Robbie going on strike over label's new owners

Robbie Williams is going on strike in protest against the new owners of his record company, it was reported today.

The 'Angels' star will withhold his next album over thousands of predicted job cuts at EMI.

Williams, 33, who signed an £80m deal with the music giant, is leading other stars in the protest.

His manager is reported to have accused Guy Hands, the new financier boss of EMI, which has been taken over by a private equity firm, of behaving like a “plantation owner”.

Chart-toppers Coldplay are also reported to be prepared to withdraw their music.

Williams’s manager Tim Clark told The Times: “The question is, ’Should Robbie deliver the new album he is due to release to EMI?’

“We have to say the answer is ’No’. We have no idea how EMI will market and promote the album.

“They do not have anyone in the digital sphere capable of doing the job required. All we know is they are going to decimate their staff.”

Mr Clarke accused the new EMI boss of acting like a “plantation owner” who had stumbled into the record industry via a “vanity purchase”.

Williams, who has sold 70 million records with the record company, was expected to release his new album in September.

EMI has been the subject of a £3.2bn takeover by financiers Terra Firma.

EMI’s head of music at its UK music division, Tony Wadsworth, left this week after 25 years at the company and thousands of redundancies are expected.

The record company’s share of the British album market dropped from 16% to 9% last year and the firm made a £260m loss last year.

Record sales have been hit by the trend for more digital downloading of music while a number of high-profile album releases have disappointed.

EMI was unavailable for comment.