UPDATED: Jimmy Page Accused of Spying by Neighbor Robbie Williams
UPDATE: In June of 2017, Robbie Williams issued an apology for his previous statements regarding Jimmy Page. It reads:
"I would like to offer my sincere apologies to Jimmy Page, my neighbour, for my comments made before Christmas about him in relation to my recent building works, in which I likened alleged behaviour on his part to suffering from a mental illness. Jimmy Page has explained to me that certain specific factual assertions which I made were in fact not true and I am happy to accept what Jimmy Page says. I understand why Jimmy Page will have found my comments offensive and I apologise for any hurt that they have caused him and his family as a result. I did not intend my comments – which, so far as I am concerned, were made privately – ever to be published. I regret that the press went on to report them and I hope that the press will now remove them".
The original story follows below:
The ongoing neighborhood feud between Jimmy Page and Robbie Williams apparently continues, despite official approval for Williams to move forward with long-disputed renovation plans.
Williams, who lives next door to Page, claims that the Led Zeppelin guitarist has become "mentally ill" since a July 2015 ruling in Williams' favor, and is now allegedly sitting outside for hours at a time with recording equipment in an attempt to prove that the remodeling noise levels are too high. Williams also says Page has been caught sleeping in the garden while trying to spy on construction workers.
“It’s really strange,” Williams told the Daily Mail. “It’s like, ‘What are you hiding? Is there something you’re hiding?’ So, so weird.”
The dispute initially flared in January 2015, after Williams announced plans to make radical changes to a multi-million dollar home he bought from the late Michael Winner. Page, a resident of the same historic neighborhood since the early '70s, argued that the nature of the former '90s boy band singer's planned work – which originally included changes to every floor, removing a pool and gym, replacing the roof of a glass studio and rebuilding a garage – could create vibrations that might damage the guitarist's nearby home, Tower House.
Page hired structural engineers, architects and town planners to argue before local decision-makers against the renovations. But the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea planning committee voted in Williams' favor after consulting with Historic England, a government department that protects legacy buildings and monuments.
Williams added that a similar situation is unfolding between warring neighbors Gary Barlow (Williams' former bandmate in Take That) and Queen guitarist Brian May, leading him to joke that perhaps he'll act the same way when he gets older. “Maybe I should apologize to Ed Sheeran for what I’m going to do to him in 15 years,” Williams said.
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