In 2003, Robbie Williams gave a series of 3 concerts in Knebworth over the course of a weekend, and over 375,000 people showed up. I’ve heard that it was the largest concert in British music history. You kind of can’t even believe it when you see the Youtube clips. They don’t seem real. The live-album of this event is good (although seriously edited), and there are moments where Williams looks out at the crowd and says, in his strong accent, “When I saw you lot tonight … I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”
I haven’t really written about Williams – not much – and I think it’s easy (too easy) to dismiss him and his success. I think that’s a mistake. I also think he’s doing something that is relatively unique right now, and also unabashedly entertaining. We don’t really have an equivalent, although I would say maybe Justin Timberlake comes close. Williams is not a stooge front-man, he’s not just a “voice” – he is the personality and the force behind the entire thing. He also writes “hits”. Hits after hits (whether or not they become radio hits is irrelevant). Whether or not pop music is your taste, and I don’t care if it is or not, there is something that happens with MOST of his songs that is actually rather special, something that mainlines right into an audience’s listening: The songs also REQUIRE that you sing along. Again: he’s openly entertaining. He has a song called “Let Me Entertain You.” He’s a regular guy, a football fan, a beer-drinker, a wild bad boy, had a drug addiction, kicked it, likes to mess around and goof off … but that’s part of the powerful identification that his audiences have with him. He’s the guy who is gorgeous in a rough way, gets way too drunk and loud, moons people for fun, and makes mistake after mistake with girls he likes. He’s a bit of a goofoff. His persona, with the tats and the haircut, is inherently macho – and yet there’s something feminine in how he invests in these songs, and how he struts around on the stage fearlessly. Watch his body language. He’s not a Freddie Mercury, but there is something similar that he is tapping into. You watch some of Mercury’s body language during live performances and you think: “God, that is so …. OUT there, so BIG.” None of this huddling by the microphone, lost in your moody memories stuff, that so many male performers nowadays embody. They don’t want to put themselves OUT there because it seems too feminine, or like you might not be taken seriously. Robbie Williams is beyond those concerns. I am sure he cares about being taken seriously – but that doesn’t translate into how he performs, and that makes all the difference.
The song above is my favorite Robbie Williams song, and judging from the massive heaving crowd, I am not alone.
My husband and I went to Knebworth in 1990. That’s right, we went to London for a concert. Mum was horrified at the extravagance. Husband was having buyers remorse. I could not be moved-we’re going! What a fantastic memory! He is so happy I made him go. Rain, windy, huge crowds. Endless walking to and from venue. I was pregnant and didn’t know it. Clapton, McCartney, DireStraits Elton Floyd at night with mist, so many more. London! The only fight we had was when he wanted to cut short Westminster Abbey, because the pubs were opening. There’s a huge echo in there! Ugly Americans! Good times! And I love Robbie Williams.
OK, putting my “Robbie Williams groupie” hat on again:
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head – there’s a real connection and identification there. There’s no distance between him and the audience, because in many ways he *is* them, that regular guy on a night out in Knebworth, and his talent lies in the fact that he can pull off a fantastic performance in front of 125,000 people and still maintain that regular-guy connection on the most personal level.
My favourite moment from that show comes before and during “She’s The One”, when he takes the time to single out and interact with a couple down in the front row. Not in that fake, waving-and-nodding-to-some-imaginary-acquaintance beloved of politicians the world over, but in a real, “Hey, how are you guys doing?” way. Once the intro to the song is over, you can see him ask the girl what her name is, and in the very next phrase, “Kelly’s the one” finds its way into the song. He makes that jump from an unreal mass of 125,000 down to one individual fan in the space of ten seconds. That, ladies and gentlemen, is entertainment.
Iain – it is so fun to talk with someone who totally “gets it”.
I love that clip!! He manages to enter a very personal private space in the middle of that crazy scene … like, this is a Dean Martin level of involvement with the audience.
Kathy – ha!! What a great story – sounds like an insane day!