Robbie's song Guy

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

Without Guy Chambers, Robbie Williams might well be down the dole queue.

The former member of English rustic rock bands the Waterboys and World Party was put together with Williams in 1997 by Williams' management after he had left boy band Take That and started earning a reputation as a carouser and likely candidate for pop oblivion.

Chambers had had a fleeting try at fronting his own band, the Lemon Trees, but soon realised he wasn't cut out for it: "I needed to find a partner to be the pop star I couldn't be, I suppose."

Despite their 10-year age gap and musical differences, they hit if off and started writing songs and recording, with Chambers as a producer. Seven million albums later, Chambers also tours with Williams' band as musical director, keyboard player and occasional guitarist.

A quietly spoken married man and father of two, Chambers is undoubtedly now one of the highest earners in the British pop business.

Williams' last album, Sing When You're Winning, carried the dedication: "To Guy Chambers who is as much Robbie as I am."

Considering your backgrounds, putting you two together seems very odd.

I had worked with lots of different people over the years. I'm a lot older than him I've worked with some oddballs in the past and so meeting someone like Rob I was quite willing to accept him and all his quirks.
He had more quirks then than he has now. He was still drinking then, and the drugs. I just thought he was immensely talented from the word go. What a great voice, and his lyrics are really funny and daring for a pop star - for that is what he was then, he was a pop star, and he is now a rock star.

You had a certain amount of credibility from your background and he couldn't have had less.

Yeah, kind of. I had a certain amount of credibility, but I hadn't sold any records, so it was a funny mixture. It was somebody who had sold an awesome amount of records and me.

We are very different and we complement each other. His weaknesses are my strengths and vice-versa.

Having you as a partner, has that meant in a way that in his darker periods he hasn't needed to take responsibility for his creative side?

That's one way of looking at it. We just write together in the way we talk to one another, in a way. Obviously we have our most intense conversations when we're writing. Things come out about how he is feeling, most of the songs are about how he is feeling at that point. He is very honest.

There are some pronounced magpie tendencies to your songs, like Supreme and Rock DJ.

Yeah. Some of our best songs use other people's as an inspiration Rock DJ being a prime example - the inspiration was a Barry White song. Being a Barry White song makes it sexy.

And She's the One had a former life as a World Party song.

It was my idea to play the track to him. He said, "That's a great track - should we cover it?" and I said yes immediately. I didn't have any attitude or chip on my shoulder about it. I am not that sort of person. It kept Karl [Wallinger, World Party's chief songwriter] in school fees for his children for about five years.

There's a story about Lennon and McCartney saying "Let's write a house. Let's write a car." Are you two like that?

Not really. We do tend to be aware when we have finished something really commercial that it is commercial and we jump around the room a lot. We probably have said something like that, but he was used to big hits before I was. He had eight number ones. He had confidence from the word go that he would be number one again. Whereas me, I never had a number one. It all seemed miles away until it actually happened. And you want to write more - it's very addictive.

From the outside it's an odd partnership and a bit old-fashioned. And most writer producers would stay at home.

It is old-fashioned. And I do produce the records too, but I have to be with him because we write together on the road. We've written two songs on this tour, so you've got to be with him all the time because you never know, he may want to write in a minute or could be in the mood at any possible time.

Plus I enjoy touring anyway. I learn a lot on tour about what goes down when we're in front of the crowd. Basically, certain cliches work better than others and I think you can stagnate in the studio environment.

Does he drive you nuts?

No, he doesn't. He used to, but he's easier to deal with these days since he's clean, 11 months clean. He's a great inspiration, an amazing person and a lot of fun

What do you think when you pick up a tabloid at home and he's splashed across the page?

Normally I laugh. It's something stupid usually. If it's something derogatory, then I feel the pain for him and I hope he hasn't seen it. He doesn't normally read any press, so he doesn't normally read or hear about it.

Are you a partnership of equals?

Er, I'd like to think so, yeah. We never really get to that. I suppose he has the last say about what a song gets used for. Sometimes I would say, "That song is too good to be a B-side," and we'll have a little argument about that.

When we're actually writing the song we just get on with writing with it and see what happens to it. I think we're pretty equal. That is why it works. We are just completely different. Utterly utterly different.