Robbie Williams hots up the stage [review Durban]

Quoted from: http://www.int.iol.co.za/

'April 11, 2006
By Sally Scott

He came, he sang and he took Durban by the scruff of the neck and shook it - and we, in turn, turned out en masse to celebrate the fact that raunchy Robbie Williams was starting his world tour right here in our city. "I'm Robert, I'm an Aquarius and I'm from Stoke on Trent."












In top form: British pop star Robbie Williams toys with the crowd during the first leg of his South African tour in Durban, where fans turned out in droves to catch one of the world's most acclaimed performers in action. Get all the details on Tonight now!
Photo: Shelley Kjonstad, Daily News

We're not speed dating here, (although a large percentage of the women at last night's concert - ranging in age from 9-year-old Colby to 75-year-old Grace - "He can put his shoes under my bed..." - wouldn't have said no to Robbie). He's got the gift of the gab and the lad was just giving us all the chat up. And boy does he have a fine line in chat.
Over two hours, between delivering pop classics like Rock DJ, Kids Are Alright, Millennium, Let Me Entertain You and the lighters-in-the-air anthem Angels plus the newies, Advertising Space, Come Undone, Pure and Sin, Sin, Sin, plus a nod to that boy band - Take That - with Want You Back, Williams regaled a capacity crowd of over 40 000 with tales of his best mate's wife "her waters broke tonight", questions on the fit of his jeans "does my arse look big in this?" and lessons in spelling: "Regarding this banner girls, knob is spelt with a k."
top.
Clutching a red G-string thrown at him, Williams rampaged up and down the three-pronged stage, winking, wriggling, getting the girls all hot under the collar and, dare one mention it, literally charming the bras off several women in the crowd. As one who succumbed put it afterwards: "For some reason I lifted my top up and bared all. Thank God my boyfriend wasn't here."

Girls' College pupils at the Robbie Williams concert in Durban.
Photo: Bongiwe Gumede

So no, he ain't the best singer in the world, he even stuffed up some of his own lyrics. He's also had some really rough, self-imposed patches in life and made nude videos where ravenous female fans fed on his flesh, but the man's got what Simon Cowell calls the X Factor - in spades. Rude, crude and yes as he admits himself: "I apologise for my language it's fu***** awful", he can sweat it up in a frock coat and leap around in a track suit (neither suited to our humidity). One regret, no tracks from his album of classic Sinatra and co. standards, Swing When You're Winning. Robbie, you'll have to come back and bring a tux next time.'