The pop star and comedian discuss their artwork, social media and how Williams came of age in a classic Birmingham club
Joe Lycett and Robbie Williams were brought together by Instagram. Last August, Williams posted a painting of a small, saintly looking child (not him), and captioned it with an account of how he had once made the mistake of reading the comments below a Mail Online piece. “It was hellish,” he wrote. “The person (me) they were describing was the most horrendous person that ever walked the planet. I was crestfallen.” At this point, Williams thought the best plan would be to read some comments about people who “are good, salt-of-the-earth folk”. So he looked up a piece about Ant and Dec. “Surely to God no one can hate Ant and Dec,” he thought to himself. But no. “The second comment said: ‘I hate these two almost as much as I hate that fat c*** Robbie Williams.’”
Among those who replied to his post were Alan Carr, Piers Morgan, and Lycett, who said it made him laugh out loud – and so began their (possibly somewhat unlikely) friendship. The comedian also paints and makes ceramics (you can see his “after Hockney” portrait of Harry Styles, a rude vase he may – or may not – have designed for H&M, and several other works on his website); in 2018, his sculpture Chris was accepted by the Royal Academy for inclusion in its Summer Exhibition. By September, Lycett had visited Williams at home in west London, at which point they discovered how well they got on, and how similar their art is. Williams’s Inklings illustrations, like Lycett’s huge acrylics, have a pop art sensibility that pokes fun at celebrity culture and the so-called wellness industry.
You started posting art on Instagram last May. Is that right?
Yes. I’ve been doing stuff [making art] since 2006, but I hadn’t put anything out there.
