Baby snacks ‘not needed’
GIVING tots under 12 months old snacks between feeds could turn them into adult grazers.
A University of Glasgow study said babies “do not need them” and highlighted a “worrying” rise in the number of commercial baby snacks, from 42 in 2013 to 185 in 2019.
They were the biggest British band since The Beatles. But on July 17, 1995, one member decided that all the attention, fame and glory was simply too much.
Robbie Williams made the on-thespot decision to leave the rehearsal room, the world tour and Take That.
So, after three years of hard graft, he found himself being driven home alone.
His departure was such a shock that it made headlines around the world,.
Hundreds of thousands of fans were so distraught that the Samaritans set up dedicated suicide helplines, and teen magazines were besieged with calls.
Robbie has since said he was brimming with misplaced hostility for bandmate Gary Barlow but his real bogeyman was manager Nigel Martin-Smith.
For years they had their legal wrangles, and Robbie even later sang about wanting to “gouge” his eyes out.
But now, 25 years later, Nigel, the man behind the band’s creation, reveals his regrets about Robbie, 46, leaving and tells how he longs to see him again.
He says he has been told that Robbie nearly returned to the band the next month, and was sitting in a car outside their concert in Manchester, deciding whether to ask for his old place back.
Nigel, 62, says: “I was gutted when he left. I knew it was the beginning of the end. Of course I would want him to stay – Take That was huge and the last thing I wanted was for him to leave the band.
“But it was out of my control.”
Robbie’s behaviour had been spiralling for months. Still just 21, the Stoke-on-Trent-born star had been in the band since he was 16. It had been a hugely successful but relentless ride, and the only way he could handle “200 girls outside the house every night” was by partying.
It didn’t help that he was also enamoured by the Britpop scene.
So, as Robbie’s story goes, Take That were in the middle of their 31-date Nobody Else world tour, he was drinking too much and struggling in rehearsals, and decided he wouldn’t tour again.
Shortly afterwards, bandmate Jason Orange sat him down in the rehearsal room before they were due to play Manchester and said if he was going to leave, they all thought it was best he left then. Robbie walked out of the door. Nigel remembers: “He didn’t speak to me, he just said something like: ‘That’s it then, I’ll go’ and left. I told the rest of the band to say nothing to anyone while I tried to get hold of Rob to see if he really wanted to do this. Then he issued a press release saying he’d left the band – so there was no going back.”
It was then that the fans turned hysterical. They were turning up at concerts, screaming out for Robbie.
Nigel says: “I was surprised. I knew the band was big, but the reaction to Rob leaving was mad.
“On the tour that followed, we did a tribute to Rob when the band sang Back For Good. The fans were weeping and crying out his name.”
But Nigel has since learned that Robbie considering returning. He says: “I’ve been told by a close mutual friend who now works with Simon Cowell that whilst this was going on in Manchester, Robbie was in his car outside the arena wondering if he should come in and talk to the band. If only I’d known.”
The months and years after Robbie left were mixed. He had huge success with 1997’s Angels, and undoubtedly became the biggest solo star in the country with a string of hits such as Let Me Entertain You and Rock DJ. Meanwhile, Take That split in February 1996. But
NIGEL MARTIN-SMITH ON ROBBIE QUITTING BAND
Robbie was outside the concert, wondering if he should ask to rejoin