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Robbie Williams, 16 Number Ones, and the Long Goodbye to Cool Britannia · Mark and Pete

• 0:10
  Robbie Williams beats The Beatles.
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  Welcome to Mark and Pete and today we're confronting A
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  statistical fact that feels heretical.
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  It's to do with Robbie Williams and The Beatles.
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  Welcome to Mark and Pete. 2 blokes with half an opinion.
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  Now here's our first thought. If you beat a Beatles record
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  when your latest album has sold out, you can relax after A Hard
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  Day's Night and then twist and shout, Well, congratulations,
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  Robbie Williams. Yes, the pop star has secured a
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  major milestone in the UK album chart and he has surpassed The
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  Beatles to become the only artist with the most number of
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  albums in chart history, 16 in total.
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  Now Mr. Pete, I would say that this is an impressive record
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  when you think about the standards in pop music ever ever
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  being records being broken all over the world, but this is one
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  that really sort of captures my attention.
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  What say you about Robbie Williams and his music and this
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  particular achievement? Well, as you know, I'm a big fan
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  of Robbie Williams. Well, I'm a big fan of everyone
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  we talk about on this show. But yeah, Robbie Williams really
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  has managed to keep keep the albums coming.
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  I was going to say churn out the albums.
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  That's perhaps a little bit unkind, but he he has got his
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  his finger on what's going to be popular and not, well, not being
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  extremely innovative. He has he's managed just one to
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  produce high quality merchandise in his music and secondly to to
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  consistently keep it going. If The Beatles had kept going
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  longer, maybe they wouldn't wouldn't be in this position now
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  being being toppled from the peak of number of albums at #1
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  now just just a slight comment here about it, about us, about
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  our story, that is it's not actually that important, but
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  just leave that to the side. I think it might be to Robbie
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  Williams. But it is a record and it does
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  say something about culture today, I'm sure.
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  Well, it does. And what here's the thing now
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  he, he, when he was actually interviewed about this, once he
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  knew that he'd achieved that major milestone, he came up with
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  something which I thought was quite poetic.
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  But this is what he said. He said he was unbelievable,
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  absolutely unbelievable. But he said this is Robbie
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  Williams speaking. I've always said my success has
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  been the equivalent of stretching an elastic band from
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  Stoke on Trent to the Moon. Well, I reckon the elastic band
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  just got longer and now it's orbiting Venus.
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  Now what was more important, and this is the bit that caught my
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  attention, he added. It's just sensational.
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  What's what's happened? I feel like the Forrest Gump of
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  pop as the old oh Robbie Williams has a strange and
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  slightly quirky sense of humour. Here's the thing.
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  Here's my take on this now I've. I actually bought some of his
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  albums when he first started as a solo artist as from those
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  people who still don't know who Robbie Williams is.
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  He started his career with the pop group Take That in the early
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  90s and of course he left in the late 90s to go through.
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  And what he launched his solo clear career was was through the
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  well known album Life Through a Lens, which again, of course was
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  a great success. He then went on to have lots of
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  singles success, but the albums are something where he's clearly
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  prospered. Now here's the thing, you know,
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  for a guy who's still very active, who knows, maybe he
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  could exceed this because possibly 16 may go to 17 and
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  beyond. So Mr. Pete, I ask you, how far
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  can he go? How far can he stretch?
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  I think he can do it again. Has he been in business though?
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  When you say you said early 90s though, so.
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  Well, he started in the early 90s because of course he was a
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  teenager. But yes, I mean, I guess he's
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  he's, he's always still young enough.
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  Still young enough, I think. But my point is that it's not
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  really not really comparing like with like with the poor old
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  Beatles who broke. Up No.
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  Yes. But although their albums I
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  guess keep selling, yeah, I think, well, I think he's got
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  another album in in him. That's what I think.
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  Like I think he could push it to 17, but can, can he go further
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  than that? I think maybe because his style
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  I think is coming back. I think that we we had a sort of
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  nadir of, you know, scraping the bottom of the bowel the of of
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  pop music when rap, which isn't really music, it's just pretend
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  it's someone talking over music is just saying that to try and
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  get some comments on this episode.
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  I realise that it's, it's a it's a popular musical form, not
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  really to my taste, but Robbie, Robbie Williams has has, I think
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  more of a what has generally been.
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  So we talk over time, a mainstream appeal and and so it
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  it was perhaps inevitable that he would be longer lived and
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  actually come back. I think that if you, I mean,
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  you're more afraid with the the latest charts than I am, but
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  would would that be a reasonable analysis as I see well.
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  I. Would.
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  Well, I've got something. Else singing is coming back to.
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  Well, I hope that Robbie Williams will continue his
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  career because I think he offers something a little bit different
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  Now. What's interesting is this
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  statistic and I'm sure that it's in in his mind from a business
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  point of view, the star himself has had 21 number one albums if
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  you include Take That. So this is key.
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  So obviously he's had 16 on his own.
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  If you add them all up, then comes to another five with 21.
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  Now here's the thing. There's somebody called Sir Paul
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  McCartney and Sir Paul McCartney with The Beatles and Paul
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  McCartney and with Wings and with everyone has got 23 number
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  one albums. Now.
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  The thing here is he's not far away for becoming an all time
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  number one album artist. And I think that, you know, for
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  somebody like that, how a way he wishes to develop his musical
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  career could really sort of pave the way.
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  And who knows, maybe in time people will say Paul McCartney.
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  Who? Yes, well, they might say that,
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  but I I think that's interesting.
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  You managed to drag it back from, you know, talking about
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  the the culture and how this is affecting his career to, you
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  know, how's he going to win this one, which I think is a good way
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  of looking. And yeah.
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  I think he should do a compilation album of his version
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  of The Beatles. Yeah, two or three times over.
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  And I think he might get there. No, of course he.
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  Did a well received sort of American standards or jazz album
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  didn't. He.
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  He did he. Could sort of break into, Could
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  you? Certainly.
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  It was swing both ways. Yes, I've heard that too.
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  But yeah, he yes, he could certainly take on take a take
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  notes from the great Cliff Richard of on longevity and, you
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  know. Yeah.
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  Different genres, yes. So, so that's Robbie Williams.
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  We're big fans, as you may have heard of, of Robbie Williams and
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  looking forward to him maybe gaining supremacy over the total
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  number of almonds, which whether they're in a group or solo that
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  that Paul McCartney has, you see.
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  But, and I think it may be possible.
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  It's not. It's not a scandal though to say
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  that Robbie Williams it's has more popular than The Beatles
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  over time. It's just a lesson because if
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  you look back, we we think about The Beatles being in the past
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  and we think the times were better then, but maybe the music
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  of today really is better.