Reveal
Chris Heath
512 pages
Published 2017
Blink publishing
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This was a deeply personal but horribly organised warts & all authorised biography of mega-pop star Robbie Williams, which was first published in 2017, by a journalist who is clearly a close friend. I bought it in paperback from a second-hand shop because we were going to see him in concert, and I was interested to learn a bit more about the man behind the hits. I wouldn’t say I was a massive fan – my taste is much more rock than pop, but I did really enjoy the concert, as he’s a great entertainer with so many catchy songs and a gift for working his audience. I didn’t have time to finish the book before the concert, as I found it rather repetitive after a while, but in some ways reading it afterwards made more sense. I haven’t read the previous book, Feel, published in 2004, and don’t think I would want to. I also haven’t watched the recently released Netflix documentary, although have heard that it’s very good.
This book describes Rob (as the author refers to him, to distinguish the man from Robbie the performer) and his life between about 2012 and 2016, focussing on his marriage to American actress Ayda Field, and how fatherhood has changed him, apparently for the better. Williams is clearly a classic troubled genius, whose elevation to stardom at the age of 17 with Take That has left deep scars. He does not come across as a nice person, despite admitting to being a desperate people pleaser, and it shocked me that he would happily sign off on a book that paints him as such a twat. He’s open about how appallingly he’s treated former friends, bandmates and lovers, and then seems confused, hurt and mortally offended when a quick apology doesn’t make them immediately forgive him. Unfortunately the author has taken the ill-judged approach of abandoning any chronological order to the various events and anecdotes, which just made this confusing at best, and infuriating most of the time.
I enjoyed some of the stories, especially about song writing, and you do get a sense of Williams’ torment after years of substance abuse, and how settling down to family life has brought him some peace, if not actual happiness. I note from other reviews that I’m not the only one to feel underwhelmed by this – it sounds like most fans would be better served by watching the doco.
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