographs, videos and live
performances.
Swing When You're Winning
In 2001, Williams released an album of
cover songs from the 1950s and 1960s. The album, Swing When You're
Winning, contained jazz, blues and pop standards such as "Ain't That A
Kick In The Head" and "Mack The Knife". It also included a duet with
Nicole Kidman, hot off the Oscar-nominated success of her movie musical
Moulin Rouge! (2001), singing a cover of the Frank and Nancy Sinatra
classic "Something Stupid". This track became the Christmas #1 single in
the UK that year.
Williams performed at the Royal Albert Hall
on 10 October 2001, and filmed it for both a BBC television special and
a DVD later released as Robbie Williams Live at the Albert which also
included the documentary Well Swung revealing behind the scenes of the
making of the album.
Earlier that year, he signed a music
publishing deal with BMG Music Publishing. His song catalogue continues
to be published by BMG.
Williams' cover of the Bobby Darin classic
Beyond the Sea was later included in the soundtrack of the film Finding
Nemo (2003).
Escapology
In 2002, Williams briefly stopped working
with his long-term writing partner Guy Chambers, but they reunited six
months later to work on the next album, Escapology. The album was
released in November 2002; its cover art depicts Williams dangling from
a crane in bare feet.
The album received mixed reviews. Its first
single, "Feel", was a successful European hit, accompanied by a black
and white music video featuring actress Darryl Hannah. The video for the
next single, "Come Undone", was heavily censored by MTV Networks Europe
for depicting a debauched (but fully-clothed) Williams having three-way
sex with two women. The video also showed unsettling images of insects
and reptiles.
Despite the album's pop-based sound,
Escapology did nothing to improve Williams' reputation in the US and
Canada, where he was still largely unrecognized. Amidst the poor reviews
and the controversy surrounding the music videos, it was confirmed that
Williams and Guy Chambers were to part ways permanently.
Intensive Care
Three years later, Williams released
Intensive Care, an album co-written with ex-Lilac Time member Stephen
Duffy in Williams' bedroom-cum-studio. The album's lyrics are popularly
interpreted as Williams taking stock of his life. It features designs
for a set of tarot cards by comic book creators Grant Morrison and Frank
Quitely. Morrison and Williams became friends after Williams attended
one of Morrison's talks in Los Angeles.
The album was released in a
highly-publicized worldwide launch on 9 October 2005. Williams launched
the album from Berlin, Germany, which was broadcast live to cinemas and
theatres around the world in a high-definition "cine-cast". It was also
shown on 22 October 2005 on Channel 4. During the album launch, Williams
declared himself the new "King of Pop", a title that once belonged to
Michael Jackson but had fallen out of use after his declining popularity
and criminal trial.
Williams had initially announced that the
album would not be released in North America, but popular demand led to
its release on iTunes in the US and the UK. The album was released
domestically in Canada. Williams said of his continued low popularity in
the US, "I think the way for me to win America's heart is to perform,
and if I was really concerned about breaking big [in the US] then
there'd be a tour." Williams later indicated that he would neither
release his album in the States nor tour there, claiming he has
everything he wants without doing this.
Williams has said that [[Intensive Care (album}|Intensive
Care]] is his best work yet. It reached the number 1 spot on the UK
charts for one week and sold an incredible 373,000 copies in its first
week, and made the top spot in 18 other countries as well. It is the
third best selling album in the UK in 2005 selling 1.5 million.
Worldwide sales are currently approaching 6 million making it Williams'
fastest selling album to date. "Tripping", the first single from the
album, reached number 2 in the UK chart. The second single was a
promotional single released only to New Zealand named "Make Me Pure".
The third single was an Elvis tribute called "Advertising Space",
reaching Number 8.
Williams is set to release a 4th and
penultimate single from Intensive Care. Uptempo "Sin Sin Sin" will be
released on May 22; the video was shot in South Africa.
