Robbie Williams brings surprise star guest out at Co-op Live gig in Manchester

Pop superstar Robbie Williams surprised fans at the first of his two Manchester Co-op Live gigs by bringing out a surprise star guest.
Former Take That star Robbie is back in the city with his new Britpop Tour.
Earlier gigs on the tour have seen a string of surprise guests join Robbie on stage - including boyband Five in London.
READ MORE: Robbie Williams at Co-op Live - stage times, tickets, setlist, support and how to get there
READ MORE: Robbie Williams at Manchester Co-Op Live arena support acts for 2025 tour
He has also been welcoming surprise singers to perform the now-famous "Lulu bit" of Relight My Fire, including Lulu herself at one show, and former X Factor winner Michelle McManus on his opening night in Edinburgh.
On Tuesday night in Manchester, it was another X Factor star who joined Robbie for Relight My Fire.
For Robbie announced to the crowds to huge cheers that Lucy Spraggan was joining him to sing.
He had earlier brought out Thom Rylance from Wigan's own The Lottery Winners, who played as the support at the start of the night, to perform a selection of acoustic versions of his biggest hits.
And Thom remained on stage to play as Lucy joined the duo.
Wearing a black leatherette suit, Lucy delighted the crowd singing along to the Take That chart-topper alongside Robbie.
The pals embraced at the end of the song, as Robbie said: "Show her the love she deserves."
Lucy appeared in The X Factor back in 2012 and has gone on to enjoy chart success as a solo artist.
Meanwhile The Lottery Winners frontman Thom had earlier hailed the gig "the best night of my life" after playing the support slot at the sold out Co-op Live arena.
When he rejoined Robbie on stage during the "C stage" section of the show, the two singers bantered about what their double act would be called, settling on "The Balls".
Robbie returns to Co-op Live for the second of his two shows on Wednesday night.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Digital Trends

8 hours ago

• Digital Trends

FBC: Firebreak review: co-op Control spinoff is a a lot of work for little payoff

