It’s clearly a slow news day in Celeb-land, as The Sun and The Mirror both regurgitate Robbie Williams quotes from his visit to We Will Rock You the other night.

The Mirror reckon Robbie said he was definitely going to rejoin Take That (a dull rumour that’s been doing the rounds every month since 2005). However, while The Sun’s report agrees with this, it also says that he was dashing back to the studio to record with Mark Ronson.

Now, let’s imagine that you’ve been asked the same question for four years: “Any chance of you rejoining Take That, Rob?” Why not just nod your head and go along with it? “Yeah, yeah. Even though I’m clearly recording a solo album, I’d love nothing more than to hook up with Take That again.”

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I’ll bet Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow are regretting ever meeting up at a football game a few weeks ago.

The tabloids are going to town on this story, today speculating that because Robbie has recently bought a mansion in the country, he’ll be needing some cash to pay the mortgage.

I mean, they’re even interpreting a comment like:

I’d like to think we’d be the only band in the history of music to get together because of artistic differences.

as a positive signal that he’s considering re-joining the band.

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The larger than life, (and larger than he was last year!) pop star Robbie Williams has split once more with his song writing partner Guy Chambers.

Some of Robbies best material was written in conjunction with Guy, think “Rock DJ”, “Feel”, “Millennium”, “Let Me Entertain You” and “Angels”, but the pair parted ways in 2002. Reports emerged that Robbie’s record company was demanding that Guy work exclusively with Robbie and no other artists.

The pair reunited last year, but have parted ways for a second time after Williams discovered that Guy was working with former bandmate, Gary Barlow on ITV drama, Britannia High.

A source told The Sun: “Robbie and Guy patched up their differences last year. They had been back in the studio trying to find the spark that produced Rob’s best material.

“They gave it a go but it didn’t work out – they had both moved on. But while they were working together in LA, Guy was asked to work as part of a team with Gary on a new TV show. Read more & comment »

It’s the ultimate kick in the teeth. When it was released Robbie Williams waxed lyrical about how it was his best album yet, so I can just imagine how he felt when he heard that all the unsold copies of Rudebox (and there were a lot of them!) have been shipped to China, and will be used to resurface the roads there.

Feel free to insert your puns about Robbie being a ‘groundbreaking artist’ or ‘paving the way’ for other flop albums.

A source told The Mirror newspaper: “EMI often ships out unwanted CDs to China so they can be recycled.

“It’s the ultimate kick in the teeth for him. He loved this album, but going by all the unsold CDs he was obviously the only one.

“Now there’s no better use for them than to be crushed up and trampled on.”

I bet there are no Beautiful World albums in that shipment to China…….

You all know I’ve been watching the situation at EMI with interest over the last couple of weeks. I think the most interesting aspect of the debate is on where EMI is headed and the affect their new direction will have on their artists.

Market Research

Shockingly, EMI apparently don’t do any market research before releasing an album. Do they just let the artists do their own thing and then release the end product? Well, that would explain Rudebox. As I reported yesterday, even Kylie’s album hasn’t been as popular as you might expect.

Yet on the other hand, there seems to be an attitude among the artists and their managers that EMI should be marketing their material more aggressively – Robbie’s manager Tim Clarke has been quoted as saying:

“The question is, ‘Should Robbie deliver the new album he is due to release to EMI?’ We have to say the answer is ‘No’. We have no idea how EMI will market and promote the album. They do not have anyone in the digital sphere capable of doing the job required. All we know is they are going to decimate their staff.”

The problem is, if Robbie’s next album is as much a criticial and commercial turkey as Rudebox, how much money are EMI prepared to spend pissing against the wind? If Robbie is out of touch with his fanbase (which I suspect he is), why should EMI shell out for an album that strokes Robbie’s ego and no-one else’s?

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After a couple of decades of smug swaggering, Robbie Williams has finally had to apologise to his nemesis and former Take That manager, Nigel Martin Smith.

Well, I say apologise, but a court ordered apology isn’t really a genuine apology at all, is it? Besides, Robbie didn’t actually make the apology himself, did he? No. He got a spokesman to do the dirty work on his behalf, with the following statement:

Robbie Williams wishes to make it clear to his fans, and the public at large, that he did not intend these lyrics to be taken at face value. Specifically, Robbie Williams did not intend to allege that Nigel Martin Smith has ever stolen any funds from Take That or anyone… he wishes now to apologise publicly and unreservedly for the distress that the original publication of those lyrics caused to Nigel.

I think the £500,000 quid compensation might be a more meaningful gesture to the multi-millionaire music mogul.

And in other Robbie news…

It has truly been a bad week for old Rob. Not only did he have a marginally humiliating insincere apology to issue, but his mother waded in to say that he might rejoin Take That at some point.

Nothing more embarrassing than your Mum jumping in and making career decisions for you. Especially in the national press.

Maybe it’s time Robbie took some of that humble pie at the top of the page.

Britain’s biggest come-back band Take That told Jonathan they would still like Robbie back in last week’s edition of Friday Night With Jonathan Ross on BBC One.

Asked about their relationship with him, Jason said: “Out of all of us I was the most hopeful.” “We all know he’s got a good heart,” adds Howard. “We still love him, but we’d have to spend time with him, see what his personality’s like now.” “The door’s always open,” said Gary.

They also talked about the inclusion of Gary’s wife Dawn on the tour: “We’ve got a lot of female dancers to impress!” said Howard, who gets to dance with her. “I trust them all!” says Gary. Read more & comment »