Thursday, November 23, 2023

Robbie Williams

I am Peter Pan. I’m a likely lad. I’m an imperfect human being. I am me. You don’t like it, tough.

Robbie Williams screams this with every fibre of his being. And we love him for it.

Sitting up in the nosebleed section of AAMI Park last night, berated myself for not dipping into Robbie Williams’ music more often. Williams is a show man, an entertainer. Okay, he doesn’t have the angst of The Pixies or the cerebral undertones of Talking Heads, but he puts on a bloody good show, he, his backup band and dancers are all on point and they are all fantastic. He’s also chatty, so you get a run down about him and his life is like, what he thinks about Take That, and a whole lot of other things, love, life, family…

I think of Robbie Williams, and I am immediately taken back to North London, Holmdale Road, where Angels is playing in the kitchen on repeat. I takes me back to Lehman Brothers, when it was a company housed by Liverpool Street Station. It takes me back to easier, yet more difficult times in England.

And yeah, as last night proved, I can sing along to his first three albums without an issue. He’s Robbie Freaking Williams. I was in my twenties in London. Of course, I can sing along with him.

Robbie Williams is a middle-aged man. He admits to this. The bum you see in the first Take That clip, is not the bum of a 49-year-old man. He admits that his arse is going south. Thankfully, his life, and his energy, are not. Thankfully too, his middle-aged bum stayed in his trousers. His love of life, his love of music, and his love of the audience shine through.

Starting off with Let Me Entertain You, an ebullient Williams took us through his back catalogue, with a couple of Take That songs thrown in for good measure. Kids, Rock DJ, Betterman, Strong, a couple of swing standards, which he does such a good job of. Robbie Williams is pure entertainment. It’s who he is.

After a quick break, he came out wearing an Australian Cricket shirt, spouted his love for Shane Warne, sang the John Farnham classic, You’re the Voice, and finished up with Angels, which is still one of the best songs ever written.

And that was that. It was over. And like the rest of the full stadium, we were sad it was over. Two hours of excellent entertainment. 

The wave of people tried to make their way home.

As a stadium concert, I couldn’t fault it. Fun. A little edgy. Funny. On point. Just wonderful. 

And though I'm not Robbie's biggest fan, I'd go again in a heartbeat. I loved going to a concert where I could sing along to every track. 

Today's song: 



No comments:

Post a Comment