Robbie Williams In Dubai – The Aftermath

I am NOT gay – so don’t judge. But…

Have any of your dreams come true? If they have, you will understand the pure euphoria that comes along with it. I had one such experience. After watching Robbie Williams blow everyone away at Live 8 with his mesmerising performance, and then watching him entertain 400,000 people at Knebworth on DVD, I felt that Robbie Williams would never come to Dubai, or that I would never be lucky enough to see him perform in his prime days.

But thanks to Midas Promotions, and Mr. Williams himself, this one dream of mine has come to life. It started with a hiccup as I mentioned in my earlier post, and ended with orgasmic joy at 10:50 pm on 21st April 2006.

Due to my absurdity, Billy, My-Favourite-Guitarist, Elvis, My-Best-Bald Friend and I reached Nad Al Shebha at 10:00 am (Gulf News got it wrong) for a show that would eventually begin only at 9:00 pm. We were the first few to reach there, and the most foolish ones because we didn’t have front pit tickets. It was all my fault, so I apologize for it. But please note, for Robbie William’s earlier concert in Pretoria, people had started lining up from 5:00 am – but then again I forgot, we lived in Dubai – the land of the pampered and the lazy.

Football, SAT study, and more football kept us occupied in a truly boring build up to the concert. The initial organisation was pretty poor, with no proper queues, and limited food arrangements. The queue fiasco was especially frustrating because our early arrival paid hardly any dividend. People like Ms. Ohri and Ms. Hussain got in at the same time as we did, even though they arrived 6 hours later. Anyway, it’s cool – they are good company – :P.

Behind us in the queque, were these 4 Robbie fanatics. It was their third Robbie concert, and one of them had also been to Knebworth to watch him there. And, that my friends, is truly insane. Anyway, the night before the show, Robbie Williams was at ‘Trilogy’ – a bar in Dubai, and these groupies had met him there. Surprisingly he was a little rude to them – and they blamed it on the negative effects of money. But all I wanted to tell them was – hey, it’s Robbie Williams – he must be high on alcohol or something, and hell, he has millions of ‘No.1’ fans – and he can’t possibly be nice to everyone, especially after a high dosage of good old beer. Apparently he left the bar quited unhappy, his supposed last 2 words being – ‘F*** that!’

The gates opened at 5:30 pm. The 7 and a 1/2 hours of waiting, which included Elvis’ visit to the ambulance nearby because of his high fever, extreme heat and sheer restlessness, seemed worthwhile eventhough it didn’t give us any real advantage. However these bulky self-obsessed, know-it-all, ‘too-cool’ bouncers committed a stupid error. They tried letting only one person go at time, one of 25000 people. Freaks. Obviously it didn’t work, and luckily enough nobody assaulted them – but just pushed them aside instead. 25000 are definitely stronger then 2 bulky men.

It was then time for ‘The Big Race’. Everyone sprinted to get as close as possible to the stage. Here’s where fitness helps. We got the best standing area possible with our dhs. 195 tickets, and quite unexpectedly, it was pretty close to the stage.

Contrary to the external organisation, the internal arrnagements were excellent. However I pity the people with dhs 495, dhs 595 & dhs 695 tickets, because according to me those were not worth it. They were seated behind us, the cheapest ticket holders. And who the hell wants to sit down and watch Robbie perform?

An average DJ kept us going for some time, and then 3 and a half hours later, at 9:00 pm sharp, we witnessed magic. The lights went off, and on came the presentation on the big screen on the rear part of the stage. Breathtaking images of Robbie (more cool that ‘hot’) accompanied by entrancing sound effects, and heated firebolts made everyone hyper and eager. Finally, from beneath the stage, with streams of white smoke, emerged Robbie Williams in his long buttoned coat, cravat, jeans and sun-glasses, and our ears resonated with shrill cries of the crowd and then the beats of his first song that day – Radio. The crowd went offcially bezerk. We went offically bezerk. We were witnessing one of the greatest perfomerers ever. Rock DJ followed and that really got us going. Robbie played most of his hits, and kept us screaming continuously. His humour, his passion, his style, his talent and his charm came out with such ferocity that it left us incredulous to everything. It was like this mighty wave that crashed upon us, but instead of pushing us down, lifted us to such heights of ectasy that these moments would never be forgotten.

From his sexy camel pose, to deriding J.Lo, Robbie was pretty hilarious. It was a dual show – an amazing musical performance and a side-by-side stand-up comedy act. He imitated ‘Jacko’ and the great ‘106-years-old’ Mick Jagger. His ‘portrayal’ of I Can’t Get No Satisfaction along with a mockery of Mick Jagger’s dance and voice was stomach-splitting. His Jenny From The Block ’emulation’ (uhm..uhm) followed by a marvelous delivery of his modern-Shakespeare-like soliloquy added to a truly memorable night.

Robbie did screw up once – he messed up ‘Ghosts’ completely and also admitted it later – ‘I scuffed it’. But that didn’t really matter – he was totally awesome. The only downside of the whole concert was, quite frankly, the audience. We ‘Dubaites’ don’t realise how lucky we are to see such great performers with such ease. The crowd wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as frenetic as Robbie’s usual fans – that I can tell from the many Robbie concerts I have seen before on DVD. There were many people who were there just for the hype. Anyway, everything can’t be perfect.

The best permformances of the day were Kids and Let Me Entertain You. Kids is just a really good song, and the awesome,’brilliant’ lights – as My Fave Guitarist puts it – made the song even more dynamic. But the best was when he really ‘entertained’ us. After the cliched act of saying ‘Goodnight’ and coming back onto stage, Robbie hit us with Let Me Entertain You. This is by far his best performance song. The magnificent lights, and the steamy firebolts, with a great background, one that Rubin and Mr James would be proud of, and the brilliance of the song itself made it the most exhilarating performance that I would probably ever witness.

At 10:50 pm the gig ended. Robbie made us ‘feel’ all the ‘angels’ above us, and ‘made us pure’. Hopefully, I enthralled ‘Ish’ by carrying her on my back for Robbie’s last song – ‘Angels’. She seemed to have enjoyed it. However in the process she almost lost her shoe, and I almost broke some other female’s knee.

Beside me, was a hysteric Billy, my Robbie buddy. He also equally enjoyed the concert. Actually, maybe a little more. For me it was orgasmic, for him, in his own words, it made him ‘lose his virginity’ – now you decide what’s better? However hi
s desperate efforts to show Robbie his pretty poor poster went in vain, but then again that was just a little glitch.

Also, it was in it’s own way a romantic night. Billy and Lem, Tejas and Ms. Ohri and the other couples who I don’t know were together, and enjoying a great, moving performance by his highness, Mr Williams. How I wish she was here! But then again, that night left Lem thinking whether Billy loved her more or Robbie Williams? 😛
No people Billy is not bi. And Lem, chill. 🙂

It hasn’t sunk in yet. I am still incredulous towards the fact that I actually witnessed this magical performer live, right in front of my eyes. For all those people who didn’t watch this concert, you have obviously missed a chance of a lifetime.

I would again like to highlight the sheer joy and memories a 1 hour 50 minute concert can give, so if any of you get any chance of seeing Robbie, or any other good performer for that matter, grab it with your hands, your feet, your stomach and everything else that is possible – because it is rare. You certainly missed this one, but I didn’t. Now looking back, those 8 hours of waiting don’t seem that boring.

In short – Robbie Williams rocked the hell outta Dubai.