FBC: Firebreak MSRP $40.00 Score Details 'FBC: Firebreak hides a fine co-op shooter behind a tedious grind.' Pros Clever premise Creative mission structure Good use of Control universe Cons Matchmaking woes Thin teamwork Demanding grind 'Why you can trust Digital Trends – We have a 20-year history of testing, reviewing, and rating products, services and apps to help you make a sound buying decision. Find out more about how we test and score products.' You start a new job. It's nothing special; you're just a low rung paper pusher. The starting pay is meager, but it's enough to pay the bills. Your boss says that he sees a bright future for you in this company. Work hard and you'll get a promotion. More money. More perks. More power. You bust your butt to hit every milestone you can, occasionally getting a small holiday bonus or a few extra vacation days. Your day to day only improves in small increments, but you keep reaching for the next rung of the corporate ladder in hopes that the view from the top will be worth it one day. Recommended Videos That experience isn't so dissimilar to how I've felt playing FBC: Firebreak, a shooter that feels like a second job. Remedy Entertainment's foray into co-op action, a spinoff of its 2019 hit Control, brings a playful pitch to the board room. It imagined what the average Joes of its interconnected universe do while Jesse Fayden is living out a superhero fantasy. It's a celebration of the mundane that hands out Employee of the Week plaques to any player willing to clock in for a dead end job with a smile on their face. Though the idea of FBC: Firebreak has some potential that may reveal itself with later updates, shallow teamwork and repetitive missions fail to impress in its probationary period. It's a gig built on incentives, promising players that things will get better the harder they work. Maybe they will for the most dedicated company men, but I imagine many workers will hand in their two weeks before getting to that point. A job's a job FBC: Firebreak makes a strong case for itself on day one. The idea is that players embody the Federal Bureau of Control's most underappreciated workers. These are the cleaners who are tasked with keeping the office in order and cleaning the fans. Of course, mundane is a relative term in The Oldest House. The halls are filled with Hiss monsters that need to be exterminated – even the sticky notes are evil. It's a supernatural send up of The Office where squads of three work together to tackle odd jobs while fighting back waves of Hiss and snatching bonuses that will unlock more upgrades later on. To execute that clever idea, Remedy invents a clever gameplay loop rather than copying its multiplayer peers. Rather than dropping players into a singular playlist, there are a smattering of jobs to complete (with five available at launch and two coming by the end of 2025). In one mission, my team and I need to clean pink goop off of some machinery. In another, we need to fix some broken fans to keep The Oldest House from overheating. It's a funny idea, though there's only one mission currently that really feels like it fully nails the joke. The standout job has my team cleaning millions of sticky notes up, by shooting at thick patches of them scattered around an office. They can get stuck to my character's body, obscuring their first-person vision and eventually swallowing them whole. It's a zany workplace premise that simply isn't matched by blander missions that simply have me collecting orbs and dropping them in a minecart. Discovering the punchline of each job is the real draw early on. Missions always start with a simple janitorial joke, but build out in complexity the more players dial up the difficulty. Each job has three phases, each of which is more involved than the last and the final one culminating in some final test. In Hot Fix, the first phase simply tasks me with fixing up broken fans by pressing my controller's bumpers in the pattern shown on screen. The second phase opens up a second zone, where I need to watch out as fans occasionally blast out heat rays that can set me on fire while I'm working. The third phase does all of that, but then culminates with my squad having to fill up barrels of water and zipline them into a giant furnace that's about to blow. Discovering the punchline of each job – especially the excellent end gag of Paper Chase – is the real draw early on. That mission structure does wear thin fast, though, even with four difficulty levels and optional Corruption modifiers that raise the danger and rewards. Each job is a one-trick pony that loses its luster after the first full go around. It feels a bit like playing one interstitial puzzle in a Destiny raid blown out into a full mission. It would be a little easier to swallow if there was some exploration to be done during missions, but there's very little potential for that. The small maps only contain a smattering of upgrade materials to find, whether hidden in locked safe rooms or just lying around on tables, but any side areas are largely empty. The customizable mission structure doesn't shake things up enough to make it feel worthwhile, but it does come with one side effect: a matchmaking headache. When you jump into a multiplayer game, you usually have a few playlists to choose from. Those focused options make sure players can easily get into a round because there are only so many places for players to queue up. Consider how much more complicated that becomes when each mission has three possible phases, four difficulties, and multiple corruption options. You're talking hundreds of playlist permeations that not even the world's most popular games could hope to fill consistently. I'm not sure how Remedy is accounting for that, but judging by the fact that I have never successfully matched into a specific job setting yet, the situation is a bit dire. I've mostly had to spend my time in Quick Play, where I wind up just doing the basic first phase of jobs over and over again. That issue has been worsened by some unreliable connectivity at launch. I have been booted from jobs mid-game several times so far. That included one time while playing with a friend, after which I had to struggle to get back in with a room code that didn't appear to work for a few minutes. I imagine that these issues will be smoothed out over time (Remedy has already pushed some matchmaking improvements post-launch), but all of it leaves a bad first impression out the gate. Thin teamwork While jobs can be tackled solo, FBC: Firebreak is meant to be played