Robbie Williams – Festhalle, Frankfurt; February 16th, 2023
Once again it was time for me to see Robbie Williams and once again he delivered. The ticket cost a shit ton of money, but it was worth it. What a thoroughly enjoyable show. I had a wonderful evening in great company and left with a happy smile on my face.
Since I had not managed to get tickets for the shows in Cologne (the first two that is), I had bought a ticket for Frankfurt and was on my way in the early afternoon. Everything went smoothly and I arrived at the venue about one hours before the doors opened. Everything was well organized, I got my wristband for the Golden Circle on arrival and the waiting time went by quickly.
Once inside, I arrived on one side of the catwalk, where it was getting crowded, so I walked around and found myself in front row, side stage. After being too far away in Munich last summer I could hardly believe my luck. what a great spot. soon after, S. and her husband arrived and we started chatting about concerts and the first time we had seen Robbie way back when. R., behind me, joined in and we all had a good evening together.
Support Lufthaus started at 8. and just like last summer I found them a bit boring. They did get the crowd going though and that being their job as a support act, all was well. By the time were done, the concert hall was pretty packed and everyone was excitedly waiting for the main event. It felt unreal to be front row and my smile grew bigger by the minute.
Finally the house lights went off and we could see movement on stage. The band appeared and in the backlight we saw Robbie at top of the stairs. The screens, which had so far shown his logo and the latest album cover, slowly lifted towards the ceiling and down he walked, kicking off the show with ‘Hey Wow Yeah Yeah’. He was all sparkly with golden trousers and a gold glitter top, contrasting with the black-clad band and dancers. I already had a big smile on my face, just watching them all.
When ‘Let me entertain you’ started, it felt very much like coming home. “One hand in the air… two hands in the air…bounce” and of course we did. The audience may have grown older along with Robbie, but we still know how to have fun! 😀 During the song he reintroduced himself, his band and his arse (dressed), claiming he was phenomenal. He actually is. 🙂 After the first two songs back to back he told us he was gonna show us how to entertain, doing a little dance and telling us what to do. The most important part being “You have to love your audience!”. ‘Land of 1000 dances’ then brought the point home.
At the start of ‘Monsoon’ Robbie told the band to stop, leaned on the table that held his drinks, catching his breath. “It’s because of long Covid, not my age,” he claimed. I’m pretty sure he only did it for comic effect, because the rest of the night he was never out of breath again. The song has always been one of my favorites and I loved hearing it. He changed he line about “spending one night with me” to ending on “…guarantees me a messy divorce”. 😀 He always has a catwalk, but this time there were stairs at the end of it and he ventured towards the barrier, shaking hands with the audience and leaning into them. Afterwards he joked that this was the “Let’s get Covid together”-mode and if none of the people he just went to had Covid they would now have his cold. He continued talking about people’s reactions from wanting to mother him to grabbing his arse and joked about someone waving him over only to withdraw when he actually went there.
We were invited to go on a 33 year musical odyssey with him and agreed to come along. Singing along to ‘Strong’, with the lyrics up on the big screen, the audience proved that they could be loud. Robbie talked about good and bad times in his career, highs and lows with songs asking people to save him and the next one being one of those. It was ‘Come undone’ and he didn’t have to sing much of it. The call and response with us singing every other line worked well. I still love this song very much. <3 During the “I’m your son” line, Robbie told us that he was still Germany’s son and at the end of the song a guitarist and a bass player joined him at the front for some awesome riffs.
He was very talkative the whole night and spoke about Take That for a while. About how they started and that he wanted to sing lead and how he left them later. He showed the video for their first ever single ‘Do what you like’, making funny comments all along about the “worst video of all time”, then stopped it part way in, right when a close up of a naked butt appeared on the screen. He talked about how young he was and described the situation of a model wiping his butt with a mop. Then he admitted that the arse on the screen was not his but Mark Owen’s 😀 I believe it was at this point that Robbie offered to show his arse, but when people really wanted to see it, he decided not too. That’s a first. 😀
To show that he actually did sing lead for one song, ‘Could it be Magic’ was next with the dancers in colorful costumes, but he stopped it midway, joking that nobody must have come to the show to hear that one. The next chapter of the story was about hanging out with Oasis at Glastonbury. When he asked who of us knew the festival, the person who shouted loudest had apparently come from the UK. For good measure, he played a great cover of ‘Don’t look back in Anger’. The Take That story ended with the band reuniting and ‘The Flood’ and everything bathed in blue light.
