A Diary of the Day of the RW Concert:
Yeah, right. Imagine how tediously long this would be then! OK, in brief. Drove to Green Point Stadium in Green Point, which I don’t particularly like. I’ve seen David Copperfield at the Bellville stadium and that was pleasant but then again, I think Green Point was the only place that could hold 30 000 people! Anyway, as expected, Green Point was a disaster. I got there at 14:00 and sat down in a cue at Gate 3, the gate for Field Standing ticket holders. I expected field standing to be a disaster as well. I wanted Golden Circle tickets or even seats in the stadium stands but they were sold out fast and it is a dream of mine to see Robbie so I took what I could get. I was expecting to be fighting with thousands of people to get a good place to see him from. It wasn’t that bad but there was fighting and screaming and pushing, shoving, rioting, throwing of bottles. It was pathetic. The police and the 5 FM sponsors that were supposed to control the crowd sucked. Chaos as expected. Anyway, Robbie’s concert started a bit late because they still needed to get about a thousand people into the stadium and no one on the field was moving. I absolutely hated the field standing experience. Never again. I just stayed calm because I was there for Robbie. It wasn’t everyone that was a problem but you know, you need only a few jackasses to ruin things for everyone. It was as if these jackasses had just been let out of an asylum and had no idea how to behave like a civilized human being. Horrible. Disgusting. Anyway, I basically was standing from after 2 until after the concert was over at about 23:30. That’s about 9 hours. I don’t recommend it. I never want to stand in a crowd of people again. Especially stinky people. It was actually really hot. The weather was great though. I bit overcast and wintry cold in the air with a slight breeze and a full moon. It had rained in Durban, which may have prevented Robbie from running around the stage there but he was skipping and all over the place here in this fine weather. It took about 2 hours to get out of Green Point after the concert. I wonder how Robbie got out? I wonder if he flew in by helicopter? There were loads of helicopters flying around the stadium. Anyway, it’s like 1 in the morning and there is traffic and cops everywhere and people are staring from the balconies of their apartments taking pictures of the chaos.
I figure next time, I’d do things differently. Actually, I’d rather go to another country to watch him perform! The tickets for seats on the stadium with extremely expensive but probably resulted in a much more enjoyable experience. Plus they could see him arrive back stage so we knew he was about to come on! I tend to think that I’d freak out if I see celebrities but I don’t really. I feel all sorta emotions and butterflies and what not, but I actually found it amazing and funny to see women screaming and running and waving their arms like crazy and having security guards hold them back. Oh yeah, it was so stuffy, that a young girl did pass out and had to be carried away. I don’t think they could’ve made it to the first aid tent with all the people not willing to move. The other thing that really annoyed me was that cameras and recording equipment, etc. were not allowed in, but the crowds were so out of control that nobody was checked. What about weapons? Loads of people had cameras. I could’ve got some good shots during the show with my cameras and I could have made a bootleg recording of the show, but no, I’m a good girl. Anyway, this isn’t likely to be something I’ll forget. When we were standing outside the stadium you could hear the band warming up and I got so excited when I heard Robbie singing a song to warm up. This was for real. It felt a bit romantic to hear a voice coming from the stadium to the rest of Green Point.
When we finally got in, injury free, and I ran onto that field, I just stopped because the stage was so huge and it was just so cool. The mixing tower was massive! Toilets were out of the question. Food was expensive and so were the cool drinks. There was some Robbie merchandise. Caps and T-shirts that were a lot of money for something that was not very nice. There was a poster available and then a program. I bought the program for R60. Had to have something. This program was a huge book, printed in the UK and had loads of quality Robbie photos and excerpts from his blog and then a list of all the people involved with his South African tour. I like it. Still wish I could’ve taken photos of him. OK, there were 2 supporting acts, which paled in comparison to Robbie. The first was the UK band called the Wiredaisies. The music was a bit slow and they sounded like Dido and I could hardly hear a word of their songs. But they were good. Then it was our local band, Freshly Ground, and I had no clue who they were until I head the Doo Be Doo song or whatever it is called. Anyway, they were really good, and the lead singer was brilliant. I was so impressed.
The cameras were getting ready and the lighting and smoke was underway. I hope they make a DVD of this. In my mind, I probably did see Robbie as some musical god or something way bigger than life. Now this is a good thing: When I saw him pop up in the middle of the Golden Circle, I realized that he is just a normal person, albeit extraordinary. He is an amazing entertainer, is truly talented, and has a wonderful personality and charisma, and stage presence. Should I go on or have I made my point? I didn’t go insane but I definitely jumped up and down and did some pointing and screaming there he is! Absolutely awesome feeling.
Back to when Robbie appeared. You knew he was coming when the girls started going wild. The music and lighting teased you. He appeared on a king’s throne like chair right at the back of the stage with red lighting and then he disappeared. The band comes on stage, more music and lighting building up the tension and I’m like where is he. People were looking and looking. Big balls of flames and he pops up in the middle of the golden circle people and when I finally spotted him over people’s heads, it was the coolest feeling. Thanks Robbie for coming to Cape Town!
The Stage:
Was not one of the biggest stages he has every performed on but it was still big. Unfortunately, the stage was a bit low. I’m 6 foot and I had a hard time seeing the stage.
This concert was not like any of his other concerts I’ve seen on TV or DVD. I thought this was his best one. He said that he didn’t do his best concert in Durban and would de his best here. We were like don’t send our regards to Jo’Burg. Do a bad concert there.
