Like many people I bought the tickets an age ago – around December last year, and so the night arrived and we were not disappointed. Having seen Robbie Williams in 2006 @ MK Bowl (see old review) he did have a lot to live up to as that was a great concert. And I always go on record by saying I will not usually listen to him at home or anything, but his live performances have always been great.
First up to warm us up was a local DJ… not the best and not the worst… did his job and got the crowd warmed up.
Then came on the highly anticipated opening act Olly Murs. He did a great job, warming the audience up, got (most of) them singing and dancing. He done around 40 minutes set containing some of his own hits including Army Of Two, Troublemaker and an Earth Wind & Fire medley. He was never someone I’d listened to much before but all-in-all he wasn’t the worst I’ve seen – Laura liked him more than me.
The evening with Robbie Williams
Enter Robbie Williams … Rather than a simple walk-on entrance he made a flamboyant over-the-top entrance (similar to the one made when on the Take That tour), and after the band came out and the music started up he used a zip-wire from the top of a giant screen-cum-model of his own head (taken from the Take The Crown album cover) down to a platform off the front of the stage. It was raining quite heavily for most of the evening – thankfully we were sheltered – but he ignored the rain saying we’d come on the best night with ‘none of this dry weather shit’.
As usual he started things off with Let Me Entertain You, and proceeded through an energetic set of old and new (see set-list at the end).
Olly Murs returned to the stage to perform Kids (I would have prefered Kylie though!)… but it was a decent version and worked well feeding off the energy of the crowd.
Robbie also introduced an acoustic section to the concert (which I don’t think he’s done before). However, performing a surprisingly good and mellow version of Millenium and Better Man, and also done an acappella version of Sexed Up. It made quite a good interlude to what was (and usually is) a very energetic and relentless barage of sound and energy.
After this, things got turned up again… Blasting throuh yet more hits and climaxed with a hige sing-along of Angels.
Overall, it was an amazing concert and production, with massive red and gold streamers being released and one of the heads releasing loads of balloons into the sky. He certainly entertained us!
Robbie Williams setlist
Hey Wow Yeah Yeah
Let Me Entertain You
Monsoon
Not Like The Others
Minnie The Moocher
Kids
Sin Sin Sin
Bodies
Come Undone
Everything Changes
Strong
Gospel
Be a Boy
Millennium
Better Man
Sexed Up
Me and My Monkey
Candy
Hot Fudge
Rock DJ
Feel
She’s The One
Angels