The final single from Intensive Care is to
be a double A side of "Ghosts" and "A Place To Crash" and will be
released August 7th.
Recent career
In 2002, the UK public voted Williams to be
on the BBC's list of the 100 Greatest Britons (at number 77). He was
also voted 17th in Channel 4's 100 Worst Britons poll.
A best-selling official biography written
by Chris Heath, Feel, was published in 2004. It chronicled events that
led up to the "Live Summer Tour 2003", during which Williams performed
live to more than a 375,000 people over three nights in August 2003 at
Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire; this has become known as the biggest UK
pop concert ever.
Former Take That band member Mark Owen
appeared with Williams on the third day, while 3.5 million more watched
live on television and on the Internet. Leading up to Knebworth, in
December 2003, Williams toured Australia and New Zealand alongside Duran
Duran.
Since his split with songwriter Guy
Chambers, Williams has faced some questions about his own songwriting
abilities. Armed with a new writing partner, Stephen Duffy, Williams has
penned several new songs, including the UK number 1 hit "Radio" and the
more reflective "Misunderstood".
Both tunes are taken from Williams'
19-track "Greatest Hits" album, released in October 2004. In February
2005, Williams received the British music industry's award for the best
song of the past quarter century, "Angels", the song Williams credits
with giving him a solo career.
Williams also performed at the Live 8
concert in London, 2005, where he was acknowledged as one of the stars
of the show. An amusing incident occurred when he asked the crowd to
sing along with his hit song 'Feel', which many in the crowd in Hyde
Park were not familiar with. He jokingly covered it up and got a
well-received laugh from the incident. During his set, the crowd chanted
along with Queen's "We Will Rock You".
Williams' sixth and latest album Intensive
Care only remained a number one in the British charts, before being
overtaken by the new Westlife album Face to Face.
Robbie Williams claimed the title of
Britain's biggest-selling pop act of the still-very-young 21st century,
selling 6.3 million albums since 2000, narrowly beating Coldplay to the
top rank. He also set a world record, as defined by the Guinness Book of
Records, by selling over 1.6 million tickets for his 2006 world tour in
one day on 19 November 2005, beating a previous mark of 1 million
tickets set by 'N Sync in 2000.
Robbie Williams recently came under fire
from Popstars: The Rivals judge Louis Walsh, who reckons he wouldn't
have got through the show's auditions. Louis described the former
boyband star as a "jumped-up karaoke singer".
Williams is about to embark on his record
breaking five month world tour which kicks off in April in South Africa.
He is set to releases a third single from Intensive Care. Uptempo "Sin
Sin Sin" will be released on 21 May 2006, and the video was shot in
South Africa.
Brit Awards
Williams has won more Brit Awards than any
other artist in history. He has performed live at several ceremonies,
including a 2005 duet with Joss Stone.
1993: Best British Single - "Could it be
Magic" (Take That)
1994: Best British Single - "Pray" (Take
That); Best British Video - "Pray" (Take That)
1996: Best British Single - "Back for Good"
(Take That)
1999: Best British Male Solo Artist; Best
British Single - "Angels"; Best British Video - "Millenium"
2000: Best British Video - "She's the One";
Best British Single - "She's the One"
2001: Best Male Solo Artist; Best British
Single - "Rock DJ"; Best British Video - "Rock DJ"
2002: Best Male Solo Artist
2003: Best Male Solo Artist
2005: Best British Song of the Past 25
Years - "Angels"
Lifestyle
Williams has left the UK and now lives in
Los Angeles, California. He remains single. Speculation about his
romantic life is rampant in the British media. Williams likes to
encourage an image as a smooth womanizer and there are numerous
widely-circulated Internet accounts, allegedly written by Williams'
female sexual partners, claiming his considerable prowess as a lover. He
regularly plucks female fans from the audience of his live performances
and French kisses them on stage.
