Live Review: Robbie Williams

Tonight, razzle dazzle wasn’t just the name of the game, but also the name of Robbie Williams’ ballsack.

Williams has been trying to channel a Dean Martin swagger since his Robbie Williams Show and Swing When You’re Winning a decade ago, but with this tour shit has gotten real. A ten-plus-piece band, eight fabulous dancers and a multimedia art deco set matched the ego he’s been banging on about in tunes for years.

Williams came up through the floor, behind a huge circular red curtain to kick off with newbie Shine My Shoes then into Irving Berlin’s iconic Puttin On The Ritz. It was as camp and glamorous as it sounds. Banter began pretty scripted -“let me reintroduce myself to you, my name is Robbie Fucking Williams and for the next two hours your arse is mine” – but there were enough departures during this schtick, including flirting with specific people several balconies up, an impromptu motorboat for a fan who insisted he signed her boobs and a ‘showbiz marriage’ to a fan onstage after singing That’s Amore.  Old Deano probably didn’t manage that, although he would have approved of the grope, no doubt. 

The evening’s set gave new album Swings Both Ways a good flogging, with the title tune (performed as a duet with Rufus Wainwright on the record) a particular highlight, as was No One Likes A Fat Popstar, complete with hoist and catsuit, and Soda Pop with a set dressed like a US navy ship rolled in glitter. Co-writer Guy Chambers featured in the band (as well as the ‘most reverend’ officiator of the fake fan showbiz wedding), and Williams’ dad did a duet after interval. Yes, interval.

Some old tunes made their way into a pre-rock'n'roll mega mix including bits of Rock DJ, Let Me Entertain You, Come Undone and Candy, the latter he hung onto proudly “despite it not making much of an impression on you lot here when it came out.” A four-part harmony version of R Kelly’s Ignition also made it in, just because he could (Jimmy Fallon much?), Sinatra’s My Way and then a huge finale of Proud Mary. The dry cleaning alone for all those tuxes must have cost a bloody fortune, and not a note dropped by the super tight band. Williams still knows how to swing a great show.