Feel

An offical biography of Robbie Williams by Chris Heath.
Oh my god, this is a big book. And the words are not printed big either. I have to say it was a relief to finish this last night; it wasn’t really a book I enjoyed reading to be honest. However, first of all I have to praise it for being an originally written biography. It was nice that we don’t have to trawl through the whole family background and history before Robbie Williams became famous. Usually you get that in biographies, and usually you’re barely interested in any of it. This book had just the right amount of reminisces to get the feel of his past, and it was scattered throughout the book as Robbie had various conversations with people about it.
My main annoyance is that this book was not aimed at me. I felt that Chris Heath was commissioned to write this book for 2 kinds of people. The first; the people who write or believe the tabloid articles about Robbie Williams. The second; the annoying obsessive fans who feel he owes them something. I like his music, and I might buy his music, but I felt that ultimately this book was a subtle lecture not to believe what I read, and don’t ask for his autograph. Well, I’m not bothered what The Sun or Heat magazine have to say about whether or not he is gay or how the Americans react to him, and I feel slightly affronted that this book obviously presumes that I do and I hope that Robbie actually gives more credit than that to the majority of his buying public. There were pages and pages taken to discounting and disproving by Chris Heath’s eye-witness accounts, that most of what the English newspapers say about Robbie is made-up rubbish. I just found this boring, and the people that do believe those stories, probably think Chris is lying anyway because he was paid to!
Another huge proportion of the book was trying to justify why Robbie Williams is so dead against people wanting things from him; whether it’s pictures for the press, autographs for the fans, lyrics for the next album or money for various causes. Despite all the attempts at explanations, and several examples of the letters he always receives, this book is unsuccessful. I still don’t get it. I honestly don’t understand why he can’t look up and wave at the cameras when he walks out his door; I don’t understand why he won’t help out his favourite football club; I don’t understand why he won’t give a quick mention to someone while he’s on stage. I didn’t realise he felt like this until I read the book, and I don’t think it did him any favours. As far as I’m aware, people in any job, industry and (possibly even more so) even housewives are constantly being asked to do things they don’t necessarily want to do; and have expectations put upon them, but we do it if we have the time, and if we can because it is part of the job, and part of life.
After reading this book I have to say I don’t feel like I know Rob or Robbie Williams any better. Like it actually suggests, if you listen to the lyrics of the songs, you’ll get to know the real him anyway. I actually found myself wanting to read more proper gossip – the classic kiss and tell stories about other celebrities – just something that was new and interesting. However, apart from a very brief mention about Cameron Diaz, all other almost-girlfriends, had their name left out. Spoil-sport! But it did reveal that he sometimes shags the girls who take his fancy in the bars of the hotels he stays in. I actually found that quite surprising! The sort of thing you imagine from pop stars, but don’t really think happens!
Well, there you go – I’ve revealed everything about ‘Rob’ (I just couldn’t get used to the short version of his name!) that is in this book in 1 page! I enjoyed reading the middle part of this book. The beginning all about America was boring and the end just dragged on and on, but the middle was actually really compelling. It is a very well written and original type of biography; and no doubt there were pages and pages that didn’t make the final edit, but it was still too long.