The self dubbed “King of Entertainment” Robbie Williams delivered the final date of his Britpop tour in Croke Park, a tour he actually announced at a press conference in Croke Park, for a man from Stoke-on-Trent, this tour seemed to all come to a focal point at Jones Road.
Robbie Williams is one of those people that just exude natural stage presence like it was second nature to them, say what you want about anything to do with him, even people who hate him and his music cannot deny, the man can run a stage like nobody else in the business can.
A week after seeing Oasis in the same venue, poor old Robbie had quite a lot to live up to, and dare I say it, he delivered.
With a show that started with a strange monologue delivered over the speakers about the socioeconomic implications that social media and AI has, and will have on the music and entertainment industry.
The energy of the stadium could be felt, it was as if your head has tapped into a reserve of energy fuelled by 80000 screaming fans singing along to songs that mean something to them, it’s a feeling that I could not describe, but is a feeling that needs to be felt to understand.
Halfway through the concert Robbie brought on a special guest, TikTok sensation from Mayo, Garron Noone, and delivered a cover of “Take me Home, Country Roads”.
All I can say to sum up this review is, if he ever comes back around, go, don’t think about it, don’t wait to see if you want tickets closer to the gig, just go, it’s more than worth it.
Stage Setup: 10/10, As a natural born showman, Robbie’s stage setup had to match his energy. Including a main stage, a B stage and a C stage, and even a rocket that Robbie took off on, and descended down from at the beginning of the show.
Band performance: 10/10, There’s nothing I can say to convey the presence and talent that man brings to the stage, these are just words on a page, but in the best way I can try to explain, Robbie had the entire stadium of 80000 people balancing on his every word sung, and every dance move done.
Support: 7/10, Support was very half and half, the first support act The Lottery Winners, were amazing, with a very charismatic frontman who was funny and charming, while also being incredibly talented, after them was Elbow, a band big enough in their own right, who only provided support for this specific show, a good band, but something just felt missing, it’s a very common occurrence with stadium gigs, where the stage is so intricately set up for one specific act, for one specific show, that when a support act is thrust out onto it, many can find it difficult to fill those shoes.
Merchandise: 5/10, very standard merch at this gig, first one in a while I didn’t pick anything up, but ordered some bootleg merch online instead. I fear this concert may be setting a standard of t shirts being 55 euro each.
Crowd: 9/10, One of the loudest crowds I’ve been in, Robbie does a lot of crowd work and lets the crowd sing a lot of parts, and the echo throughout the stadium was immense at every single opportunity.
Overall: 8/10, Robbie shows why he’s been such a big name for such a long time in music, a lot of times when artists say that the crowd of the night is the best crowd they’ve ever had, it’s quite easy to dismiss it as them just saying it, but this time when Robbie said it, I actually believed it.
Next up: Blondshell 2/9/2025
Jays Concert Blog 