Artist Unite for Fire Fight – Various Artists
Highlights from Concert for National Bushfire Relief
Sunday 16 February 2020
Review – Geoff Jenke
It is hard to believe that the National Bushfire Relief concert was only 6 weeks ago. The world has certainly turned crazy since then. The concert was held at ANZ Stadium Sydney to raise money for those affected by the summer bushfires of 2019/20. And a stellar line up volunteered to perform, not just Australian artist but also Queen, Alice Cooper, k.d. Lange amongst many international acts. The show was broadcast live on Channel 7 to bring the country together.
The two CD set contains 23 highlights from the show, starting with Australia’s own Lee Kernaghan with Ute Me. There are many highlights on this set, darn it, they are all highlights and you probably need to buy the CD, even if it is just to support the Bushfire appeal.
Pete Murray gives us his big hit Feeler, Grinspoon steel the day early with Chemical Heart, Jessica Mauboy impresses with Saturday Night and Delta Goodman makes a special appearance with Let It Rain.
Rowan Keating leads off CD2 with When You Say Nothing At All before Alice makes a rare daylight appearance with Schools Out/Another Brick In The Wall. 5 Seconds of Summer keep the younger members of the audience (who have probably never heard of Alice Cooper) happy with Youngblood.
Queen + Adam Lambert were one of the major highlights of the evening, performing on the evening their 1985 Live Aid set in its entirety for the first time since 1985. From this we get Hammer to Fall for the CD with Brian Mays wonderful guitar work. South Australia’s Hilltop Hoods certainly gave Queen a run for their money as best act of the evening (although it wasn’t a competition folks) performing 1955 on the CD.
Someone had to sing Hallelujah and tonight it was left up to k.d.lange to perform the timeless classic.
Icehouse for me were the best act of the show and from it we get the iconic We Can Get Together, with a little help from William Barton.
Olivia Newton John makes a rare appearance with John Farnham for Two Strong Hearts before Mitch Tambo helps John with, You’re the Voice, with Brian May on guitar.
Music wise, you cannot fault this album. It covers all tastes and ages. There are many more wonderful artists I haven’t mentioned on the set as well. Do yourself and a lot of other people, a favour and buy it. It is a great soundtrack for your next family bbq.
In addition to the standalone album, Cotton On has generously produced and donated a limited-edition t-shirt, which is available to purchase as a bundle with the two-disc album. The bundle is exclusively available for purchase at: https://thethreadshop.com.au/collections/fire-fight-australia.
Those who played; – 5 Seconds Of Summer, Alice Cooper, Amy Shark, Baker Boy, Conrad Sewell, Daryl Braithwaite, Delta Goodrem, Grinspoon, Guy Sebastian, Hilltop Hoods, Icehouse, llly, Jessica Mauboy, John Farnham, k.d lang, Lee Kernaghan, Michael Bublé, Olivia Newton-John, Peking Duk, Pete Murray, Queen + Adam Lambert, Ronan Keating, Tina Arena and William Barton
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