The first full-scale live music event at the Sandringham Estate over the Bank Holiday Weekend is the unequalled Robbie Williams with his two-date only headline concert in the UK in 2023. Nestled in the natural landscape of the expansive Sandringham Estate a stage looms at the top of a gentle rise, this is pretty much an idyllic venue for such an occasion.
There are plenty of food stands and huge bars to feed and water the twenty five thousand people who are there. An enormous number of toilets but not a lot of seating, so a lot of standing about. You could take a picnic blanket, which with the odd shower wasn’t so helpful but a picnic blanked certainly secured your space in the grassy arena.
The first warm up act was enthusiastic Norwegian singer songwriter Dagny with her band singing high energy pop tracks. She moved around the stage and engaged the crowd between tracks. It was a great start to build the excitement for the night ahead.
A long break before the next act allowed us to get food, drink, go to the loo, have a walk to get the blood pumping in the legs and visit the fun fair. We were privileged to have access to the VIP area where there was added entertainment from String Fever: a four-piece contemporary string group playing pop tracks and Disney songs. We also had access to the VIP Garden, an enclosed area of part of Sandringham gardens where we get to see a corner of the house through the trees, several amazing old trees, a lake and an intimate area where we have BGT 2020 winner Jon Courtenay on the piano giving us a variety performance on the piano and making us laugh.
The next act on stage is Mark Owen! Dressed in an emerald green silky jumpsuit he is greeted by a huge cheer from the audience as he entertained us for an hour. Performing a mix of his popular songs from his studio albums including ‘Clementine’, and songs such as ‘Let’s Go To Rio’ from his newest album ‘Land of Dreams’. He also sang a few Take That songs including ‘Shine’. It was a fun performance and he looked as though he was having the time of his life.
Darkness set in and the audience who had patiently been waiting all day were palpably ready for the stage to burst into life. We were teased a couple of time as any flicker of movement drew a ‘oooooo’ from the crowd but each one was premature.
With no warning the lights and the screens burst into life and the speakers pushed out ‘Hey Wow Yeah Yeah’ although Robbie was heard, we didn’t see him until the next song ‘Let Me Entertain You’ was thumping around the estate. Robbie appeared in his shiny gold outfit to the hugest roar from the crowd.
Robbie chatted with the audience stating he was taking us through a 33 year musical journey filled with highs, lows and plenty of scandals, saying it’s therapy for him and entertainment for us! The first three quarters of an hour included plenty of chat as Robbie engaged with his super fans at the front and talked through snippets of his life with and without Take That and linking them to the next song in the set. Bringing up ‘Could it Be Magic’ the first song he was able to sing lead on – he sang a few lines and then stopped the band saying ‘I can’t be bothered with that now…’ but it was all part of the show. He sang plenty of tracks during this part of the show, however it seemed the main focus was bonding with the audience.
He performed a great rendition of ‘Look Back in Anger’ as a tribute to Oasis as he went off to hang out with them at Glastonbury at the point he was just about to be sacked from Take That. Fast forward twelve years and Take That were reforming and everyone is friendly again, he gets Mark Own back out on stage for ‘Stay Close To Me’ and clearly from the energy coming from the stage they are still good friends.
After throwing t-shirts into the crowd as a reward for their dancing skills, he stopped the chat and it was back to back hits for the remainder of the set and this is what we all wanted.
‘Rock DJ’ ended the set but of course we knew there would be an encore with a quick costume change of a fancy dressing gown, the encore included ‘She’s The One’ and the last song of the night, with the whole crowd waving their phone torches about to ‘Angels’ created an evening many will not forget.
His band were fantastic and with the brass it made everything sound amazing. The sound system around the arena was phenomenal even if you couldn’t see the stage, you had the incredible screens dotted about which all had pin sharp clarity alongside the exceptional sound whilst soaking in the astonishing atmosphere.
Well done to Heritage Live for putting together a fabulous live music event, and thanks to The King for allowing this to happen – hopefully he will open the estate for more live music events.
Professional photos credit: Rupert Frere/ Heritage Live
Others not so professional: Colin Taylor
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