Robbie Williams Info Board

Robbie Williams Foreword

The first time I really paid attention to the BRIT awards was the year before Take That were first on. We were staying at some bed and breakfast, and we watched it together. We were all very excited about the fact that maybe we could be on it next year. And we were.
It's all a bit of a blur now, though I remember we did our Beatles medley one year and we had blue suits on. All I do know is that I never got the 'Could It Be Magic' BRIT Award. I sang lead vocals on that but someone else kept the award.

The first year I performed as a solo artist I did it with Tom Jones. It's a big deal performing with Tom Jones anyway, and I think that was a career defining moment for me. That year at the BRIT awards was the first time that the British public saw me as a different entity, Robbie Williams, rather than the boy in Take That. I just had the most amazing confidence at the time.

I knew I couldn't match Tom's voice, so I just had to perform my pants off.

I just copied what Tom would do from the 60's, doing an impersonation of him. I just thought if I packed it all into one three-and-a-half minute song, then perhaps it would make an impression, and fortunately it did. It's the most difficult audience to win over, an industry audience, but it was fun, because they didn't know what to expect from Robbie Williams.

The Take That ones were fine, because I enjoyed being around famous people, and seeing the people I knew off the television in the flesh. And the Tom Jones one I was victorious at, so I enjoyed that. These days I find them very stressful to be at, but I still usually go. I'm not sure why I've won more awards than everyone else, fluke, maybe. But I've worked really hard over the last eight or nine years, and maybe there hasn't always been enough competition.

I keep all my BRIT awards in a special cupboard. When I was in rehab, just after I'd finished Life Thru A Lens, and before I'd won one of my own, I can remember planning my BRIT Award acceptance speeches. I never got further than "Thank you very much...." because I had the attention span of a newt at the time. Anyone who's been in rehab will understand. But it meant a great deal to me, the thought of winning one. It's the biggest award in Britain, the one the public notice the most. And I am the public, so it's the one I notice the most as well.

Source: rwap.org / rw-world.com