The definitive account of 21st-century stardom.Even if you don't have the slightest interest in Robbie Williams - and I don't - this is still one of the great rock documents of our time. It is about what it feels like to be a pop star, to live inside the claustrophobia of fame.
Robbie Williams seems to have lost all contact with normal life when he joined Take That at l6. Since then he has been virtually imprisoned by fans, stalkers and paparazzi. No wonder, then, that he seems to have gone a little crazy - tearing his clothes off in public, peeing in wastepaper bins, and appearing for one interview dressed in bra, G-string, and fishnet tights.
His problem is that when he is not performing, he really has no idea what to do. There is no question of him, ever, sitting alone in a room - he is constantly surrounded by a straggling, largely male, entourage. Chris Heath joined the circus four years ago when Robbie had just moved to Los Angeles; he then followed him at home and on tour for 18 months.
He warns at the outset that readers might find Robbie 'a needy, insecure, contradictory egomaniac' and you can say that in spades, but it doesn't matter. This book could be about any pop star and it would be still be great.
Lynn Barber
