After being to three of Rob's concerts in England already I couldn't wait to see him again - this time in Germany. As England was so good I didn't expect him to be able to get any better than that - and how much I was wrong! Whenever you think he can't surprise you anymore he does just that, and these shows here in Germany where really the best concerts I've seen in my life. Rob was in top form and he showed us all once again that he was just born to perform! But let me try to get this in some kind of order...

The shows started with Rob's support band "The Supernaturals", five guys from Scotland. who mainly do guitar-based rock music. They are great and the perfect band to get the audience into the right mood with their 30-minute show. After they left the stage it took about another half hour to set everything up before the lights went down again.

Accompanied by loads of screaming Rob entered the stage with the first notes of Let Me Entertain You and from the very first second he had the audience in his hands. He was running from one side of the stage to the other, singing, jumping and rocking. The people's reaction is the most important thing for Rob and if - in this first few minutes - he feels the audience is with him a hundred percent the show will be fantastic. Frankfurt was the best of all of them - when Rob entered the stage there wasn't a single person in the place who didn't clap, scream or jump up and down like mad. And Rob was taking this whole energy inside - he was standing at the front of the stage, arms wide open, eyes closed and just let all the excitement sink in for a few seconds. That's where he got his power from and when he started - there was no way of stopping him!

Next came Lazy Days and at the end, when he does his 'yeah yeah' the song changed into Hey Jude and Rob screamed his head off in his famous impersonation of John Lennon. I always loved this part of TT's Beatles Medley and I never expected to get a chance to see and hear Rob do that again.

After these two rocking songs Rob greeted the audience, asked how we all are and then asked if any of us has ever been in love. After a loud 'Yeah' from the audience he introduced Average B Side as the next song. This one has always been one of my favourites and Rob was very pleased when he realised most of the people knew all the lyrics and sang along quite loud.

Clean was next - another fast song and Rob was not only singing it, he was also 'acting' to the lyrics of the song. He walked around on stage like drunk, pretending to lose balance, close to falling down. It's really impressive how Rob is putting himself into his performance. It's not just the words he's singing - the way he's moving, his gestures and the expressions on his face are always underlining the lyrics of the songs. The honesty in his songs is coming across even more when he's performing them live. Another good example of this was Killing Me, the next song he did. Before he started singing he was asking the people: "Have you ever been depressed?" He constantly talked to the audience and made sure they wanted him to keep singing. It's funny - like he needed us to tell him how great he was! If there was a point when he thought the people were not screaming loud enough, he came to the front of the stage with his arms open and just started yelling "Come ooooon!!" And this Always worked! He really needs people's reaction to keep his power up throughout the show and when he feels that they really want him, he keeps excelling himself again and again!

The next song Rob introduced with: "On my most popular hit to date 'Old before I die' ... (pause and a big grin) ... there's a song on the back called Kooks - do you know it?" Of course we did! He did a different version of the song, which was just great, moving around on stage in his unique style - I just call that the 'Rob walk', cause nobody can do this like him!

When Rob was telling us that he wrote a song for a friend who's father died we knew the next song would be Baby Girl Window. I just have to say that I loved this song from the very first time I listened to it, but the album version is nothing compared to hearing Rob sing this one live. He was just standing still behind his microphone and he put all his heart into his singing, a very emotional performance.

One Of God's Better People he introduced by asking us if we all love our mothers. Of course he never forgets to say that this song is written for his mum and by the reaction of the people at all of the concerts, this must be one of everybody's favourites. Everyone seemed to know all the lyrics and we sang along with Rob, which he was very pleased about - you could tell by the way he was applauding to the audience after he had finished the song.

"Everybody thinks I wrote the next song about Gary Barlow, for some reason! But why would I do that?" Rob asked with a cheeky grin. We were all laughing and he stood there looking like Mr. Innocence himself! Ego A Go Go was another 'rocker' and Rob was running across the stage, jumping up and down without stopping. He's constantly moving and when he's not running he's swinging his hips, touching the 'lower part' of his body in a quite unmistakable way or turning around, shaking his bottom at the audience! He was driving the girls crazy with his sexy moves and the more they were screaming the wilder he got! Before the next song Rob asked us: "Have you ever been infatuated with someone?" After the audience answered "Yeah" he said, that we all should know "this funny feeling inside" then. He made a few dance steps and asked if anybody would "fancy a waltz", before She Makes Me High started. As this song's very fast, again Rob had lots of screaming and jumping to do. He sometimes changed the lyrics and in the course of the song 'she' not only made him 'high' - she also made him 'cake' or 'saussages' and whatever else he could think of!

"Would you like to come South Of The Border with me?" was Rob's next question and I didn't hear anybody say "No!" Of course everybody knew the lyrics and so Rob pointed his microphone to the audience and let us sing the refrain. At this point nobody was able to stand still anymore - everybody was clapping, singing and dancing to the very last corner of the venue!

