UK singer Robbie Williams has been busy making headlines during his Down Under tour, most recently embarking on a tirade against New Zealand music critic Simon Sweetman, telling fans at his Auckland show the reviewer can “kiss my fucking ass”.

As the Sydney Morning Herald reports, during a Tuesday night performance at Auckland’s Vector Arena, Williams lashed out at Sweetman over a harsh review the critic gave of the ‘Let Me Entertain You’ singer’s Wellington Basin reserve show.

Williams did so in fairly eloquent fashion, reciting a poem titled ‘Hello, Sir’ dedicated to Sweetman. The poem is taken from Williams’ first solo album in 1997, written for one of the singer’s former teachers.

“Well, I’m here and you’re still there, with a fake sports car and receding hair… But thanks for the advice and I’m sure it’ll do, for the negative dickheads just like you,” Williams can be seen reciting in the footage below.

The singer then adapted the closing line in Sweetman’s honour: “And here I sit in first class, Simon Sweetman, kiss my fucking ass”. The previous day had seen Williams posting a picture of Sweetman and his son on Twitter, calling him a “baby eater”.

While Sweetman has not publicly responded, he did retweet Williams alongside several of his own defenders. Sweetman reportedly slammed Williams’ Wellington performance, calling it “ham-fisted”, “insulting”, and “karaoke”.

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“Watching his thin sketch of a voice being plastered over the original was a bit like seeing an upturned smile drawn onto the mouth of the Mona Lisa. With crayons,” Sweetman wrote of Williams’ encore cover of Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.

Williams’ Oceania tour recently made headlines when the singer accidentally hit on a 15-year-old concertgoer in Brisbane. The singer accidentally singled out the teen during an audience participation segment.

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