Concert for George

The Concert for George (German: Concert for George ) took place on November 29, 2002 on the occasion of the first anniversary of George Harrison's death in London's Royal Albert Hall . Eric Clapton acted as organizer and musical director and guided through the program.

Friends and musical companions of Harrison performed at the concert. Together with his son Dhani Harrison , Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney , Ringo Starr , Michael Palin , Jeff Lynne , Gary Brooker , Joe Brown , Sam Brown , Tom Petty and Anoushka Shankar (daughter of Harrison's sitar teacher Ravi Shankar ) played at this concert.

procedure

George Harrison's famous twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar from Beatles' days was on display on the stage, along with an oversized framed photo of the honoree. Eric Clapton greeted the audience and passed the floor on to Ravi Shankar. The concert opened with Indian music when Anoushka Shankar, the daughter of Ravi Shankar, played Your Eyes . Then Anoushka Shankar and Jeff Lynne played Harrison's composition The Inner Light , followed by Ravi Shankar's work Arpan ( Sanskrit for “to give”) written especially for this evening .

After a few skits by members of the comedian group Monty Python ( Michael Palin , Eric Idle , Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam ) together with Neil Innes , Carol Cleveland and, as a special guest, Tom Hanks , the second part of the concert began.

An all-star band with Eric Clapton, Dhani Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Albert Lee , Andy Fairweather-Low , Marc Mann (all: guitar), Dave Bronze (electric bass), Billy Preston , Gary Brooker, Chris Stainton (all : Keyboards), Jim Horn , Tom Scott (both: saxophone), Ray Cooper (percussion), Jim Capaldi , Jim Keltner , Henry Spinetti (all: drums) as well as Tessa Niles and Katie Kissoon (backing vocals) were reinforced after a few pieces by Ringo Starr (drums), who in turn announced Paul McCartney (guitar, ukulele, keyboard). For individual pieces, Klaus Voormann (electric bass), Jools Holland (keyboards) and Sam Brown (lead and background vocals) joined in. Eric Clapton, Jeff Lynne, Gary Brooker, Billy Preston, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and Sam Brown alternated as the lead singer of the main band. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers , reinforced by Jeff Lynne, and Joe Brown and his band, reinforced by Andy Fairweather-Low , had independent appearances .

The pieces came from all epochs of the musician from the Beatles to the Traveling Wilburys , including Clapton and Billy Preston with Isn't It a Pity , Ringo Starr with the photographer , who co-wrote with Harrison , Paul McCartney sang Something to the ukulele , Preston gospel-like My Sweet lord . With While My Guitar Gently Weeps , McCartney, Clapton and Starr played the three remaining musicians from the original recording. After an interlude at "The Prince's Trust Concert" in 1987, they played here for the second time together.

backgrounds

Harrison's friend Bob Dylan could not attend because his tour contract contained territorial protection for the US and Great Britain. Therefore, a few weeks before the Concert for George at his concert in " Madison Square Garden " on November 11, 2002, he played Harrison's composition Something as a tribute. He announced the piece with the words:

“[…] There's a tribute going on in this next week or the week after us, over in England, for George Harrison and ah you know there's all kinds of people in it… I'm not quite sure who, but ah we can 't make it and I just wanted to do this song in rememberence of George cos we were such good buddies. ”

“[…] There's going to be an event over in England in honor of George Harrison next week or two and there will be all kinds of people attending it… I don't know exactly who, but I can't be there and I want this song in memory of George play because we were really good friends. "

- Bob Dylan.

In his autobiography, bassist Klaus Voormann was annoyed that the younger Dave Bronze was preferred to him for the main band . Bronze was the only one of the musicians involved who had never played with Harrison during his lifetime.

The presentation of Harrison's final song Horse to the Water by Jools Holland and Sam Brown is only included in the official film of the concert, not on the CD.

Publications

A documentary film Concert for George was made from the concert . Under the direction of the director David Leland and the cameraman Chris Menges , the concert was recorded discreetly with "unobtrusive cameras" from over twelve positions - taking into account the intimate nature of the concert. The film was released in select cinemas in October 2003, initially in the United States and shortly thereafter in the United Kingdom . This was followed by a DVD release in November 2003. The film received the Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video in 2005 . In March 2012, the film was re-released on Blu-ray Disc . A “ remastered ” version of the film was released on Blu-ray and DVD in early 2018.

Simultaneously with the first release of the documentary on DVD, the soundtrack was released in November 2003 as a CD double album under the title Concert for George , produced by Jeff Lynne. Like the film, “remastered” audio formats came on the market at the beginning of 2018, including for the first time as “vinyl” in a 4-part record box. The “remastered” film and audio releases of 2018 will be marketed under the title “The New Configurations”.

Video sales

Country / Association	Certification	Sales	source
Australia Australia ( ARIA )	5 × platinum	75,000+
Canada Canada ( MC )	3 × platinum	30,000+
United Kingdom United Kingdom ( BPI )	platinum	50,000+
United States United States ( RIAA )	diamond	1,000,000+