Ben Gamblin Online - Blog: Concert for Diana

Concert for Diana

02 Jul '07, 17:59

To celebrate the life of Princess Diana, on what would have been her 46th birthday, the concert organised by Princes Williams and Harry was held yesterday at the new Wembley Stadium in London.

It was quite an epic event. With the music starting at 4pm, and running on until around 10:20pm, it clocked up over 6 hours of television. However, long pauses between acts probably meant that maybe only 5 hours of that was music.

Unfortunately though, the event was spoilt for television viewers by an absolutely appauling production. Throughout the broadcast the were frequent pauses with no presentation or continuity. For some reason, as soon as a song finished, the audio was cut so at worst there was no sound at all, and other times the very faint sound of the audience. Interviews by Fearne Cotton were cut off halfway through, in order to return to the studio, who didn't always have something to say. At one point Jamie Theakston (in the studio) announced Take That, whilst Kiefer Sutherland (on stage) announced Rod Stewart.

Performances weren't all that great either. Duran Duran didn't exactly give the best performance in the world, although it wasn't the evening's worst. Fergie's (not that Fergie) microphone was switched off for part of her song, Status Quo simply cannot sing anymore and Roger Hodgson (of Supertramp) could not reach any of the high notes required for his songs. Oh and I nearly forgot about Ricky Gervais having to fill due to a delay in Elton John's set, and failing miserably. That was almost cringeworthy!

It did pick up as the afternoon/evening went on though. Personally I thought Lily Allen's perfomance was good, as were The Feeling. The Andrew Lloyd Webber segment was excellent with great perfomances from Connie Fisher and Andrea Ross, Andrea Bocelli (I never knew he was blind), and Josh Groban and Sarah Brightman. Donny Osmond, Jason Donovan and Lee Mead weren't too bad either. Rod Stewart can still sing a tune as can Elton John who not only opened the show, but finished it as well.

The audience was good to watch too. Early on, they didn't really seem to be getting into it, but some middle aged people were making the effort. It was particularly funny to see some of the older people trying to enjoy music from Pharrell Williams and later, Kanye West. Unfortunately, due to heightened security in response to recent failed terrorist attacks in London and an attack in Glasgow, the stadium didn't fill up very quickly and therefore looked pretty empty at the start. I don't suppose that helped with the atmosphere too much which seemed pretty damp throughout most of the show, until maybe the last hour.

Of course it's entirely possible that due to the poor television production, the atmosphere of the event just didn't come through on the TV. It probably would have been better if we could have heard more of the crowd rather than having the audio dropped every time a song finished. Also, capacity for the event was 63,000. However the stadium can hold up to 80,000 people. So for the whole evening there were blocks of empty seating which would have added to the impression of a poor night.

Overall, it was good fun to watch. There was definately good perfomances in it, and it was all for a good cause. Not only did it celebrate the life of Diana, but raised money and awareness for charitable causes which is never a bad thing.

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