Review of South Africa Freedom Day Concert

Introduction

The first concert to be held in London`s Trafalgar Square, on 29th April 2001, was the South Africa Freedom Day Concert, which marked the seventh anniversary of free elections. For those of you not up on your London geography, Trafalgar Square is overlooked by South Africa House, which appeared on the news a lot in the 1970s and 1980s, as it was the scene of many anti-apartheid protests. Ironic then that Nelson Mandela watched most of the show from the balcony of the very same building, before appearing on stage to make a speech. Tony Blair also made a speech, although the reception he got was rather different....

Entry to the concert was free (you had to phone a premium rate number to apply for tickets), and a large crowd turned out on what was not the nicest day for an outdoor concert. The bill was a very mixed bag featuring Mbawula, The Corrs, Billy Ocean, Dave Stewart, REM and Atomic Kitten amongst others. The set list will probably make up your mind about whether to buy this disc or not, so take a peak up there in the disc details section to find out who`s here.

Video

A 1.85:1 widescreen transfer which looks rather good. It certainly captures the mixture of grey skies and very colourful crowd very well. There are some rather colourful artists too, and you get to see Michael Stipe looking like a Ferengi, as he appears on stage as a cross between Morrissey and Keith Flint from The Prodigy.......

Audio

A choice of DD2.0 stereo, DD5.1 and dts. As is customary I picked dts and wasn`t let down. A very good live mix, lots of bass, and some good placement going on. Image/Aviva have really got their heads screwed on when it comes to encoding live concerts, as they continually do a great job. The 2 Dolby Digital tracks also sound very good, but dts is the one to go for if you can.

Features

Nothing here I`m afraid, alhough I`m sure they could have found something for a documentary or some interviews and behind the scenes footage. It was quite an emotional time for some of the performers so I`m sure that they had something to say.

Conclusion

A good DVD of a variable concert. The variation is due to the eclectic mix of artists who range from excellent (REM) to rubbish (Atomic Kitten). Although it is a bit of a mixed bag, there`s something here for everyone, including a rare appearance for Billy Ocean (who is looking really old nowadays!)

REM were definitely my highlight, Dave Stewart and Gary Cooper would have been better if Gary wasn`t singing the words from a piece of paper in his hand. Mel B wasn`t great either, desperately trying to stay within the confines of her outfit whilst miming (or doing a really bad job of performing live - difficult to tell). The concert closes nicely with Something Inside So Strong by Labi Siffre and friends - you`ll be familiar with this from a current ad campaign if you didn`t know it before.

All in all a technically excellent disc, and the only thing you need to decide is if you like the set list enough to want to buy it.