Robbie Williams Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow Wednesday 4th February 2026

Having played to 70,000 fans at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium last summer, tickets for Williams’ show at the 1900 capacity Barrowland Ballroom were always going to sell out in minutes… if not seconds! However, perseverance in the face of pre-sale code adversity, along with 20 minutes of constantly clicking the refresh button long after the ticketing service said it had sold out resulted in me gaining legendary husband status by somehow finding two tickets. You see, Robbie Williams was always Mrs G’s favourite member of Take That but shockingly, she had never managed to see him live before due to holidays, work, sold out shows and the annoying distraction of having children. So, as we walked to the venue in the week leading up to our 21st wedding anniversary, she exuded an almost teenage-like excitement. Robbie Williams… at the Barras!

The venue was already fairly full when support act Reverend and the Makers took the stage for an acoustic based run-through of their career. Despite not quite being heavy enough for a hard rock and metal devotee like me, I recognised a few of their songs. Despite an entertaining and engaging performance, the band was hit with something that has become a virus at concerts and shows in recent years: rude and ignorant behaviour! Whilst I accept that those in attendance were there to see Robbie Williams, there’s no excuse for talking and shouting loudly through any live set. It must have been so frustrating for the band, who couldn’t have failed to hear the constant murmur of voices that at times drowned out their sound. When did music fans become so entitled?

As the lights dimmed and Williams’ band took to the stage, the roar of the crowd was deafening. With my preference being the heavier side of music, I really didn’t know what to expect from a Robbie Williams concert… but the first few bars of ‘Lazy Days’, the opening track of Life Thru a Lens, took me by complete surprise. It was a much heavier sound than I could ever have imagined. It was loud and almost grungy, turning to moody as the main man’s voice was introduced in the first verse. If I didn’t know better, I’d have said it was… rock music! From there, it was all the tracks from the album in the original running order. The title track led to ‘Ego Agogo’ before Williams, looking trim, fit and healthy, greeted the Glasgow crowd, taking in the applause before asking if anyone had seen the new Take That documentary, released the previous week. There was some liberal use of the ‘c word’, as the singer admitted to cringing at some of his past behaviour whilst acknowledging that his former bandmates and manager had indeed been… well… ‘c words’! Some boos could be heard as Gary Barlow was mentioned but this was largely replaced by cheers as Williams expressed what appeared to be a genuine love for Barlow and the others. The past is all water under the bridge and they’ve matured and moved on.

From that little interlude, came one of his biggest songs and the staple for every contestant of late 90s and early 2000s reality TV programmes: ’Angels’. To my surprise and perhaps even a little shame, this middle-aged hard rocker knew every word and I sang along with gusto! In fact, I sang more than Williams did, as the star sat on the drum riser or stood at the edge of the stage to soak up the adulation of the audience as the Glasgow choir took lead vocals. Ok, it was quite an experience in a highly charged atmosphere… but as one inebriated punter told Jack Jones (I believe) at the famous Glasgow Apollo in the 1970s… “I paid to hear you sing… so sing”! To be fair, Williams eventually retrieved the song from the audience and led them through to the big finish. Great stuff!

‘South of the Border’ was followed by a rocking ‘Old Before I Die’, once again surpassing my expectations with its rock and metal-like power. ‘One of God’s Better People’ was good but completely overshadowed by ‘Let Me Entertain You’ which was so energetic that the two famous disco balls suspended from the ceiling were swinging ever so slightly. With a 10-piece band on the relatively small stage with him, including a brass section, it was perhaps one of the most rocking performances of a song that the famous ballroom will have seen for many years. Entertain us, he did!

The problem from this point was that the remaining three songs, ‘Killing Me’, ‘Clean’ and ‘Baby Girl Window’ paled into insignificance in comparison, so a short break before Britpop was probably a good shout… but not before Williams stood alone, centre stage, to recite the hidden track ‘Hello Sir’, which appears to be a two fingers up poem about a teacher who didn’t believe in him when he was younger. I think Williams proved him wrong!

The stage backdrop was changed to the Britpop album cover before Williams and the band returned to the stage for a track by track run through of the new music. Having had a quick listen to the new alum a few days previously (perhaps the first Robbie Williams album I’ve ever listened to in full), I had already decided that it sounded more like a rock album than the pop album I expected. With the founder of heavy metal (Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi) and one of my personal hard rock heroes (the ‘Voice of Rock’ Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple) guesting on the opening track ‘Rocket’, my interest was piqued as to how it would sound in a live setting. Well, it was loud and fast with a touch of hard rock heaviness. Just enough to have me bopping my head and raising a fist! ‘Spies’ continued the hard rocking trend with an Alice in Chains-like intro that then moved into a catchy indie rock song before ‘Pretty Face’, with its catchy and bouncy chorus, had the crowd dancing and singing along from the front to the back of the venue.

There was time for a quick and very current joke (or simple observation) about Williams not appearing in the Epstein files, caveated with “that’s what being agoraphobic since 2002 will do”! ‘Bite Your Tongue’, with a strange little rap/almost spoken intro, moved away from the harder edge of rock to the kind of pop-rock I’d usually associate with the singer, whilst ‘Cocky’ (autobiographical, perhaps?) with the line “you get to talk to Jesus. I get to talk to God” most harked back to 90s indie rock, in the days when I had hair and a waistline. The pace slowed a bit for ‘All My Life’, which dare I say it, had a bit of an Oasis vibe to my ear but moved into a very ethereal and cosmic sounding ‘Human’.

The dance beats and sing along chorus of ‘Morrisey’ and the rockier ‘You’ led to the standard album’s final track ‘It’s OK Until the Drugs Stop Working’, with it’s catchy 1960’s dancehall feel that was a perfect hit for the Barrowland Ballroom, considering its history. There was time for a bonus track from Britpop’s deluxe version and that was decided through a poll on the Robbie Williams Instagram page. Now, this is where the confusion kicked in! The song finished, Williams thanked the audience and the band took a well-deserved bow before leaving the stage. However, the houselights didn’t come on, suggesting there would be an encore of some kind. The crowd waited… and waited… and waited. We still waited, even when the crew appeared on the stage and started to dismantle the equipment. Eventually, the lights illuminated the hall, showing a sweaty mess of an audience in all its glory, who realised the show was over and reluctantly trudged down the stairs, well and truly entertained.

Robbie Williams at Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom will probably prove to be a one off. With rumours of a bigger tour in 2027, it is highly unlikely that fans of the singer will have another opportunity to see him up close and personal in such a small venue. After all, he’s a pop megastar, more suited to arenas and stadiums. Or is he?

Seeing Robbie Williams live at the Barras changed my long-held opinion of him. I’ve seen many great concerts in the iconic venue, some of which rank as my favourite ever gigs. Def Leppard, The Darkness, The Pretenders, Mr Big, Bruce Dickinson, Gun and Skindred are just a few of the favourites. I can now add Robbie Williams to that list. Will I suddenly start listening to his albums? Probably not. Will I accompany my wife to see him from the back row of a stadium or arena, where most of the show is viewed from the big screens? Probably not? Will I proclaim him as the saviour of music? No. However, I am now mature enough to admit that I don’t need to like an artist to admit that they have talent or to enjoy their live shows. Robbie Williams is a born entertainer. In fact, I’d now go as far as to say that he is a true rockstar! But the best part of the evening was seeing the unbridled joy on the face of my wife as she saw her idol live for the first time… and that, my friends, is the true magic of live music.