In the past five years, Robbie Williams has made headlines for his hilarious neighborhood disputes. Williams lives in Holland Park, the bud of Kensington , and years ago it was proposed, like many wealthy residents of the area, to dig a couple more plants in his mansion to build a pool. Some plans that his neighbor, the rock star Jimmy Page , opposed, for fear that the bulldozers caused damage to his nineteenth-century mansion located a few meters away.
And what did the former Take That do to file rough edges with the legendary guitarist of Led Zeppelin? Put on all rags Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Pink Floyd (the competition of Led Zeppelin) and stroll through the garden with a wig and a cushion under the shirt as a beer belly in what was clearly intended to be a cruel mockery of Robert Plant, the former leader of Led Zeppelin, with whom Page, in reality, does not get along especially well. So are the prankster's mischief, incorrigible and, despite everything, irresistibly charming Williams.
Anyone would think that Williams has no choice and that he will never mature and that may be the key to his undeniable success. But it is on the way. The former Take That has left behind several rehabilitation processes and trips to the Nevada desert in search of UFOs for a more familiar life (he is the father of three children) between Los Angeles and London. Now he returns to the record label with a somewhat exotic maneuver for these cynical times but of undoubted commercial hook: a carol disk.
The Christmas present lands on November 22 on the entire planet with a mission as innocent as necessary: enjoy Christmas and forget everything else. "I really wanted to make a carol record," explains the artist in an interview with EL MUNDO. «I have dedicated the last three years to this project. It is a dream come true. Why carols? Because I would like to write that kind of song that becomes a classic, that stays there forever and comes back every year, whatever happens, for the same dates, ”he confesses.
Nostalgia is a value that emerges in times of crisis and you just have to see the album cover to check it. In it, Williams appears wearing a Victorian cape and top hat to Mr. Scrooge on a set that seems to have come out of a story by Charles Dickens. The Christmas present will be released in CD format, but also on vinyl and even on cassette, analog morriña in its purest form. «I think it's cool to get something that is a bit retro, that makes people think of the good old days . That's what the songs on the album are, which aspire to be time machines that transport us to better times, ”he says.
The album is double: one part is dedicated to classics ( Christmas past ) and the other, to new songs ( Christmas present ), with stellar collaborations with Jamie Cullum, Rod Stewart and Poppa Pete , which is none other than his father, the endearing Pete Conway, which Williams usually takes to the stage at concerts and with which he has recorded a song for the first time. Among the versions there is everything: Christmas classics like Let it snow !, Santa baby (in duet with the German Helene Fischer) and a version of the Merry Xmas everybody of the glam band Slade, which Williams has taken to a place where he feels sure: the playful swing , with accompaniment orchestra and he in the role of crooner , with Dean Martin moments and 100% Williams moments.
It is not the first time he dives in the past: in the album Swing when you're winning , the British reviewed the 50s and 60s classics with which he has always explained that he grew up. If in that record he dared to mark himself a duet with Sinatra himself in the sacrosanct It was a very good year and years ago convinced Nicole Kidman to sing with him Something stupid , running as a modern Lee Hazlewood (no, the ego of Williams knows no limits), in this Christmas album the recipe is very similar: good trumpets and bells, no missing bells, children's choirs that play the fiber , orchestral power and a production with moments of grandeur worthy of the deliciously excessive Phil Spector. The formula appears on themes such as Christmas (Baby, please, come home) , a duet with Bryan Adams, who seems to be leaving Motown. «All those songs of the 50s, 60s and 70s are the sound that shaped my childhood. All the great Christmas carols we heard already existed in the 80s and 90s. If you stop to think about it, the last great Christmas song is All I want for Christmas is you , by Mariah Carey », he reflects.
There are also more thug songs, like Happy Birthday, Jesus Christ ("If Monty Phyton had written me a song, it would be that") or Let's not go shopping , a fun anti-consumer plea. «It's a song that I composed with my Stoke-on-Trent friends, where I come from. I am very proud to come from a small city and I am especially excited that something done on a site on such a small scale becomes something that will reach a mass audience. Not buying at Christmas is something I share with many people. I am lucky that now my wife does the shopping for me ».
In the interview it is forbidden to ask questions about his private life and Brexit, although Williams has no problem talking about his family. «The incredible thing that I discovered as a father is that when Christmas comes, Santa Claus is real again. I worry that children discover that Santa is not real but he shouldn't because, in reality, Santa is real. It exists in all of us ». And he adds: «My Christmas memories of childhood are very warm and special, I always received great gifts and I can still see chestnuts roasting in the fire in my yard, as in the Nat King Cole song . It is a very special part of the year. Love, connection, creating memories for the future is something that will never go out of style. It is what we need to survive. I think it is as necessary now as in the year 1300 », he concludes.
«What if I am religious? Look, the really difficult thing is to compose a song that resists time and remains in the future, that really touches the fiber of people, that penetrates into their lives indelibly. No matter the way in which that illumination appears, what it looks like or how the god of music manifests you to get that gold nugget . Christmas ambition
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