Robbie Williams news from day: 1. October, 2007

Phil Hogan, September 30, 2007, The Observer

There’s still plenty of heat in the afternoon as my taxi makes the so-called ‘short’ journey up the spiralling road into the Hollywood Hills, and eventually – after countless twisting miles of Mulholland Drive – plonks me in a cloud of dust outside what I hope is Robbie Williams’s house. I say ‘hope’ because we’ve already been to two that weren’t. But, no, this is it. From the top of the path come shouts, and I see balls being hoofed around, and yellow shirts moving against the blue of the sky and the synthetic green of a five-a-side football pitch.

This is Robbie’s team – LA Vale, baptised in the name of his beloved Port Vale, the team he has followed since boyhood – loosening up for this evening’s game. It’s a fair old gathering – players, knots of friends and family relaxing, someone on crutches. It takes a moment to spot Chairman Williams, as his website calls him, sitting against the fence, in yellow, too, and wearing aviator shades as he confers with his lieutenants. I’m still queasy from the car and feeling white as a wuss amid all this tanned muscle and controlled energy. It would be a shame, after coming all this way, to announce my arrival by throwing up. Read the rest…