ROBBIE Williams is headed for St Mary's Stadium next week.

Before the Heavy Entertainment Show arrives in Southampton, Jenny Entwistle found out what fans can expect from The Heavy Entertainment Show.

Q: If you include Progress Live [with Take That], this is going to be your sixth stadium tour, which is a pretty massive feat to be able to achieve. Do you now feel at home performing to such large crowds or is there still an element of awe to it?

A: "Oh definitely an element of awe, that never stops. It never becomes ‘Oh yeah, I’m playing a stadium tonight’. It’s always, for me - I can’t speak for other acts - but it’s overwhelming and terrifying and I take being the conduit to people’s good times very seriously and there’s an awful lot of them! So yes, you never stop being in awe of the situation."

Q: You released ‘The Heavy Entertainment Show’ at the tail end of last year and I think you previously stated that it was written in mind to be performed live. Is there a track of the new album that you’re looking forward to being able to translate to a stadium setting?

A: "Yes definitely - Mixed Signals which is the song that The Killers wrote, gratefully they gave it to me, so I’m looking forward to singing it in a stadium. I’m looking forward to singing Party like a Russian - in Russia! That’ll be quite be a moment."

Q: Now, incredibly it was 20 years ago this year when you released your debut solo album. Considering where you’re at now, do you find it hard to connect on a personal level with some of your older tracks? As you’re in a different headspace, and a different point of your life now.

A: "Yeah, but you know, with live stuff I always take the stance that I’m not there to be entertained, and people want to hear the stuff that they’re most familiar with. So it doesn’t matter how I feel about it."

Q: A lot of your tracks have almost taken on a life of their own because they’ve become like a soundtrack of fans’ lives. First dance at a wedding or a song that reminds them of a particular occasion, so when fans come and see you live do you take that into consideration because those are the songs the fans want to hear?

A: "I take that into consideration yes, because I’m the vocal point of attention and it feels disastrous when you lose the energy of 80,000 people. I’m a big believer in giving them what they want, because I know what I want as an audience member. If I go to somebody’s show and I don’t know three songs in a row, I’m bored. I go to somebody’s show and I don’t know four songs in a row, I want to go home! I know what I want, even with big, big heritage named artists, I’ve been to gigs and gone ‘I’m really bored’. I know what is demanded of me and I can’t wait to do that."

Q: For this tour you’re having Erasure join you on all the dates, what made you decide you want to bring them on the road?

A: "Because they’re incredible! And they’ve got so many hits and I’m a fan of them - I can’t believe they said yes."

Q: As a solo artist you haven't played a headline stadium show in Southampton before. Are you looking forward to it?

A: "Yes, but you know I’m the guy at the front that just sings and my career and life is on rails. They put me in a car and I turn up, and if they say I’m going to Coventry, then I’m going to Coventry!"

Q: What artists do you personally listen to?

A: "I listen to TalkSport! I genuinely do, and I listen to whatever I’ve just written try to think of how I could make it better, how I could whittle it and then when it’s whittled enough I then think of what album it’s going to go on, how it’s going to go on it, when, where. But apart from that, I like John Grant, he’s the last artist I took real notice of."

Q: Regarding the different songs that you write, I think I remember reading that you wrote 80+ songs for The Heavy Entertainment Show. Do you think you’re going to save those for albums in the future?

A: "Oh they’ll see the light of day, hook or by crook, one way or another. They’re not just going to stay on my computer."

Q: You performed on ‘Let It Shine’ alongside Gary, Howard and Mark. How was it?

A: "I was genuinely choked, there was genuinely a tear. I was genuinely overwhelmed with the love that beamed on us when we walked on stage. To see it in people’s eyes how much we mean to them and how much we’ve meant to them and how much we are the fabric of their lives and you know, and I instantly went on a time travelling journey in my mind and was overwhelmed by it. It was an incredible moment."

Q: So you’ll do more with them in the future?

A: "Absolutely. I would, if I was a betting man I would bet on that. There's an invisible cord that keeps pulling us back, and it's a cord I'm quite happy that the universe tugs occasionally."