Live at Knebworth-Robbie Williams (Live At Knebworth - Robbie Williams)

Member Name: SpookyMoon

Product:	Live At Knebworth - Robbie Williams
Date:	11/06/09 (10 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Energy from the live perfomance does translate and the album is generally very good.

Disadvantages: Too many songs from 'Escapology' for my liking.

Robbie Williams appeared at Knebworth for more than three August nights in 2003. They apparently pulled in 375,000 people over the legendary weekend. ALthough I am not a fan of his, I was given a free press ticket to the concert in order to do a review and one thing that impressed me the most was his display of majesty over an adoring audience. I was determined that my review wouldnt be a good one and that I would dislike him even more than I already did. Not the case at all, something about his cocky mastery once on stage that really did 'entertain me'.

The album, Live at Knebworth, was released two months later. It's a 72-minute collection from his two-hour live performance. I must say that the CD version isn't nearly as impressive as the live experience that made fans swoon, the album does still demonstrate and document the energy witnessed at the actual gig.

The tracks begin with "Let Me Entertain You" (which was totally to be predicted). Together with changes the lyrics to suit each venue, he also demonstrates the arrogance that he is most famed for by coercing the audience at every opportunity to join in. Things like 'I love you England' and 'You look f*ckin amazing tonight'-along with 'Show me love, Knebworth!'. Although I generally dislike these kinds of ego indulgences, I must say that it worked brilliantly to create a buzz amongst the crowds that I do think translates in the album too.

Where this album falls short is that it concentrates too much on material from his cak fifth album, Escapology.The album begins really well (with a little dabble into 'We will rock you') but then goes a bit downhill with songs from Escapology: "Monsoon," "Come Undone," "Me and My Monkey". Although lyrically these songs are really strong (honest and depreciating in content) and they worked beautifully to charm me on stage, I did think that they dominated the album a bit too much in a way that they didnt seem to do on stage.

The album does manage to find the space for two of his biggest songs ("Angels," "Kids"), but apparently doesn't have the far better songs like "Rock DJ," "Millennium," or "No Regrets". I found this really weird because they were all performed brilliantly on stage and I believe they would have transalted well in album form.

So to summarise, although I didnt think I would like the album nor the gig, I actually fell pray to the charms of the roguishly handsome and charismatic Mr Williams-but I am still only giving it a 3!

Summary: Really good actually live and pretty good documentation of a great weekend.