ROBBIE WILLIAMS: SINGING & WINNING

He was born Robert Peter Williams in Stoke-on-Trent on February 13, 1974.

His parents divorced in 1977, resulting in Robbie pretty much growing up with his mother Janet and stepsister Sally with trips to his father Pete Conway (a comedian and singer who was entertainments manager at Carmarthen Bay Holiday Village, South Wales) for summer holidays, inheriting something of his desire to perform.

Robbie was 16 and staying with his father when his mother rang to say the boy-band he’d auditioned for had accepted him. It was 1990 and you could say he has never come home since he got the Take That gig.

He left the biggest boy-band in history in 1995 to pursue a highly successful solo career — seven UK No 1 singles, 17 Brit awards, a record deal worth millions.

Take That’s squeaky-clean image was the antithesis of Robbie’s attitude. He hung out with ultimate bad boy Liam Gallagher at Glastonbury in 1995 and appeared on the cover of The Face magazine in 1998 with blood trickling out of his nose — a grim in-joke about his cocaine use. He was admitted to rehab in 2007.

Angels, the single from his debut solo album Life Thru A Lens in 1997, sold almost one million copies. He has released other similarly sublime creations like Millennium in 1998, Kids in 2000 and Feel in 2002.