Shame

About

Shame was released on 4 October 2010 as the lead single from In and Out of Consciousness. Written by Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow, it was their first collaboration in fifteen years and signalled Williams’s reconciliation with his former Take That bandmates. The single peaked at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart, topped the charts in Hungary and reached the top ten across Europe, selling over 200,000 copies in the UK alone.

Williams and Barlow wrote Shame in Los Angeles in August 2009. The pair had recently renewed contact after years of estrangement, and the song emerged from an instrumental Barlow was developing at home. They completed the lyrics in under an hour, choosing to address their shared history directly. Trevor Horn produced the track, giving it a polished, acoustic-pop sound that echoed the reflective tone of their reunion.

Lyrically, Shame acts as a public apology and a mutual confession, recounting the distance and regret that had built between the two singers. The line “My tears could fill the Albert Hall” became one of its most quoted phrases, summarising both humour and honesty in their reconciliation. The song’s closing exchange, where each throws teasing insults at the other, captured the renewed warmth between them.

“We both said sorry to each other, and we both meant it. That lifted something I didn’t even know was still there.”Robbie Williams

The accompanying video, directed by Vaughan Arnell, parodied the film Brokeback Mountain and featured the pair’s tongue-in-cheek camaraderie during a desert road trip. It became one of Williams’s most memorable videos of the 2010s. Critics welcomed Shame as a witty and heartfelt bridge between his solo career and his return to Take That, marking a significant emotional milestone in his catalogue.