Robbie Williams has sympathised with current public enemy Justin Bieber over his frustrations about screaming fans, having been in the same position during his own career.

The 42 year old star, who recently released his new album The Heavy Entertainment Show, says that he understands the reasons behind Bieber’s recent onstage meltdowns while touring the UK for his Purpose world tour, which culminated in him walking off the stage in Manchester when the crowd wouldn’t quieten down.

“I saw that online. I get where he’s coming from,” he said to the BBC. “I find it difficult forming words in my head without an audience. So when there's 16,000 people screaming at you while you're trying to talk, I get it.”

The 22 year old Canadian star had described his fans in Birmingham as “obnoxious” for continually screaming at him, but Williams, accustomed to the same kind of mass adoration in the late nineties and early noughties at the peak of his superstardom, said that Bieber was still wrong to do what he did.

More: Watch Justin Bieber storm off stage in Manchester after asking fans to stop screaming

“You've got to do it with humour or you don't do it at all,” former Take That singer Williams said about how to cope with such a situation onstage.

Bieber recently tried to explain his actions in an open letter to his British fans.

 “If I didn’t use this platform to say how I truly feel, and if I didn’t use this platform to be the man that I know I am, and speak from what’s in my heart, then I’m doing myself injustice, and I’m not doing anybody in this audience any justice,” he said. “There’s going to be times where I say the wrong thing, because I’m human.”

Meanwhile, Williams is also in the headlines for a rather raunchy cover shoot he’s done for Attitude magazine, in which he appears totally naked on the front of the mag.

More: Take That announce 22-date ‘Wonderland’ tour of UK and Ireland