On his new song The Last Days of Disco, British pop singer Robbie Williams sings: “Don’t call it a comeback.” The 35-year-old says the same thing applies regarding his eighth solo album, Reality Killed The Video Star, which hits stores on Tuesday.
Williams’ previous disc, 2006’s Rudebox, featured him rapping among other things and it received lukewarm reviews.
“You’re more than welcome to call it a comeback,” said Williams during a video teleconference chat from London, England, which included Sun Media in a Canadian newspaper exclusive.
“I think it’s the script that people are taking at the moment. I haven’t been anywhere. I’ve just been away for a little bit. And U2 took five years before they released an album after the last one, and nobody called that a comeback. And George Michael releases an album every 10 years, and nobody calls him a comeback, it’s just the next album. And now I’ve gradually settled into the fact that I like the script. Yes, this is a comeback. Cue up the music. I’m here to be knocked out.”
Williams, of course, is kidding. We think.
But he’s definitely working toward regaining his vaunted position in the U.K. where, until Rudebox, he had always been a best-selling pop superstar. He has never quite broken through in North America, despite living in Los Angeles for five years. (He moved back to the U.K. earlier this year.)
Williams, who began his career in 1990 as a teenager in British boy band Take That, has sold 55 million albums worldwide as a solo artist. Some of his best-known songs are Angels, Kids, Let Me Entertain You and Millennium.
Aiding Williams behind the boards this time is noted British producer Trevor Horn (Seal, Pet Shop Boys, Yes, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, ABC), whose own band The Buggles produced the late-’70s novelty hit Video Killed The Radio Star.
“Trevor is an artist,” Williams said. “The ‘world genius’ (label) gets bandied around an awful lot, especially by me, but he genuinely is one, and he’s a grownup. The first day we met, he was like, ‘So what hours do you like to work?’ And I was like, ‘Friday.’ And he laughed and I was like, ‘No, really, I’ll come in Friday.’ And he was like, ‘Cool.’ And I think he was happy that I stayed out of the way to let him get on with it.
“The first month I was hardly there. I’d come in to do a ‘yes,’ or a ‘no’ or a nod or “I don’t know, I’m confused.’ And I don’t like studios, but the studio that he works at is very homey, and it’s buzzing. There’s a lot of things going on, and I ended up being there every day for the last month and a half. He’s like his own Google search basically. You go and ask him anything and he’ll give you the answer to it. He’s part therapist, part entertainer, full producer, and lovely mensch.”
When asked who his musical influences are, Williams said he’s a big fan of the Pet Shop Boys’ 1990 album Behavior, and he’ll “probably be trying to make Behavior for the next 20 years.
“I haven’t thought any of my albums were perfect. I’m striving to get a perfect pop album. I probably never will. Might have already done one and not know. As somebody that’s creative, I don’t think you’re ever happy with what you’ve done. I think if you were, you might just stop, and I’m not planning on stopping just yet.”
Williams moved into a multi-million-dollar English country estate near Wiltshire earlier this year with his girlfriend of three years, American actress Ayda Field (Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip).
He said the move back to England was motivated by several things, although the British press have recently been reporting he now wants to sell the Wiltshire mansion and move back to the U.S. before Christmas.
“It feels great,” said Williams a couple of months ago at the time of this interview. “In Los Angeles, sometimes you miss a bit of depth and a bit of soul because it’s such a transient place. People are coming and going. And nobody seems to be from there, and they all come in to make this thing happen in this town that’s unreal. I was missing a little bit of soul. And I’ve got my girlfriend and I was going to drag her back, caveman style, so our kids grow up with an English accent. That’s what we decided to do, and then we got here and the weather started happening and I’m not a big fan of that — so I’m having the best of both worlds. I’m having a bit of soul and a bit of sun.”
Just don’t expect Williams to tour in support of Reality Killed The Video Star, especially after he experienced a bout of stage fright during his last tour in 2006.
A badly reviewed performance on the British talent show The X-Factor last month was even described by him as “a deer in headlights” moment, although he followed that up with a much better received appearance on BBC’s Electric Proms series.
“It’s a bit baby steps for me back at the moment,” he said. “As I get older, the fear gets stronger. It happens to an awful lot of people. It’s not just me, I’m reliably informed. But it’s one thing to put the album out and go promote it and give it the best send-off that it can get, but it’s another to book a big tour and get caught half the way through it and go, ‘This is overwhelming.’ ’Cause it’s just me, and then there’s an awful lot of people in front of you. Some evenings it’s like 80,000 people (and it doesn’t bother you), and then some evenings it’s like, ‘F---ing hell, it’s 80,000 people.’”
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