{"id":4726,"date":"2014-05-30T14:31:56","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T12:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/?p=4726"},"modified":"2014-09-25T11:05:43","modified_gmt":"2014-09-25T09:05:43","slug":"my-name-is-robert-peter-williams-and-for-the-next-two-hours-your-ass-is-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/?p=4726","title":{"rendered":"“My name is Robert Peter Williams and for the next two hours your ass is mine!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robbie Williams – O2 World, Berlin; May 29th, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

The announcement of owning our collective asses has not changed since the last time I’d seen Robbie Williams live. Neither has the fact that he is an amazing entertainer, but a few other things have changed – for the better. The ‘Swings Both Way’ concert in Berlin was a relaxing, funny, wonderful and extremely entertaining show. I loved every minute of being there and didn’t regret the high price of the ticket or the trip to Berlin. Robert Peter Williams still has it and that night he reminded me of why I loved him so much back in 2006.<\/p>\n

Ever since first watching ‘Live at the Albert’ about ten years ago I had wanted to see Robbie perform a swing show and when the tour was announced I didn’t hesitate to buy a ticket. Since there were no “inner circle” tickets left for D\u00fcsseldorf, I opted for Berlin. It was perfect too. I stood in line for an hour and got a great spot at the catwalk\/ runway in the back. From there I had a perfect view of the entire stage and could also see Robbie up close every time he chose to walk around. There was a lot more to see than just him though. He had brought many musicians and dancers with him. It was great to be able to take it all in and yet still be close enough to see details. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Before the show started I was a little bit unsure about my decision. Sure, I wanted to see this, but I had rarely listened to Robbie in recent years and the days of calling myself a “fan” were long gone. What if his concerts didn’t do it for me any more? Yet here I was, in a spot that some people would kill for so I just relaxed and waited, spending the time chatting with B. who I’d met right there.<\/p>\n

The lights went down, the words projected on the curtains read “Act One: Swings Both Ways” and the instrumental intro of ‘I will talk and Hollywood will listen’ started. Soon\u00a0Robbie appeared in a cloud of smoke. Wait? Didn’t he do that on the ‘Close Encounters’ tour? Who cares? He was there and he looked happy and he was smiling and when\u00a0he started singing the first song I knew I had made the right decision. He took a walk around on the catwalk, greeting everyone and singing those at the front. People screamed loudly, just like I remembered and I found myself smiling. This was exactly what I had come here for!<\/p>\n

He returned to the main stage to finish the song and took a perfect bow in the end. The curtains opened, revealing the band and dancers. During ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ Robbie danced with them and made us sing and swing along. Standing still was really not an option. \ud83d\ude42 “Guten Abend Damen und Herren! Wie geht’s? Allow me to reintroduce myself: My name is Robert Peter Williams and for the next two hours your ass is mine!” He turned his back to us and patted his ass for emphasis, but didn’t drop his pants. \ud83d\ude09\u00a0While the band\u00a0remained on stage, Robbie and the dancers were constantly on the move and at times it was difficult to decide whom to watch. I took it all in: the grand gestures and his stage antics and the beautiful music. The band and background singers were amazing and the dancers put on a great show as well – perfectly choreographed.<\/p>\n

He made fun of himself, saying that in the 90ies he was “like and overweight Justin Bieber” and proceeded to sing like him for a little. With ‘Supreme’ he took us back in time and asked to “Sing along if you know the words. Even if you don’t know the words. It will be hilarious” \ud83d\ude00 This was by far bot the only funny part of the concert. Once again, Robbie showed us what a great entertainer he is and that he has a good sense of humor as well. During ‘No one likes a fat pop star’ he was drawn up high above the stage on strings wearing a fat suit and joked that he thought it was a funny idea but hadn’t realized his balls would go back into his stomach\u00a0every night – “I’m doing this for your entertainment!”<\/p>\n

