Biographie autorisée, le journaliste Chris Heath a eu accès à Robbie Williams pendant 18 mois durant les années 2002-2003. Ce n’est pas une biographie banale, c’est le récit sans fard d’un artiste de talent mais sans confiance en soi. Le récit aussi, d’une création, le dernier album original de Williams, Feel, de la fin d’une collaboration intense avec Guy Chambers, les coulisses du monde du spectacle sans le glamour et tous les à côtés un peu tordus du show-biz.

Intéressant par l’approche, pour le personnage. Robbie Williams est une construction, un personnage public derrière lequel se cache un artiste talentueux, pleins de contradictions et d’insécurités.

Robbie is a messed up boy with potential. This took me 12 months to read. Perhaps it was the style of the book rather than the subject matter that I had difficulty with though.

Leuk en chaotisch inkijkje in het leven van deze popster. Het verhaal speelt zich al zeker 20 jaar geleden af en doet me denken aan die tijd toen ik zijn muziek veel luisterde.

love!

It's 532 pages long - and obviously quite historic when I read it in 2012 - eight years after publication. By that time, he had taken a wife, re-joined Take That and was looking forward to becoming a Daddy - all rich fodder for the next installment! I enjoyed the book, but was left with a feeling that I was very glad to know what had happened next!!

Fantastic. I was a fan of Robbie Williams before I read this slice of his life, which has deepened my understanding of this fascinating person and performer. In a way I imagine a similar book could be written about anyone in his position - huge pop star whose every thought and move, real or fabricated, is breathlessly gossiped and written about. If you've ever harbored any daydreams of being an internationally famous mega celebrity pop star, reading Mr. Heath's detailed and deeply layered accounting of what life is like from day to day for Robbie Williams may make you think again.
If you've liked his music, this book will give you a much greater insight into it, but even if you're not a fan or have no idea who Robbie Williams is, it's still an eye-opening look into this world of pop stardom, accompanied by some surprising introspection on the part of the man at the center of it all.
One of the more satisfying reading experiences I've had.

Down to earth, funny and gives a great insight into one of my favourite singers

Brilliant. It's so good that it's written by someone who is just spending time with him and observing. Fascinating. Will be reading the follow up!

It was very difficult for me to rate this but ultimately I decided on 3 stars cause there was a lot I did enjoy in this book even though the writing and overall concept are not very good. Robbie doesn't come out of it looking great which might disappoint some people (fans in particular) but I've been familiar with his unhinged personality for many years now so nothing in this book comes as surprising other than him not even attempting to portray himself in better light. There's a lot of interesting bits about song writing, touring and promotion, lots of funny stuff happening to Robbie and his entourage during the time the author of the book spends with him, many disturbing encounters with obsessed fans and even more moments of Robbie just being a plain asshole to so many around him but what got me to most is him talking about his struggles with mental health. He describes dealing with depression in ways that I personally connect and sympathize with greatly. All in all, it's a fun biography even though I expected more/better from it considering how hyped it is.

robbie really is the world's most honest and sincere asshole

This isn’t so much a biography as a “year in the life”. Chris Heath follows Robbie around, documenting what he says and does from just before the release of the Escapology album to the end of the related tour.

It lays bare Robbie’s lifestyle and gives over paragraphs to his thoughts on it as well as other topics that happen to come up. In reading the book, I didn’t really feel I learnt anything ground-breaking or new. Robbie’s addictive personality, the way he can become fixated on certain ideas or hobbies and then drop them suddenly, and his hating of fame yet need for approval is well documented elsewhere. Although it must be said I am reading this book 10 years after its release – I can imagine at the time the content was more revelatory.

The book starts the same way it ends: straight into Robbie’s life and then, some 500 pages later, straight out again. I didn’t get the sense of this being a bildungsroman. Robbie doesn’t seem to change or grow in any way over the course of the book. There are some small flashbacks to his early life and Take That years, but these happen as and when Robbie thinks them up rather than being structured in any way. That seems to be the point of this book: a no-holds-barred, warts and all portrayal of everything Robbie thinks and does over this year or so period in his life.

Heath and Robbie make some good points along the way about how fame can negatively affect one’s quality of life. Super-fans trying to prove their devotion by stalking the object of their affection can evidently do more harm than good. Money and success also makes it harder to get close to real people, something that Robbie struggles with every day. He also says he hates performing and touring, yet somehow manages to muster up the courage to give very convincing performances night after night. He is clearly a troubled soul.

I will say that at times Heath could come across as obsequious at times. He seems to find everything Robbie does hilarious and agrees with him on most topics, almost like a super-fan himself who can’t quite believe he’s managed to get into the inner circle. I wonder if they’re still close today.

A note as well on the few pictures in the book – these didn’t add much as they were small and dark (black and white) so you couldn’t see what they were supposed to be. Maybe in the original hardback they were in colour? Also there were a few annoying typos.

I went into this book not being a particular Robbie fan, but not disliking him either. Having finished the book, my opinions on him haven’t changed. Maybe reading the book as a fan would be a different (better?) experience.

another great book about music/pop stars today