Live Review: Robbie Williams @ AAMI Park, Melbourne

It’s Lufthaus’ first-ever show in Melbourne, so they’re equally overwhelmed and excited to open tonight. There are only two band members on stage, including Tim Metcalfe and Flynn Francis, but for those who don’t know, this brand-new electronic group is actually a trio that also includes Robbie Williams. He’s absent in their live performance but can be heard in the recorded vocals they play as they mix up atmospheric electronica for a unique experimental collaboration that gets the audience up on their feet and dancing.

Gaz Coombes is all the way from Oxford, England, and some might recognise him as the lead vocalist and guitarist from the alternative rock band Supergrass. He’s got a new record out called Turn The Car Around that came out in January, so he shares some of his new material with us, as well as some old hits and a couple of Supergrass tracks. His acoustic set is the perfect way to warm up the crowd with outstanding vocals and a captivating presence.

The show ignites with Hey Wow Yeah Yeah as an entourage of flashy dancers pump up the audience to welcome the one and only Robbie Williams to the stage. He emerges and gets right into it with Let Me Entertain You.

“I’ve been entertaining for years, and people say to me, Robbie, what is entertainment? And I say, you kind of feel it in your fingers, you kind of feel it in your bones, and the number one rule of entertaining is you must love your audience,” he reveals. “In the ‘90s, I tried to love you all individually, but instead of me trying to explain what entertaining is, why don’t I show you?” He continues with a cover of Chris Kenner’s Land Of 1000 Dances.

“I’m nearly 50, everybody; I’m just going to do a tour of balance,” he laughs before encouraging the audience to sing a few verses of Angels while he gets his breath back. 

“We’re going on a journey tonight. Are you coming with me?” He asks. He takes us on a 33-year musical odyssey featuring the highest highs and the lowest lows, the sex, the drugs, the scandal, and the paparazzi. “Tonight will be therapy for me, but it will be entertainment for you,” says Williams.

He creates a safe space to share intimate and candid details with us and picks out an audience member to initially lead the whole stadium into the next part of the show but also becomes a focal point for him throughout the show. Willams is a true showman with a stage presence like no other. He knows exactly how to work the crowd by getting up close and personal with them and making a strong connection.

“There are two types of Robbie Williams songs, song number one is that ‘I’m Robbie Williams and I’m fucking amazing’, and song number two is that ‘I’m Robbie Williams and I’m lost and depressed’,” he reveals. He dedicates song type number two (Come Undone) to an audience member in the front row.

“I’m going to take you back to the ‘90s. Anybody here from the ‘90s?” he asks. “In fact, the year was 1990, thirty-three years ago. The Berlin Wall had just come down, Nelson Mandela had taken his first steps to freedom, and a certain cricketer made his debut for the Australian cricket team.” He begins a “Warne” chant that takes over the stadium for a moment as he points up to the sky. 

But alongside those key moments, he recounts a more seismic event that was about to take shape in the form of five young boys from Manchester who were about to get together to change the musical landscape forever. “What was our name, you may ask? We were called Take That,” he says as he starts off our education of his career with a glimpse of their first pop promotional video, including cringey dance moves and a close-up of William’s bare butt that’s paused up on the screen.

He recalls his experience being in the band Take That, and when it was his time to sing a lead vocal, he grabbed the opportunity with both hands and didn’t let it go. Tonight, he shares a partial version of that song, a cover of Barry Manilow’s Could It Be Magic. 

“The problem was, there was a lot of rules put down by the band, and I am a natural-born rule breaker!” He exclaims. He reminisces about his time in the band that all came to a head soon after their time visiting Glastonbury, where he hung out with Oasis. He continues with a cover of their song Don’t Look Back In Anger. 

“I was always in trouble. I got told to leave the band, but it’s alright, I go on to write Angels, and everything works out,” he says. “I thought I’d never see Take That again until 12 years later when they reformed and he rejoined them,” he shares before launching into the very nostalgic Take That hit Back For Good.

“[Has] anybody seen the documentary?” He asks. “The man you see in front of you tonight is the happiest I’ve ever been. I fucking got through it, and there’s a reason for that. I was running away from responsibility, and I should’ve been running towards it,” he shares.

He reveals he had two rules in the ‘90s: one was to never get married, and two was never to have children. “I’ve been with my wife for 18 years, and we’ve got four kids. They are the reason I’m still on the planet and that I’m doing mentally fucking amazing,” he reveals before going on to perform I Love My Life.

In addition to the recent Netflix documentary, Williams shares that he also has a movie coming out next year that was shot in Australia. The reciprocal love he and his Aussie fans share is incredibly strong. “You are god’s people, and this is god’s country,” he says before singing Better Man.

The audience tries to get his attention with their best dance moves for Candy in hopes of winning one of the T-shirts he’s throwing out to people. He then takes it down for the emotional hit Feel as green and blue laser lights shoot across the stadium.

Williams sings along with his backup singers who fill in for Kylie Minogue’s vocals on Kids, and the set reaches its peak with the explosive Rock DJ before an encore.

He returns for a cover of John Farnham’s You’re The Voice in a yellow Australian cricket shirt donning Shane Warne’s number 23. Williams takes a moment to speak honestly about his struggles with drugs and mental health.

“I haven’t had a drink for 24 years!” he reveals. He shares a very personal reflection of how he’d contemplated suicide many times in his life, but he tells us a couple of things that have saved him, including meeting his wife and his fans who keep buying tickets to his shows. “For the many times I’ve used you to get me through, I just want to say thank you for being my family,” he says.

We get our phone lights out as he makes a sincere and emotional tribute to a fan who died in an accident after a recent show in Sydney. Tonight, he dedicates Angels to Robyn Hall and her family as we join in to sing together as one for a touching moment.

It’s almost as if Williams doesn’t want to leave the stage as he continues to keep singing his greatest hits A capella, even after his band leaves the stage. He eventually exits the stage, and fittingly, (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life plays over the speakers to summarise the incredible show we’ve just experienced.