Robbie Williams describes Sheffield's Jon McClure as "the loveliest man in music" after collaboration
The Take That star appears on Reverend And The Makers' new album ‘Is This How Happiness Feels?’
Merging the urgency of the 2000s garage rock revival spearheaded by The Strokes with the northern Britpop sensibilities of Oasis and The Verve, Reverend And The Makers caught the eye for their catchy singles such as Heavyweight Champion Of The World when they burst on to the scene.
Frontman Jon McClure, known as "The Reverend" to his fans has a muscular vocal delivery, which matches the punch of a boxer carrying the title referred to in his most famous song, leading the band to three hit singles and three top 10 records.
Their first single was followed by ‘He Said He Loved Me’, co-written by Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner and featuring vocals from McClure's wife, keyboardist Laura Manuel, and third single Open Your Window earned the band new fans following its appearance on the video game Fifa 09.
However, the band would struggle to build on their early fame, being looked upon as "landfill indie", sometimes positively by fans of some of the genre's underappreciated bands, although they have managed to maintain a strong cult following.
In the early 2000s it would have seemed unlikely that an indie rock group such as Reverend And The Makers would have ever considered working with Robbie Williams , who was at the time one of mainstream pop's biggest stars.
But now on the band's new album ‘Is This How Happiness Feels?’ they have teamed up for a song called ‘F***** Up’.
"Robbie was a fan of [a] business I've got, called Day Fever, which is like a daytime disco thing, and he'd expressed his admiration for that, and then on Zoe Ball's Instagram, he left a comment on there where he was singing my part of a song that I've done with the Lottery Winners," McClure explains of how the two came together.
"He was like, typing the lyrics to my bit of the song, and so a mutual friend of ours were like, 'you've expressed appreciation for two things lately that are both to do with Jon McClure , you ought to just pal up with him because you'd get on'.
"And then the next thing, I just got a text from... Robbie Williams , and I'm like, 'give over', so we started texting a bit, and then he started FaceTiming me, and then he's like, 'I'm in Switzerland next week, do you want to come over, hang out with me?
"And I'm like, 'yeah, why not?', so I did, we just stayed up for like three days, just nattering and chatting away, and became pals, and I've just been in touch with him ever since, really.
"I would have to say he's probably the soundest, loveliest man in music, he's just a really gentle, lovely, wise elder, and I really consider him to be a good pal, he's great."
The 44-year-old went on to say the two bonded over being "neuro spicy" because of having ADHD, saying that they both saw it as a "huge advantage" rather than a negative thing.
"I admire what he's achieved in his career," McClure adds, admitting he is not a regular listener to the pop star's tunes.
"I admire him as a performer, and he's wrote some great songs, obviously over years and stuff, and I've always had an awareness and an appreciation for him.
"But it's just because he's such a megastar, he's probably not somebody I ever thought was going to appear on my radar, really, and obviously, since I've become pals with him, I went to see his concert, at Co-op Live (in Manchester , and I were like, 'oh my word, he's got like, 25 solid gold bangers'.
"So I've just come to being in his world a bit, and to be around him, and he's just a bloody pleasure to be with, really."
He adds that the song the two recorded together is "about the idea that we all chase this kind of rock and roll dream" but "you're encouraged to go on this mad rollercoaster and all the things that come with drink and drugs", something he says Williams would understand.
"If I never did another drug again, it'd be like too soon," McClure says.
"There's a lyric in it, where Rob sings, 'it's all a laugh 'til someone dies', I know a bunch of people are dead because of this, right? So it stops being funny after that.
"And you think there's no other industry in the world where people would be like encouraged or seen as a positive, especially as it were when Robbie come through in the '90s, or when I came through in the '00s, where it had been viewed as a positive to be like, out of your mind and almost like a negative if you didn't.
"Any other job in the world where you're like, 'yeah, what you need to succeed in this job is a drug addict', like you wouldn't have that in investment banking, would you?"
As well as making a new friend, McClure has also recently seen his brother, Chris, find major fame portraying the comic character of Sunday league football manager Steve Bracknall, having previously been best known as the man on the cover of Arctic Monkeys' debut album, ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not’.
"So obviously my brother's Steve Bracknall project, he's like a megastar now with that, and we had a match here, of football, with over half a million people watching online.
"I've been looking after him on business side, this podcast we do for BBC has gone mad, and he's a runaway success."
McClure himself has also made his own move into football this year, taking up the role of chairman at Northern Counties East League Premier Division side Sheffield FC in his home city, with the team thought to be the world's oldest still playing today.
"I'm the chairman of the world's oldest football club, which is a very heavy responsibility that I take seriously," McClure says proudly.
"Trying to turn around 169 years of slightly dysfunctional activity to make that a success, and I think (I'm) becoming like a wise elder, who was able to operate across a bunch of sectors."
He says that despite his other disputes he still loves his band, which he describes as "a benign dictatorship", adding "it's not like I've got to worry about what everybody else thinks, because on a level, it's my boat".
McClure goes on to say that he is already thinking about a follow-up despite the band's latest record coming out earlier this month, having been inspired by Sheffield.
"I think it's the best city in the world for creativity right now," he explains.
"You only need to look at Self Esteem and Bring Me The Horizon, and Warp Films winning all them Baftas and Oscars with Adolescence, just to know that it's like a vibrant place creatively.
"I could list you so many musical artists who were doing well now in 2026 rather than kind of 2010, 15, 20, years ago, right? That they're doing well today, so it's a very vibrant place, and I feel inspired to live here and be here and looking forward to cracking on really."
Reverend And The Makers' latest album ‘Is This How Happiness Feels?’ is out now, while the band will begin a UK tour this month, including dates at London's Electric Ballroom, Norwich's Adrian Flux Waterfront and Glasgow's TV Studio SWG3.