BBC News | MUSIC | Robbie to reinvent himself

Robbie Williams is to cast off the image which has made him such a successful entertainer.

I'm everywhere. It must be really boring for people

Robbie Williams
Speaking to BBC Radio One at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, Williams said he intended to reinvent himself in an as-yet undisclosed fashion, with a new style of music.

"I'm really bored with Robbie. So yeah, there will be a new style of music hopefully. After November I'm just gonna kill him off."

He added: "I'm everywhere. It must be really boring for people."

Robbie's new guise could be similar to that of singer Frank Sinatra. Williams intends to release an album of Sinatra-esque big band cover songs before his next CD of original material in 2003.

Williams has already covered Sinatra's Have you Met Miss Jones? and often performs My Way as a concert encore.

Struggle

He also talked about needing to take time out from the punishing concert schedule to rediscover himself.

"I've got to go away. I really have. I need to go off and take a year off. Because I need to take time off to get my confidence back and I just need to take time off to find out who the hell I am," Williams said.

Robbie Williams may have a confident swagger on stage but every concert he does is a struggle to get through, he says.

Having just entertained 60,000 people at Roskilde, Europe's biggest music festival, Robbie told Radio One: "I find doing gigs really traumatic and it's a struggle to get through most of them. Each day comes and each day goes and they all seem really blurred.

"I know that I do want to be in the music industry. I'm just scared, that's all."

Frank Sinatra
Robbie has said that Sinatra is an idol
Williams's next UK single release will be a double A-side featuring The Road To Mandalay - not a cover of Sinatra's song of the same name - and new song Eternity.

A 20-minute film directed by Vaughan Arnell, the man responsible for the controversial Rock DJ video, has been aired on Channel 4 to accompany the release.

The film, described by Arnell as "Love Story meets The Sweeney head on", has perplexed some fans with unusual dialogue and scenes.

Robbie's summer tour, which begins in Dublin on 6 July, has been described as one of the fastest-selling stadium tours of all time.

He will be supported by Toploader and 80s stars ABC, with European and Australasian dates to follow later in the year.


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