Robbie Williams lacks energy and struggles to the end at Pinkpop | show

After just three songs, Robbie Williams will support his knees with both hands on Saturday night. The band has just started the fourth song, but the boss tells his colleagues to stop. “I’m Fucked”, he says out of breath. With a boyish look at the audience: ,, It’s long covid. Not my age, you bastards!”

In Limburg, Williams broadly brings the same show as earlier this year in the Ziggo Dome. What is striking: he cannot sing two songs in a row and in fact he hardly sings a single song in its entirety. Williams mainly leaves the choruses to his backing singers or the audience and he also avoids singing the verses in their entirety as much as possible.

Whether it is actually lung covid or not: Williams comes across as old and lifeless. What Pinkpop gets on Saturday is a middle ground. Williams, an entertainer through and through, who skillfully maneuvers through his show of less than two hours. All kinds of intermezzos, especially long talks, form much-needed breaks between songs for him.

The show must go on – and it does – but if you look closely, you will see Williams suffering. Sit, lie down, walk instead of run, dance as little as possible; they are all self-sparing methods. But that’s actually not possible if you’re a headliner at Pinkpop and a full meadow has come for you.

Is it a worthless evening then? No, not that. Williams possesses far too much charisma, routine and craftsmanship for that, because he really knows how to play an audience. He also does this with verve on Saturday in private conversations with Koen, 24 (‘Who told you about me, your grandmother?’) and Eve (‘What beautiful teeth you have, did you have them done in Turkey?’), before who he She’s the one sings. When it comes to jokes and short chats with his fans, Williams is almost unsurpassed.

Of course, the evening in Landgraaf ends with a meadow full of lights and angels, which Williams again mainly leaves to the public. Now it may be. Just before he enters the closing number, he shows himself frail in a monologue about depressive thoughts, which he had for more than twenty years. “Several times I no longer wanted to be on this planet, I heard voices in my head that I was worthless or couldn’t sing. But thanks to my wife and thanks to you, I got through it.”

With those sincere words, Williams undoubtedly captivated many of those present. He certainly has the gun factor this evening. Not just the energy.

View our Show & Entertainment videos below.