Robbie Williams Live in Melbourne - 10/12/03

Lets start from the start shall we!. Since the last Australian tour me and Nikki have been chatting almost every day. So when the chance to meet up at the Melbourne concert came up, who could refuse. Well we stood in line at Gate 6, with her two friends from 11am until almost 5pm. And with about 100 people in line at 11am I was glad that we got there early.

The FOX FM Black Thunders kept driving by with some guy pretending to be Robbie, and although he did slightly look like him the crowd including us would laugh and chant “You are a Wanker!” to the fake each time he appeared.

The occasional karaoke sessions would start up with the more well known songs such as Better man, Rock DJ and Angels and with the people only knowing the chorus we could tell it was hardly worth the effort of singing. With our legs aching because we stood for hours, the line started to move as we got our tickets stamped and we got our wristband.

The line began moving quickly so in the fear of being split up, we linked arms, scanned our ticket then handed it over L. We got through the gates finally then made sure we were all there, and got in the line and made our way quickly to the dance floor.

The security guards told everyone not to run so with out getting told off to much we made a break for the stage! We got the position we wanted, about 3 rows from the front on the right side of the stage near the end of the catwalk.

We were amazed as the stage was just like Knebworth!

After standing all those long hours you’d think that you would be able to finally sit down, well you can, but its not comfortable whatsoever. With the small space you have to stand and try not to sway to the side from your legs giving way at any moment, you can sit down only to have the view of legs and arses surrounding you. Not to mention the rising temperature as the dance floor fills up and starts to move forward, slowly decreasing your wonderful chance to finally rest. With you legs going numb from either standing or sitting, we see people setting up and putting the finishing touches on the stage.

The lights dim down and a sign saying MGF (Machine Gun Fellatio) lights up and on come the first support act. Well what can I say. . I guess they were alright, but with the bass so full on you felt like you were having a heart attack with every drum beat, that took a bit to get used to. There was only about one song that I recognised, but the funniest bit was this girl that sung a song called something like “I’ll be your Slut”. One thing I didn’t need to see was that chick singing that wore almost nothing, and at one point a see-through mesh top and doing cartwheels down the catwalk.

Yeah, no thanks, bring on Duran Duran. Well they weren’t that bad, but their songs being almost deafening and me not knowing any of the words, it seemed that there 80 minutes onstage felt as long as an eternity. Just when I thought it was over they did an encore , please no more this is repetitive hell! They finally finish and with the crew taking almost an hour to organise the set for Robbie I’m glad that he came on at 9pm on the dot.

The light dimmed and the crowd went apeshit! The siren rang loud over the arena, it was almost deafening but it was the greatest sign that for the next 2 hours, our arses were defiantly his! The massive red curtain opened displaying Robbie dangling upside down motionless, with the beat of “Let me Entertain You” in the background he puts out his arms and the deafening screams got louder once again. The dancers in appear and Robbie is lowered into the arms of them below. He stands up and seems in awe, the response of the adoring crowd is amazing.

Wearing his shirt that says “Pussy Master”, black pants, a suit top with a hood at the back, a white scarf , white trainers and sunglasses.

He grabs the microphone and belts out his opening song.  He throws his sunglasses into the crowd and about 50 hands grab at them and later the jacket also comes off with more applause. Doing all his usual movements such as putting his hand down his pants when the line “Here is the place where the feeling grows” comes up, and dancing like a madman, he sure was fired up tonight with the response of the crowd cheering him on, he danced down the catwalk, giving us an awesome view.

When “Let me Entertain You” finishes he stands with one hand in the air as he takes in the deafening applause.

Off to the side he goes as he takes off his jacket and the crowd goes even more wild. Revealing his sleeveless top that he has worn to most of his shows that says “Pussy Master”, he is now covered in sweat, you can see the muscles on his arms and those striking tattoos which look a hell of a lot better in real life!

Now I’m only two rows from the front every time he came down the catwalk he was so close it felt like you could reach out and touch him! After a few songs, and covered in sweat he goes to the side of the stage and changes into a black shirt with a silver pirate type logo and the crowd goes wild at seeing his naked back for about 5 seconds.

With everyone bouncing like hell during Let me Entertain You, putting their hands in the air during Monsoon, clapping to the beat during Kids, and putting their mobiles in the air during one of the loudest performance of Angels I think he has ever heard, it was a fantastic night.

He even looked straight at us and smiled when we put my sign saying “She’s the One Ô” in the air to get his attention, and I was on cloud 9 even though he only noticed us for a few seconds J! He was surly in a great mood, asking the crowd if their having a good time, then when the deafening yes comes, he asks them what their doing, and laughter ripples throughout the stadium.

