CityLife

It's sad, or laughable depending on your standpoint, that Robbie's once slyly smug and subtly disrespectful attitude to his former band and colleagues appears to be a case of 'the arses you kick on the way up will be the ones you have to kiss on your way down'. Take That have worked very very hard to recreate themselves as a relevant and contemporary musical force and their classy 'adult' pop has not only won a whole new legion of fans but their rebirth is genuinely attractive to their original fans who lets face it are a lot older now and expect something a little more mature. Unlike Robbie who, following his head swelling multi-million pound deal and dismissal of musical mentor, arranger and co-songwriter Guy Chambers over a disagreement concerning exclusivity (ie Guy rightly wanted to work with other people - not just Williams), has seen his success dwindle due to his mostly failed and vague attempts to fashion himself as some sort of British Timberlake with bewilderingly peurile results - Rudebox anyone? <br /> When you see Take That's stage show now, you witness evidence of a creatively unified and tightly knitted four-piece where each member has something unique but appropriate to bring to the performance. To have some cretinous balloon leaping around vying for as much attention as possible like in the old days ('ooh look at me and my dyed red skinhead, isn't it rebellious') would be to undo all the time and effort Gary, Mark, Howard and Jason have spent in the last few years. A pointlessly charitible act executed only for the sake of appeasing a spent and irritatingly needful force. I imagine the fans arn't that bothered either.<br /> Robbie was alwasy 'too big' for Take That and now ironically, there just isn't room for him.

Thank god for that, dont think I could stand listening to mad robbie's screeching.