Robbie Williams’s personal and professional lives have always been inextricable, his protracted struggles with depression and addiction providing ample source material for his songwriting. Now a happily settled father of three with a successful Las Vegas residency ongoing, things finally seem sweet for the 45-year-old entertainer.
Closing this year’s British Summer Time Hyde Park concert series last night, Williams wasted no opportunity to make light of the chasm between his current state of comfort and past predicaments. Referencing the showbiz rule that as a performer one must love one’s audience, he quipped: “In the Nineties, I tried to love you all individually.” Later he mocked his new-found status as a brand ambassador for Weight Watchers, joking: “It used to be cocaine and strippers backstage, and now it’s hummus.”
And yet clean-living clearly suits him. Bounding on stage to Let Me Entertain You, he proved a renewed force, strutting and flexing in a sequined jacket. Vocally, Williams was in great shape too, making light work of Come Undone’s epic chorus and effortlessly hitting the high notes in standout tracks Feel and No Regrets.
Cover versions abounded, with Williams and his band inducing mass singalongs of Little Richard’s Land Of 1000 Dances and Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline, the former performed with 2018 X Factor contestants and the latter with his father Pete.
Though well-received in some sections, a barbershop-style cover of Shaggy’s It Wasn’t Me was far less palatable, as was the awkward section in which he serenaded an audience member with Somethin’ Stupid. Both were proof that Williams’s glib, end-of-the-pier-show antics will forever divide audiences.
Indeed, Williams is such a slick showman that it’s genuinely affecting when he lets his mask slip. For set-closer My Way, accompanied on keyboards by his previously estranged co-writer Guy Chambers, there was a real sense of ghosts being laid to rest.
