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Robbie Williams · S3 E1
The Boy Who Couldn't Stay
How Robbie went from boy band golden child to public enemy #1
24 June 1995, Glastonbury Festival. Robbie Williams, still officially in Take That, stumbles drunkenly onto the stage during an Oasis set. Three weeks later he is out of the band, 21 years old, with barely five thousand pounds to his name.
Back for Good. The last great Take That hit featuring Robbie. Four months after this, he is officially gone.
Written Off
The British press is merciless. "He is nothing without the group." "He will be forgotten within a year." Every tabloid writes him off. Robbie is 21, unemployed, and seemingly the most hated man in British pop.
“I genuinely thought my life was over. At 21. I thought: this is it. This is what I am. A footnote in someone else's story.”
— Robbie Williams, 2019
The Meeting That Changed Everything
Early 1996. Manager Tim Clark introduces Robbie to Guy Chambers, a London songwriter who had played keyboards with The Waterboys. They begin writing together in Chambers' flat in Notting Hill. What comes out is not boy band pop.
TAP TO REVEAL: How did two nobodies outpace The Beatles?
Old Before I Die -- Robbie Williams
Robbie's debut solo single from 1997. A Britpop swagger track that proved he could stand on his own two feet. The title alone tells you everything about his mindset: reckless, defiant, and determined to burn bright before anyone could write him off for good.
Which album features "Angels"?
Angels saved Robbie's career. But how did he and Guy Chambers actually write their hits, and what was the secret ingredient that made their partnership the most explosive in British pop? Next episode, we go inside the studio.
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