Overall the concert was a fantastic experience and well worth seeing, from the grand stage in front of Buckingham Palace to the great selection of British talent and some from further afield. That’s not to say it was the best start ever.
After a short performance from the Scot’s Guards that kicked it off in right Royal fashion we got Robbie Williams, surely one of Britain’s most reliable and enthusiastic entertainers, starting the show with ‘Let Me Entertain You’, both an appropriate start and a real energetic opening with musical backing from the guards adding to the music and I hope this is available to download soon. It certainly got the crowd going and it was just a shame he only had one opening number, and it also should be noted that he hit the notes of the song perfectly. Why? Because of what followed.
Is it the acoustics of the venue? Is it the sound system? Why do half of the artists sound shocking? Surely it can’t be because they can’t sing live? Well, I’m afraid it must be the latter as many of the artists showed it was neither the acoustics or the sound that was causing some to sound bad. One artist sang a song while bloody hula hooping and sounded perfect for heaven’s sake!
Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas came on next to sing their hit ‘I Gotta Feeling’ and, frankly, until Jessie J came on to rescue the song it was horrible. I admire Mr Am as a producer and rapper but he should never try singing. Especially live. It was horrible to listen to until Jessie J replaced Fergie on vocals – perhaps they were afraid of booking the wrong one, or couldn’t afford the “access” – and continued the show with a fantastic live version of ‘Domino’, a difficult song to sing but one she pulled off with aplomb. The stage, though, having previously been full of guards and string players, did seem strangely empty by this point.
JLS came on next with ‘U Make Me Wanna’ which was mostly OK but had its fair share of bum notes and I’m glad I had five minutes of Sky Plus pause to fast forward through. The next bridge was done by comedian Miranda Hart who, as expected, couldn’t end a punchline without making it sound like the end of a desperate lonely hearts column. I loved her in ‘Not Going Out’ but her solo material is so samey and desperate it annoys me. At least she didn’t do a prat fall though.
Next on the bill was a great idea of a cover, Lady Antebellum’s ‘Need You Now’. It was also a great idea to get concert organiser Gary Barlow to sing the male vocal. It was more grate, though, that they get Cheryl Cole to sing the female vocals. Frankly, she sounded awful, especially against Barlow’s in-tune vocals. It’s no wonder I didn’t like ‘Three Words’ when she duetted with Will.I.Am. I imagine live it must sound like someone slaughtering a cat to a bassline record.
The concert was lifted back up though by excellent comedian Lee Mack doing the next link, throwing in probably the best written and delivered comedy of the evening that didn’t fall back on fawning or stereotypes. It certainly cements Mack as one of our best current comedians both in stand up and on sitcom.
Gyrating septuagenarian Cliff Richard was up next to perform a montage of his hits which was fun to hear as a collection of songs from earlier in the Queen’s reign but even he struggled with some notes and didn’t cover himself in much glory. He ended with a full version of ‘Congratulations’, sadly a song ruined for me by too many visits to Frankie and Benny’s where they insist on playing the song every time a birthday party is in, which is most times.
Michael McIntyre-look like Lang Lang came on next to do some piano work, raising the cultural bar of the night, though I was expecting the Chinese panda from Glasgow Zoo to appear and then the music continued in the same vein with some opera from Alfie Boe including that Cornetto advert tune (yes, I’m a pleb).
Lenny Henry was on around here to do the next link. Now I love Henry as a comedian but, like Miranda Hart who always does her lonely hearts jokes (she did again in her second link – I’m glad I wasn’t playing the jubilee drinking game where you take a shot everytime Cheryl Cole missed a note, she mentioned she needs a man or the Queen looked miserable), he always shoe-horns a joke in about him being black. That’s great, Lenny, we know that. It’s 2012. Being black isn’t something weird or foreign so stop acting like it is.
Possibly the weirdest act of the night came on next, singer Grace Jones, dressed like a lobster, hula-hooping her way through her song. I assume this is a game to be showcased tonight at Nintendo’s E3 show. Her delivery of the song was perfect especially considering the extra exercise she was doing at the time and added another genre tick to the concert that was the definition of something for everyone.
Prince Harry look-a-like Ed Sheeran was on next and did what I thought was impossible and made me enjoy him singing ‘The A Team’. He sounded great but not sure a song about class a drugs is suitable for such an auspicious occasion.
Annie Lennox was the next act, trying to one-up Grace Jones in the fancy dress stakes, coming on with a pair of angel wings that the band had also donned. Either that or she’s appearing alongside Matt Smith in the next Doctor Who series and if you blink she’ll take you back to the Queen’s silver jubilee. Her voice was great and she tackled the songs well and proved that, in the main, it was the older artists holding up the music on the night.
