Freedom – Robbie Williams

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Freedom – Robbie Williams



So I used to work in a converted dog biscuit factory building in East London. It was a strange place to have a design agency, we were on the ground floor and with lots of residential flats above us. There were some interesting characters that lived there, one of which was the producer of the TV show Spitting Image. Also for some reason they also filmed scenes of the BBC TV show 'Loves Hurts' with Adam Faith and Zoë Wanamakerin one of the flats. I can only guess there was also either a manager or music producer that lived there as one day out of the blue Robbie Williams appeared at the slope that lead up to the front door.

It was very shortly after he had left Take That and to be rude he was at his largest, but it was definitely him and we all had to have a good nose out the window. I'm guessing at this stage he hadn't met Guy Chambers or got any of his own music ready to go. It's often run through my mind if I had been a bit bolder I could have approached him and maybe presented one of my own songs to him but that was never going to happen.

Anyway I wasn't the biggest of Take That fans, but did like this song when it came out, as usual I got the cassette single. No one ever seems to remember this was Robbie's first solo release, a goodish cover of the great George Michael song. Guess it was Robbie's protest against being seen just as another member of a boy band. He was also having fun at the time so I guess there was an element of 'freedom' as he was now aloud to do what he wanted without damaging the brand.

I saw Robbie's gig at the London Stadium a couple of years ago and I have to say the man is a performer and got the whole place rocking.

Favourite lyric : Like a prisoner who has his own key / But I can't escape until you love me

 

 

Location: Rayleigh, UK

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