Robbie Williams cancels his final show of world tour due to ‘public safety’

Robbie Williams cancels his final show of world tour due to ‘public safety’

Pop star Robbie Williams has been forced to cancel the final show of his Britpop tour “in the interests of public safety”.

The former Take That member turned solo artist was due to perform at Atakoy Marina in Istanbul, Turkey, on Tuesday 7 October, but posted on Instagram on Saturday to tell fans he was “extremely sorry” to have to cancel the concert.

He said: “City authorities have cancelled the show, in the interests of public safety. The last thing I would ever want to do is to jeopardise the safety of my fans – their safety and security come first.

“We were very excited to be playing Istanbul for the first time, and purposely chose the city as the final show of the Britpop tour.”

He continued: “To end this epic run of dates in front of my Turkish fans was my dream, given the close connections my family have with this wonderful country.

“To everyone in Istanbul who wanted to join the 1.2 million people who have shared this phenomenal tour this year with us, I am deeply sorry. We were so looking forward to this show, but the decision to cancel it was beyond our control.”

The post on Instagram

The Sun reports that the gig was cancelled over fears of threats in Turkey due to his past support for Israel, where he has played gigs in the past.

Williams, 51, is married to Ayda Field Williams, a Turkish-born woman with a Jewish mother.

The singer’s wife, Ayda Field Williams, is Turkish-born with a Jewish mother (AP)

He will perform his smallest ticketed gig at Camden’s Dingwalls venue in London on Thursday, running through his upcoming album Britpop, which is yet to be released, in full, with his first solo LP, Life Thru A Lens.

He began the tour in May, performing in cities including Edinburgh, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Helsinki and Athens.

Reviewing his Edinburgh show for The Independent, critic Mark Beaumont complained that “his bawdy stand-up segments, extended crowd work, regular Proclaimers karaoke and relentless oversharing drag proceedings to several grinding halts”.

“An attempt to sing ‘She’s The One’ to a woman in the front row takes almost 15 minutes to get going and, as the final stretch distends, he wangs on for so long about his children saving his sanity that he’s clearly the only doting parent in the stadium who isn’t measuring out their evening in babysitter hours,” he wrote.

However, he praised the “moments of entertainment” that materialised, including his rendition of “Come Undone” and an encore of his hit songs “Feel” and “Angels”.

After leaving Take That in 1995, Williams released his chart-topping debut album in 1997, and has achieved seven UK No 1 singles and 15 UK No 1 albums.

The albums include I’ve Been Expecting You (1998), Sing When You’re Winning (2000), Escapology (2002), Intensive Care (2005) and Rudebox (2006).

In a recent interview, he opened up about how he struggled to acknowledge the adulation of his fans during the stadium shows.

“You would think that a stadium full of people professing their love to you would work, but whatever it is, inside me, cannot hear it,” he explained during an appearance on the I’m ADHD! No You’re Not podcast.

Williams has been playing a string of stadium shows this year (Getty)

“This tour in particular, as a 51-year-old, I’ve approached it differently because I seem to be in the space to approach things differently,” he continued.

“I have a very complicated relationship with touring and performing live. People say: ‘Oh, you going on tour? You must be really, really excited.’ Not really. I’m terrified.

“I mask, like I’m an Olympian at masking.

“I will look full of bravado and look pompous and look smug and do these grand gestures, which have worked for me because they put my face on the poster and people still buy tickets but actually what’s happening is I feel like the opposite of that all the time, most of the time.”

He said this feeling was “getting better” and that he had found he was looking forward to playing shows more than he had in his thirties and early forties.