Watching Cruz Beckham - impish, likeable, possessed of a clear talent but widely judged by the hefty legacy of what’s come before him - there’s the sense of what it might have been like to catch Robbie Williams in his early, post-Take That solo days: a man setting out to prove himself against the weight of a public mostly expecting him to fail, who looks like he may well just manage it.
Alongside David and Victoria, mobbed by iPhone cameras in a VIP area at the back, Robbie’s old mucker Geri Halliwell is in the audience tonight - maybe she can pop him a WhatsApp. But actually, playing the last of three shows at north London’s Courtyard Theatre and completing his first ever headline tour alongside backing band The Breakers, the youngest Beckham son has the chops to win some nepo-baby naysayers over on his own terms. People might be here because of the family name, and the frequent football chants of “There’s only one Cruz Beckham” make it hard to forget where he’s come from, but if a band of complete unknowns bashed through this same set of slightly chaotic indie hits-in-waiting, it’d still land. Cruz, it turns out, can genuinely play - and his tendency towards a slightly batshit creative choice suggests he’s got the balls to take a few risks and put his personality commendably out there.
