Robbie Williams

Tunstall, Take That, and the sack

Robert Peter Williams was born on 13 February 1974 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. He joined Take That in 1990 at sixteen, the youngest of the five, and stayed until July 1995, when arguments over creative input and his own conduct ended it. The group announced its split on 13 February 1996 — his twenty-second birthday. He signed a solo deal with Chrysalis Records on 27 June that year.

The early solo period was not a clean run. Life thru a Lens arrived in September 1997 and moved slowly until its fourth single, "Angels", which went on to become his biggest-selling record in the United Kingdom and has anchored the end of nearly every show he has played since. The next album, I've Been Expecting You, entered the UK chart at number one in 1998, and from there the trajectory stopped wobbling.

The catalogue that did the damage

Sing When You're Winning followed in 2000 and Swing When You're Winning, a set of standards, in 2001. Escapology, in 2002, went to number one in more than ten countries. Intensive Care came in 2005, and the announcement of that year's Close Encounters Tour produced a Guinness World Record when 1.6 million tickets sold in a single day.

The label history maps the shifts in his career: Chrysalis from 1996 to 1999, EMI and Capitol from 1999 to 2010, Island and Universal from 2010 to 2016, and Sony from 2016 to the present. He rejoined Take That in July 2010 for the Progress album and its tour, then left again in 2011 to go back to solo work.

The ledger as it stands: 18 BRIT Awards, including four wins as British Male Solo Artist, two Outstanding Contribution awards and an Icon Award; induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004; seven UK number one singles; and UK certifications covering 20.36 million albums and 11.4 million singles. He has been president of Port Vale Football Club since January 2024, is married to Ayda Field and lives in Los Angeles with their four children.

The chimpanzee detour

The strangest thing in the catalogue is not a record. Better Man, directed by Michael Gracey, premiered at Telluride on 30 August 2024 and opened in cinemas on 25 December 2024 in the United States and 26 December in the UK and Australia. It tells the Stoke-to-Take-That-to-solo story with Williams rendered throughout as a CGI chimpanzee — Jonno Davies in motion capture, Williams narrating and voicing the closing scene, with Steve Pemberton, Alison Steadman and Kate Mulvany in support. Gracey took the idea from a line of Williams's own: he had spent his life being a cheeky monkey.

Critics liked it — 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, nine AACTA Awards including Best Film, and nominations for the Academy Award and BAFTA for visual effects. Audiences did not turn up. The film cost $110 million and grossed $22.5 million worldwide. Its soundtrack, however, gave Williams his fifteenth UK number one album, drawing him level with The Beatles and setting up what happened next.

BRITPOP, dropped three weeks early

The thirteenth studio album had a difficult run-up. It was pencilled in for 10 October, then moved to 6 February 2026 to keep clear of a Taylor Swift release. Williams then abandoned the plan entirely and put it out on 16 January 2026 through Columbia with no warning, announcing it on Instagram: "It's been long enough. I've decided that I wanna go now. It's been ages. Now, please, deploy, now, let's go." Physical formats still appeared on 6 February, with a deluxe edition following the digital drop within days.

The record is a deliberate rewind — Williams has called it his DeLorean moment back to 1995, the guitar album he might have made instead of going pop, with sleeve art nodding to the red tracksuit he wore at Glastonbury that year. Recording ran across 2024 and 2025 in the UK, Europe and the United States, with Karl Brazil and Owen Parker as his main collaborators. Five tracks were issued as singles, starting with "Rocket", featuring Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi on guitar, in May 2025, then "Spies", "Human" with Jesse & Joy, "Pretty Face", and "Desire" with Laura Pausini, written as a FIFA World Cup anthem. Chris Martin and Gaz Coombes appear elsewhere on the record, and Gary Barlow co-wrote the synth-pop track "Morrissey".

It worked. BRITPOP became his sixteenth UK number one album, taking the all-time record off The Beatles outright. It held the top of the midweek chart from 19 January 2026 ahead of Madison Beer, Sleaford Mods and Nathan Evans. Reviews were warm rather than ecstatic: a Metacritic score of 76 from generally favourable notices, with critics calling it a self-conscious return to guitar-driven pop, and NME giving it three stars — bold, done his way, not necessarily memorable.

Two years, six continents, 75 shows

The Britpop Tour is his fourteenth, and his first built around stadiums since the 2017–18 run. It opened in Edinburgh on 31 May 2025 and is scheduled to close in Christchurch on 28 November 2026: 75 shows across six continents.

The 2025 European leg did the heavy commercial lifting. Two nights at the Emirates Stadium in London drew 106,927 people and $16.7 million; Amsterdam's Johan Cruijff ArenA took 98,084 and $12.7 million; Croke Park in Dublin, 79,676 and $10.5 million. Only one date has been lost — Istanbul on 7 October 2025, cancelled on security grounds — while the Berlin Waldbühne show slipped from 21 to 23 July after severe weather.

The 2026 leg resumed in Europe over the summer, including two nights at Düsseldorf's Merkur Spiel-Arena on 5 and 6 June, before crossing to Latin America. He played Bogotá's Movistar Arena on 20 September, and Lima on 23 and 24 September at Arena 1 Park are his first shows ever in Peru. Santiago follows on 27 September, then three nights in Buenos Aires from 1 October, two in Mexico City from 7 October, Querétaro's Festival Pulso GNP on 10 October, São Paulo on 13 October and Puerto Vallarta on 27 October.

Australia and New Zealand take November: Adelaide Oval on the 7th, Marvel Stadium in Melbourne on the 11th, Accor Stadium in Sydney on the 14th, Newcastle's McDonald Jones Stadium on the 17th, Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on the 20th, Eden Park in Auckland on the 24th and Christchurch on the 28th, with an appearance at Carreras & Friends at the Gabba on 5 December. Four 2027 dates are already on sale — Silverstone on 1 July, Lytham Festival on 3 July, and two nights at Thomond Park in Limerick on 6 and 7 July.