After a week of wellies and mud at Glasto, the prospect of seating to watch some pop acts was really quite good. We met at Edgware Road and tubed it to Wembley Park, then making our way into the stadium in time for the start.
There were a huge number of acts for this concert, started with Elton singing "Your Song" and then the two princes coming on to the stage for a right royal welcome to the crowd plus the estimated global audience of 500 million. Some of the acts had a clear linkage to the Princess and some of those that didn't had made an effort to find something special or appropriate to perform.
At some points it was clear that the acts were backing up, because there seemed to be quite a few cuts from say two songs to one (Will Young, Natasha Bedingfield as examples) and some of the longer acts were also commenting in away that suggested they were being asked to cut back.
I enjoyed Lily Allen singing about London, the Status Quo doing a reprise of Rockin all over the world and getting an audible sigh from the crowd that they were only allowed one song, Tom Jones in a venue like this was well-judged, Will Young with his troupe of dancers stood out in their brilliant white. Nelly Furtado also drove a strong performance. I also liked the P.Diddy rap with funky violinists which had been specially written for the occasion.
Overall a strong way to catch up on mainstream pop and a lot less muddy than Glastonbury, although the food at Wembley was awful compared with anything on offer at Glastonbury with £8 at Wembley purchasing any variety of inedible option.
Here's the view from the seats we started in before I discovered we were in the wrong block and we moved to right underneath the Princes!
...Oh and the Spice Girls were there, with Beckham, but not performing!
