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Robbie Williams · S2 E5
Glastonbury
June 24, 1995: the night everything fell apart
Worthy Farm, Somerset, June 23, 1995. Robbie Williams arrives at Glastonbury with a flute of champagne in one hand and a pocket full of cocaine, ready to burn down everything he has ever known.
Oasis, Live Forever (1994). The band Robbie crossed a cultural frontline to party with at Glastonbury 1995. By Saturday morning, the boy band kid from Stoke was in their dressing room, and his old life was over.
Enemy Territory
In 1995, British music is a tribal war. Oasis and Blur own the indie side. Take That own the pop side. For a boy band member to show up at Glastonbury is, in Robbie's words, "like Putin turning up in Westminster."
“I set off with a flute full of champagne and a pocket full of cocaine, ready to get insane in the membrane, and I went to Glastonbury to begin what I didn't know was to be the start of my new life.”
— Robbie Williams, The O2 London, October 2022
TAP TO REVEAL: How much money did Robbie Williams lose by leaving Take That?
The Ultimatum
Three weeks later, the band sits Robbie down in the rehearsal room. Gary, Jason, and management deliver the ultimatum: commit to the tour, or leave now. He walks out, forfeiting approximately one million pounds.
Never Forget -- Take That
Released July 1995, the same month Robbie left. Went straight to number one. The lyrics say it all: "Never forget where you're coming from." The four remaining members sang it without him.
Glastonbury 1995
Who headlined the Saturday night at Glastonbury 1995 after The Stone Roses pulled out?
Robbie Williams is free. He is also unemployed, addicted, broke, and the most hated man in pop music. The boy band years are over. But before we leave them behind, there are three stories left to tell.
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