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Williams admits disappointment when he fell off the Radio 1 playlist last year

By | Published on Monday 14 October 2013

Robbie Williams

Robbie Williams has admitted he was “gutted” when Radio 1 decided to stop playlisting his groovy pop tunes last year on account of him being a bit past it for the BBC station’s youth demographic (though not so past it that he prevented a Dizzee Rascal track he guested on from getting played by the station earlier this summer).

As you may recall, when asked about the playlisting decision regards Williams’ track ‘Candy’ last November, Radio 1’s breakfast show host Nick Grimshaw told Channel 5 News that while he might rate Williams’ music personally, he wasn’t sure the singer was especially “relevant” to Radio 1’s core audience.

Speaking at a recording of Radio 4’s ‘Mastertapes’ last week, Williams admitted that losing out on a spot on Radio 1’s playlist, and the resulting exposure that airplay ensures, was disappointing, even for a veteran pop star like himself.

He told the show: “I’m very ambitious. So when Radio 1 goes and is taken away from you, a huge bit of your arsenal goes. It’s your main oxygen to get your stuff out there”.

In the candid chat, Williams also admitted that he and other superstar singers do get jealous when they see younger artists taking over as the biggest acts on the planet. Discussing the current popularity of One Direction and especially Harry Styles, he mused: “He’s talented, he’s good-looking. He could have it away. And I’ll be sat here saying, ‘Damn him'”.

He went on: “Everybody who’s anybody has been competitive and over-sensitive and a bit silly. Look at Paul McCartney, look at Elton John. They’re jealous of Justin Timberlake. I’m sure they were jealous of me when I was in my imperial phase”.

‘Mastertapes’ returns to Radio 4 on 11 Nov, a week ahead of the release of Williams’ new album ‘Swings Both Ways’. Meanwhile, if you thought this was an excuse to reopen the debate as to whether Radio 1 was right to drop Williams from its playlist, remember CMU Editor Andy Malt closed that discussion and we all agreed it was.



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