Name - Robbie Williams
Released - 2023
Director- Joe Pearlman
Recently released on Netflix is a new docuseries showing apparently for the first time behind the scenes Robbie Williams. I have watched previous documentaries like Beckham and thought this one might be worth a watch as my wife was watching anyway.
It is produced from the Ridley Scott Associates which made me think Ridley Scott at first, but it isn't by him, himself! lol There are 4 episodes in total and it shows some unseen footage (by me at least) of a young Robbie from joining Take That through to his solo career and now in his twilight.
He is only a little older than me, so it feels as though I have accompanied him through his career although that is quite absurd. I wouldn't say I have been a Robbie fan or anything, but have been aware of him.
I know that Robbie was from Manchester and a working-class lad who started his career in Take That, who were for me an awful but successful boy band outfit on a par with the Spice Girls at the time.
I think they were the British equivilant of Backstreet Boys but less polished and refined. In the documentary, Robbie comes across as a likeable lad and it didn't cover anything new or say to much about his joining the band and breakup. It looks like it was more some disputes with Gary though by the looks of it.
Once Robbie broke up with the band, the documentary becomes more interesting and charts some of the work Robbie did to build his solo career and some of the highs and lows. He also has an obsession with the British Tabloids and what they might write about him. They apparently have alot of power and influence to popstars and wannabe celebs.
I wasn't aware at the time about his close friendship with Guy Chambers and it seems really his solo career should be the Guy and Robbie show. It seems as though they became close friends whilst producing some interesting pop tunes.
One thing with Robbie is that he at least was always singing his own songs and not miming that seems quite popular among singers and that he has a good stage presence. But, yeah, he didn't seem so interested in learning any instruments or anything in his musical career, he left that up to Guy by the looks of it.
Ginger Spice source
There were some interesting scenes where he was dating and one of them was Gerri Halliwell who was Ginger Spice from the Spice Girls. I have to say, she comes across here as a lovely person and I have also watched her with her current husband in the F1 documentary and she also came across a a down to earth person and somehow very calming.
Things were going quite well for Robbie working with Guy, but then they had their breakup and Robbie wanted to move on. However, he got some new producers in to help him but his new material seemed pretty bad and not well received and this started the downward spiral of his career.
The documentary seems to portray him feeling stressed and struggling with the fame and performing in front of the fans, but doesn't really provide real evidence of that. Apart from having binges in alcohol and cocaine, Robbie seems to have mostly kept himself clean.
When things don't start working out, he then re-unites with Take That for another tour and says he could have earned more touring alone, but wanted to go with the boys. Hmm I don't think so! haha They were all reunited for the money Robbie.
Gary was looking in not too bad shape, but Howard and Mark look like they had been hitting the party scene pretty hard. It is also hard to take them seriously as an artist with their boyband background.
I remember this tour vividly as they played at Croke Park in Dublin and I was living overlooking Croker at the time and it was an awful weekend listening to their dreary boyband crap at the time. My wife was loving it though.
There was an interesting part about when and how he met his wife. Ironically, she said that Robbie was drunk and vomitting after taking cocaine and she somehow felt attached to him and they connected that night after talking. I can only guess she must have also been high as a kite too as I couldn't imagine meeting a drunk vomitting coke-head would be attractive to anybody normally. Perhaps she was just star-struck and kissing someone with a vomit-mouth was not so bad an ordeal.
The documentary seems to end abruptly though and not cover the end of his career or the last 10 years or so which I thought was strange. I think he has faded away and became not relevant. There hasn't been any good tunes or big hits for a long time, which makes you wonder if Guy was more the talent behind the duo, although Robbie did deliver well.
One thing that did weird me out abit was Robbie doing the documentary in a vest and his boxer shorts sitting mostly on his bed. I was thinking, put some clothes on dude, I don't want to see your hairy legs. Other than that, it was a pretty good series and worth watching.
Thanks for reading.
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