What: BBC Children In Need Rocks
Where: Royal Albert Hall
When: 12th November
Reviewed by: Roger Goodgroves

I think I can safely say that this gig was likely to be one of the gigs of the year and that was before it even started.

The line up was stellar with Gary Barlow of Take That bringing together a star-studded cast to help raise money for Children in Need. Then you have the added draw of a potential Take That reunion with Robbie. Options to purchase tickets were made available by a public lottery/registration. As expected the demand was huge and I wasn’t one of the lucky ones selected. Having resigned myself to watching it on TV this coming Thursday (BBC1 8pm) I was pleasantly surprised to be offered a chance to get tickets in the second round of the draw. Now the only problem was the mad panic to find my original registration details they insisted on as part of the purchase process. Being the tidy sort (with PCs at least) I had deleted my email confirmation following the registration and even emptied my deleted basket! Luckily my spam filter takes a copy of all emails and stores them in its database for a few days so I could breathe again and then only have to worry about getting some of the remaining tickets.

Now I know you are ahead of me here as I obviously went otherwise why am I writing this review! Having bought tickets the next hurdle was actually getting in. You had to turn up at the Royal Albert Hall with photo proof of ID, the etickets and your credit card and all this BEFORE 6pm! With the ticket prices ranging from £50 to £300+ I doubt they expected many unemployed to be there on the night so I had to burn a valuable day off in the process.

So was all the effort of getting there actually worth it?

Well the actual line-up/running order for the TV performance of the gig was as follows:

Take That
Robbie Williams
Muse (in reality they opened the gig but will be edited in for the broadcast)
Leona Lewis
Paolo Nutini
Katherine Jenkins (With Julian Lloyd Webber)
Cheryl Cole
Mika
Annie Lennox
Dame Shirley Bassey
Dizzee Rascal
Snow Patrol
Lily Allen
Sir Paul McCartney

So you can see that the names certainly made it worth being there. What about the event itself and the acts performances? I’ve made no secret of the fact that the Royal Albert Hall is my fav gig venue so the omens were right. Why is it then that I felt a little disappointed by the whole event? The major one was it being on TV. The audience came second to what they wanted to capture for broadcast. We were told how to have a good time, it didn’t quite run to being told when to clap and cheer like the American audiences but it was close. There were just too many breaks, pauses and gaps to have the event flow as it should have. A prime example of how the TV came first was the opening act. When you see it on the TV you’ll see Take That opening with “Greatest Day” but on the night Muse opened before shooting off to perform at the O2 Arena.

The big talking point leading up to the night was if Robbie would perform with Take That. Well they did and didn’t! After Take That “opened” the evening Gary announced ”What a perfect night for us to introduce an old friend.” Robbie entered stage right to a very loud roar (see my video on Youtube). The excitement of seeing musical history was palpable however as the five formed up on stage the two wings peeled off leaving Robbie alone with his quivering lip. The disbelief and disappointment of the crowd was evident and my thoughts quickly imagined the serenity of the Royal Albert Hall shattered by the ensuing riot. Luckily the thought of Robbie singing anyway was enough to quell the disquiet.

So with Robbie departed the remainder of the artist procession continued. Most were what was to be expected. The event was billed as Children in Need rocks the Royal Albert Hall. Strangely then we had opera singer Katherine Jenkins with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s brother Julian on Cello and Shirley Bassey with Gary Barlow on piano which both seemed stupidly out of place.

Shirley Bassey had the strangest collaboration of the evening when Dizzee Rascal joined her on “Diamonds are forever”. For me the best collaboration of the night came when Cheryl Cole joined Snow Patrol for “Set the fire to the third bar”. Her voice really suited this song. I was hoping for Snow Patrol with Leona Lewis doing “Run” but I wasn’t disappointed by Cheryl/Snow Patrol’s efforts.

The final collaboration of the night was when Sir Paul McCartney was joined by Take That before the finale of “Hey Jude” with all the performers returning to the stage to sing.

So we finally got Robbie singing with Take That although not in the manner expected. This was a perfect opportunity for them to really sing together and a real opportunity lost for a very good cause.

Some of my photos from the finale have already been posted HERE

Pre order the new ‘Children In Need’ single by Peter Kay on Amazon

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