Next three singers of the band started really seriously singing about what’s happening when boy meets girl until the music changed and Robbie launched into “That’s amore” with the words projected on the screen for everyone to sing along. It was all tongue-in-cheek and peppered with a few comments on the lyrics too. Reason enough to crack up laughing, but I had my personal reasons too and could not stop giggling while memories of an afternoon in Ostrava flooded my mind. \ud83d\ude00 During the song, he picked a woman from the crowd “Stop taking a photograph and come over the barrier!” and asked her to show biz marry him, claiming that the days of wild Robbie Williams were over. “Reverend” Guy Chambers pronounced them show biz man and wife, before Robbie led her back to her place and said goodbye with a big hug. It was all cute and funny and she seemed to have a good time too.<\/p>\n

‘Mr. Bojangles’ was performed right in front of us, sitting on a barstool – nice. \ud83d\ude42 The a cappella piece ‘Ignition’ followed, performed by Robbie, Jerry, Gary, Tommy and Guy. It was awesome. Soon he and \u00a0the dancers were wearing monkey costumes, singing ‘I wan’na be like you’. That was unexpected and lead to another bout of giggles making me think about a funny morning a work not so long ago. After that a long line of kids walked on stage and sang ‘High Hopes’ with Robbie. He apparently had much fun interacting with them and they looked as if they liked it. The first part of the show ended with ‘Swings both ways’, feather boas, dancing and loads of confetti. “Face it Berlin, we’re all a little bit gay, face it, everybody, I’ll see you after the break!” \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Act two started about 20 minutes later with ‘Soda pop’ and Robbie in a captain’s uniform on a stage that looked like a ship’s deck. The following soul medley contained ‘Hit the road, Jack’, ‘Reet Petite’, ‘Shout’ and other songs as well as jokes about not remembering the lyrics. Introducing ‘I will talk and Hollywood will listen’ Robbie made much use of his favorite German word (“Hello scheisse seats”), joked about his bad metabolism,\u00a0sang “Happy Birthday” to a girl in the crowd and signed someone’s phone “love Bruno Mars”. His jokes were cheeky and funny, but not mean as they had sometimes bin in the past. He also threw in an impromptu “My Way”, tried “Love me tender” too and commented on posters\u00a0people had brought. Bot only did I have much fun during all this chit chat, but I also loved ‘I will talk and Hollywood will listen’ – beautiful\u00a0rendition of a beautiful song. <3<\/p>\n

Of course he talked about his daughter Teddie which led to a lot of “AWWWWWS” from the crowd. The family theme continued with his father Pete guesting for ‘Do nothing ’til you hear from me’. Seeing them together was pretty cool – they sure both know how to entertain. “The incredibly talented\u00a0Denosh Bennett” from the band sang ‘Empire State of mind’\u00a0before Robbie returned for ‘New York, New York’. The Swing medley contained quite a few of the hits in swing versions, including my favorite ‘Come undone’. I loved it and in this format I even liked ‘Millennium’, a song I had never cared for much. Of course ‘Angels’ had to be there too, much of it sung by the audience. Robbie took one last walk around, shook some hands and grabbed a German flag from someone, carrying it back to the main stage and hanging it up on the mic stand. He said goodbye and ended the show with ‘Sensational’. The curtains closed and this time the words read “That’s all folks!” Still a bit dazed and very happy I walked out. Every concert should be like this!<\/p>\n

Setlist<\/span><\/p>\n

I will talk and Hollywood will listen intro
\nShine my shoes
\nPuttin’ on the Ritz
\nAin’t that a kick in the head
\nMinnie the moocher
\nSwing supreme
\nNo one likes a fat pop star
\nThat’s amore
\nMr. Bojangles
\nIgnition
\nI wan’na be like you
\nHigh hopes
\nSwings both ways<\/p>\n

Soda pop
\nSoul medley
\nI will talk and Hollywood will listen
\nGo gentle
\nDo nothing ’til you hear from me
\nEmpire State of mind \/ New York, New York
\nSwing medley
\nAngels
\nSensational<\/p>\n

pictures of this concert<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robbie Williams – O2 World, Berlin; May 29th, 2014 The announcement of owning our collective asses has not changed since the last time I’d seen Robbie Williams live. Neither has the fact that he is an amazing entertainer, but a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[58,17,34],"class_list":["post-4726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concert","tag-berlin","tag-germany","tag-robbie-williams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4726"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5042,"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4726\/revisions\/5042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passioncolorseverything.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}