You have to admire the guts of the boyband member who strikes out alone. There is a high risk of failure. High hopes of becoming a significant solo artist are dashed when grown ups won't take you seriously and pubescent screamers prove fickle in their affections. Nine months later you're in panto in Rhyl.
However, Justin Timberlake has succeeded, thanks to one astute musical decision. Although r'n'b producers The Neptunes were deemed inappropriate for his former employees N'Sync after one single, Timberlake noted that they were untroubled by traditional concerns of "selling out" and would work with anyone who had the requisite dosh. The result was a solo album that adults were not mortified to be seen buying.
Like Robbie Williams, he has exploited the public's fascination with his private life: the video for his bitter single Cry Me A River featured a model who looked like ex-girlfriend Britney Spears.
Williams' songs portray him as a troubled genius, but Timberlake's aims are more straightforward. For years, the one fact the entire western world knew about him was that his famously virginal girlfriend wouldn't sleep with him. Perhaps understandably, most of his songs now detail his sexual prowess at some length. This is precisely what the Birmingham audience wants to hear.
Older than your average teenybopper, they are no less vocal in their lust. "Scream!" orders Timberlake midway through Rock Your Body. Bearing in mind the pandemonium that erupted the moment he took the stage, this command seems supererogatory in the extreme.
In fact, when Timberlake stops bumping and grinding, he's a bit of a bore. Ballads such as Still On My Brain betray his boyband roots - he tremulously sings about not being able to getcha off his mind while wearing a pained expression. A hip-hop inspired interlude offers the improbable spectacle of Timberlake singing Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express in a falsetto voice.
When he plays to his strengths, however, Timberlake is great. He camps up Cry Me A River for all it's worth. The audience, who you suspect would go nuts if Timberlake just stood there waving, raises the roof. The odds on him appearing as Buttons in the foreseeable future seem long indeed.
· Ends tonight. Box office: 0870 909 4144. Then touring.
