Robbie Williams is back on tour! But this time he’s not playing stadiums and he’s not presenting his biggest hits. This time it’s all about his very own musical passion: swing! Already back in 2001 Robbie surprised his audience by releasing a swing CD called “Swing when you’re winning” and an accompanying show in London’s “Royal Albert Hall”. With his new album “Swings both ways” he’s taking the concept on tour for the first time.
His gig in Prague was the second on his tour, so we were not spoiled by reports and youtube clips of the show yet but had the original experience like back in the days when every concert you went to was a huge surprise. The show itself was so different yet so Robbie. Those who came to hear his biggest hits certainly were disappointed as the only original Robbie song he sang was “Angels“. He did sing “Supreme“, but in the jazzy version it appears on the new album. He also added a medley of hits like “Millennium“, “Come undone” and “Old before I die“, but these also were newly arranged.
Instead of his popular reportoire, Robbie presented songs from his two swing albums as well as some of the classic tracks like Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York“, which he spiced up by adding Alicia Keys’ “Empire state of mind“, sung by his background singer, as an intro. One of my favourite parts of the show was a medley of old Rock’n’Roll/R’n’B tracks, from Elvis’ “Trouble“, to Ray Charles’ “Hit the road Jack” and Jackie Wilson’s “Reet petite“. Another cover was R.Kelly’s “Ignition Remix“, which Robbie performed with four other guys from his band a capella in close harmonies. Very interesting adaptation! Robbie posted a vocal warmup of the song a few days later, so check it out:
In a very emotional moment, Robbie talked about being a daddy and how his little girl has changed his life, before he introduced “Go gentle“, according to him “one of the many songs” he’s going to write about her. Listen to the lyrics! It’s a very beautiful song of a dad giving advice to his child.
There was a tap dancer for “Mr. Bojangles”, Robbie’s dad Pete came out to sing a duet with him on “Do nothing til you hear from me” and for Dean Martin’s “That’s amore” he picked a woman (NOT a girl) from the audience to take her as his “showbiz wife” and married her on stage. As in all of his shows, Robbie showed a huge amount of self irony, culmanating in “No one likes a fat pop star“, a very “Les Miserables”-style song from the new album, during which he was lifted above the stage wearing a fat suit.
Apropos fat: At one time Robbie spotted a guy in the audience who was holding a painting he had done of him. He asked the artist whether he was the guy who had been to his show in Munich last year. It turned out that he was and Robbie quickly told the audience what had happened in Munich. This artist had shown up with a portrait of Robbie and his wife Ayda. Robbie saw it and said he looked fat in the picture and he would only get that guy up on stage if he painted a better picture. I remember that my friends and me had talked about that incident after the show in Munich and hadn’t liked it because we thought it was rude to tell that fan off. So when Robbie got that guy up on stage in Prague and apologized, it felt good.
Generally it really seemed like Robbie has grown up. Not in a bad way of becoming boring and stuff, but in a good way of behaving respectfully, being grounded, knowing what he wants, being himself and loving it. He’s still that good old funny and entertaining Robbie, but at the same time he is making his way, doing things he loves and thinks are right and taking chances. And that’s exactly what makes artists (and human beings!) grow.
music, the world & me 