With Rolf Harris suddenly appearing as a compere – he comes in useful later but otherwise one of the world’s leading entertainers is sadly underused – it’s onto Tom Jones who brings one more Welshie onto the stage after Rob Brydon and the soon to appear Shirley Bassey. He opened with a smooth and great sounding version of ‘Mama Told Me Not To Come’ sans the Stereophonics and then a Spanish reworking of sing-a-long hit. As many Twitterers observed – one of the highlights of this performance was commenting jokes on Twitter and seeing what everyone else was putting, and I apologise to my followers for my 200+ tweets on the night – a sing-a-long wife-murdering song is an unusual choice, especially when followed by the return of Robbie Williams singing ‘Mack The Knife’, offering the musical back-to-back equivalent of a London knife fight. It was great to see Robbie back on stage even if it was singing his swing cover, but it must have been a good start for the Queen, who turned up at this point. I know her husband is in hospital but she didn’t at all look like she was enjoying the gig. It’s alright for her, she came in at the good bit and didn’t have to hear Cheryl, Cliff or Will.I.Am.
The next song was probably the highlight of the evening for me. It was Gary Barlow’s ‘Sing’, performed on stage by the Commonwealth band including the Military Wives and a young African choir. It’s a beautifully composed song and was done marvellously live with all the voices and characters and works really well as a soundtrack to the Jubilee.
After a few more links – Rob Brydon seemed obsessed with making Gay / Queen jokes but his Jeremy Hunt line was possibly the most inspired joke of the night – we got one number from an underused Shirley Bassey – naturally ‘Diamonds Are Forever’, the first of two James Bond songs of the day – and then a montage from Australian pop princess Kylie Minogue who looked rather sexy in her pearly-king inspired costume and rattled through a good range of hits and some top dancers.
As the concert began its journey towards the end we got a beautiful rendition of West Side Story’s ‘Somewhere’ by Alfie Boe and Renee Fleming on the Buckingham Palace balcony (a musical about gang warfare – there’s a trend here) and then a cracking set from national treasure Elton John, starting with my favourite track of his ‘I’m Still Standing’, alongside ‘Crocodile Rock’ and ‘Your Song’, which is a set-list you can’t really criticise, even if he didn’t do ‘Candle In The Wind’. Shame.
With more black jokes from Lenny “One Note” Henry we then got the possible highlight of the evening, tongue-in-cheek. Forever more Stevie Wonder will be blamed for not being ready on time, or Gary Barlow for running too early, as Rolf Harris was called on to fill time. Naturally he performed ‘Two Little Boys’ acoustically which did get the crowd going, but the inclusion of the final number one of the sixties would never really be on any ones wish list. Though, kudos to the man, Harris proved himself to be able to keep the show going and the crowd involved at very last minute and shows him to be the amazing entertainer he is, even if he did start to break up with laughter.
Stevie Wonder’s set was as great as expected with the amazing ‘Sir Duke’ starting his set with ‘Happy Birthday’, perhaps not as relevant to the occasion as Cliff’s ‘Congratulations’, following alongside ‘Superstition’. A fair point was made by Lee Mack about him doing a duet with Paul McCartney on ‘Ebony and Ivory’, something that didn’t happen, but echoes the feeling I had about artists sharing the bill and not teaming up. Robbie and Kylie performing ‘Kids’ would have been incredible.
The major highlight of the evening had to be, though, Madness on the roof of Buckingham Palace but not necessarily for their performance, though that was as amazing as you’d expect. Accompanying ‘Our House’ was some eye-popping visual effects projected onto the front of the palace showing the front peeling away to show a row of terrace houses and then people dancing inside. It had to be seen to be believed but was a visual spectacle.
Peter Kay was a surprise guest for a brief and mildly amusing comedy set before headliner Paul McCartney came on for a fun set full of unusual song choices including ‘Magical Mystery Tour’, ‘Live and Let Die’ and ‘Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da’. He sounded good though and got the crowd singing but expected some more sing-a-long Beatles tunes.
The night ended with a touching speech from Prince Charles – calling the Queen ‘mummy’ and an impressive firework display that was well timed with the end of the BBC coverage.
Overall the Jubilee Concert was a well organised and enjoyable 200 minutes of music, encompassing artists to please as many people as possible. Tom, Madness, Robbie, Gary, Shirley, Kylie, Paul and others lifted the show to great heights, it’s just a shame that Cliff, Cheryl and Will.I.Am seriously let the sides down. The light work was great, the projections fantastic, the fireworks a great rounding off of the night. Though a few of the comperes were less than funny – Mack, Harris and Henry, when he wasn’t making stereotypical jokes, were the best – it was an event that was held together well, and was made even better with the typical British self-depreciation and piss-take humour evident on Twitter.
The BBC’s coverage of it was mostly first class but I bet the atmosphere of being there on the night would have been even better. A great night to celebrate her Majesty’s 60 years of reign.
(8.5/10)
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