Robbie Williams Britpop Show Earns Five Stars in Melbourne
Robbie Williams played the Britpop World Tour at Melbourne's Marvel Stadium on November 11 before a sold-out 50,000-seat crowd. The five-star review praises a two-hour show of hits, a live band, eight dancers and a karaoke-style game with the audience.
Robbie Williams played his Britpop World Tour show to a sold-out 50,000-seat Marvel Stadium in Melbourne on November 11, 2026, and the concert earned a five-star review.
It was a ridiculous, hilarious night, the review said. It also delivered about two hours of near-constant energy.
A rocket launch and an AI gag
The show opened with a loose theme about artificial intelligence. Text and a recorded or generated voice on giant screens told the crowd that AI could be the greatest threat to musicians ever devised, or a fabulous tool. Either way, the voice said, Williams would transcend it.
Then he appeared in a white jumpsuit to the hard-rocking beat of Rocket. It is one of just two tracks he plays from the album that gives the tour its name.
As the song ended, he lifted off like a rocket, sparks showering from below, then tumbled slowly back to earth as if in a gravity-free zone. AI was not mentioned again.
Hits across three stages
Williams ran through his catalogue across three stages. The set included Rock DJ, Strong, Supreme, Love My Life and Better Man, plus Let Me Entertain You.
He introduced Love My Life with a long tribute to his wife Ayda Field and their four children. He credited them with "literally saving my life".
He teased an a cappella Angels, then said he would not do it, with a smile. The reviewer expected him to play it eventually.
Ego, humour and a live band
His ego drove everything, including his humour, which was both self-aggrandising and self-deprecating. "This is my band, this is my arse, and Melbourne you'd better be good because I'm phenomenal," he told the crowd.
At one point, when the camera strayed, he ordered: "Camera back on me. I'm doing something charismatic."
Behind him stood a five-piece band, a three-strong horn section, two backing vocalists and eight dancers. The review called them all extremely talented and busy throughout.
Its one criticism was the screens. They rarely showed what the band and dancers were doing, because the camera stayed on the star. For fans at the back, the singer on screen must have looked like a giant among ants.
Scripted chaos and a singalong
The review noted that much of the patter is scripted, as it was in his post-race performance at Flemington. That is no complaint, it said: the show is every inch a crafted one. The Marvel Stadium crowd was also more responsive than the racegoers who stayed to watch at Flemington.
Williams also invited the audience to play a game of "shit or not". Band members took a solo, and the crowd judged whether it passed muster. Snippets on the night included Back in Black, Man! I Feel Like a Woman, Another One Bites The Dust, Down Under, You're the Voice, YMCA, Don't Dream It's Over and Hey Jude.
The biggest singalong moment came when Thom Rylance of opening act The Lottery Winners joined Williams on stage for a cover of Oasis' Wonderwall.
