12 MusicWeek 15.11.13 THE BIG INTERVIEW ROBBIE WILLIAMS
‘MY BRAIN TURNED INTO SWISS CHEESE’
Robbie Williams on his return to swing music, dealing with his self-image and why doing very little after receiving a great big advance didn’t exactly lead to his healthiest period
TALENT n BY DAVE ROBERTS
R
obbie Williams’ Swing When You’re Winning is his best-selling album to date. Now, nearly 13 years since its release, he’s
revisiting the smoothness and style of the Rat Pack generation with new LP Swings Both Ways. Released next week and featuring major league
collaborators such as Lily Allen, Michael Bublé and Rufus Wainwright, it marks the latest entry in a prolific period for Williams that started with 2009’s Reality Killed The Video Star, followed by 2010’s Greatest Hits package and the same year’s reformation with his Take That bandmates for the record-breaking Progress project. Last year saw him release his first solo album
with Universal, Take The Crown, which stormed to No.1 – making it his tenth LP to hit the UK top Spot - whilst lead single Candy became his first No.1 single in nine years. Such a flurry of creative activity is in marked contrast to the period after 2006’s Rudebox, during which Robbie, in his own words, “sat on the sofa, ate crisps, watched reality TV shows and seized up, basically”. Featuring both covers and original material,
Williams debuted material from Swings both Ways last Friday (November 8) at a filmed gig live at the Palladium in London.
When, where and how did you first hear that swing/big band sound? Well it’s always been around, on TV. There used to be these glorious films that used to be on Saturday mornings, like South Pacific or Guys and Dolls, and I used to find them fascinating. Great bit of fantasy and escape. Then when I was three, Dad left, and he left a
load of records, and they were Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr, etc. So that was my library and on many a cold, dark winter afternoon I would sit there and learn these tomes, learn these words. My father held these people in such high regard
that they weren’t mortal, they were Gods, so the whole thing had me enchanted from the moment I can remember remembering.
How important was your Dad’s influence generally? Like I say, Dad considered these people to be Gods. He was completely enraptured with the music and the artists of the time. He sent a dollar bill to Frank Sinatra to sign and Frank signed it and sent it back. From then on, whichever flat my Dad was in, and there were many, that Sinatra dollar bill took pride of place. So yeah, it rubbed off.
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