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An American Guide to Robbie Williams
What’s so special about Britain’s patron wanker of bighearted buffoonery?
Born Robert Peter Williams in the unremarkable city of Stoke-on-Trent, one of the best-selling British solo acts of all time first found stardom as a teenager in the ’90s boy band Take That. But Williams, an off-kilter and often out-of-key performer, jarred against the group’s rigidity, and he eventually left in 1995, an event that caused the charity Samaritans to set up a helpline for crestfallen fans. “We’ll paint by numbers, ’til something sticks,” he sang alongside Kylie Minogue on “Kids.” While it’s now common for singers to bemoan the dehumanization of the music business, Williams set an early precedent at a time when fame was at its most noxious and uncontested.
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