Robbie Williams

On Saturday night I went to see Robbie Williams on his Close Encounters tour at Aussie Stadium.

It was, and he was, excellent, and at $150 a ticket, you'd expect nothing less. Except we all know Robbie has had his issues and I was really hoping he would be on form for the gig rather than just turn up and go through the motions. Thankfully he was.

H didn't want to see Robbie. I'd always wanted too but didn't fancy going on my own. Luckily a friend of ours, Anna, had bought 8 tickets which were snapped up immediately. I asked her if I could have first dibs if anyone decided to drop out and luckily someone did. My place with six girls and one other guy was aussured. I was hoping that would be the equivalent ratio in the stadium. Alas not. There were probably just as many blokes as shiela's. Maybe they were gay, or just have always found Robbie quite entertaining. My mate Katie reckons that blokes go to that kind of gig to pull. I'm not entirely sure how when every girl in there, for those two hours, had their eyes on one man only.

Anyway, H came into town with me and the others for a pre-gig drink at The Opera Bar before heading off to Bondi to see Will. Those of us that went to the gig arrived during the support set from the Sneaky Sound System (Whoooooooooo?). We had pretty decent seats with a side view of the stage.

Support acts always seem to suffer when 50k people have very little interest in seeing them and this lot were no different, although they are quite big here. As you can imagine, the sense of excitement in the stadium grew as we approached 8.30pm and before we knew it, the Close Encounters (Of The Third Kind) music began and Robbie appeared from underneath the stage. The first thing thought sprang to my mind was how he reminded me of Willy Wonka.

The show got off to a flyer and the crowd were well up for it. It was the first gig I have been too where everyone, and I mean everyone, was either waving, jumping, clapping, screaming, shouting. Whether in the seats, like us, or standing, everyone was up for a good time and Robbie ensured that we had one. Mind you, he seemed to spend most of is time playing up to the many cameras that followed him round, which broadcast his winks, cheeky grins and other Robbie-isms onto the giant screams for the crowd. Everyone lapped it up.

There were a couple of cool bits in the show, like this, which was when he cut the lights and then asked everyone to take a photo at the same time. This was also quite funny. He liked to take time out and chat to the crowd (a sure sign he was having a good time). And this bit was nice and loud. However, it was a shame he had to get his best-mate, Jonathan Wilkes (Whoooooooooo?), onto the stage for a couple of songs. I think most of the stadium found this the perfect time to buy more beer or make space for more.

Mind you, it was nice that Rich Swatton from Hope FC also put in an appearance.....

Robbie played a great set, including 'Rock DJ', 'Millenium', 'Come Undone', 'Back For Good', 'Feel', 'Let Me Entertain You' and of course 'Angels'. Thankfully he didn't finish with that though. 'Kids' had that honour. It was a very good night's entertainment.

So I expect I have set myself up here for a Shane Warne style sledging so come on then.....