On Friday 11th September, Vexed Mag were fortunate enough to be invited to Rockwell at London’s O2, for arguably the most exciting combination of live performances we could have imagined.
Rockwell was held in aid of Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy, which has established itself throughout the years as the charity of choice for the music industry. Throughout it’s history, artists such as David Bowie, Paul Weller, Coldplay, Sting and Mick Jagger have supported it. The charity is the largest provider of music therapy in the UK and aims to promote health and well being for those with disability or illness.
The original Rockwell concert in 1990 was held at Knebworth and saw the likes of Robert Plant, Pink Floyd and Paul McCartney perform to raise over 3 million pounds for the charity.
Nineteen years later, with support from O2 who continue to support Nordoff Robbins in order to make a valuable difference to children and young people’s lives, September 11th 2009 saw mixture of both old and new artists join together for the same cause. And what a show it was!
Opening the show with a cover of Duffy’s “Mercy” was the eternal disco diva Lulu. She may be 61 but she’s certainly not too old to give a phenomenally energetic first performance. Of course, no performance from Lulu would be complete without everyone’s favourite sixties sing along “Shout”, but with it not enough having been treated to the conventional classic, Lulu then kicks off the night of rare collaborations with The Feeling’s front man Dan Gillespie Sells, covering Bowie’s “Man Who Sold The Moon”.
Dan Gillespie Sells sings The Feeling’s most catchy numbers “Love It When You Call,” and “Never Be Lonely” with him splitting the audience down the centre for some crowd participation and a little harmonising from the left and right hand sides. Lovely!
Next on stage is Gaz Coombes, formerly of Supergrass, now fronting it’s pared down band Hot Rats. He performs several covers before teaming up with Razorlight’s Johnny Borrell to sing Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up”.
Following a few more of their duets, David Gray graces the stage with his new song “Fugitive”. We all anticipate a hearty sing along to everyone’s favourite David Gray song “Babylon” and he gives us exactly what we’re all after- but with a strange twist of being joined by electronic string quartet Escala, who first found fame on Britain’s Got Talent. They may not have shot to fame, but it’s certainly an impressive lineup to be a part of by anybody’s standards!
Gabriella Cilmi takes to the stage to cover Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz” and her own signature track “Nothing Sweet About Me”. The songstress is joined by housewives’ favourite Ronan Keating to cover Cyndi Lauper’s beautiful “Time After Time”. Ronan takes the opportunity to perform his new solo single “Stay” and of course a rendition of “Rollercoaster”. Try as you may, you’d be hard pushed not to sing along!
A roar of applause welcomes rock royalty to the stage in the form of Robert Plant, and true to his roots he performs the huge “Whole Lotta Love” saying that he was “amazed to be here with such a combination of sounds. It’s experimental. It’s on the edge!”
Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant is followed by the unlikely pairing of a bare footed Joss Stone and silver fox Tom Jones who sing “It’s Your Thing”. And who would let Tom Jones leave the stage without at least singing “Sex Bomb” or “It’s Not Unusual”? The crowd are lucky enough to be treated to both and as if that wasn’t enough, the most unusual musical night is topped off with almost all of the night’s artists joining together to sing “Let It Be”.
All in all it was a unique night of extravagant performances, extremely rare collaborations and with 100% of profits from ticket sales going to Nordoff Robbins, it was a wonderful night all for a very worthwhile cause!
http://www.vexedmag.com/2009/09/rockwell-festival-at-o2-london-110809.html
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