HE enters to the Close Encounters theme and imagery of travelling from outer space, but nothing is alien about our Robbie.

He can turn a Leeds park with 90,000 a night into a close encounter with friends in the back garden.

We're all mates in this together, as enamoured with Robbie's fame as he is - "I can't believe you're all still here for me," he says, amid mutual appreciation of brand loyalty after the opening firework burst of Radio, Rock DJ and Millennium.

The quality of hits is decreasing - too many duff ones with new songwriting partner Stephen Duffy - yet the showmanship's common touch remains supreme.

Back home on English soil, he plays to a boisterous sense of being English: the football and sex-loving lad's Henry V of Roundhay Park as he hollers "Come on England" and "Leeds, Leeds, Leeds". "England, I'm your son," he concludes, as the drama queen in him bursts out.

Robbie picks openly from the guidebook to pop: stadium pyrotechnics from the Stones and U2; frock coat and scarf from Mick Jagger: jeans from your high street; and op-rock songs from the court of Queen, Elton and even Lloyd Webber.

Then add to that the personal traits: the fragile ego of Come Undone; the saucy saucer eyes that the girls love and the big ballads where blokes can show their emotions too, but these are old moves now.

What's new? He just about gets away with best buddy Jonathan Wilkes hooking up for a Rat Pack at the Sands swinging interlude, more so when everyone joins them for a karaoke Strong. The peace treaty with old pals Take That, Robbie perched on a stool for a heartfelt solo Back For Good, is sweetly touching.

However the descent into crass rap on new single Rudebox, wrapped inside an ASBO hoodie just when Eminem is retiring, suggests Robbie's thirties may be more troublesome.

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