London - Concert for Diana & Live Earth

CONCERT FOR DIANA & LIVE EARTH!

HELLOOOOO WEMBLEEEEEEEEY! Been a while since I put an entry into this blog but TODAY I felt inspired, as I sat and watched James Hetfield and Metallica perform "Nothing Else Matter's" live on LIVE EARTH 7/7/07. He really is as HUGE as you BOYS (and you know who you are! ) have implied... a BIG HUGE HULKING MAN in fact! I had shivers run through my body as they rocked out Wembley Stadium full of 65,000 people. Today LIVE EARTH is a warm up gig for the members of Metallica as they plan to rock Wembley Stadium again tomorrow night for their current tour. They also belted out SAD BUT TRUE and ENTER SANDMAN...For some of you sitting here reading this blog, it's probably like Pfft.. Metallica... WHATEVER you can't appreciate ROCK AND/OR ROLL!

I switched on the box here to be greeted by Phil Collins and Genesis bringing Wembley their finest hits, followed by SNOW PATROL, BLACK EYED PEAS, DURAN DURAN (for the second time in a week), RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS & KEANE. After seeing Duran Duran on the concert for Diana (more of that later) last Saturday I have retraced my retro and 80's roots and promptly found a way to get my hands on some of their best known hits like "Ordinary World", "Girls on Film", "Rio", "Hungry like the Wolf" and more recently "Sunrise". These guys know how to rock a stadium.. just as well as Metallica. I am impressed! ;o)

I sit here typing this blog humming to James Blunt singing "WISEMEN" and anticipating the arrival of FOO FIGHTERS, THE BEASTIE BOYS and MADONNA! As I look through the LIVE EARTH line up all around the world, I think perhaps we in London possibly got the best of the lot. I did watch Crowded House finish the concert in Sydney with "WEATHER WITH YOU" and seeing some of my fave Aussie acts like MISSY HIGGINS and JOHN BUTLER TRIO in the background made me suddenly feel homesick. We did get some clips of Shakira and Enrique Iglesias (and hoping to catch Chris Cornell) in Hamburg, as well as Linkin Park and Rhianna in Tokyo.

As type this paragraph I am watching a superb but noisy DAVE GROHL and the FOO FIGHTERS head bang their way through "It's times like these", "Everlong" and perform "Hero", "Best of You" with a passion that is ONLY Dave Grohl like.. and go all gooey as I catch a glimpse of Violet Grohl backstage with her ears covered up to protect them from Daddy's noisy band. You either love them or you hate them.. there really is NO in between! ;o) *drools*... Awwww Dave...

You would think that the Fooey's would be a hard act to follow Right? Not for Madonna.. she came out on stage in style, classy as ever and reminded everyone why she was the material girl! She performed a song she had written especially for the Live Earth event called "Hey You"...followed by a more familiar tune "Ray of Light". I was really impressed with her imaginative rendition of her classic "La Isla Bonita" with some gypsies on violins. She finished her show with "Hung Up"... with such energy and had the whole stadium on their feet. She will be one of those artists that will be remembered for a long time to come with a career spanning 20yrs and still going strongly. You wonder whether the creativity will ever run out.. or the energy?

I somehow see myself fortunate to have the ability to sit here from a modest 12:30pm to 10:30pm watching the LIVE telecast of this gig on my own television here. From 10:30pm onwards all night they will be screening highlights from around the world. Unless you have cable television back home, I fear you may have missed out on some of the greatest musical talents on this earth at present.

For more on this marvellous event : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Earth

As I mentioned earlier, last weekend on the 1st July 2007 what would have been Princess Diana's 46th birthday, Will & Harry brought together some of the best musical acts (rock, pop, musical, rap, punk, R n B) to Wembley Stadium to pay tribute to their MUM. One of these acts as I mentioned before was Duran Duran... but they were also supported throughout the concert by Sir Elton John, Sir Tom Jones, Bryan Ferry, an English band called "The Feeling", Take That and comedian Ricki Gervais...who had to ad lib because Sir Elton John was running late at the end of the show!

I was interested to see Nelly Furtado (who looked gorgeous and sounded just as), Joss Stone and Lily Allen. Everyone sounded great, but also we had some samples from the English Ballet - Swan Lake and a prepared medley of well known Andrew Lloyd Webber musical themes from Phantom of the Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. A cultural event for all. This ran for approximately 7 hours here LIVE on the television. In Australia, a free to air network had a delayed telecast of the event but only for 3 hours. I hope that those who had FOXTEL enjoyed the concert in full. Shame on the free to air channels in Australia.. if they could do it here, they should have telecast it ALL back home! Food for thought!

For more on the Concert for Diana : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concert_For_Diana

In London, we have also had the privilege of having the 02 Wireless Festival and Glastonbury (where I saw the Chemical Brothers live..SO COOL!) telecast on our free to air network.... About the only good thing about British TV at the moment.. .. *HO HUM* Stay Tuned...

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