ARTICLES - ROBBIE WILLIAMS Minneapolis Star Tribune , 22 July 1995

Berlin sets up hot line for teens mourning band's split 

Minneapolis Star Tribune , 22 July 1995

Berlin officials have set up a special crisis hot line to deal with distraught teenagers who can't accept the fact that Robbie Williams has left the British pop group Take That.

Swept up in hysteria, about 50 teenage girls continued a day-and-night vigil at the Hilton Hotel in Berlin, vowing to remain outside the hotel until Williams returns to Europe's top recording group. Williams announced Tuesday that he was leaving the band, the most successful British group since the Beatles.

Officials in other German cities reported similar displays of public mourning, but the situation was worse in Berlin, they said, because Take That performed there during its European concert tour this spring.

The vigil participants, sitting on the curb outside the Hilton, where Williams and the other four Take That members had stayed in Berlin, said they had chosen this sacred site to draw him back.