Robbie Williams @ Barrowlands, Glasgow, 4 Feb

The height of fame was, if not wasted on Robbie Williams, certainly a strained time. This year, this album and this tour are about having the experience he would have liked to have in the 90s – one of enjoying fame – which explains the otherwise inexplicable decision to play a four-night tour in venues all under 5,000 capacity, starting with Glasgow's Barrowlands. 

He effortlessly packs down the Robbie Williams experience (voice, performance, and ego) into the more intimate space. There’s no running around or hanging from the ceiling, but on stage he’s still everything we want him to be, flexing his biceps whilst checking out the Robbie Williams lookalike in the front row (“I’ve still got it”). The scale and spectacle of a traditional Williams gig creates distance between the crowd and the atypically vulnerable singer – but here all of the usual cheek lands with a directness, an honest connection between performer and audience that allows him to explore what it means to grow older as a popstar.

We’re used to having these conversations about female performers, albeit not usually with the subject in earshot – many, like Madonna, opt to pretend it isn’t happening. It feels great then to spend time with someone who doesn't seem afraid of change (he’s almost made it the theme of the night), speaking candidly about what a dickhead he was when he was younger, and how he’s changing as a performer (“That was the most middle-aged performance of Let Me Entertain You I've ever done”). Williams sounds incredible, with just as much depth and range to his voice as he’s ever had, but he’s not afraid to show us how much self-care is required to perform at that standard, eating a banana on stage without any sign of the sloppy innuendo you might expect. 

The show is 1997’s Life Thru a Lens played in full, followed by new album Britpop – no more, no less. The live album playthrough is always a risk, nevermind done twice and with your biggest hit over after just four songs, but Williams has resolute energy, and a room full of dedicated fans who are genuinely excited about the two-week-old record. It doesn't feel like anyone, in the crowd or onstage, is yearning for more of the old hits.

He leaves us with a promise to keep going, to keep changing: “I’m gonna slide this into the fucking grave… I want more.” And so do his fans, who are still there chanting his name well after the cables have been torn out of the mics and two separate crew members have walked across the stage, shaking their heads and directing them homewards.