Robbie Williams biography
Out of all the members of Take That,
Robbie
Williams never really
seemed to fit in. Roguishly
handsome where his bandmates were merely cute, Williams
was tougher and sexier than the rest, which made him more distinctive. He also fought
regularly with the other members and their management, primarily because he was
occasionally adverse to being so heavily packaged. So
it didn't come as a surprise that he was the first to leave the band, departing
early in the summer of 1995 to pursue a solo career; by some accounts, he was
fired from the group. Although he was the first out of the gate, it took Williams
awhile to get started. For most of 1995, he attempted to boost his credibility
by tagging along with Oasis,
hoping that Noel
Gallagher would give him a couple of songs. He never did, but all of
his time with Oasis
launched Williams
into a world of heavy partying, drinking, and drugging. Over the course of
1996, he was only heard from in gossip columns, and every published picture
indicated he had put on considerable weight. Occasionally, he was quoted as
saying his new music would abandon lightweight dance-pop for traditional
Brit-pop, but his first single was a cover of George
Michael's "Freedom '90." Released late in 1996, the single
was a disaster, but his second single, 1997's "Old Before I Die," was
more in the vein of his early pronouncements, featuring a distinct Oasis
influence. Williams
released his first solo album, Life Thru a Lens, in 1997. The album became a
big hit in