Robbie Williams – Gothenburg; July 2nd 2006
The morning of our second Gothenburg gig started with the alarm at 6:30 a.m. and both of us not willing to get out of bed. We dragged ourselves into the shower and to the stadium where we arrived at 7:30. There were much less people around than the previous day, maybe 20 and some of them still asleep. The night shift of security guards was sitting in chairs, watching us and we settled down for another day of waiting in the sun. Since lots of people had come late and tried to squeeze in from the sides the day before, I took on the job of the “line bitch” for the day and sent everyone back – it worked surprisingly well. About 1 hour after we arrived, the security day shift took over. I was relieved to see the same faces again. They went to business right away and set up barriers to the side so people could not line up there. I told them what a great job they did and they liked it.
The “hat man” from Saturday looked very tired and told me he had only gotten two hours of sleep. He also told me that taking care of the people in line was something new his boss wanted to try out so there was less excitement for everyone and less people passing out – it did work. He also wanted to know where our lawn chair were, but we never had any. He decided that was not Ok and got us some that were left from the day before.
We spent all day relaxing in the sun, drinking lots of water, chatting and waiting. When it got close to 4 p.m. and opening of the everyone got up and there was a lot of pushing and shoving, but not for long. Again they let us in slowly and we were not allowed to run. I was not the first person in the stadium, but since I can walk extremely fast I overtook about 20 people on the way in and made it second into the pit. I secured the spot we had been hoping to get: right side of the catwalk, in the middle between stage and platform, but a little closer the platform. From there we would be able to see everything. There was even a little shade on this side and the railing was not frying as on the left. Happily we set down for more waiting.
Once again Chris Coco started entertaining us at 7 p.m. and once again I was not impressed. Basement Jaxx rocked the house about 1 hour later and I really had fun. One of them even cam of stage to shake hands with us, but I missed her walking by because I was adjusting my camera . Once they were gone a wave competition started in the audience again, but somehow it had worked better the previous day. Still, every last seat in the house was filled by then.
At 9:30 p.m. the house music was off and the screens read “Come with me”. The fireworks started and I knew the wait was over. I kept looking back and forth between the stage where the band came on and the platform where I knew Robbie would appear and just about screamed my lungs out when he finally did. We had a much better view of the platform this time and ‘Radio’ rocked the house. The audience was incredibly loud and everyone was shouting, clapping, standing in their seats.
‘Rock DJ’ followed and again there was no doubt Robbie could kick it. I believe it was at this point that he talked about the audience being so great on Saturday and the best so far. Some people were “booing” at that but he asked them to let him finish and told us it was already looking as if we were even better than last night. The following cheer was unbelievable and I must say he was right: we were a hell of a lot louder and he thoroughly enjoyed that. He asked us to worship in the ‘Temple of Entertainment’ and we all screamed “Yeah”, “Hallelujah” and “Amen”. ‘Tripping’ was next, including ‘Don’t worry’ and a wonderful ‘Monsoon’.
Robbie was chatty, telling us about the club he’d been to and how all the people there were so handsome and he was the ugliest person there. He had been going on about that the day before as well. “Even the guys in the audience look better than I do. Thank God I can sing.” He went on to tell us that everybody in the club was pissed and then he showed us how much, stumbling across the stage, pouring water over his head. I laughed so hard I didn’t manage to take a single picture. It might have been during ‘Tripping’ that he turned his arse to us and pretended to take his pants down, put then did not. A while later he pretended to take his cock out too, but thought the better of it. Funny moment. I don’t remember what he was saying though. During ‘Monsoon’ he also got down on the catwalk right in front of us. Didn’t look at me all night though.
A rocking ‘Sin Sin Sin’ was next and he conducted the audience sing-along. Then it was hands in the air for ‘Millennium’ – I must say it looked fantastic to see the entire audience waving hands.
Robbie said he knew someone who didn’t want to pay a ticket. Everyone was wondering when he pointed at the sky where a hot air balloon was hovering. “The Tosser in the balloon.” He kept yelling at whoever was in there to go and buy a ticket, then on the count of three had all of us tell them to “Fuck off”.
At one point Robbie saw a woman in the audience who had “Snog me, I’m a doctor” written on her chest. He wanted to know if she really was a doctor and she nodded. Then he wanted to know what kind of doctor. She said something but he could not hear it so he mimicked her. “Sorry, you’re gonna have to shout it” and took his earpiece out. She yelled that she was an Intern so Robbie goes “An intern? Then you aren’t really a doctor. You’ve been lying to me.” The bantered about a bit more and finally Robbie said “Well, I hope I did not embarrass you too much in front of 60 000 people. This next song is for you.” Much later he came back to her and remarked that if she was a doctor she could not be opposed to seeing the naked body and if she’d come to his hotel to take a physical.
The choir once again did a great job on ‘Make me pure’.
