Review: Robbie Williams rocks Murrayfield Stadium

My wife and I weren’t going to see Robbie Williams’ Britpop tour kick-off gig at Murrayfield yesterday. That was until reports of affordable last-minute tickets reached chez QR via a delightful nail technician the day before. Now, I spent many a Stella-fuelled night at the Dundee University Student Union bopping away to Rock DJ, Kids, Let Me Entertain You and more, but I’ve never owned a Robbie Williams album. For the younger Mrs QR, Robbie was a car stereo and VH1 fixture she liked well enough…but that was about it.

However, there’s no denying Robbie’s place in the history of British – or global – pop music. With well over 50 million records sold since releasing his first album, ‘Life thru a Lens’ in 1997, there’s no need to justify that statement further.

A night of pop spectacle and audience-fuelled energy

So, I went along to the concert fully expecting to bop along to a slew of familiar crowdpleasers, and an inevitable finale of his world-conquering ‘Angels’. What I experienced was a world-class entertainer at the top of his game, and uniquely dependent upon his audience to charge his energy tanks.

So whilst he opened with a special effects laden (he flew momentarily) rendition of new single ‘Rocket’ and it was pretty good, he only got better and better thereafter. Why? Because with each song, and each bit of banter, the audience gave him more and more of their love. You thought the audience roared when he took the stage, but seven songs in, including a rapturously received ‘Rock DJ’ he still had gears to go up.

What I experienced was a world-class entertainer at the top of his game, and uniquely dependent upon his audience to charge his energy tanks.

Acoustic duets, crowd singalongs, and a pop icon at ease

There was one step up when he left the main stage to mount the C-stage in the middle of pitch, teaming up with Thom Rylance of support act ‘The Lottery Winners’ and, for a joyful acoustic take on ‘Relight My Fire, Pop Idol champ, Michelle McManus. Before that however, he as Rylance had put the audience to the test with a ‘guess the tune’ sing-along of some of Williams’ lesser known back catalogue. When the audience ‘got it’ there was no mistaking the joy on his face – but when they didn’t, let’s just say I don’t think he knows how to feign disappointment.

And that only makes him all the more likeable.

If I have one criticism, it would be that his obvious delight in tens of thousands of people singing his songs, sometimes gets in the way of his actually singing them. That wasn’t an issue when he played his last C-stage number, ‘Something Beautiful’ – probably his best performance in the show. The combination of a tidal wave of crowd affection and a swelling, catchy anthem was impossible to resist.

Banter, ballads and a crowd in the palm of his hand

He may be 51, but Robbie Williams has never sounded better. His voice has depth, power, and range – maybe he’s lost a note or two at top, I don’t know, but if he has – it makes no difference. When he lays into one of his many chart-busting numbers, he can deliver them every bit as well as you’ve heard on a recording.

Kudos are due to his terrific, potent, and tight band for accompanying him in style. Delivering well-known tunes perfected in a studio to an audience packed with afficianados isn’t easy, but they go one better and deliver them better. Live music – accept no substitutes.

As mentioned before, Robbie also offers some terrific, pretty unfiltered banter liberally throughout. Ok so his schtick of talking to deliberately janky AI-conjured versions of himself as a teenager and old man weren’t all that funny, but otherwise he has the knack of connecting with a stadium-full of folks. One minute he’ll be telling you about his well-known struggles with mental-health, the next he’s taking the pss out of there being ‘two types’ of Robbie Williams songs: the ‘fck-yeah, I’m Robbie Williams!’ anthem, and the ‘Oh no, I’m Robbie Williams with all these insecurities and feelings of failure’. The crowd isn’t safe either, not from being told he appreciates every single one, and hopes they’ll come see him again – or from being singled out for applying fake tan to the point of a mahogany patina.

As far as stadium gigs go, this was a pretty intimate, familiar experience – something a performer with less charisma and charm could never do.

A classic Robbie finale with Angels, Rat Pack, and raw charm

Back on the mainstage, the rest of the concert was pretty magisterial from there, from a glittery ‘Millenium’, through the plaintive ‘Come Undone’ and into a take on ‘She’s the One’ which the teary-eyed Debbie from Dundee (up the Taysiders!), will never forget. The popstar serenade has a mixed and not always noble history, but Williams has a wonderfully irreverent, but loving way with his fans.

As far as stadium gigs go, this was a pretty intimate, familiar experience – something a performer with less charisma and charm could never do.

He thanks the audience for ‘holding’ him and his band, and he means it. A Robbie Williams concert is a symbiosis for want of a better word.

Of course, this being a Robbie Williams concert, he also tossed in a couple of rat-pack numbers, New York New York, and My Way – at least partially in tribute to his crooner dad who’s no longer able to join him on stage thanks to Parkinson’s. “I’m in Snipers Alley’ he told the crowd, referring to his own 50+ age, but he looks like a man in excellent shape, so long may he survive the battlefield.

The finale was, of course, Angels, and it was every bit as epic an experience as you’d expect when one of the world’s best selling artists cracks out their globe-conquering number. Again, he didn’t actually have to sing that much of it, but by this time the audience were on 7th William’s heaven, so there wouldn’t have been any stopping them.

A night to remember from the King of Entertainment

Near to the start of the concert, Robbie explained that just as Michael Jackson had crowned himself the ‘King of Pop’, he was placing first dibs on being the ‘King of Entertainment’ – and on the strength of his Murrayfield appearance, he’s got as good a claim as any. For instance, I don’t think Robbie Williams is going to climb his way onto my most-listened artists on Spotify, but I will 100% go and see him again if he books a gig in the city. Why? Because Mr ‘Let Me Entertain You’ does just that.

P.S. I wasn’t in time to catch The Lottery Winners play the first support slot, but I was lucky enough to catch Rag’n’Bone Man’s set afterwards. Man, what a voice that dude has, and what a blast to hear the genuinely anthemic ‘Human’, and ‘Skin’ roared out with uniquely soulful power. Also if you want a hype song before a concert main-court, you could do far worse than the Calvin Harris enriched ‘Giant’ to get the crowd hooting.

P.P.S I read a ridiculous article on the advertising-rammed Edinburgh Live site earlier about attendees complaining about the crowd dispersal after the concert. Reader, it was absolutely fine, and nothing you wouldn’t expect when tens of thousands of folk tip out of a sports stadium at any time of day. Those who had to, or chose to, squeeze into a tram rather than walk out certainly had a game of sardines to look forward to, but again – that’s just how public transport works.

P.P.P.S Robbie Williams is a world-class entertainer – if you like, but don’t particularly love, his music, I guarantee you’ll find a ticket to his show to be money well spent.

All Images: A.Quinn