Sydney Waited 20 Years for Robbie Williams; He Made It Count

The same review described the night as part stand-up special, part stadium rock show. Williams filled the gaps between songs with cheeky crowd work.

He spotted a supposed fling in the front rows. "I saw a fan I slept with in the nineties over there," he joked. "I almost didn’t recognise him because he’s got a beard now."

Jokes at his own expense

Williams went after his own pop-star image. Introducing new songs, he said: "I know there’s nothing worse than a 52-year-old singer saying, ‘Here’s a new song.’"

Before his British chart-topper Candy, he said "nobody knew what the hell it was" when he sang it in Sydney. Later he paused mid-set to eat a banana to power through "middle age".

He also offered a manifesto of sorts. "I'm not cool. I've never been cool," he said, adding that when he tried it once, "I just looked constipated." His advice to Sydney: "Together, let's fly our cringe flags high."

Sobriety and fatherhood

The tone shifted as he reflected on nearly 27 years of sobriety. He recalled early months sitting on the edge of a bed in France, "depressed, full of anxiety, agoraphobic," before he wrote Come Undone.

The loudest cheer did not come from a hit or a pyrotechnic effect. It came from a quiet confession about family.

Williams called it "a Christmas miracle" that he has four children with the same woman, his wife of 16 years, model and TV host Ayda Field. He said he used to be "loud, successful, maybe, but completely lost."

"They didn’t care about stadiums and they didn’t care about record sales," he said of his wife and children. "My kids only care if I am with them."

He then launched into Love My Life.