This week on The Collection, we talk Robbie Williams. With the news of a new album and some new songs including one with Tony Iommi, I thought let’s go back to the beginning and talk about his debut ‘Life Thru A Lens”. I have two box sets of that album. One is a 4CD set and the other is 7 – 7″ Singles Box Sox Set. We go through it all and talk about the album and the songs. If you remember songs like “Angels”, “Let Me Entertain You” and “Ego a Go Go”, then come along for the ride.
So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, July 14, 2025 at 7pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
After a very tumultuous time in the boy band Take That, Robbie left the group, recorded an album and went in to rehab. Robbie’s drug problem and ego problem was too much for Take That. He was tired of his creative input being ignored and was ready to branch out on his own. And branch out he did. His first album, ‘Life Thru a Lens’ was released on September 29, 1997 and though it started off slow, it would go on to great heights hitting #1 on the UK charts and selling over 3 million copies in Europe.
Now, we peasants here in the States, knew nothing about Robbie and sadly that would continue throughout most of his career. He had some moderate success with a few songs, but for the most part, the U.S. missed out on a hugely talented guy. I’m glad to say, I didn’t miss out. I discovered him a few years later with the songs “Millennium” and “Rock DJ” and I was hooked. But we aren’t here to talk about the albums those songs were on. Nope. We are here to talk about the 25th Anniversary Edition of his debut album, ‘Life Thru a Lens’ and what a box set he put together. This box set I bought when Udiscovermusic.com had a 50% off sale and I couldn’t pass it up.
What we get with this Box Set are not one, but 7 different 7″ singles. There are so many great songs on here. While Take That was pretty much ballads, Robbie was all Britpop! And he does it pretty fucking well. Not only do you have the five great singles of “Old Before I Die” (written with Desmond Child and The Hooter’s own Eric Bazillian), “Lazy Days”, “South of the Border”, the beautiful ballad”Angels” as well as the Queen-esque “Let Me Entertain You”. All fantastic songs, but the best song on here wasn’t even a single which is the angry, funtastic song “Ego A Go Go”. The box set even has the hidden track “Hello Sir” which is Robbie reciting a poem telling off an old teacher who told him he wouldn’t amount to anything…boy was he wrong. You get the whole album over the singles plus 2 bonus tracks all in the order of the album. Some day I’ll do a proper review of it, but for now, these are the Seven Singles.
In 2002, Robbie was prepping the release of his new album ‘Escapology’. To help promote the album, he recorded a show filmed live in the Pinewood Studios for a television broadcast. The general public was able to buy it when the DVD was released in March 2003. The show contained songs from his upcoming album as well as a ton of hits and some of his Swing songs. It did fairly well as far as video releases go selling well over 100,000 copies worldwide. I was out at a place called 2nd & Charles and saw this and had to grab it. I think I got it for only around $2.50 and it is worth way more than that in my book. I am sitting here with it cranked on the 5.1 surround sound on a 65 inch TV and it sounds and looks amazing.
The show opens with a performance of “Trouble/Handsome Man” which happens to be the same songs that Elvis Presley opened with for his ’68 Comeback Special which Robbie has recreated the same stage set up except it has a big “RW” rather than an “Elvis” sign. When he goes out in front of the crowd it is a small round stage in the middle of the crowd with only Robbie and the bad was off behind the crowd. When he runs out and does “Rock DJ”, his energy and the crowd is electric. This was the firs time he had been on stage in 12 months.
“Strong” is up next and up on the screen comes the words to the chorus with a bouncing ball so you can all sing along during the chorus. He is interacting with the crowd poking fun at them with a change in the lyrics. He’s having a ton of fun and it shows. Then he played the song he originally sent to Tom Jones, but he changed his mind and did it himself. It is called “Something Beautiful” off the new album. The crowd clapped, the piano’s ivories were tickled and Robbie sang it wonderfully. And if that wasn’t good enough, he played one of my favorite songs of his called “Feel”. It is a new song and he joked if anyone was singing it, they obviously downloaded it from the internet illegally. They cut to a pre-recorded clip of him doing the song in front of the giant “RW”. It is a great live version and the piano and percussion on it are fantastic. Still my favorite song.
After a very tumultuous time in the boy band Take That, Robbie left the group, recorded an album and went in to rehab. Robbie’s drug problem and ego problem was too much for Take That. He was tired of his creative input being ignored and was ready to branch out on his own. And branch out he did. His first album, ‘Life Thru a Lens’ was released on September 29, 1997 and though it started off slow, it would go on to great heights hitting #1 on the UK charts and selling over 3 million copies in Europe.
Now, we peasants here in the States, knew nothing about Robbie and sadly that would continue throughout most of his career. He had some moderate success with a few songs, but for the most part, the U.S. missed on on a hugely talented guy. I’m glad to say, I didn’t miss out. I discovered him a few years later with the songs “Millennium” and “Rock DJ” and I was hooked. But we aren’t here to talk about the albums those songs were on. Nope. We are here to talk about the 25th Anniversary Edition of his debut album, ‘Life Thru a Lens’ and what a box set he put together.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 