with a squad of three coordinated friends. That's because the selectable character classes all have abilities that are meant to synergize with others, or cover their weaknesses. There are three selectable 'kits' at launch, each of which can be customized with different perks, weapons, and throwable grenades. The Fix kit's deal is that they have a wrench, which means that they can repair electronics by smacking them rather than carrying out a button pressing minigame. The Splash kit has a water cannon that can put out fires and soak enemies. The Jump kit (the total dud of the three) has an electric tool, the best application of which is firing it at wet enemies to electrocute them. There's some clever interplay born from that trio, as each class has a specific role to fill in a mission. Being 'better with friends' is such a low bar that I hesitate to give FBC: Firebreak credit for limboing under it. The problem, though, is that Remedy still wants the entire experience to work for solo players. That design philosophy means that every class' specific skill isn't actually necessary at all. If I see a fire on the ground, I can simply pat it out with that same bumper pressing minigame that I use to repair objects. If I don't want to do that, there might be a sprinkler above it that I can shoot to put it out. More often than not, I can just walk around it since fires rarely block my path. I don't need a Splash kit to deal with that, nor do I need a Fix kit to power up healing showers and ammo-giving workbenches. I can do that job with any character, and almost as fast. I understand the instinct here, but there's some missed potential here to make players solve for missing kits in more creative, puzzling ways. When I'm not cleaning turbines or putting out fires, I'm shooting waves of frequently spawning Hiss monsters. They're essentially zombies, but Remedy's inventive worldbuilding pays off here with an array of bizarre creatures, from flying chair demons to illusory orbs. It's a perfectly fine way to add some action between the run-of-the-mill tasks, but the shooting is as thin as the kit powers. Each player can only equip one gun, more or less just choosing between a handgun, machine gun, or shotgun. None of those feel like they have much impact when they fire, nor do grenades that hardly do damage to even the weakest degs. All of this is a little more fun with friends, of course. There are a few systems that encourage coordination, such as the fact that players' shields will only regenerate when they stick by one another. But frankly, being 'better with friends' is such a low bar that I hesitate to give FBC: Firebreak credit for limboing under it. Everything is better with friends! I would have a nice time painting over the Sistine Chapel if I was chatting with two close pals during the process. The most fun I've had so far is when I logged in to play with another reviewer. The mission itself was just background noise as we chatted about our issues with the game. As is the case with even the most boring desk job, it's the people gathered around the water cooler that can make it all worthwhile. But nothing's stopping you from hanging out with those coworkers outside of the office. Incentive structure FBC: Firebreak does get better the more time you put into it, but that's my biggest issue with it currently. It's almost a game that's designed to be boring from mission one. I don't have a grenade, my starting weapons feel weak, and my kits have no depth. Those issues change as I play and pick up upgrade currencies during jobs. Gradually, I'm able to unlock better weapons and new utilities for each kit's primary tool. The big hook is a long-tailed perk unlock system, which allows me to stack up more buffs as I level up characters and totally change how they feel. Put enough hours in and the early hour woes will clear up. That design decision is one built on hubris. Remedy seems to be banking on the idea that players will simply grind their way through a boring game by dangling the promise of a fun one in front of them. Play long enough and the Fix kit will a turret and an ultimate ability that involves a piggy bank. To get there, though, you'll have to play the same few missions over and over again to grab more upgrade materials. And when you finally get the tools you want, you'll be returning to those exact same missions again. It's an arbitrary grind, one that Remedy has already toned down in post-launch updates. As I wasted testing FBC: Firebreak, I was juggling two other online multiplayer games, Mario Kart World and Rematch. Both games have something in common that FBC: Firebreak lacks: They hooked me from the very first round. Mario Kart's racing is fast and fun from the jump and I never need to be convinced to queue up for another round of Knockout Tour. Rematch is similarly elegant, introducing me to satisfying soccer gameplay that's both casual and leaves a lot of room for personal growth as I pick up its nuances. The extra incentives for playing both are thin. Mario Kart World has some unlockable characters and stickers, but none of those things change the fundamentals of racing. Rematch only rewards me with some cosmetics in typical battle pass fashion, but I'm not thinking about that at all when I go for another round. They're like the surprise Christmas bonuses that you're not expecting. I just can't imagine signing off from my real 9 to 5 to clock into another one. FBC: Firebreak, on the other hand, is all carrot and stick. You're starting a contract job with low pay and no benefits, and then asked to get excited to work for the chance to get health insurance in a year. Sure, everything will feel more worthwhile once you get there, but you're probably not going to stop job hunting while you wait. There are other jobs to apply to out there, just as there are countless co-op games that don't lock the good parts away. In some high concept way, it all makes FBC: Firebreak more thematically functional. It treats players like the lowly employees they control. You have to imagine that their dream isn't to fight demonic sticky notes every day. Surely they hope to run the FBC one day, becoming one of those powerful people that gets to redact documents. That's the dream, but it's one hidden behind a gauntlet of hoops. The grind here feels true to life, perhaps making FBC: Firebreak the most accurate representation of what it's like to climb the corporate ladder. I just can't imagine signing off from my real 9 to 5 to clock into another one. FBC: Firebreak was tested on PS5 Pro.

