Robbie Williams works with ex-bandmate for next single

The duo have collaborated on new track Candy to be released next month, the first single from Williams’s ninth studio album.

The pair have previously worked together on their joint single Shame two years ago, in addition to their Take That work.

Announcing his new single yesterday, Williams said: “Some songs take an age to write and some songs just fall out of your mouth completely formed, and you don’t have to think about it.

“I don’t know why that fell out of my mouth and out of my brain at that particular time – it just did.”

Williams also suggested that his return to the Take That ranks was little more than an interlude in his solo career, after he called it a “break” from his own work. There has been confusion about whether there he would take a more permanent place in the group.

But he said: “After the Take That reunion – a busman’s holiday, a break from my career which re-energised me in many, many ways – I wanted to come back with a massive solo album.”

Father-to-be Williams worked on his new album, called Take The Crown, and to be released on November 5, a week after the single, in Los Angeles at the famed Capitol Studios. It is the first release under his new deal with new label Island/Universal after his break from EMI which was his home for the duration of his solo career.

The 11-track album features a collaboration with US singer Lissie on the song Losers.