Well, the next one is hard to describe. Angels to me is the most romantic and emotional ballad I've ever heard and nobody's voice could fit it better than Rob's - but the live version of this song is just indescribable. Rob was really singing his heart out and when you looked at him you could see that he was feeling every word he was singing. It was obvious that this is a very special song to him - he loves to sing it and he put all the power he's got into his voice. The applause didn't end after he finished and Rob just stood there, put his hands to his heart and asked: "Can you feel it?" A lot of girls were crying and I can't blame them, it was very touching.

What better to change the mood after this emotional performance than Teenage Millionaire? Rob introduced the song by saying: "A lot of people ask me what it was like being in Take That. So I thought I get my memoirs out and I found it was a bit like that!" Again Rob was running, screaming, singing - everything at the same time and I wondered how he could have any energy left. But obviously - there's no way to get him tired as long as there's people screaming for him! (Btw - Rob cut out the part of the song that's about Diana, he's singing the first verse twice instead.)

The last song of the main part of the show was Life Thru A Lens. When he told the audience he's got to go now of course they didn't agree and so Rob said: "OK - here's the deal: I'll walk off stage and you keep screaming and then I'll come back and do some more songs." Everybody was laughing and he added with a cheeky smile: "That's only if you want me back!" Of course we wanted! When Rob and his band walked off stage everybody kept screaming for him and after just about 2 minutes he came back on with the upper part of his body naked, holding his already famous 'So sue me' T-shirt in his hands (btw - on the back it says 'Everyone else is'!). He wasn't exactly in a hurry putting the shirt on - which caused some more screams from the crowd.

He told us the next song we "might know" and the first notes of Back For Good started. The whole audience sang every single word with him and when it came to the refrain the slow ballad suddenly turned into a wild punk song - Sex Pistol's style! It was hilarious - and what was also fun was seeing the expressions on people's faces. As I already knew what was happening I looked around to see other people's reaction. Some couldn't believe it, I guess some were shocked - but most of the people just screamed and started jumping up and down like mad, just as Rob did on stage. It was just fantastic and - to be honest - it's hard listening to the original version of the song now, as I always expect to hear guitars and drums blasting when the refrain starts!

Old Before I Die was next and again the audience was singing most of the song alone, with Rob just standing there holding the microphone. It's really a party song and depending on Rob's mood of the day it sometimes is the last song of the show. It was in Nuremberg, but in Cologne and Frankfurt there was another encore. Rocks - a cover version, originally done by 'Primal Scream' - is a great song and like the title already says it's 'rocking'! The lyrics of the refrain are quite easy and so it didn't take too long until everybody was able to sing along. For this last song Rob once again gave everything and it wasn't surprising that he was totally exhausted when he waved a last goodbye before leaving the stage!

At all three concerts the songs were the same, except Cologne where he was singing a new song instead of Kooks. The new song was called Decieving Is Believing - a beautiful, slow song - and he just wrote it two days before in Berlin. In Nuremberg he cut out the last encore Rocks as unfortunately the audience wasn't too good that night. I had the impression a lot of them weren't really interested in what was happening on stage at all. There was too much screaming in the wrong moments, for example when Rob was singing Baby Girl Window or Angels. You could see how hard it was for him to concentrate on his singing - especially with these emotional ballads - when there's so much noise in the audience and some girls even were throwing things on stage while he was singing. Things like that really get me angry, cause Rob is not just standing there singing - he's got something to say and people should listen to it. So - in my opinion - if they are not interested they should either stay at home or at least keep quiet when Rob's trying to bring such emotional songs across. It's definitely worth to listen to!

Rob was talking a lot with the audience throughout the show. He was always trying to speak a little bit of German, too and he got better at it every night! He was always asking if we liked his music, if we bought his album, if we enjoyed the show etc. In Cologne when he asked: "Have you all bought my album?" there must have been a girl in the front row who said no, cause from that point he was taking the mickey out of her throughout the entire show - saying that of course she couldn't sing along as she didn't know the songs, but all her friends did and that she should go and buy his album, and that he wanted to see her again the next night knowing all the lyrics etc.! It was so funny - this girl was his 'victim' the whole time and I almost felt sorry for her!

Seeing Rob on stage really was something very special. It's what he does best and obviously enjoys the most. He is able to make you feel part of the show, it's a real give and take situation - some kind of communication between Rob and his audience. When people are having a good time, singing, dancing, clapping and screaming, Rob gets to his best and he's throwing himself into his performance as if there's no tomorrow! This - in return - reflects on the people again and they get even more excited. That - I guess - is the magic which makes his live shows so good. Rob isn't only a great singer or talented song writer - he also is an actor, a comedian - someone who needs a stage to express himself, in whichever way it might be. Rob is the perfect entertainer, people just react upon him and with his enormous energy he is able to electrify everbody from front row to the very last corner of the place!

I hope a lot of people will get the chance to see this man perform live and I'm sure everybody who does will agree with me: Rob's personality comes across on stage so intense, that he doesn't need a lot of light effects or a spectacular stage show to make every single one of his concerts a night to remember!

Text by Beate Bernhardt, photos by Antje Oeding, thanx