Concert for George

I first saw this concert on PBS and just had to have the DVD. This has got to be the greatest tribute show ever. Everyone did such a great job; the songs were sung by just the right people. Eric Clapton should be proud of himself. He put together a superb show. Dhani Harrison is a doll, a mini-George. Joe Brown--where has he been? What a great surprise! While My Guitar Gently Weeps was one of the highlights. Dhani was obviously moved by it and appeared to say something to that affect to EC at the end. EC then comforted Dhani as Joe sang I'll See You In My Dreams. It was all just beautiful. Thank you, Eric. Thank you all for putting this together for all George's fans.

I saw this delightful tribute concert to the music and life of George Harrison in the theater when it first came out. This is a good film with a great soundtrack that won a Grammy Award but it only saw a limited run in art house theaters and quickly disappeared from the big screen for DVD release. If it ever comes back around on a big screen somewhere someday see it in it's theatrical glory. Excellent camera work in this film directed by David Leland who was one of the eight directors of the award winning 10 part HBO mini series Band of Brothers and as a screenwriter wrote such films as Mona Lisa. This was filmed as a special tribute concert for George Harrison at the Royal Albert Hall in London on the first year anniversary of his death. Long time inner circle Beatle musician friends led by Eric Clapton take the stage in an evening of music from the career George Harrison. Surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are here as well as musicians who recorded with the Beatles, Billy Preston and Klaus Voorman. Ravi Shankar and his daughter do a set. Harrison's Traveling Wilbury band mates Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty are here as well as long time Harrison musician pals Gary Brooker from Procol Harum and Jim Capaldi from Traffic. Jools Holland from Squeeze and touring and recording utility ax man Albert Lee are here too. Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Eric Idle and Michael Palin from Monty Python and Pyton players Carol Cleveland and Neil Innes are joined by actor Tom Hanks for a classic Python sketch song. Longtime Harrison friend and fellow ukulele affection ado Joe Brown closes out the show. George Harrison's son Dhani, looking like a young George Harrison plays guitar among the band on several numbers. There is one moment when Paul Mccartney looks at Dhani and you tell he notices the resemblance to his father from the Beatles days and he tries for a second to get his attention during the song so they can share a microphone like Paul and George would often do as Beatles but Dhani is concentrating so hard on his fingerboard that he doesn't quite get what Paul is implying and the song rolls on and the moment is lost. Jeff Lynne produced the concert audio. Eric Clapton is the musical director.

In his role as musical director it reminded me of when Eric Clapton married George Harrison's ex-wife Patti Boyd. At the wedding reception there was a stage set up with amps and instruments and Harrison asked Clapton who the band was. Clapton said, you are. Harrison laughed and said I am? Clapton just said, yeah, look around there are nothing but musicians here so I'm sure you can find enough to make a band out of. Harrison was hesitant but he went up to Paul Mccartney and told him what Clapton instructed him to do. McCartney put down his plate of food and said, lets do it. Harrison must have looked down from beyond at the Concert for George and smiled as to how Clapton was now in charge of putting together the musicians. I would give this a 9.0 out of 10.

This is a concert, not in the traditional sense and what comes out of it far exceeds the output of your standard "concert". This is a group of close friends holding a delayed wake for a dearly loved lost friend, not a stop on some tour. The songs are familiar, yet new. The mixture of emotion that comes with the concert does soften the sound of the music a bit, but does not dampen the spirit of the concert. Who'd a' thought that someone could pick up a Ukuele and produce a beautiful rendition of I'll See You in My Dreams as did Joe Brown? If on some other far away plain, George Harrison was watching I'd bet he was pleased! It would be difficult to produce a better tribute to George Harrison than was this Concert!

I wish I had been there. As a fan of the Beatles and all British music in the 60's, I was moved by the whole concert. The logistics that went into organising it would have been massive, but it came across as just a happening jamming session. The cameras were not at all intrusive, and captured the spirit of the night beautifully. No pompous wordy tributes to George, just an occasional few words here and there

I recognised the main musicians, but would have liked to know who all the others on the stage were.

There were some brief interviews with Eric Clapton, Ravi Shankar, and Olivia Harrison but they were a bit jarring. I would have like to see slightly lengthier interviews and with the other musicians too, about how they fitted into George's life.

I saw this movie with my wife, who is really the big Beatles fan. She loved the movie, and I did as well.

The tunes are so well done, you know that George himself was humming along with them in Heaven. Photography is great, and the documentary aspect of the movie really unfolds into a bigger event that makes you feel that you are as much a part of the event as the musical stars themselves.

This is really a well done movie, and one that captures the essence of a special moment. The event itself brings magic, or perhaps shows us, the magic of George's music.

If you enjoyed the Beatles, you'll love the movie. If you like great music, you'll love the movie. And if you like George Harrison, you'll just get queued up waiting for the DVD release.

Enjoy, and treat yourself to the big screen surround sound version of this gem.