Robbie Williams: Angels & Demons

by Paul Scott

With a record–breaking $140 million–deal with EMI and a new home in Los Angeles, Britain’s King of Pop is at the top of his game. Journalist Paul Scott looks at his often–troubled life and his rise to superstardom.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Music

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Soho_Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

My wife is crazy about everything Robbie Williams. She was never that big a Take That fan, as far as I can tell, but our various storage units each contain something from Robbie Williams; the DVD shelves, the CD shelves and the bookshelves all have something to do with Robbie she enjoys. There is one exception, however, in all this. One particular book about Robbie Williams, namely Paul Scott’s “Angels & Demons”. I’m not sure whether her ire is reserved for this one due to its 2003 publication leaving it horribly out of date now, or due to the writing style, or just because it’s an unauthorised biography – a type of book I’ve had issues with in the past.

The book briefly touches on his younger days, particularly where it relates to his relationship with his father, but mostly focuses on Williams finding his love of performing and then joining Take That. However, it really kicks into gear when he splits from Take That and launches his solo career and the battles with alcohol, drugs and famous girlfriends that made him tabloid fodder for so many years. Despite all these issues, Williams was to sign a then record £80 million recording contract with EMI and release his 2002 album “Escapology” and it is at this point the book ends.

The book has everything I would expect to see in an unauthorised biography. It’s very low on insight, but high on drama and tabloid style reporting which, given that the author is a former Sunday Mirror Showbusiness Editor, should come as no surprise. There are plenty of comments from people associated with Robbie Williams, but the way things are written doesn’t fill you with confidence that any of those words were spoken to the author himself, except possibly as part of his former employment as a journalist. What research has been done appears to have been done in some detail, but also feels as if it’s been done at arms’ length, as that was about as close as the author could get.

The feeling you end up with is that the book’s title is something of a misnomer. Apart from the song title, the angels don’t get a look in here. This is a book that is focussed almost entirely on Robbie Williams’ demons. There is far more reportage about how often he fell off his various wagons and very little about his attempts to get and stay clean. When Williams is struggling with how he is viewed and is talking about how much he hates being on stage, this is far more likely to make these pages than the huge success the show he might just have done was. Only when he was breaking records for the size of the crowds or the rapidity of ticket sales does that seem to be worthy of mention.

To be fair, Paul Scott, the author has played to his strengths here. He has realised that his strength is in tabloid reporting and that is all he has allowed to reach the page. He knows that his readership will be largely the ones who used to dredge his showbusiness pages looking for stories about Robbie Williams and so he has given them exactly the same stories, written in exactly the same language, that they would have found first time around. So if you’re a fan of that kind of journalism and who enjoys seeing a celebrity brought low and then kicked a couple of times while they’re down, this is very much the book for you.

This is a simply written book and, as a result, quite readable and fast moving. But it is a fast food meal of a book, one that may satisfy a need, but does so only briefly and leaves you hungry again quite soon after. For those who prefer more in depth information or who would prefer to know more about what made Robbie Williams tick, this certainly isn’t the book for you. Indeed, for those who are fans of the modern Robbie Williams, this is now so far out of date as to be worthless as his life has changed quite a lot since he was this Robbie Williams and so something more recent, even if it is written in this same style, would be a more worthwhile read, if not a better one.

[Roselyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this in depth review of Robbie's rise to fame from Take That, the struggles and demons he faced along the way and his battle with past band members, alcohol and drugs during his early career. It was good to read that he successfully overcame these to become the great entertainer he is today, having settled down, become clean. It was very descriptive in places and an enjoyable and easy read.

[Redfox5 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does a good job of looking at both sides. From things Robbie himself has said and things the media has said. From someone who likes some of his songs but doesn't own an album I found this not so interesting as alot of things about him had been covered in 'Feel'. I begining to think Robbie is a little unhinged. I liked reading about his past relationships as this is the sort of celebrity gossip I like to read. The more people mention Geri in books, the more I think she is a massive publicity whore. This book is worth reading if you are a massive Robbie fan but if you've read any other books on him recently then I wouldn't bother.