Yahoo

17 hours ago

• Yahoo

Woman Lives with Her Husband, Her Ex and Their Kids. She Says It's the Best Decision They Ever Made (Exclusive)

After a dramatic breakup and a surprise pregnancy, Megan and Michael, first childhood best friends turned soulmates, found their way back to each other Tyler, Megan's ex-husband, chose to stay close for their daughter's sake, setting aside pride to build a peaceful home alongside Megan and Michael Now, Megan, Michael and Tyler live together with their children, showing their co-parenting style in a viral TikTokAgainst all odds and every societal rulebook, one family is thriving under one roof, made up of a woman, her ex-husband, her current husband and their two kids. It's a household stitched together not by tradition, but by healing, honesty and a fierce commitment to doing what's best for their children. 'Tyler and I got married in January 2020, and then [Michael] and I obviously went no contact,' Megan tells PEOPLE, recalling the journey that led her to share a home with her ex-husband, Tyler, and her now-husband, Michael. That journey, which is equal parts unconventional, honest and unexpectedly beautiful, has made the trio unlikely TikTok stars, drawing tens of thousands of followers who are captivated by their unorthodox but deeply functional family life. The TikTok account started almost on a whim. Megan says she never expected the response they received. 'Honestly, I just thought it was crazy,' she shares. 'And I was like, I bet there's a few people out there that are going to get a kick out of this. And then it blew up overnight.' That "crazy" setup has a surprising calm at its core. Megan and Michael were childhood best friends who met at church and stayed close through high school. 'We were pretty much best friends from the moment we met,' she says, smiling at the memory. They eventually dated, broke up dramatically and lost contact. Then life brought them back together in a way neither expected. After years apart, a chance reconnection while Megan was in rehab led to a quick rekindling of their friendship and eventually, a marriage. 'We got married a month after reconnecting,' Megan says. 'Not proud of the timeline, but I don't regret it.' Megan's marriage to Tyler, meanwhile, had ended shortly before her reunion with Michael. As a newly single mom, she reached out to Michael for help finding work. 'He did. He helped me get a job with his mom,' she recalls. 'That's kind of how we reconnected.' Things moved quickly after that. Megan discovered she was pregnant with Michael's child and found herself navigating a cross-country move, single parenting and co-parenting with Tyler — all while trying to make things work with Michael. South Carolina became their compromise. 'I told him my only requirement is that I needed a beach,' Megan says. 'And of course he was like, 'Yeah, I'll go anywhere to be with you and our son.' ' For a while, she carefully managed two separate households, coordinating handoffs of her daughter with Tyler so that he and Michael didn't cross paths. 'These two were never in the same place at the same time,' she remembers. 'I would send one to the store when the other was around.' Then one day, everything changed. Tyler was building furniture at Megan's house for their daughter when Michael needed to stop by. 'I was panicking,' Megan recalls. 'I looked at Tyler, and I was like, 'Michael has to come to the house right now.' And he kind of shrugged at me. He was like, 'I don't care anymore. I'm not mad. He can be here when I'm here.' ' That moment of grace shifted everything. 'I just think it was the grace of God,' Tyler tells PEOPLE. 'One day, I just woke up. I'm like, man, this is kind of silly. He's going to be here forever, so I might as well just suck up the pride.' From there, things moved fast. Megan floated the idea of all three living together. 'We all get along really well,' she remembers telling them. 'What if we just all got a place together?' To her surprise, they were both on board. 'We created a group chat and started sending properties,' she says. 'And two months later, we moved in here.' The adjustment, of course, wasn't easy. 'Tyler was up and down a lot when we first moved in together,' Megan says. 'Lots of emotional rollercoasters.' Tyler doesn't deny it. 'It was just a big range of emotions. This is great. I love it. This sucks. I hate it. I'm getting out of here next week,' he says, only half-joking. But he stayed for a reason that's easy to understand. 'My daughter,' he says plainly. 'I grew up in a semi-broken home. And I didn't want that for her. I was like, I'll do whatever it takes.' That meant giving up his dream job temporarily. 'I stopped being a cop just to move down here,' he says. 'I was like, whatever. I'll be a janitor if I have to, as long as I get to see my daughter.' For Michael, the dynamic has required its own emotional shift. 'It is definitely a rollercoaster,' he tells PEOPLE. 'But it's like a built-in friend that is never going to leave. So it's cool. It is so different from what I imagined for myself when I was in high school.' Reactions from friends and family have been all over the place. 'My dad, we blew up on each other and I didn't talk to him for five, six months,' Tyler says. 'At first, he was not fond of it. He was like, 'You're an idiot. Best of luck. See you then.' ' Today, things are better. 'He's like, 'Whatever works for you, man. I'm happy if you're happy.' ' Michael's mom is supportive, too. 'She loves Megan, she loves Tyler and all the kids,' he says. Inside the house, life is full but never predictable. 'It changes every single day,' Megan says. 'Let's say both the guys are at work. I stay at home with the kids, so we're out and about at the pool, at the beach, whatever. And then once the guys get home, it's usually to clean up, cook and they take the kids.' Evenings are usually spent together in the common area, not holed up in separate rooms. 'We use the common area more than we're ever alone in our rooms, hiding,' Megan says. The family doesn't hold formal sit-down meetings often, but communication is constant. 'It's kind of like we're doing everything on the fly,' Tyler says. 'We're usually like, 'Hey, don't do that.' or 'Hey, we should try this.' ' That open communication is part of what's made their unusual setup work. When asked what advice they'd give to others considering a similar path, Megan doesn't hesitate. 'Really focus on your healing first,' she says. 'If there is still so much bitterness towards your co-parent, it is going to cause an unhealthy living situation for the kids.' Tyler agrees. 'You got to do it for the kids and you got to put your ego aside,' he says. 'Your kid only gets one childhood.' Michael adds that it's about selflessness. 'Being slow to anger. Redoing the whole ego thing,' he says. 'It all works within itself.' As for their biggest TikTok misconception? Many believe that they're all romantically involved. 'We are strictly monogamous,' Megan says. 'Tyler is dating somebody and they're monogamous.' And while online judgment exists, it doesn't shake them. 'I'll get literal DMs,' Megan says. 'And I screenshot it and I send it to the group chat and I'm laughing. It doesn't faze me.' Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Tyler, who's back working as a police officer, is a bit more cautious. 'The only thing that it really affects is my job,' he says. 'People come up to me at work sometimes. 'Are you the guy from TikTok?' I'm like, 'Yeah, that's me.' ' Dating, he adds, is also complicated. 'We actually did a dating application. 1,300 responses later, none of 'em worked,' he says, laughing. Looking forward, the family has a dream to build a compound with separate homes on shared land. 'If they're not on board, they're out,' Tyler says. 'I'm going to do what's best for my family.' Over time, the experience has shaped all three of them in lasting ways. 'Patience and grace,' Tyler says. 'Megan and Michael also never argue. So it's something that's great to see.' Megan agrees. 'If you see the fact that I have patience, it's because I learned it from Tyler… The way he speaks to our daughter.' Michael nods, adding, 'Especially in Latino communities, it's all toxic. So just being selfless and slow to anger. It works.' At the heart of it all, Megan says, is their shared faith. 'None of this would be possible if it weren't for each of our individual relationships with the Lord,' she concludes. 'That's how we were able to heal and come together. There's a bigger picture.' Read the original article on People

