Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Various Artists, Sony Music Australia, 2020.
With the spread of coronavirus and the massive disruption that it is bringing to our lives, for some it’s easy to forget that only a few months ago we were facing the devastation of the worst fire season on record.
I say ‘for some’ because those people still living in the fire-ravaged areas have the all too present reminders of the inferno as their day to day reality.
Fire Fight – The Concert for Bushfire Relief was the coming together of artists from around the world to do what they could to support those people affected by the fires.
And with the new restrictions on mass gatherings we won’t see another concert like it for some time.
I know many of you will have watched the concert on TV and now you can buy the album.
All proceeds from the album will go to Sony Foundation Australia to support young Australians in bushfire-affected communities.
The album contains 23 tracks featuring live recordings from every artist who performed at the concert and it’s available in two CD and digital formats.
If you buy the 2 CD album you also get a special limited-edition T-shirt from Cotton On.
The concert itself was wonderful and played to 75,000 fans at ANZ Stadium in Sydney.
The recording quality is very good and the performances memorable, especially Queen + Adam Lambert.
Watching their set, I was chastising myself for not taking the opportunity to see them live. I’ll just have to be satisfied with the CD.
The line-up of artists is remarkable and I suggest that this album will be one of those that ends up being regularly selected from your collection.
What is so good about the line-up on the discs is the mix of older established artists with the new younger breed. So, for instance you get Baker Boy doing Cool As Hell followed by Daryl Braithwaite singing As The Days Go By.
Among the foreign artists performing you get Alice Cooper doing a fantastic medley of School’s Out and Pink Floyd’s Another Brick In The Wall. Now that’s an interesting mix.
