Johnny Borrell (Razorlight) and Corrine Bailey Rae on vocals, Jose Gonzales on guitar, Roger Taylor on drums and Paul 'Wyx' Wickens on keys, backed by a 20-piece London community gospel choir and a 31-piece orchestra conducted by the legendary George Martin.
Memorabilia
concert program (from my own collection)
Photos
Fan stories
Written by cmsdrums
I was lucky enough to get one of the few free pairs of tickets distributed by Channel 4 via Jacky at the Queen Fan Club.
Obviously you will see it on the TV, but thought I'd post a bit of first hand info.
The free ticket holders were in a standing 'mosh pit' type enclosure right at the front of the stage, the paying public were in tiered seating towards the back, and the celebs were in a few rows between the two. I am not lyiny when I say that I was stood at the bavk of the mosh pit, and when I turned around, literally about 4 feet from me were seated: Jimmy Page, Dave Gilmour, Kenney Jones, Bon Jovi, Brian Wilson and George Martin!!!
Jim Beach was there, seated a few rows back, dressed like a tramp as usual in an old woolly jumper and baseball cap!
Roger was asked to induct Led Zep, and was given a very hearty rould of applause when he took to the stage to give a genuine appreciation of them - he then presented the award to Jimmy Page and I got some good pics of that!
His playing performance was right at the close of the show - his kit was set up in the usual way (minus the Queen logo on the bass drum skin). I was stood about 5 feet in front of him!! His playing was, as expected, tasteful and appropriate, with regard to the original recordings. He played the Ringo Starr drum 'solo' part very well, and got a huge swelling of cheers and clapping from the crowd as he played this!
Once the show finished I walked past the kit as the drum tec was taking it down, and managed to get a good side/behind pic of the kit (not an angle usually seen). I thought I'd show a bit of cheek (unusual for me as I'm quite shy) and asked his tec if there were any drumsticks going. He rummaged around but couldn't find any. Not to be deterred, he searched some more and found Roger's stick bag, opened it up, checked the sticks thoroughly to make sure they were used ones, and gave me a matching signed pair!!! As a drummer, I have been after at least one of Roger's sticks for years, so to get a used, signed pair is superb (obviously I won't use them). I'm afraid I don't know the name of Roger's drum tec, but if anyone does happen to know him, please pass on my utmost thanks for his brilliant reaction to my request.