Robbie Williams News: Records

He was criticised, laughed at and flat out told that white boys from Stoke shouldn’t rap. Now Robbie Williams is having the last laugh. Rudebox, the song that saw Williams panned by critics, has been nominated for an Ivor Novello songwriting award. Released last year, Rudebox was a new sound for the singer and it went down like a lead balloon. Not only was the single roasted, the album Rudebox failed to sell as expected and was named the worst album of the year at the NME Awards.

Recently out of rehab, Williams will no doubt be pleased to hear of his nomination in the International Hit of the Year category. He is up against Madonna and her single Sorry and the Scissor Sisters’ hit I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’. Other nominations for the songwriting and composing awards include Amy Winehouse for Rehab and Arctic Monkeys for When the Sun Goes Down. Casino Royale has been nominated for Best Original Film Score. The awards will be held at The Grosvenor House hotel in central London on May 24.

V. Schmidt / timesonline.co.uk

He’s currently in rehab in Arizona making a concerted effort to battle his demons, but that hasn’t stopped NME readers giving Robbie a kicking while he’s down by awarding Rudebox worst Album of 2006 at tonight’s NME awards.

And apparently the NME are even going as far as to courier the award over to Williams. Nice to see he has their support. A source told the Mirror “people voted in their thousands with nearly every vote directed at Robbie’s feeble offering” (though we doubt they’ve actually listened to it). The source added “never in the history of the Shockwaves NME Awards has there been such a concerted effort to get one album named the worst” well at least he has made an impression.

NME’s Conor McNicholas confirmed Robbie has been ‘popular’ among voters, saying “Readers have been clamouring to elect Robbie’s Rudebox as their Worst Album. He’s not having a good time of it.” Robbie beat the likes of The Feeling and Razorlight to win the accolade. Congratulations Rob.

musicrooms.net

Robbie Williams is to release a new swing album by the end of the summer. Executives at the singer’s record label EMI are worried after his recent Rudebox album failed to live up to expectations and divided fans. They hope that the new album will turn around Robbie’s fortunes and help him to win back his reputation. A source told the Daily Star: “Rudebox has failed to match the sales of any of Robbie’s previous albums and a lot of people are very worried. There’s a swing album in the can and the top brass want it in the shops as soon as possible. “Staff at the label have a lot of affection for Rudebox. But the public hasn’t. Everyone’s confident that another collection of swing songs will re-connect him to his fanbase.”

digitalspy.co.uk

Robbie Williams is to record a duet with a Bollywood singing legend.

Robbie will feature on a track on the new album of Indian megastar Asha Bhosle, 73. The LP is titled ‘Asha and Friends’, but it is not yet known what the name of the song is.

He is said to be very “excited” about working with the two-time Grammy Award nominee.

A source said: “Asha has already recorded her part of the song. Robbie was keen to work with her after she was nominated for a second time for a Grammy Award.”

Asha – whose career has spanned over six decades and has provided playback singing for over 925 Bollywood films – has previously collaborated with Boy George and REM frontman Michael Stipe.

In 1997, British band Cornershop paid tribute to the singer in their hit song ‘Brimful of Asha’.

In 2001, Nelly Furtado’s worldwide hit ‘I’m Like A Bird’ included a remix featuring Asha.

BANG Media International / monstersandcritics.com

Robbie Williams has gone straight to the top of the album charts with his latest album Rudebox. Former chart-toppers Killers slipped from number one to number five, with new entries from My Chemical Romance, Meat Loaf and Rod Stewart. McFly topped the singles chart with Star Girl, closely followed by Fedde le Grande’s Put Your Hands Up For Detroit. Last week’s number one My Chemical Romance’s Welcome To The Black Parade, dropped to four, behind Girls Aloud.

It is the eighth chart-topping album for the former Take That star, who is currently on tour in South America. Last month Williams, 32, called off the Asian leg of his world tour in November, citing stress and exhaustion.

news.bbc.co.uk

Your least favourite popstar’s gone electro and it’s – whisper it – good. With his Take That past coming back to haunt him, tabloids sharpening their knives and missed appearances, clearly all is not well with Williams. And yet he has claimed that this is the first musical venture where he is being himself. The stakes are extremely high. Luckily, ‘Rudebox’ is the best thing he’s ever put his name to. From a career of trying on different ill-fitting identities (CampPop Robbie, Fat Dancer Robbie, Swing Robbie, Stadium Robbie) he has finally found one that fits. Fucking about on laptops with the likes of Lily Allen and Pet Shop Boys, he has hit on a fun, frantic, pisstaking mixtape of crystalline ’80s electropop, Skinner derived rap-ups and lazy skank pop.