Afterwards it was time to bring out Jonny again. As soon as he walked on stage the following conversation took place: R: “Hey best mate.” J: “Yes best mate. Listen.” R: “No you listen to me.” “What up then?” “I’ve got something to show you, come here.” Robbie put his hand on Jonny’s shoulder briefly, then walked over to the left side of the stage. R: “Mr. Cameraman, can you turn your camera? Looks there.” (pointing). J: “oooh.” R (to the cameraman):“No it says Jonny.” He turned the camera some more and the screens showed a girl holding up a JONNY sign. J:“Yes.” There were some screams from the audience at that. Jonny did a little RAP and thanked the girl. Then Robbie was talking to the girl: “Listen you’ve put that poster up in the beginning of the fucking show.” (to Jonny) “She’s been putting me off. It says ‘Jonny’, it doesn’t say ‘Robbie’” J: “You want loads of ‘Robbie’ signs.” R: “Yes I do.” J: “Christ” (rolling eyes, walking away). Robbie said something more and she took the sign down. Then: “Go on it’s OK, go on put your poster up.” Jonny, walking back: “O you made her cry. You made her cry Rob.” After some more talking she put it up again and everyone cheered. Of course Robbie fancied to do some swinging. This time Jonny told him he was doing 87% and he would add the extra 13. – he did too. Brilliant and funny performance.
It was time for their football competition. Robbie put a lot of emphasis on the fact that he had won the previous night while Jonny stretched that it was still 4:1. Jerry brought the balls (real footballs this time) and they walked to the end of the platform. Jerry kept staring at Robbie so he asked him why. Jerry claimed to be “a bit gay” and Robbie said that was OK. So Jerry tried to kiss him but he pulled back. The showed off some footie tricks before they kicked the footballs and this time Robbie won again. When he was back on the main stage he walked over to Jerry and kissed him. And that was the only kiss that night, none for anyone from the audience. Before splitting us in two groups and starting the sing along competition, they were going on about how beautiful and handsome everyone in the audience was and Jonny claimed: “There’s a bloke over here I’d divorce my wife for him.” ‘Strong’ followed and was again much fun.
Next Robbie was asking a girl in the audience how old she was. She replied 16 and he goes “Oh shit!” It turned out the two guys next to her were 15 and 16 so Robbie felt old and did an age poll. At the question who was over 30 only H. and I screamed in the corner where we were. At under 30 a lot more screamed, but the loudest it got when he asked who was under 20. He shook his head “I’m turning into Rod Stewart.” Robbie kept talking a it more to the teenagers, claiming “I was on drugs when I was your age.” He said something along the lines of they could come to the hotel if they were up for drugs and then “If I’m going to relapse I might as well do it here.” He talked about Take That too, trying to tell the kids what a cool band they were to everyone’s laughter. ‘Back for Good’ followed. During the song he motioned to a girl on my side of the catwalk to give him his camera. She did and he took pics of her, then of him, before throwing it back down. On the other side of the catwalk a girls had been holding up a picture of him all night. It came from a Swedish newspaper and had ‘Robbie, you’re the best’ written underneath in Swedish. Robbie did not know what to make of it and told her he knew what he looked like. “What do you want me to do with it? Do you want to give it to me?” She seemed so shocked at being spoken to that she did not reply. “Or would you like me to sign it for you?” She nodded very slowly so he took the poster from her and signed it. She looked as if she was about to faint afterwards. Very cute. It was much later that Robbie understood what the text underneath the picture meant.
‘A Place to Crash# rocked the house. He screamed something about having “A bag full of Durex and are we gonna have sex?” Almost everyone screamed so he repeated that a couple of times. He also sang parts of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ but for the life of me I could not remember the lyrics. No one else sang along either even though he tried to get us to do so. Just as the lyrics where coming back to me he stopped, looked at us slightly confused and remarked “I have no idea why I just did that.” ‘Come undone’ ended in ‘Take a walk on the wild side’ – beautiful. Neil Taylor came out to the platform to play guitar. ‘Feel’ was beautiful as well and much too soon the main show was over and Robbie had disappeared.
To much too hot flames and the beginning of ‘Let me entertain you’ he was lowered to the stage again for the encores. Once again it was time to bounce and the crowd went nuts. ‘Angels’ was again a beautiful closer. At one point he asked everyone to set off their camera. I looked around and it was a very special sight. By the end he told us again what a great audience we had been and then he got down to his knees and bowed to us. WOW! We bowed back too. ‘Kids’ was the final song and it was all over. Before Robbie waved good-bye he said: “I know I’ve made a lot of new friends tonight and I do not want to make any enemies, but you were a lot better than those people up North.” We saw Jonny briefly, beckoning him off stage and that was it.
I was blown away and completely drained. I spent most of the concert either laughing my ass off or shaking my head at the crazy and funny comments he made and I don’t think I’ve ever screamed so much in my life. What a great great show – words are not enough to describe what I felt. WOW! In a daze we stumbled out of the stadium, hugged, both being unable to keep the smile off our faces. We could not sleep anyway so we made for Robbie’s hotel again. A huge crowd this time, and only Jonny and Jerry dared to come out. They walked right among the people, chatted a bit and had some pics taken, but we were too far away. Oh well, still a nice closure to a fantastic night.
After about 2 hours of sleep I made my way to the airport. Since I don’t read Swedish I did not check the papers, but H. told me there was a silly picture of us somewhere. I cannot wait to see it. Anyway, I was exhausted and as soon as I had taken my seat on the plane I fell asleep, dreaming of a wonderful weekend.