SAN FRANCISCO -- "Hello! I'm very famous in Europe, but I can't

get a lay here, can I?"

No, that's not a line from an advance screening of "Austin Powers 2: The

Spy Who Shagged Me." It's how Robbie Williams, a major star in England

but merely an up-and-coming pop singer in the U.S., introduced himself

Tuesday to a crowd of 100 or so music-industry types in the courtyard

of the Phoenix Hotel here.

Setting up on a poolside stage, the ex-member of teen-idol band Take

That played a five-song set for the invitation-only crowd that included

his biggest European hit, "Angels," and his new U.S. single,

music/Williams,_Robbie/Millennium.ram">"Millennium" (RealAudio excerpt).

But first, the attendees were instructed to turn from the stage and view

a montage of Williams performing in Europe on any of the dozen TV screens

strewn about the courtyard. In one of the clips, Williams proclaimed

he wanted "a gold medal for showing off!"

"He just wants to be a pop star," concurred one record distributor who was

watching the clips and who wished to remain anonymous. "He doesn't want to

be anything serious."

Williams -- dressed warmly on a cold and blustery evening in dark jeans and black zipper-down fleece

over a black T-shirt -- quickly made it apparent that his weapons of choice are his good looks, strong hooks and

self-deprecating manner.

Opening with "Lazy Days," from his first solo album, Life Through a

Lens (released in the UK in 1997), Williams bounded across the

makeshift stage, clapping his hands and encouraging his four-piece band

to play with as much vigor for this small crowd as it does for stadium

gigs in his homeland.

"I'm really famous in Europe," Williams reiterated at the end of the

first song, "and I've got the most added [song on the radio] in America!"

The radio contingent in the crowd, the ones whose stations have picked

up "Millennium" in the last few weeks, sounded their approval.

"But what does that mean?" Williams asked. "Can I go buy art now? Does

anyone have a light?"

Williams' sound zigzags much like his stage moves. He shifted from

schmaltzy ballads to mid-tempo sing-alongs in nary a minute's time.

While his first album was loaded with slow, Take That-style numbers, his

most recent disc, I've Been Expecting You, spotlights a Brit-pop

sound similar to that of Blur and Oasis. His first U.S. album, The

Ego Has Landed, is due May 4.

The Oasis influence was heavy in "Man Machine," with Williams even

adopting some of Oasis singer Liam Gallagher's whiny snarl. But where

Gallagher is a borderline menace to society, Williams prefers to keep

things light and nonthreatening, in the manner of Welsh crooner Tom Jones.

His songs are instantly recognizable, even when heard for the

first time -- a hallmark of a pop song with staying power. But on Tuesday

night, just when Williams appeared on the brink of reaching a level of

Jones-like pop professionalism, he'd back away.

"Yeah, I want to touch my thingy!" he proclaimed at the end of "Man

Machine." "With that I'll launch into a ballad called 'Angels.' " Hardly

the intro you'd expect for a song about support and respect.

With the industry crowd slowly beginning to disperse from the front of

the stage (perhaps to get an early spot in line for free drinks), Williams

quickly launched into his surest shot at stateside success, "Millennium."

The jaded industry types turned around and returned to the stage to wave

their arms in reckless pop abandon.

"There should be synchronized swimming going on with this song," listener Jenny Butler, 28, said.

"Thank you very much!" Williams said at the end of the set. "If you've

enjoyed me, I'm Robbie Williams. If not, I'm George Michael."