February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Prior to U2’s 4-hour marathon rendition of “Bad” at Live Aid (we exaggerate, but only slightly) rock stars were content to lurch around the stage in varying states of inebriation, singing more or less in the direction of the microphone and interacting with one another. Oh, sure, sometimes things got weird — as in the case of Jim Morrison flashing the little fireman in Florida, the Rolling Stones getting a little too close to the Hell’s Angels at Altamont or Elvis Presley flinging sweaty scarves at screaming housewives. But then, along comes Bono in leather jeans and a frosted mullet, and — with the whole world and MTV looking on — plucks an adoring fan from the audience and dances with her. Ever since, every “sensitive” rocker has felt compelled to mix it up with a gen-u-ine, ticket-buying, gobsmacked member of the public.
Which brings us to this week’s Robbie Williams story. The Brit pop hunk, who will headline Dublin’s Party in the Park in a couple of weeks, had a close encounter of the extremely intimate kind this week. And the incident left our boy feeling shaken, and understandably stirred.
It seems that during a show at the Amsterdam Arena, Robbie decided it was time for a little Dutch treat. He invited an attractive woman named Sabine up on stage with him, only to discover — too late — that she really liked him. She really, reeeeeeally liked him.
As soon as Sabine, reached the stage, she started putting subtle moves on the singer.
“She [immediately] puts her tongue down my mouth and she was trying to rip my vest off,” Robbie told a British television interviewer. “I’m singing, trying to maintain the fact that these people think I’m a bit cool.”
To the singer’s mortification, the woman proceeded to tackle him started showing off her lapdancing moves.
“Now normally this wouldn’t be a problem,” he confided. “But there’s 60,000 other people there.”
Worried that the audience would think they’d stumbled into a strip show or — God forbid — a Christina Aguilera concert, the pop star decided to take the situation in hand.
“[I tried] to pull her hair to make it look sexy but I’m actually trying to pull her off of me,” he said.
In more Robbie news, the singer, who can sell out stadiums in Europe but can’t get arrested over here, says he’s only just starting to realize the extent of his popularity.
“When you’re in the middle of a storm you don’t actually know how big it is,” he said.
“Every now and again I ask myself who else plays stadiums? The Jacksons, Madonna, U2,” said Robbie.
“And I go, ‘Bloody hell, I must be that big!’ “
Does the singer, whose U.S. debut album was titled “The Ego Has Landed,” seem to have a slightly swelled head? He doesn’t think so.
“I mean that in a very humble way,” he said.