Take That liked to relax after a gig by enjoying “a few special rollies”, their former PR guru has revealed.
Nicki Chapman was the boyband’s record industry plugger before she forged a telly presenting career. In her new memoir, she admitted she panicked after leaving Robbie Williams at a showbiz booze-up and then he couldn’t be stirred the next morning.
She said: “Later on everyone was joking about it and ribbing him. All I could think was how I’d felt when I first saw him, when I opened that door and saw his motionless body.
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“There is high jinks and all of that, I’ve always known the boys occasionally enjoy a few a special rollies after a gig. But this wasn’t funny.”
In her book So Tell Me What You Want, Nicki told how Robbie had been hellraising after the MTV Europe Awards in Berlin. She said: “It still gives me the shivers thinking about it. I thought for a moment that we might have lost him.
“We were all there the day before for rehearsals and afterwards we went for a few drinks, as you do.
“It carried on a little longer than usual, everyone was in high spirits and buzzing from seeing so many other stars around.
“After a while most of the boys left and went to bed, so it ended up just Robbie, Michael Hutchence, Helena Christensen, Naomi Campbell and a whole group of others in the hotel bar. Oh, and me.
“I was enjoying myself, I don’t often get to hang out with supermodels, but I was also aware I had to keep an eye on Robbie.
“He was playing with the grown-ups, and they were partying hard.”
Nicki said that Robbie ended up worse for wear after staying up late long after she went to bed.
She added: “I knew some of them were probably doing God knows what, as they were all wired while I was getting more and more sleepy.
“By 4am I said to Robbie: ‘I’m going to bed, Rob.’ He said: ‘No, no, no, Nicki, don’t leave, don’t leave, don’t leave.’ He was slurring his words and his eyes were all over the place.
(Image: Nicki Chapman/PA)
“The next morning I went down to join the boys at rehearsals. No Robbie, and no one knew where he was.
“The security guys said they saw him into his room, so he had to be in there. The reasons why he might not be answering were flashing through my mind.
“After some more fruitless hammering, I went down to reception and got a spare key. Opening the door, the sight that greeted me was not pretty.
“Robbie was flat on his back, out like a light, still fully dressed, a sheen of sweat all over him. Cigarette ends everywhere, and I hate to think what else was lying around.
“He also reeked of booze. This was the biggest TV show of their lives – millions and millions of people, the whole of Europe and America. And this boy was out for the count.
“I checked he was breathing. He was, praise be! It’s easy to pass this kind of thing off as rock ’n’ roll, but he was so young and I kept imagining what I’d have to tell everyone if he had overdosed. I couldn’t bear to think about it.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