Next, Robbie spoke about having two rules in his life, #1) never getting married and #2) never having kids and how he broke both of them and it made him happy, then dedicated ‘Love my Life’ to his wife Aida and their four children. It was beautiful and came with a great sing-along. In the end, it rained confetti down on us and I raised my hands trying to catch a few.
Gary Nuttall joined Robbie at the end of the catwalk for the next song and we learned that he had been in the band for 26 years. At that moment I realized that not only the song lyrics, but pretty much everything Robbie said was on the teleprompter – he came prepared. Next he told us how, during a bad time in his life he met Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls and she helped him with his struggles. He’d like to think that he helped her with hers too and wrote the next song about here. As a joke, he started singing ‘Wannabe’ then, before giving us ‘Eternity’. On the screens in the background, there was a string orchestra playing with him, sounding great. It has never been one of my favorite songs, but this version works for me. 🙂
They went back to the main stage and he picked up a bucket, telling us it was full of T-shirts. He gave out the first one for free and then said we had to earn it by dancing to the next song, where the best and worst dancers would get one. ‘Candy’ sure is a good song to dance to and people tried hard. The T-shirts seemed quite evenly distributed to all sides. In the crowd was a young girl of maybe 7 on a parent’s shoulders and Robbie threw one especially to her. <3
‘Feel’ was beautiful, with a great light show and the audience proving they all knew the words. *happy sigh* For ‘Kids’ he shared the lead vocals with two singers from hs band, who did an awesome job being Kylie. The brass section also left their mark on the song. “Wave your hands if you’re not with a man” kicked off ‘Rock DJ’. I think Robbie’s dance routine came straight from the video, but I admit I have not seen it in a long time. 😉 It was great. At the end, the stage went dark and he disappeared for a while.
When he returned, Robbie was wearing a black robe with golden cuffs, posing as he walked out and showing off his naked torso underneath. I recognized the song only when I head the first line – it was ‘No Regrets’ and a brilliant version at that with the string orchestra on the screens and the band sounding great (as they did all night).
Robbie spoke about having a great time and how both nights in Frankfurt were amazing because the audience was. Then he walked up to a woman in the crowd, asking for her name and coincidentally it was Stefanie. He said he saw her at a lot of shows and she was smiling with her eyes. while he put an arm around her she took the opportunity to lean onto his shoulder and since we all saw it on the screens a collective “awww” could be heard. He thanked her for giving him energy and dedicated ‘She’s the one’ to her. It was lovely and when the song was over, he went to her again and hugged her friends too, because they were being supportive and happy for her. <3
The final song was ‘Angels’ with all of us lighting up the hall with our phone lights and singing the first chorus a capella together. 🙂 The song will never not be amazing and is always a fitting close to a show. <3 When it was over, he bowed to and with his band and as they walked off stage, he came back to the catwalk, telling us Frankfurt was his new favorite city in Germany and thanking us again for the energy. Then he lead us in a final a capella sing-along of greatest hits, ending with ‘Angels’ and him finally walking off too, leaving us all a little dazed.
I loved the songs, the band, the sound, the lights, the audience and everything else about this show. It was an amazing night and I especially enjoyed seeing a gentler, kinder Robbie. Back when I first saw him, he was already a great entertainer, but at times a bit unkind to his fans, making jokes at their expense that were not always in god taste. He is still funny, but more considerate now and I’m enjoying it. So if you’re wondering if we still love you, Robbie – I for one, do. It was brilliant seeing you again.
The lights went on, I said goodbye to everyone around me and slowly made my way out, still smiling, happy I had decided to go to the show.
Setlist
Hey Wow Yeah Yeah
Let Me Entertain You
Land of 1000 Dances (Chris Kenner cover)
Monsoon
Strong
Come Undone
Do What U Like (Take That song)
Could It Be Magic (Take That song)
Don’t Look Back in Anger (Oasis cover)
The Flood (Take That song)
Love My Life
Eternity
Candy
Feel
Kids
Rock DJ
Encore
No Regrets
She’s the One (World Party cover)
Angels
Let me entertain you / Strong / Come Undone / Better Man / Angels ((A capella))
A final word on the insane ticket prices: It was worth it to me, but I do speak from a position of privilege and feel bad for every fan, who cannot afford to pay that much money. Eventually, I will reach my limit too and rather support smaller artist, who have a much tougher time making a living anyway. It was fun while it lasted.