Durban was not his best show but Cape Town was and he won’t do it for Jo’Burg! Also the Durban peeps were drinking way too much to enjoy the show: Robbie asked if there was alcohol in the stadium and people were like no, but there was. He said wow, you’re doing all this by yourselves. Actually, he said the Durban people were drinking so much they were like screaming, stopped to sip, screamed again. Well, these Cape Town people were smoking so much that they weren’t doing much except puffing away. There was like a smoke screen of cigarette smoke.
The lighting was mostly red and green. There was some blue and let me entertain you was all white and fireworks. Those flames were hot. I thought my hair would get fried and we were not even that close. I was just behind the Golden Circle people, who did throw underwear and things at Robbie. Robbie put some underwear on his head and held up some for the camera. He took a camera from the crowd during one of his songs to take a photo and he is singing and you can see this camera isn’t working so to the melody he says “I don’t know how this fucking thing works so I have to give it back to you”.
Robbie made comments between songs like he doesn’t know how Mick Jagger does this because he is totally knackered. He also told us he played soccer here and the people were so friendly and he is so grateful for everyone’s hospitality. One of his singers got injured in the soccer match and Robbie went with the camera back stage so the injured guy could be introduced. His name was Derek and his leg looked buggered. Robbie had loads of energy, even though he looked like his outfit was hot and he said he had flu. Robbie was skipping all over the stage, lying on the stage, drinking water, staring at himself on the big screen and people were commenting that he really loves himself.
He told us a story about how the press said he didn’t want to meet Nelson Mandela, which wasn’t true and he was like good job, get the whole country pissed at you on your first day there. Then he called the press names. Good for you Robbie!
Robbie filmed his music video for Sin Sin Sin here in SA. In Grabouw to be exact. He said he filmed it with 12 of SA’s hottest women and they all had boyfriends, but two didn’t seem to mind.
Robbie did a whole lot of poses like the sex leopard. He did his thing with the mic and the mic stand.
In the program book there is an excerpt where Robbie says that American chocolate is shit and Cadbury is the best. I totally agree.
Robbie spoke about Take That getting together for a reunion without him and he was like shit, it’s not my fault I have a successful solo career. Then he dedicated a song to them and after the song he was like screw them, he doesn’t care.
There was a 7-year-old little boy that Robbie brought on stage along with the kid’s father. They were standing in the Golden Circle crowd and got his attention because the boy had ‘Robbie’ on his forehead. Anyway, the little kid said he knew all the words to all his songs. Robbie gave him a hug. It was so cute. I think they got to have photos backstage afterwards. I know all the lyrics too and I was amazed that so many people did too. It was worth the experience of being in the middle of thousands of people singing his songs. Really amazing.
Back to the whole disgusting experience. I’ve never seen litter like that in my entire life. It was actually hard to get out because you were tripping over litter and if you looked back at the field it was just a sea of litter. Bad news.
The Set List:
Robbie opened with Radio, which I found really surprising because I was expecting something relaxing as an opener such as Ghosts or maybe the traditional Let Me Entertain You. Nonetheless, I don’t really care what Robbie opened with; It took me like a day to remember that it was Radio because I was just like there he is, ohmigod, I can’t believe this is happening for real. I really tried to live in the moment so I don’t particularly remember the order of songs. Soon after Radio, Robbie performed Rock DJ. The big screens had the music videos for Feel, Advertising Space (which is a huge hit and loved by fans here), and Come Undone (first time I’ve seen the music video because I think it was censored or something; people went wild when the music video showed Robbie walking around in tighty whities) while Robbie was performing the songs. The rest of the songs had close ups of him and the band and sometimes the audience, on the big screens. Let Me Entertain You also had the music video but it had the house lights glaring and fireworks.
I was amazed by how many songs he performed in this hour and a half concert and he did talk to the audience between songs and introduce the band members. The ‘singers’ were South African and the one guitarist, who couldn’t hear a word Robbie was saying on stage, was South African. What was really cool is that Stephen Duffy, writing partner to Robbie, was there playing guitar. It was cool to see him in person too. Robbie was wearing sneakers, jeans, white vest, black tie and a pea coat for almost the entire evening. He did say that he had flu and that now he was feeling better. Anyway, they all left the stage and if the audience screamed long enough he’d some back. He was like he can’t leave, he hasn’t sung Angels yet. When he did come back he was in a beige and orange Addidas tracksuit and he performed Let Me Entertain You, followed by Strong, which was the world’s biggest karaoke. The words to strong were put up on all the screens and everyone sang along. Then he took requests, and did some of Hot Fudge (one of my favourites). Some people near me were screaming for Me and My Monkey but then he did do Angels. What was so cute is that he brought a kid from the audience and his dad on stage to sit with him while he sang Angels. Then when that was over, he left for real. It was quite something, good night, he leaves, and people start ripping down the stage already!
OK, hopefully I can remember all the songs he performed:
Millennium
Monsoon
Tripping (Robbie did the running in one spot like he does on the music video)
Make Me Pure
Sin Sin Sin
The Trouble With Me
A Place to Crash (another of my favourites)
Robbie also performed a Take That song, one of their best love songs, but I don’t know what it is called.
Oh yeah, the audience bounced when he said so, hands up when he said so, sang out lyrics to be picked up by the mike. That mike was very sensitive. It was cool that Robbie could sing over the music, so that you actually hear him. The two supporting acts could hardly be heard.
So he did about 17 songs. That’s a lot.
So there was no stripping of clothes, although I was really waiting for that. It was really hot that night anyway.
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