Risque sign does the trick for ‘massive Robbie fan’
A DUNEDIN woman who must be the city’s biggest Robbie Williams fan scored some precious moments on stage with her idol at the weekend.
Manda Hall’s risque sign paid off when she was invited to share the stage with Williams as he performed at Forsyth
Barr Stadium on Saturday night.
She recounted the moment yesterday, or as much as she could remember.
‘‘It’s all a bit of a blur.’’ Ms Hall, a ‘‘massive Robbie fan’’, had VIP tickets that got her near the front of the concert.
She said she had ‘‘a slightly inappropriate sign’’ — an explicit proposition to Williams — she often held at his concerts.
‘‘He’s a bit risky — he likes the humour.
‘‘It’s entirely humorous.’’ Ms Hall left New Zealand four years ago when Williams toured for the first time in years, going to see his concert in Switzerland, afterwards living in London for two years.
‘‘I followed him round for two years and took that sign everywhere.
‘‘He recognised it when I held it up.’’
On the other side of the sign is the less confronting ‘‘New Zealand loves you’’.
‘‘I always hold that up when we’re overseas and he always gives me the thumbs up.
‘‘He recognises me.’’ Saturday’s concert was her 13th, but the first time she had touched the pop star.
After seeing the sign about nine songs into his set, he told the audience there were ‘‘no better offers tonight’’ and asked if she wanted to go on stage. ‘‘Obviously, I said ‘yes’.’’ Williams was always the ‘‘classic gentleman’’, Ms Hall said, and asked her partner Matt Challenger if he could borrow her, to which Mr Challenger, also a big fan, agreed.
‘‘I just shook,’’ she said of her time on the stage.
‘‘I just held him and shook.’’ The incident was not without its painful moments.
Williams had to tell Ms Hall not to hurt his back — he has problems with back pain — and Ms Hall had to tell him not to hold her hand too tight as she had recently broken her finger.
The pair sat down on stage and Williams sang a song, during which he kept whispering to her she was doing OK.
‘‘I was panicking.
‘‘I just told him I loved him, and he was wonderful and he changed my life.’’
Ms Hall said she had been a fan since she was an 8yearold pupil at Mornington School.
She heard Williams on her mother’s car radio, was given a cassette tape of his music and never looked back.
‘‘He’s just a great guy.’’