Music Life: Sin to miss it

Quoted from: http://www.sundaylife.co.uk

'By John McGurk04 June 2006

HE needed a team to conquer the Rest of the World for Soccer Aid. But Robbie Williams will be doing it 'Sin-gle' handed in Ireland this week.
The prankster prince of pop, who is back on top of his game with the release of new single Sin, Sin, Sin, kicks off the European leg of his world tour in Dublin's Croke Park on Friday.
The tour - his biggest yet - sees Williams playing 23 shows to more than 1.6m fans in 13 countries.
And it seems that Ireland just can't get enough of the eccentric Englishman, who sold out Slane in 1999, packed in 80,000 punters at two Lansdowne Road shows in 2001 and played a storming set to a massive 135,000 fans at Phoenix Park in August 2003.
With sold-out signs swinging all across Europe this summer, Robbie's fans are obviously eager to hear songs from his current album, Intensive Care in the live arena.
Upon its release last October, the album debuted at No 1 in 18 countries - selling an extraordinary 373,000 copies in its first week in the UK.
It's gone on to become the fourth fastest selling British album ever, and at one stage nine copies a second were winging their way across counters.
Intensive Care marked Williams's first full-length outing with new musical partner, Stephen 'Tin Tin' Duffy.
And since the release of Intensive Care, Williams and Duffy are rumoured to have been beavering away together in the studio, completing a new dance-orientated album which may be on the shelves by late summer.
Another musical collaboration was also successfully completed in May, when Williams joined his boyhood heroes Pet Shop Boys for their Radio 2 live extravaganza, Sold On Song - and another reported recording collaboration.
But a schedule of all work and no play would never wash with the fast-living 32-year-old.
Soccer Aid - the brainchild of Williams and Jonathan Wilkes - gave the footy-loving superstar the opportunity to fulfil his boyhood dream by captaining England to victory at Old Trafford.
The fundraising event was a massive success, with millions raised for children's charity, Unicef.
And as if his workload for 2006 wasn't already punishing enough, Williams may have a little window in his diary reserved for a reunion with former band mates Take That.
In a TV interview with Jonathan Ross last month, a tongue-in-cheek Williams declared that he would join-up with his former boyband mates if he lost a challenge tennis match with the chat-show host.
The Manchester supergroup, who dominated the charts in the early 90s, and with whom Williams cut his pop star teeth, reformed earlier this year for a series of reunion gigs.
Featuring four-fifths of the original line-up, the group's comeback has been a massive commercial success - only being beaten for the title of the UK's biggest concert draw of 2006, ironically, by Robbie's forthcoming tour.
So, let him entertain youa as the suave songsmith serves up the soundtrack of his supernova solo stardom - Rock DJ, Millennium, Feel, Let Me Entertain You and, inevitably, the anthemic Angels.
• Robbie Williams plays his sold-out show at Dublin's Croke Park on Friday.'