Williams, a self-confessed attention
seeker, has garnered a reputation for pushing the envelope in regards to
male nudity. Though it is quite common for female celebrities to appear
scantily clad in photographs (and in fact often expected of them), this
is far less common for men. Williams' tendency to pose provocatively has
gone from somewhat light-hearted "mooning" and "pants-down" photos early
in his career to more sexually explicit content.
In 2004 the German website set up by his
record label to promote his music posted an allegedly nude photograph of
Williams with his crotch area blurred out. They promised that if one
million people clicked on the photo they would unblur the area and
reveal the nudity. Once unblurred it was revealed that Williams was in
fact holding some sort of phallus in front of his actual genitals so
that they could not be seen; 24 hours later even this was covered by a
miniature cut-out of his album cover.
Subsequently Williams has stated in a
variety of press interviews that he considers himself to be a
naturist/nudist at heart, jokingly commenting that he will "end up being
one of those dads who embarrasses" his children. In late 2005 a campaign
called "Get More" was launched by William's label to promote his album
Intensive Care. A video at the website featured thirty seconds of
various camera close-ups of William's nude body, culminating in a four
second full body shot where he was frontally nude and fondling his
penis. This was virtually the first time nudity was so blatantly
incorporated in an advertising campaign for a pop singer.
Williams, now aged 32, has had mental
health problems throughout his career, most notably his struggle with
depression, insecurity and self-loathing. He has been clean from drugs
and alcohol for over 5 years. In his fly-on-the-wall documentary Nobody
Someday (2001) he repeatedly mocked his flamboyant but puppet like
behaviour on stage and felt that the persona and 'brand' of Robbie
Williams Popstar was a fake that he increasingly felt uncomfortable
with. In more recent documentaries he anguishes to become a credible
artist in the eyes of the serious music press.
Williams is regarded with bafflement by
some observers, who note that he seems to have achieved huge success in
the UK with only moderate looks, a mediocre singing voice and an
unimpressive musical background. His time as member of a boyband does
not seem to have hampered his cool image.
Much of Williams' success can be attributed
to his 'cheeky chappy' persona and ironic sensibility much loved by his
UK fans. Williams has said in interviews he hates performing, and
compares his style to old-school UK comedian Sir Norman Wisdom.
Yet UK fans highlight the energy and
entertainment value of his live performances as a major part of his
appeal. Others remain unconvinced by what they see as mainly hype.
Robbie ended tabloid speculation about his
sexuality by winning a libel case against MGN and Northern & Shell in
December 2005 relating to articles which had reported he was a secret
homosexual.
A report in The People, owned by MGN
Limited, in August 2004 and another in Star and Hot Stars magazines,
owned by Northern & Shell plc, in September 2004 said Mr. Williams was
about to deceive the public with the publication of a book, Feel, that
would say he only had sex with women, despite spending an entire decade
dropping unsubtle hints to the effect that he was gay.
In the libel action that resulted from
this, Williams accepted substantial damages and the publishers accepted
that the stories were untrue. His counsel, Tom Shields QC, told the
court: "Mr Williams is not, and has never been, homosexual". Feel is an
account of the performer's life told, with Mr Williams' co-operation, by
Chris Heath, who lived alongside his subject from 2002 to 2004. Gay
rights campaigner Peter Tatchell called for any damages paid out from
the libel case to be donated to gay charities, claiming Williams' legal
actions had created the impression that it is "shameful to be gay".
Williams openly admitted that he was not
bothered about being labelled gay, and he would have taken the same
action had it been about a female relationship. Williams also donated
all of the damages directly to his charity Give It Sum.
Robbie is a life long supporter of Port
Vale football club, based in his home town of Stoke on Trent, and in
February 2006, bought an undisclosed number of shares in the club. The
investment was confirmed by Port Vale chairman, Bill Bratt, who said
that "it clearly shows that he cares about Port Vale FC and its future."
After appearing and performing on the
British talk show 'Parkinson', Robbie stated he had never bought a yacht
as they were 'boring'. He did, however, own a football field.
****
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