Robbie Williams: "I care about the charts - I'm so competitive"

The star offers some fighting talk when it comes to his chart positions...
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In case you weren't already aware, Robbie Williams is a competitive man - and he still very much cares about where his music charts. 

We're guessing he'll be pretty pleased, then, that his latest album The Heavy Entertainment Show is heading for Number 1 on this week's Official Albums Chart.

Of course, that's not quite enough for Robbie, who told Graham Norton during his Radio 2 show last weekend that he'd still like to have hit singles as well. 

"At the moment there's a whole new thing going on with streaming and how the charts are dictated by streaming," he said. "So for me as a 42-year-old whose fans - god bless them - like to own physical copies...

"When it comes to the singles chart, 100 streams is equal to one physical sale," he explained with perfect accuracy (nice one, Robbie!). "My fans don't do that... they've yet to find computers," he joked. "The singles charts are overran - as they should be and where music should be - with teenagers streaming it in their bedrooms. 

MORE: The acts with the most Number 1s on the Official Albums Chart

"So that's the big one for me right now, figuring out how I combat that out and how I get my singles in the chart."

Asked if chart positions were still important to him almost 20 years into his solo career, he replied: "Do you care? Yeah I do care. I'm so competitive - me and the wife are competitive!"

Robbie is within reaching distance of claiming this week's Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart. If he manages it, it'll be his 12th Number 1 record - something only two other solo artists have achieved: Elvis Presley (13) and Madonna (12). See Robbie Williams' complete Official UK Chart history here.

MORE: The Official Top 40 biggest albums of 2014 so far revealed

Listen back to Robbie's full interview with Graham Norton below: 

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Alfred Lock

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The Robmeister telling it like it is. The Teen generation has ruined the charts with streaming courtesy of Radio 1 and that's something he wants nothing to do with. After all he was the first one to call them ageist on anyone over 35 deemed irrevelant today.