Robbie Williams live in London: national treasure guns for Glasto legends set

There’s a frank and funny moment during the second night of Robbie Williams’ UK tour, when the singer stops to recall how he threw off the shackles of Take That during his first and only appearance at Glastonbury in 1995.

“I set off with [a] boot full of champagne and a pocket full of cocaine, ready to get insane in the membrane and I went to Glastonbury to begin what I didn’t know was to be the start of my new life,” he quips of his now-notorious weekend partying with the Gallagher brothers.

27 years on, Williams’ life has dramatically changed. The once-tabloid mainstay and all round hell-raiser has been clean for over 15 years and eagerly tells the crowd how he’s a happily married family man at the peak of his physical fitness. What hasn’t changed, however, is the fact that his return to Worthy Farm is long overdue. Michael and Emily Eavis — here is a show that proves why one of the UK’s greatest entertainers deserves the ‘Legends’ slot in 2023.

It begins from the moment he emerges from behind his band in an Elvis pose, perhaps a knowing nod to how his remarkable UK chart statistics have largely left the King in the dust. He swaggers to greet the crowd in a gold glitter waistcoat and spiked mullet, displaying the kind of ridiculous showmanship that would bring Glastonbury back to life after a weekend of excess.

This latest tour is in support of his latest album XXV, which sees the singer looking back on 25 years of hits — which have been re-recorded and given an orchestral twist by the Metropole Orkest. It means that the set is a lean two-hour run through fan favourites, peppered with some funny and revelatory anecdotes about those 25 years at the top.

“In the 90s, I tried to love you all individually, and nearly got there too,” he jokes of his reputation at one point. It’s the kind of crowd-pleasing banter that belongs at a set that regularly attracts one of Glastonbury’s biggest attendances of the whole weekend. Elsewhere, a tender dedication to Geri Halliwell emerges on ‘Eternity’, as he hails her for helping him through the early stages of sobriety. He is also happy to take the piss out of himself at one early juncture, while providing live commentary on the video for early Take That hit ‘Everything Changes’.

It’s this storied career and Williams’ remarkable showmanship, unfettered after 25 years, that proves to be the night’s greatest strength. British pop icons of the last 25 years don’t come any bigger than him, a man who has lived a life of sex, drugs, rock and roll, and emerged relatively unscathed on the other side.

Before things draw to a close with ‘Angels’, he looks back to his own legendary gig at Knebworth 2003: “When I asked you to grow old with me at Knebworth you did, didn’t you?” If he can tackle Knebworth and now two nights at The O2, you sense that Worthy Farm should be no problem. Over to you, Glastonbury.