{"id":12166,"date":"2025-08-20T18:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T18:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/12166\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T18:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T18:59:08","slug":"robbie-williams-new-album-features-a-gary-barlow-co-write-about-morrisseys-stalker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/12166\/","title":{"rendered":"Robbie Williams\u2019 new album features a Gary Barlow co-write about Morrissey\u2019s stalker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/ROBBIE-WILLIAMS\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Robbie Williams<\/a> has revealed that his new album \u2018Britpop\u2019 features a co-write with former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/TAKE-THAT\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Take That<\/a> bandmate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/gary-barlow\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gary Barlow<\/a> all about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/morrissey\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Morrissey<\/a>\u2018s stalker.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"post-content-read-more\">\n<li aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"150\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559683&quot;:0,&quot;335559684&quot;:-2,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><b>Read More:<\/b><b>\u00a0<\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/robbie-williams-exlcusive-british-pop-playlist-me-new-single-spies-britpop-tracklist-3879072\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Check out Robbie Williams\u2019 exclusive \u2018British Pop\u2019 playlist for NME and new single \u2018Spies\u2019<\/b><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The pop icon hosted an exclusive playback of his upcoming 13th solo studio album at central London\u2019s infamous Groucho Club last night (Tuesday August 19), where he was interviewed by comedian Joe Lycett.<\/p>\n<p>As well as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/robbie-williams-to-play-life-thru-a-lens-and-britpop-in-full-at-intimate-camden-gig-3885823\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announcing his \u201csmallest-ever ticketed gig\u201d at Camden\u2019s Dingwalls \u2013 where he\u2019ll be playing \u2018Britpop\u2019 in full alongside his classic \u2018Life Thru A Lens<\/a>\u2018 \u2013 he also revealed the album\u2019s star-packed list of collaborators and shared details of a new song about Morrissey.<\/p>\n<p>The Groucho was a notable choice of venue, given that \u2018Britpop\u2019 harks back to Robbie\u2019s \u201890s roots, when the club was synonymous with celebrity hedonism. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/pulp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pulp<\/a>\u2018s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/jarvis-cocker\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jarvis Cocker<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/oasis\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oasis<\/a>\u2018 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/noel-gallagher\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Noel Gallagher<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/BLUR\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Blur<\/a>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/alex-james\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alex James<\/a> have all been members.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3872985\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/liam-gallagher-robbie-williams-glastonbury@2000x1270.jpg\" alt=\"Oasis' Liam Gallagher and Robbie Williams at Glastonbury Festival in 1995\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1270\"  \/>Oasis\u2019 Liam Gallagher and Robbie Williams at Glastonbury Festival in 1995. CREDIT: Brian Rasic\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>During the chat, Williams revealed that as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/black-sabbath\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Black Sabbath<\/a> guitarist Tony Iommi (who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/robbie-williams-announces-new-album-britpop-shares-blistering-single-with-black-sabbaths-tony-iommi-3863859\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">appears on previously released first single \u2018Rocket<\/a>\u2019), the new album features \u201ca couple of songs\u201d with Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes and one with Coldplay\u2019s Chris Martin.<\/p>\n<p>He also explained that former Take That bandmate Gary Barlow co-wrote the new song \u2018Morrissey\u2019, which was confirmed to be on \u2018Britpop\u2019 when Williams shared the tracklist last month.<\/p>\n<p>Asked what it was like to collaborate with Barlow, Williams replied: \u201cI\u2019ve collabbed with Gary on a lot of tracks, actually! It\u2019s great because that particular track is a song made by Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow, about Morrissey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Social media wags have widely claimed that Williams looks like the former Smiths singer nowadays \u2013 with Williams also recently singing along to Morrissey\u2019s classic \u2018Suedehead\u2019 on Instagram. Referring to Morrissey\u2019s countless controversial statements, Lycett said of the track: \u201cIt surprised me because it\u2019s really tender. You\u2019re very considerate about him in a way that I wouldn\u2019t be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Robbie replied: \u201cWell, the reason I\u2019m considerate about him is because I\u2019m writing it from the point of view of a stalker. It\u2019s somebody that\u2019s stalking Morrissey and is completely obsessed and in love with him.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DKRXxNYKWbI\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);\">\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Asked how he\u2019s finding the European leg of his Britpop Tour, which Lycett described as \u201cfairly relentless\u201d, Williams replied: \u201cIt is fairly relentless but I am really, really ambitious still and I have a burning desire to be quite good at what I do, which is lucky because people pay good money to come and see me. I am full of purpose; I have a burning desire to not let me down and not let them down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy the applause at the end of the show, it feels like I\u2019m not, so that\u2019s good \u2013 and they might come back!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This led him to announce the gig at the 600-capacity Dingwalls, which will take place on Thursday October 9, the day before the release of \u2018Britpop\u2019. A press release later described it as \u201cthe most intimate show of Robbie\u2019s career\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been told it\u2019s your smallest-ever gig?\u201d Lycett asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSmallest-ever ticketed gig,\u201d Williams corrected him, \u201cbecause there was lot of shows with Take That where it was one man and his dog, and they hadn\u2019t paid to come \u2013 and neither were we! But yeah\u2026 I am going back to the start.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m gonna play the whole of \u2018Life Thru a Lens\u2019 [his 1997 debut solo album] and then I\u2019m gonna play the whole of my new album, too. So it\u2019s lulling them into a false sense of security and then having to do the bit for me. It\u2019s not for them \u2013 it\u2019s for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3885826\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/robbie_williams_2025.