Lyrically, Williams has always been a very British mix of redcoat self-deprecation and zeitgeisty, chemically-enhanced moodiness, but on ‘Rudebox’ he continues this without falling into the previous pratfalls of whininess or navel-gazing. There’s the double-headed autobiography of ‘The 80s’ (currently at the centre of a legal dispute) and its follow-up ‘The 90s’, the clattering ‘Vogue’ rap in the LA tale ‘The Actor’ and ‘She’s Madonna’ – possibly his most bonkers song ever. ‘Rudebox’ is not ‘Robbie Williams the serious artiste’, but it is an amazing pop album. It remains to be seen if it will be his undoing with the mainstream and those tabloid hacks. But it seems, musically at least, he’s just getting started. And, if you leave your preconceptions at the door, you might just love it.

Priya Elan, nme.com

LONDON (Reuters) – Robbie Williams and his former bandmates from Take That go head to head later this month with the release of an album and a DVD on the same day. Williams, who has forged a successful solo career since leaving boyband Take That and who frequently makes digs at his former bandmates during gigs, is releasing his new album “Rudebox” on October 23. The album follows last year’s “Intensive Care”, which, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry trade group, was the top selling album in Europe last year and sold more than five million copies in total. Take That are releasing a DVD on the same day called “The Ultimate Tour – Live in Manchester”, which features a documentary about the build up to the band’s reunion — after splitting in 1996 — and successful return to the stage. Take That are also promoting a new album which appears on November 27 called “Beautiful World”.

Williams has asked young film-makers to make seven short films to compliment his new album and is holding a competition for the eighth film to accompany the track “The 80s”. Williams will be on the panel of judges and the winner will receive 7,500 pounds in prize money as well as possibly see the film included on a special DVD. “This is the record I’ve always wanted to make,” Williams said in a statement. It’s reignited how I think about what I can do with music myself.”

Speaking about the film competition, he added: “Just like in music, today you can create a masterpiece out of an i-book and some digital footage, as much as you can in a fancy studio.”

Williams is signed to EMI and Take That to Universal Music Group’s Polydor label.

© Reuters 2006.

Robbie Williams will release his new single ‘Lovelight’ on November 13th on Chrysalis. Taken from his highly anticipated forthcoming Rudebox album which precedes the single on October 23rd.

‘Lovelight,’ recorded with NYC based uber-producer Mark Ronson earlier this year is a spectacular cover of Lewis Taylor’s criminally unknown soul-anthem. Together they have taken it from its warm soul roots, and transform it into a building euphoric disco anthem featuring a full-on falsetto vocal performance that ranks amongst one of his most dynamic and definitive singles to date.

“I wouldn’t have known about Lovelight if it hadn’t have been for Tom Middleton’s ‘The Trip’ album – he put it on there, and I fell in love with it instantly…I can’t believe how big that song is and no one knows it,” says RW.

“I’d never heard that and Rob came to me and said “I want to cover this.” It’s an amazing, obscure English soul record, and he’s delivered a great classic blue-eyed soul vocal in the lineage of George Michael, Andy Gibb or Hall & Oates,” adds Ronson.

The single is backed by a spectacular mix package, with new re-workings courtesy of Soulwax, Kurd Maverick, Soul Mekanik and Ronson himself, that look set to follow previous single ‘Rudebox’ into club charts across the world. The single is also backed by a spectacular and iconic new video shot recently whilst in Vienna during a break from touring, which can currently be viewed exclusively on www.robbiewilliams.com.

On that front Robbie has just completed the monumental European leg of his record breaking ‘Close Encounters’ World tour, culminating in a massive 5 nights at Milton Keynes Bowl and playing to over 2.5 million people along the way.

Alongside his work with Ronson, ‘Rudebox’ finds RW collaborating with an array of musical mavericks including his heroes the Pet Shop Boys, King of ambient William Orbit, fellow Stoke natives Danny Spencer & Kelvin Andrews AKA Soul Mekanik, disco-house icon Dave ‘Joey Negro’ Lee on both new original compositions and covers of some of his favourite tracks that through its 16 tracks mark out and charts his musical loves and life. Lyrically it is very broad; humorous, historical, honest and revealing, a rollercoaster that takes you from introverted to extravagant, the break up to the make up, this is perhaps the most definitive Robbie Williams opus to date.

‘Lovelight’ is released on November 13th 2006 on Chrysalis / EMI Records. ‘Rudebox’ – The album is released on October 23rd.

ilikemusic.com