Like most charity concerts, the eclecticism of the bill was both the boon and the bane of Rockwell, an event to raise funds for Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy. Seeing a dozen artists in a single sitting was an attractive proposition, not least with the show’s impressively brief turnaround times and the inspired idea to have singers duet with their successor on stage. But even in these easy days of downloading it is a rare fan who shares a taste for Lulu, Razorlight, David Gray and Escala.
Hence, the concert was a pick’n’mix of delight and disappointment, depending on where your tastes lay. In the case of Razorlight, disappointment trounced delight. The frontman Johnny Borrell — who first appeared to guest with the punky, Supergrass offshoot act Hot Rats — looked in dire need of sleep. During a ballad he staggered, the bags under his eyes halfway to his chin, and when he attempted to clap his hands and missed, even the competition winners howling his name flinched with shame.
The unexpected revelations were that Ronan Keating still makes women scream and that some kids actually dig Tom Jones, who ended the night with Let it Be, an audience request, accompanied by a bizarre ensemble of Keating, a barefooted Joss Stone, the Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford, the Feeling’s frontman Dan Gillespie-Sells and Beverley Knight.
Earlier Knight had belied her low billing with a breathtaking performance that surely earned her an army of new fans. Sleek and sexy in a short, sparkly dress and buckled boots, she mainlined Tina Turner with a gutsy set that had the audience out of their seats.
The other highlight of an oddball night was Robert Plant accompanied by a sextet led by the award-winning Justin Adams on guitar and the riti player Juldeh Camara. Plant’s joy at updating the old blues number Fixin’ to Die was infectious. His reinvention of Whole Lotta Love, with Page’s parts played on Camara’s single-stringed riti, was simply sublime. In four fabulous minutes Rockwell overcame every charity concert cliché.
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