★ IS Robbie Williams

about to say Auf Wiedersehen to the UK? Stoke’s most famous son reckons he gets more respect in Germany than back home where he believes people “love to hate him”.

★ On stage in Hamburg this week he revealed: “I don’t know whether it is because I can’t read German that I can’t understand what people think of me, but I come here I get a sense of love.

★ “I get this sense that this creature I always wanted to be – entertainer, performer, the humourist, lyricist, singer – I feel that you guys have embraced that and have allowed me to be it and I am grateful.”