Just over three decades into his musical career – and 25 years since going solo – there’s rarely been a better time to be Robbie Williams. Sober, happily settled and soon to be the subject of a Netflix docuseries as well as a cinematic biopic entitled Better Man, last month the 48-year-old singer scored his 14th UK number one album with reorchestrated greatest hits compilation XXV, smashing Elvis Presley’s record.
The amount of blue sky between his current state of affairs and previous well-publicised drama is certainly not lost on Williams, who opened his UK and Ireland tour by vowing to honour his “32-year musical odyssey, from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows.”
He delivered on his promise too, supplying a heavyweight set strewn with now-classic pop singles, plus a running commentary that oscillated between the usual tongue-in-cheek silliness and glimpses of startling sincerity.
Emerging from behind three floating video screens in a sequin vest and burnished gold trousers, Williams was in irrepressible entertainer mode from the get-go, leading his seven-piece band and six-strong dance troupe through turbo-charged renditions of Hey Wow Yeah Yeah and Let Me Entertain You. “I’m f***ing knackered,” he deadpanned after the energetic opening run, before restarting Monsoon and jumping down to the barriers to take selfies with fans.
Six songs in, he paused to playfully narrate his own musical life story. Delivering an amusingly damning live critique of the video for Take That’s debut single Do What You Like, he then launched into two rapturously-received verses of Everything Changes.
Reminiscences of time misspent with Oasis at Glastonbury 1995 preceded a convincing cover of Don’t Look Back in Anger, after which Williams revisited Take That’s latter-day successes with a stirring rendition of The Flood – his 2010 reunion single with the group.
Scattered amongst the usual self-lacerating patter were glimmers of genuine tenderness. The wistful balladry of Eternity was dedicated to former-Spice Girl Geri Horner for helping him through the early stages of sobriety. In the encore we were treated to a sublime reimagining of the ever-brilliant No Regrets, its brand new, Bond theme-inspired string arrangement packing a real punch emotionally.
Also dating well was Williams’ debut single-proper Old Before I Die. Though still Oasis-lite, it was life-affirming to hear a document of youthful bravado delivered by an artist we might once have legitimately worried wouldn’t make it to middle age. Thankfully Williams has travelled some distance in the intervening quarter of a century. As he put it himself, pre-Angels, “Turns out there’s a happy ending: life is good.”