Digital Trends

a day ago

• Digital Trends

3 new Game Pass games to play this weekend (June 20-22)

Today marks the first official day of summer, so what better way to beat the heat than with some cool new Game Pass games? The middle and end of the month tend to be a bit slower for new games, but this week has not just one, but two day one additions to sink your teeth into. What makes my job of picking the best ones even easier is the fact that I am spoiled for choice in terms of variety. I have a great new co-op shooter, a deliciously dark action roguelike, plus a throwback platformer that anyone can enjoy. Each one can dominate your weekend, so let's skip right to the good stuff and talk about the three Game Pass games I know you will love playing this weekend. FBC: Firebreak Let's begin with the big new multiplayer shooter on the block, FBC: Firebreak. This is a spinoff of the Control universe from Remedy and is set in The Oldest House. Instead of playing as a new Director, you and your friends are general workers sent in to deal with all the oddball paranormal events as best you can. It has some Left 4 Dead vibes in terms of requiring teamwork and moving through a map completing objectives, but has a lot more variety. You can choose between three specialties with their own utility in missions, plus a handful of weapons and a ton of ways to customize your look. It's not incredibly deep, and you will be able to see all the missions within the weekend if you and your team are committed, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing in my opinion. Recommended Videos FBC: Firebreak is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Lost in Random: The Eternal Die The first Lost in Random was a cult hit that took place on a game board and was based around rolling a dice and playing cards to move and attack. This ambitious sequel keeps the dark atmosphere and random elements, but makes the combat much more engaging. Now with roguelike elements, combat is done in real time and is fast, frenetic, and satisfying. The dice mechanic is reworked to keep every battle distinct across the four major biomes. There's plenty to unlock and discover, just like the best roguelikes, but the distinct art style and soundtrack make this one worth getting lost in. Lost in Random: The Eternal Die is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC. Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time Last up, who doesn't love a good revival? Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time packs a ton of meaning into its name. On one hand, it's been decades since the last numbered entry in the legendary platforming franchise. On the other hand, time manipulation is a core component this time around. The core mechanics still revolve around running through obstacle course-like levels across multiple worlds, collecting fruit, masks, and crystals. There's a ton to do here, and just because it looks family-friendly doesn't mean this game is easy. With the new Quantum Masks that allow you to alter levels in various ways, plus five playable characters with their own movesets, the platforming challenge on display is some of the toughest you can find. But, with that challenge comes immense satisfaction when you overcome. Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC.