Robbie Williams News24

Robbie Williams’ dad has said the star has returned to good health and his joking ways. Pete Conway also revealed Williams would not be going to another rehab centre having left a clinic at Tucson, Arizona. “I always know how Robbie is by his humor, and it’s back,” Conway told the Sunday Mirror. “He was making jokes down the phone to me yesterday, they are not quotable, very private and a bit rude.

“So I would say he is on the mend. He’s not going into another rehab – he’s done, he’s finished.” Conway said he was flying to see Williams next week: “I am looking forward to seeing him more than you could know. I always have faith in him, he’s a good lad and I love him.”

digitalspy.co.uk

SINGER Robbie Williams returned home last night after finishing a 21-day drugs rehab. Robbie, 33, who was battling an addiction to prescription drugs, will continue to get counselling at his home in Los Angeles, his spokeswoman said. He had been so desperate to get privacy for his cure that he had kept his location secret.

While it was believed he was in the Meadows centre, where model Kate Moss was treated for her cocaine habit, he is now understood to have been in the Cottonwood de Tucson clinic, also in Arizona. Cottonwood is in a very secluded location in the desert. His spokeswoman, Bryony Watts, confirmed: “Robbie Williams has completed treatment in Arizona and continues an after-care programme in LA.”

It is understood Robbie was popping a cocktail of prescription anxiety and sleeping pills, including powerful Vicodin and Xanax, before he admitted himself to rehab. Last night, he was relaxing at his mansion in the Hollywood Hills. And friends revealed he had kept occupied in rehab by swotting up on trivia, reading quiz books and looking up amazing facts online. One pal said counsellors at the clinic told Robbie, who enjoys games nights with friends, that keeping his mind active was the best way to combat his problems. The friend added: “Everyone is now glad Rob is out of rehab and finally able to get on with his life.”

dailyrecord.co.uk

Take That fans may need a little patience if they’re expecting a reunion with former band member and now solo pop superstar Robbie Williams. The British boy band, who got back together last year, revealed in an exclusive chat with The Sunday Mail in Brisbane yesterday that they don’t see eye to eye on a reconciliation. Jason Orange, 36, said he had “high hopes” and asked Robbie about a reunion “all the time”.

“I really want him to,” Orange said. “I think it would be good for him, for us and for Take That.” But co-band member Howard Donald, 38, said: “I think it could be a big mistake. We don’t know Robbie. Even though Jason calls him or Gary (Barlow) might email him, we don’t know him, we really don’t.” Reunion disputes aside, the band – Barlow, Donald, Orange and Mark Owen – have had a storming return to the charts. On the same day they won a Best Single Brit Award for their hit Patience, Williams was admitted to rehab. While his solo album Rudebox flounders on the charts, Take That sold out a UK tour in minutes. On a promotional tour to support their UK No. 1 album Beautiful World, the boys performed at a VIP B105 party at Movie World on the Gold Coast last night. They will sign copies of their album at the Queen Street Mall upper stage today.

Now in their mid-30s and three of them fathers, they admitted their return to the pop scene was less hyped than in their heyday. Just four fans were waiting at Sydney airport when they arrived last week.

news.com.au

Mother Tells Of Robbie Williams’ ‘living Hell’…. Troubled pop star Robbie Williams is suffering a “living hell” because of his drug addictions – according to his mother Jan. The British singer is being treated for addictions to caffeine and prescribed medication in Arizona’s The Meadows Clinic. The latest problems come after years of battling alcohol and drug addictions – and 52-year-old Jan – herself a drugs counsellor – claims Robbie is desperately unhappy.

Admitting she missed the signs of his troubles in advance, Jan says, “There was one time when he came home in the middle of all his drink and drugs problems – and he lay down with his head on my lap and he was sobbing.

“It is very, very hard when your child has problems, alcohol and drugs just don’t affect the person who takes them. As a mother it was mind-blowing. Even though I was relatively skilled it just went under the net and I never saw it. “Some of it has been a living hell.” Jan is currently in Arizona, visiting Robbie, who is half-way through an eight week stay at The Meadows.

femalefirst.co.uk

Simon Cowell has called Britney Spears and Robbie Williams self-indulgent for checking into their exclusive rehab clinics. Britney is currently receiving treatment at Promises Center in Malibu while Robbie checked into The Meadows clinic in Arizona last month. Simon said recently: “This whole thing is a total indulgence. Britney and Robbie need to get a grip.” “I don’t know what’s going on in Britney’s head but my attitude is I couldn’t care less. She should go back and live with her mum for six months.”

“I went to a deprived part of the world recently… It really opened my eyes. You can feel sorry for yourself over the smallest things, but then you look at the world and you think, ‘I’ve got nothing to complain about.’” “So when I hear about the Robbies and the Britneys going to into rehab, I think, ‘I’ll tell you what rehab is. Go to where I just went, where people are really suffering and then you’ll see just how good your life is.’”

“Pop stars these days just get too much too soon. They don’t actually have to work that hard for it and they lose their perspective.” “I mean Britney is not working in a coal mine is she? You are whisked to the studio in a very large limo, you are flown around in private jet, everyone will agree with you and physically making an album is a doddle.”

fametastic.co.uk

Gary Barlow is confident that former band mate and hugely successful (though dwindling in popularity) solo artist Robbie Williams will rejoin Take That.

Barlow told The People that he and the other guys met with Robbie while on tour and they’re on good terms (read: not at each other’s throats).

“If I’m really, really honest we wouldn’t have had a chance to be Take That again if it wasn’t for him still being a successful artist, we wouldn’t have this second chance if he wasn’t out there,” he said.

Robbie Williams broke free from the boyband, openly mocking them on stage (“Sing the backing vocals, that’s all I f*cking did!” he would tell the audience as his new band played Take That’s ‘Back For Good’)

He became one of the most successful solo artists in history (although never breaking America) with ‘Sing When You’re Winning’ being considered his high point.

When songwriting collaborator Guy Chambers left the Williams ship, it began to sink, slowly.

However, during the relatively short voyage, Williams revealed that Take That’s management was run like a slave labor camp and Williams had ticks against him from management for drug use, using bad language in the press or not being dressed appropriately.

So with this in mind, can someone please explain to me exactly how Take That became “cool” again?

T. Cashmere / undercover.com.au

British singer-songwriter Robbie Williams seems to be at the last stages of his career. He seems to have run out of musical ideas, checked himself into rehab and most recently won the ignominious honour of worst album of the rear for his latest album ‘Rudebox’ by NME magazine.

But things were not always like this for him. At one time, after quitting the massively successful boy band Take That, he was Britain’s darling – its pride and joy.

What could be the most telling and consequential sign of his downward spiral in his life in general is that try as he might, the singer just could not break into the American market. And you cannot be really big if you don’t crack that market.

Not that Williams didn’t try. It’s just that America could care less. And it doesn’t seem like it is going to change anytime soon.

Williams started his career as a member of Take That in 1990. He was just 16 then. And till 1995, the year he decided to quit the band, they were hugely successful. He left the band under unclear reasons but it was clear that he felt he was constrained and suffocated.

He wanted to express himself more freely and his first release as a solo artist was a tongue in check rendition of George Michael’s hit ‘Freedom’.

He sold more albums in the Britain than any other British solo artist in the history. He won an impressive and yet unsurpassed 13 Brit Awards and has sold more than 15 million copies worldwide.

At the peak of his fame Williams wryly said that he’s ‘the one who put the Brit in celebrity’. At that time, it was not hard for anyone to believe that. But now Williams is beset with problems that seem to plague every aspect of his life.

But Americans just can’t take Williams seriously. At times he can seem very campy and ridiculous parody of himself.

Rocker Sheryl Crow, speculating on why Williams cannot make it in the US, said: ‘There’s a camp element to Williams that’s too threatening to Americans. American men don’t want to see anything that’s burlesque or vaudevillian, they want to feel their artist is brooding and macho.

‘Most of our male artists are so aggro they don’t even look like rock stars, they look like roadies. Williams’ songs are very melodic and I think he takes a lot of his inspiration from Elton John, which does not seem to be what kids in America are into right now.’

Yet another problem is that his musical style and persona is more appealing to gay men in the States. So, when Williams in most of his songs laments about dealing with his fame, it doesn’t make sense to people in the US who have never even heard about him.

Indo-Asian News Service / earthtimes.org

She may be Madonna, but she ain’t gonna get Mr Williams that much-needed No 1…

Robbie Williams’ career crisis is deepening with his latest single looking likely to be his biggest flop. ‘She’s Madonna’ – which has been touted as one of the standout tracks from the album ‘Rudebox’ – is sitting at a lowly No 17 in the midweek charts, despite being available on CD and as a download. The Pet Shop Boys-penned track hasn’t suffered from a lack of press either – it bagged all the wrong kind of headlines after footage of the accompanying video leaked.

In the promo Robbie dresses as a (bad) transvestite and talks about himself in the third person. In the past month of course, the singer has also embarked on a highly publicised stint in rehab after admitting a caffeine, nicotine and prescription drug addiction. What will also undoubtedly add salt to the wounds is that his old bandmates, Take That, are certs to hold on to the No 1 spot with their single ‘Shine’, this week. Their other single ‘Patience’ which has been in the charts for 17 weeks meanwhile, is just one spot behind ‘She’s Madonna’ at No 18. Just don’t look, Robbie…

mtv.co.uk

Robbie Williams’ mum has revealed she hopes her son will start a family in order to beat his drink and drugs demons. Jan, subject of Robbie’s best known song ‘Angels’, says Robbie wants to settle down and have kids himself, but has found it difficult due to his chosen career. She tells The Sun, “He has said he would like a family. A lot of people around him have got married but it’s difficult in the industry he’s in.”

Jan has also revealed that, despite being a drink and drugs counsellor herself, she never realised Robbie – currently in a rehab clinic in America – had developed the very problems she treats herself. She says, “It is very, very hard when your child has problems, alcohol and drugs don’t just affect the person who takes them. “As a mother it was mind-blowing. Even though I was relatively skilled it just went under the net and I never saw it.”

entertainmentwise.com

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