Robbie Williams plays debut album in full and previews ‘BRITPOP’ at tiny London show
Here's what went down as Robbie played his smallest ever show to just 500 people at Dingwalls.
By Nick Reilly
Robbie Williams played the smallest gig of his career in London last night, where he performed his debut album in full before running through his upcoming record Britpop in its entirety.
The pop icon played to just 500 people at Dingwalls in Camden Town, where he took to the stage at 11PM for a rare late show. It was a career spanning affair, with Robbie explaining the stories behind the songs on his debut, while also offering some light-hearted digs at some of his better known foes in the music biz.
There was also the small matter of the fact that the gig had previously been announced to mark the release of Robbie’s upcoming album BRITPOP, which had been set to arrive today (October 10), before it was announced that “scheduling issues” would cause it to be delayed.
Making no bones about the situation, he quipped: “We’re all pretending it’s not about Taylor Swift, but it fucking is.
“Here’s the truth: I want 16 Number One albums. Taylor then decided to put her album out the same weekend as me. I was like, ‘For fuck’s sake! I’ll put it out the next week’, and they were like, ‘She does these other deluxe versions’. I was like, ‘Fucking hell! Can I put it out the week after that then?’ They were like, ‘Oasis might be around then’… ‘For fuck’s sake! Let’s do it in fucking February when no one’s got an album out’.”
He continued: “I was worried about making you all fucking wait, and then I was like, ‘Fuck it! I want a 16th Number One album!’ I’m sorry, but I’m fucking being selfish. How many times in your life do you get to have the most Number One albums the UK’s ever fucking had?”
As he started playing his debut album to a crowd full of die-hard fans, many of whom were decked out in the red Adidas tracksuits he famously wore at Glastonbury, Williams explained that the tiny club show provided a chance to “perform without the bravado”, as opposed to his huge recent stadium tour. “I want to perform as Robert this evening,” he continued. “And it turns out, Robert’s in pretty good shape!”
The run-through of Williams’ debut also provided a chance for him to perform ‘Angels’, which he hailed as his “Hail Mary” and explained that he will never got bored of playing it.
“My career is what it is because of this song,” he said of the British cultural staple.
But for all the opportunities to look back, it was the performance of his upcoming album Britpop which showed off the night’s most exciting moments. He opened this portion with the lead single ‘Rocket’ , which felt like it could rip the roof off Dingwalls. It was followed by ‘Spies’, which saw him segue into a snippet of Oasis’ ‘Champagne Supernova’ after noting the similarities between the songs. “Noel, don’t fucking sue me – all the things you’ve nicked!” he quipped.
And the strangest moment of the night came in ‘Morrissey’, an electro-pop banger named after the singer of the same name which felt indebted to Erasure. The song, which he described as “fucking weird” also marks a return to writing with his former Take That bandmate Gary Barlow.
Wrapping up, he told the crowd: ““I knew that this was gonna be an incredibly special gig, and know that these songs have reached their destination. A round of applause for my band, a round of applause for my career, and a round of applause for the good people of Dingwalls.”
Next up, then, is a series of intimate shows including dates at Glasgow’s iconic Barrowlands and London’s O2 Academy Brixton to mark the release of the record next February. And, fingers crossed for Robbie, a sixteenth Number One album.