The singer was introduced by Take That at a concert for the BBC charity Children In Need at London's Royal Albert Hall last night.

Despite persistent rumours that the pop group and their former member would collaborate for a song, Williams performed on his own, but not before he was welcomed on by the group.

Frontman Gary Barlow, who organised the concert, told the 4,500-strong crowd: "What a perfect night for us to introduce an old friend."

Williams then appeared on stage before lauching into his set, which included songs from his new album, Reality Killed the Video Star.

Afterwards he said: "I started tearing up just before I came on, and the lads were singing and knowing it was just about to happen and knowing what the reactions were going to be like, and then all my team were like 'Please don't cry'.

"And I think we should have milked it for a lot longer than we actually did. I think Gaz, in his wisdom, went, 'Right, we should get off now, let the lad do his singing.'

"I was trying to get them back to do a bow and everything. That's the first time in 15 years, we should have at least stayed there for 10 minutes."

But Williams and Barlow were later back on stage to round off the show with all the other artists with a performance of the Beatles' Hey Jude.

They were joined by Sir Paul McCartney, Dame Shirley Bassey, Leona Lewis, Lily Allen, Mika, Dizzee Rascal and Katherine Jenkins.

During the concert, Cheryl Cole teamed up with Snow Patrol to sing Martha Wainwright's lines from the band's song Set The Fire To The Third Bar.

Muse also performed before dashing off to the Dockland's O2 Arena where they played the first of their two-night run to support their new album The Resistance.