During Come Undone he pointed at one of the girls with his mic and she is plucked from the crowd and put onstage and gives Robbie, who is at this stage very sweaty a big hug and she gets to kiss him, much to the disappointment of everyone wishing they were her.

Before “She’s the One”, he asks if there is anyone in love in the audience and he picks out Jacko and asks him to propose to Kelly, his girlfriend of 4 years, and so he does and in front of 55,000 people she says yes, and Robbie dedicated the song to the couple.

During Mr Bojangles Rob sat down and had a smoke and the almost the whole audience sang with him.

Robbie said that he had read in the paper that he’s decided to stay in Australia for Christmas, but he had actually only though it not long ago and how the press must be able to read minds seeing that he hadn’t told anyone. He wants to stay in Melbourne because of the fantastic stadiums such as the Telstra Dome, and the sporting facilities.

Robbie got the guitar out and played Better Man, which was a huge hit and then played Nan’s Song and dedicated it to someone who lost their Nan about 3 weeks ago.

Once he finished the song he even made a joke about how he can’t play the guitar very well and it was all out of time, so the audience who were waving their hands in the air couldn’t keep a rhythm going and were like, umm….errr.. ummm.. . oh fuck it.. . and then stopped.

He told us that the next song was written for Take That. He spots someone with a Take That t-shirt in the audience and makes them throw it to him. He grabs it and shows it to the camera and it appears on the huge screen behind. He points his face out and talks about Take That being popular in Australia. With that he kicks off No Regrets, an excellent performance indeed!

The highlight of the night was defiantly “Feel”, where the entire crown sang as one, everyone knew the words, and after the song finished, Robbie decided to sing the chorus without the band playing and the sound was unbelievable.

Once Feel had finished, Rob and the band left the stage and with the crowd wanting more we all slowly started chanting ROOOOBBIEEEEE. . . . . ROOOOBBIEEEEE. . . . . ROOOOBBIEEEEE. . . . .

The band come back on and the crowds chanting turns to cheering as the new start of Rock DJ starts playing, with the black panther walking across the huge screen.

The Dancers return and position themselves at the end of the catwalk right in front of us, and with the beat of Rock DJ almost up to the singing part he emerges from the beneath the stage with his detachable microphone stand and the Australian flag draped over his shoulders. He kicks off the song as the whole stadium bounces wildly. “There are people on the left there are people on the right, everybody in the house say WHOOP WHOOP!!”. “WHOOP WHOOP!!” the crowd replies. With the final song finished everyone cheers as Robbie goes and talks to his band members.

He then returns to his microphone and announces that their will be one more song that he wants to do. He says it’s a big hit in Australia, and with that the music of Sexed Up starts, and with some of the band members looking a bit lost as they try as best they can to play the unrehearsed surprise song. Sexed Up was also one of the highlights of the night, and with Robbie saying he needs help to sing it, it was sure as hell the loudest song of the night.
 

When Angels started the crowd was so loud and everyone sang at the top of their lungs, swayed their hands and held their mobiles in the air.

The song ends to the deafening approval of the crowd as he stands at the mic and thanks Melbourne for such a great show, and how the crowd has responded so well to him.

With that, he says “Melbourne Love Eachother”, and as I catch the last glimpse of him, he leaves the stage, and  white confetti explodes into the air each side of the stage and the crowd claps and cheers, for they had just witnessed the show of a life time.

Once it had all ended, the lights came on and everyone filed out. We walked up the stairs and got some of the tickets from the box as a reminder of our awesome night.

Once up the stairs we followed the huge crowd and along the way I bought two posters, then me, Nikki and her friends said our goodbyes, as they departed to gate 3 and I went to gate 6. With no idea were I was going I decided to go back into the arena, were I bought some merchandise and walked to gate 6 away from all the crowds.

Finally I got outside, walked down the ramp and around to where my dad had parked.

We drove home and arrived at about 1am, and I didn’t get to sleep until about 4am because of the excitement of seeing Robbie up so close. And I wouldn’t had missed the most tiresome 12 hours of my life for anything.

By Claire McCann

Setlist for Robbie Williams at Telstra Dome, Melbourne December 10, 2003:

Let Me Entertain You
Let Love Be Your Energy
We Will Rock You
Monsoon
You're The Voice (John Farnham cover)
Come Undone
Strong
Me and My Monkey
Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen cover)
Mr Bojangles
She's The One
Supreme
Kids
Melbourne For Christmas (improvised)
Better Man
Nan's Song
No Regrets
Feel
Rock DJ
Sexed Up / Millennium
Angels