Robbie Williams' Smiths song

Jul 20, 2007, 13:00 GMT

Robbie Williams wants to record a song with former The Smiths bassist Andy Rourke.

The 'Angels' singer has contacted Manchester supergroup Freebass - which comprises of Andy, New Order bass guitarist Peter Hook and Mani, who has played bass for The Stone Roses and Primal Scream - and offered to lend his vocals to a track.

Speaking at the London launch of the new documentary 'Inside The Smiths' yesterday (19.07.07), Andy said: "We've never been able to find a singer, and to be honest they are pretty big shoes to fill.

"We've got about 18 tracks and after a few conversations decided to get in touch with some of the singers we know. Ian Brown has done a song, Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream, Tim Burgess from The Charlatans is on one, and recently we got a call from Robbie Williams, believe it or not, saying he wanted to do a track with us. It's a bit bizarre but we'll see how that goes."

Andy - who appears with his former Smiths bandmate drummer Mike Joyce in the documentary - revealed the band plan to release an album next year and then hit the road.

He said: "We haven't played a show yet, but the plan is to go out on tour next summer and hopefully have something out by the spring."

Andy also revealed the trio's initial attempts to find a vocalist involved a search for a missing person.

He explained: "We auditioned quite a few people and they either looked great but sounded s**t or vice-versa.

"We did find a singer who lived in Wigan and we got him in the studio but then he went missing and we had to put out a missing person's notice for him on the news and in the papers saying, 'Have you seen this man?'

"When we finally found him we discovered he'd had a nervous breakdown. At that point we thought, 'It's not really working!' "

(C) BANG Media International