VARIOUS - Childline Rocks 2009



As many people know, Childline Rocks is an annual charity concert which brings together classic rockers to raise money for, um, Childline. This year they teamed up with Concert Live to bring out an instant live CD. As a bonus, the 2CD set is augmented by a bonus third CD with exclusive photographs from the night, more of which later.

The Pretty Things, well two of them, kick things off with some acoustic blues, which is actually all rather dull, before Uriah Heep turn up to blow the cobwebs away with a fine, four track set. Then it’s time for the late, lamented Thunder to take to the stage to remind everyone of just how good a band they were. The first CD ends with Hot Leg, the new band from former The Darkness front man Justin Hawkins. I’ve come up with a few words to describe just how awful they are, but the only ones that sprang to mind would make a sailor blush. And nothing in the dictionary could accurately convey the horror.

It took me a couple of weeks to play the second disc, as the copy I was sent was horribly scratched. A few emails later, and I finally get to hear the real nuggets. First up, former Deep Purple man Jon Lord turns up with The Storys front man Steve Balsamo for turns through ‘Pictured Within’ and ‘Child In Time’ before Lord reunites with fellow ex Purple person Glenn Hughes. Sadly, Justin Hawkins turns up again, but only briefly, and it’s left to Steve Harley to close the show, culminating in a romp through ‘Smoke On The Water’.

The sound quality is good enough, but the bonus photo CD is shameful, consisting of a selection of slightly out of focus audience pictures. And when I say audience pictures I actually mean pictures of members of the audience! It’s not cheap, and if it wasn’t a charity record, then I’d be screaming blue murder. Luckily, most of the music makes up for it.

:twisted :twisted :twisted / 3 out of 5
http://www.childlinerocks.co.uk/