Robbie Fever

WOW. The Robbie Williams concert was awesome! We had a wonderful time!

We rushed off just after the weekly Dapper Status Update meeting ended, and as the Easter week-end started.
We found a good parking and arrived at Green Point Stadium before 6pm, and managed to get in a squirm our way quite close to the front on the left side of the stage and had a good view of a screen and could see the stage and walk- way too.

We watched the UK band 'Wired Daisies' who are pretty good, and then our local 'Freshly Ground' who are doing very well here in SA. In between there were music videos to watch.

Some people were a bit dissappointed, and it seems they were the ones near the back, so I am glad we went as early as we could and got a good view.

I also think that it helped that I went with very little in terms of expectations. I was not a huge Robbie fan, and wasn't even that going to go to the show until a mate had 2 extra tickets a few weeks before and we thought, what the hell!

I find the same thing happens to me with movies, the more hyped a movie is and the more I anticipate it the less I seem to be impressed with and enjoy the movie, whereas if I just go not really knowing what I am going to see, I normally find it excellent.

It probably also helped that we had a few drinks on the way, and also smuggled some tequila in too. Added to this we had some fun an friendly people around us so we had a nice little festive atmosphere around us. We had a young (16?), and nubile girl next to us. She was quite short and had asked a tall guy near us if he'd let her sit on his shoulders for 'Angel'. His wife was not amused and said no.

As the evening went on we got to know her and her family better. She had also tried to make stilts out of stacks of discarded beer cups and was clinging to my arm for support while teetering on these and trying to see the stage. By the end I told Richard that he was welcome to carry her for the song. I was not going to be offended, and it would clearly be earth shattering for her, and I doubt it would be too much of a chore for him! ;) (I think the risk of life long back strain is a small price to pay for such an opportunity). She was thrilled and got to have a prime view of the stage, and I was able to feel like I had done a good deed :)
I think the show was way better than U2 Pop Mart, and that was right up there as far as music concerts go.

The thing is that Robbie knows his audience well and knows just how to work them. Also he is not scared of the audience. He has a knack of making everone feel like he is looking at and talking to just THEM. He is also very at ease and chatty throughout the show and so the audeince are putty in his hands.
The other fun things he does is welcome cameras and recordings taken at the event. He even struts and poses - doing 'Blue Steel' and, wait for it, 'MAGNUM' so people can take photos. He went as far as to take a girl's camera and take some close ups of himself, while he was singing - including a new line to the song 'I don't know how this F***ing things works' ;) We also enjoyed the mega-kareoke rendition of 'Strong' where the words are displayed so that everyone can belt it out together. I had a good chuckle when it ends with 'AIR GUITAR' :)

He really does know how to entertain an audience, and we were not dissappointed.

There's a review and more details of the concert here and here, and here.