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1270\"  \/>Robbie Williams. CREDIT: Jason Hetherington<\/p>\n<p>Lycett noted that it\u2019s been said that \u2018Britpop\u2019 is the album Williams wanted to write and released after he left Take That in 1995, and asked: \u201cIn what way?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, I\u2019ve kind of been musically a bit aimless for a little while,\u201d replied Williams, \u201cbecause I haven\u2019t known, really, what to do. I\u2019ve chased yesterday an awful lot, which happens.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFortunately for me, I was in the pocket for so long and my rise was so long. And then when commercial radio or whatever stops playing you, you think, \u2018Shit! What was it that I did?\u2019 And then you look backwards. I\u2019ve just spent the last 15 years looking backwards.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I just think with this album, if I am gonna look backwards, I might as well just clear the decks, go back to the start and head off from there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At one point, chatting to members of the audience about their memories of the Groucho, Williams \u2013 who was formerly addicted to drugs and alcohol and has been sober for more than 20 years \u2013 quipped: \u201cI\u2019ve forgotten an awful lot about the \u201890s. The \u201890s was a good year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The \u2018Britpop\u2019 album cover features the famous photo of Williams at Glastonbury Festival in 1995, when he donned a red Adidas tracksuit and bleach-blonde hair, with one tooth blacked out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve worn a lot of clothes \u2013 we all have,\u201d Williams stated. \u201cAnd you would think that out of everything I\u2019ve worn, there would be several iconic moments. And it turns out there\u2019s only one\u2026 For some reason, that has stayed in the hearts and minds of quite a few people that have seen it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3885825\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/robbie_britpop_artwork.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\"  \/>Robbie Williams \u2013 \u2018BRITPOP\u2019 artwork<\/p>\n<p>Williams has proved something of a Renaissance man of late, having\u00a0hosted a solo art exhibition, entitled Radical Honesty, at London\u2019s Moco Museum.<\/p>\n<p>Explaining the appeal of his art career, he said: \u201cBack in the day when I used to frequent this place, my modus operandi was nihilism and hedonism, and hedonism just made me fat. I had to do something about that. My whole sobriety was actually based in vanity. There was also gonna be death, too, but it was vanity first, death second.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI realised that I had the kind of makeup and the kind of mind that, left unattended and unguarded, its natural north is to do things that are very, very bad for me. So I have to train my brain to do other things \u2013 like an errant pet. So I create every day, all day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd that has been my modus operandi now\u2026 whether that be music, melody, poetry and\u2026 we\u2019ll call it, loosely, art. It has to exist in a place called \u2018art\u2019. I don\u2019t really see it as art, but the closest thing to it is the art industry.<\/p>\n<p>He also shared a somewhat obscure desire to build hotels that encompass \u201ca universe of entertainment\u201d, adding: \u201cI want the entertainment industry to be someone\u2019s Plan A and Plan B.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Williams is due to release \u2018Human\u2019, the third single from \u2018Britpop\u2019, tomorrow (August 21). \u201c[It\u2019s] a song that I\u2019ve written about AI,\u201d he revealed, \u201cand what we are being told about AI and our fears about AI. We are being told that we are all about to be replaced and we need clothes and we need food, so there\u2019s a chance that we will be removed. Whether it is a prophecy, we shall see\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Before departing the stage, ahead of the album playback, he joked: \u201cAm I paying for the bar? Enjoy!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, it was all but impossible to actually hear \u2018Britpop\u2019 over the din of chattering media types, but it\u2019s clearly very guitar-based, as Williams suggested it would be back in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Although largely fast-paced, the album also features mellower tracks such as one that sees Williams duet with a female singer over melancholic washes of synth and muted, downbeat percussion. There\u2019s also a disco-style track and one on which he sing-raps, while there\u2019s a lyrical callback to 1997\u2019s \u2018Angels\u2019, his biggest hit to date: \u201cIt offers me protection.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last month, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/robbie-williams-exlcusive-british-pop-playlist-me-new-single-spies-britpop-tracklist-3879072\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Williams shared an exclusive \u2018British Pop\u2019 playlist for NME<\/a>, which featured the likes of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/placebo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Placebo<\/a>, Morrissey and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/david-bowie\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">David Bowie<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/robbie-williams-interview-tony-iommi-britpop-oasis-glastonbury-soft-play-3864448\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Speaking to NME about his guitar-heavy new sound<\/a> earlier this summer, Williams revealed: \u201cI was playing it safe and I\u2019ve not been driving my own car. I\u2019ve not had my hands on the wheel through second-thinking myself and guessing what people like. I just wanted to do something that I like.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After recently completing his summer \u2018Britpop\u2019 UK stadium tour as it continues to roll through Europe, Williams will headline Come Together Festival in Newcastle on August 20. <a href=\"https:\/\/ticketmaster-uk.tm7559.net\/c\/2862475\/431519\/7559?sharedid=NME&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ticketmaster.co.uk%2Frobbie-williams-tickets%2Fartist%2F783976\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Visit here for tickets and more information<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Williams will release \u2018Britpop\u2019 on October 10. Pre-order it <a href=\"https:\/\/robbiewilliams.com\/collections\/britpop?srsltid=AfmBOopeVtPCA8JpDBKXqEHYMfzrjlneLOVbySdQZOAjOKi2OyX8BB9b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>. Fans who pre-order the album will receive early access to future UK 2025 live dates<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robbie Williams has revealed that his new album \u2018Britpop\u2019 features a co-write with former Take That bandmate Gary&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[9765,434,18,117,19,17,4513],"class_list":{"0":"post-12166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-britpop","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-pop"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}