Today is Valentines Day which means, yesterday was the birthday of pop superstar, Robert Peter Williams, better known as Robbie Williams. I've loved Robbie since the 90s in the truest 'fan girl' manner! He was/is one of the biggest english popstars ever to emerge from the UK since the Beatles. He's known in most countries around the globe, except in the USA. I'm writing this to give a shout out to a new film released in the USA on January 10, 2025 called Better Man. (Released a little earlier in the UK.)
When Better Man opened in the cinemas in the USA...of course I was first in the queue to see it at my local cinema! I thought there would be a crowd so I arrived early before my friend, and much to my surprise there was no one else queueing for a ticket for this film apart from me! In fact we were alone in the theatre until the film began!!! By the time the movie started there were 6 people, including us in the entire cinema! After the movie I asked the others what they thought, and why they came to see this film and they all said they wanted to go to a movie, any movie and the one with the monkey looked like it may be entertaining. None of them knew who Robbie was or anything about the Robbie Mania that happened around the globe, that I lived through in the UK. They all did enjoy the film though, so there's that. I on the other hand LOVED it! Probably because I lived it too!
Apart from this new film, a little info about Robbie Williams and the Robbie Mania that hit around the globe...Robbie got his start in 1990 in a British boy band called, "Take That" in the UK at 16 years old. Robbie was the youngest member of the group. And for me, he was the stand out - by a mile! Take That climbed the charts in the 90s. Even though they had great success in the UK, they had personal differences and by 1995 Robbie split from the band. By 1997 Robbie Williams had his first solo album, Life thru a Lens. This album is one of my personal favourite Robbie Williams' albums. Angels was the fourth song on this album released as a single and it reached number four on the UK Charts and spent 27 weeks there. It was one of the best selling singles of the year. And the news on the street at the time (and years later) is that it should've been a number one. Jessica Simpson released it in the USA later and Americans thought it was her song. But of course it was not. Robbie wrote the lyrics, and his writing partner Guy Chambers wrote the music. In 2009 it sold over a million copies in the UK and was voted as the best song of the past 25 years at the Brit Awards. Angels was the song that propelled him to super stardom and it just got better from there. Take That subsided in popularity and Robbie took hold in a giant way. By the end of the 90s, the UK was in full Robbie Mania! He's had 14 number one albums, 18 Brit Awards and he's worth about £150 million. And the rest as they say....is history!
By the end of the 90s Robbie was deeply in addiction and needed to have an intervention if he would survive. So in 1997 Elton John was Robbies' intervention. Elton John drove him to a clinic after watching him use heroin, cocaine, and ecstasy. Williams said he was "sandwiched by two people in the back of the car" to prevent him from trying to run away or commit suicide. Elton John has been sober for 39 years and talks about it openly.
Since their getting sober, both Elton and Robbie talk about how grateful they are each and every day for their recovery. And to this day, they are both living their lives clean and sober.
In 2003 my daughter and I attended Robbies' Knebworth, England concert (she was 11 at the time). It was epic! And the following week we flew to Milan, Italy to see him again, but in a smaller venue. The Knebworth shows (3 total) were over one weekend and sold 375 tickets in record time that landed him a Guiness World Record for the most concert tickets sold in shortest time. 125,000 attendees per day over three days. It was truly the height of 'Robbie Mania' in most parts of the world, especially in the UK. At that time I was living in the UK and there were "I❤️Robbie" bedding, mugs, tees, PJs, phones, plates, everything you can think of there was "I❤️Robbie" merch or with the 'RW' logo to purchase. It looked like what Beatlemania may have been but instead of the fab four it was everything "I❤️Robbie"!
Since the Robbie Mania, times have changed and Robbie is in his fifties with three children and an American actress wife, Ayda. He married Ayda Fields on August 7 (my birthday), in 2010. They live in LA where he is free to go outside, grab a coffee, go to a restaurant or simply take his dogs for a walk without being malled or followed by fans. He lives in a place where no one recognizes him. And he's living a somewhat normal life for a super star.
As for me...I was a Robbie fan, not only back in the 90s and early 2000's but I am to this day. And in 2019 I went to Las Vegas to see him play live, two shows at the less than 1500 seat capacity, Encore Theatre at the Wynn Hotel. A lot different than being amongst the 125,000 strong audience! He played in Vegas for 10 nights in June of 2019. This and a stint in Pittsburgh are the only times I am aware of him playing live in America. During those Vegas shows he made mention that no one knows of him here in the U.S. so 'tell your friends'. Most of the audience was made up of foreigners that knew how big he was/is in their country. The person I went with also did not know of him but came along for the ride, as I was so excited to see these shows. He seemed to enjoy the performances as well...but of course no where near the level of appreciation that I was at!
The film, Better Man was great. For me, the super fan as well as the friend I went with. She didn't know who Robbie was but she seemed to enjoy it too. If you are looking to go to a movie, I suggest checking it out. It depicts Robbies rise to the top but in a slightly different than usual form - as a monkey. Apparently the producer asked Robbie before making the film, how he sees himself and he said as a monkey... so much to his surprise, they made him a monkey throughout the entire movie. Although it did resemble him, especially his eyes, I do wish they would've at least shown Robbie as Robbie the human in the last scene, from his Royal Albert Hall shows. The American audience may have connected the dots a bit better. So that's why Robbie is portrayed as a chimp in the film. I knew about the monkey going in, from my British friends who told me Robbie's a monkey in it, but my American friend that I went with, Thea, said that she would've liked the explaination prior to seeing the movie. So there you have it.
Here are a few affiliate links to get Robbies music, movie and book: Better Man Soundtrack - https://amzn.to/4b24C1K
Life Thru a Lens - https://amzn.to/4gIX3hy Robbie Williams Greatest Hits - https://amzn.to/4hXM2Ky
Somebody Someday Robbie Williams Hardcover -https://amzn.to/3QmCDAp Better Man Movie - https://amzn.to/43fYzoD
The following are the few photos that we shot at the Vegas shows from our seats in the audience with our phones. I would've loved to photograph the shows but as it was a 'Vegas show' and not a typical 'gig', there were no photographers allowed, only audience members with personal mobile phones.
© Photo credit: Cheryl Alterman and Mike Starkey 2019
Comments