John Lennon: The Tribute Concert

Review by Jeff Kaye, LA Times MAY 7, 1990

Help! Lennon Tribute Goes Slightly Awry : Music: Imagine that no Beatles show for a John Lennon salute, and that thousands of fans can’t afford tickets.

LIVERPOOL — Imagine a concert tribute to John Lennon with actor Christopher Reeve hosting and former Australian soap opera star Kylie Minogue singing a disco version of “Help.” A hometown salute to Lennon seemed like an idea that couldn’t miss. But the fact that the event Saturday night drew only about half of the anticipated 45,000 fans demonstrated that things had gone awry.

The affair on the banks of the River Mersey in the city that spawned the Beatles featured an array of artists performing Lennon’s songs: Lou Reed with “Jealous Guy,” Al Green with “Power to the People,” Randy Travis with “Nowhere Man” and Terence Trent D’Arby singing “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away.”

But despite what looked like good intentions--profits are earmarked for the Spirit Foundation, a charity set up by Lennon and his widow, Yoko Ono--the event at Pier Head, a waterfront area refurbished for this concert, was steeped in controversy.

The show was officially sanctioned by Ono as a celebration of the former Beatle’s life, music and what would have been his 50th birthday. The fact that his birthday isn’t until October made the whole thing seem a little strange.

The reason for the time warping was that the concert producers are hoping to sell the event worldwide as a television special to be broadcast on Lennon’s birthday, Oct. 9. It’s the same principle as MTV’s recording its New Year’s Eve party in November.

Although no TV sales have been made yet, the concert publicists already have cranked out numerous press releases pegging the global audience at more than 100 million viewers.

Largely responsible for the tepid live turnout, no doubt, was the hefty ticket price of about $40. That put the concert out of reach for many in the depressed port city in northwest England. A crowd of Skousers--as the locals call themselves--sat outside the open-air concert site hoping to hear the bands.

“It isn’t for the Skousers,” said Jeannette Byers, who bottle-fed a baby while sitting with friends. “Every Skouser is on the dole.”

Lennon purists, both locals and critics in the British press, questioned the appropriateness of featuring artists who have little if anything to do with Lennon and his music. Minogue, a lite-pop smash with British teenyboppers, was usually singled out as the prime example. But the inclusion of groups such as Wet Wet Wet and Deacon Blue also were mentioned. The acts were popular with the audience, however.

But the show lacked a top-of-the-line performer who might have given the event an extra oomph. Conspicuous in their absence were the three remaining Beatles.

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr provided videotaped greetings and performances that were shown on big screens on either side of the stage, but did not make the journey to Liverpool. McCartney offered a concert clip in which he and his band play a combination of “P.S. I Love You” and “Love Me Do.” Starr performed a rousing “I Call Your Name” with backing from Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne.

George Harrison was nowhere to be seen.

At a press conference at a nearby hotel before the show, Ono downplayed the situation and noted the quality of the participating artists. As for the lack of response from Harrison, Ono said he had been contacted but “wasn’t in.”

How Lennon would have reacted to the whole scene is open to question. At one point during the concert, Ono told the audience, “John would be happy.”

But McCartney was quoted by Britain’s Sunday Times as saying, “I can’t help thinking, ‘Would John have liked it? Is this the kind of thing he liked?’ ”

The concert producers originally had tried to land the biggest names in pop music but did not get any, said a production company source who asked not to be identified. Among those contacted, he said, were Elton John and David Bowie, both good friends of Lennon, as well as Bruce Springsteen, Madonna and Michael Jackson.

According to the source, it appeared that McCartney’s participation would have attracted other A-list artists. But producers anticipate that Billy Joel, and perhaps others, will make videos for the show before it appears on television, the source said.

Once the show got under way, the audience heard Lennon songs performed in a wide range of styles.

Dave Edmunds, the musical director of the event, did not wander far from the original arrangements as he performed “A Day in the Life,” “The Ballad of John and Yoko” and “Strawberry Fields Forever.”

Cyndi Lauper, on the other hand, gave a personal interpretation to “Working Class Hero,” adding a pounding rhythm and backup chorus to Lennon’s angry acoustic ballad from his first solo album.

Ray Charles, who recently paid tribute to McCartney at the Grammy Awards show with a rendition of “Eleanor Rigby,” inexplicably performed “Let It Be,” another song associated with McCartney.

While the crowd seemed moved by many of the performances, there was a lack of continuity to the program. The producers made no secret that this was a TV show first and a live concert second.

Right from the start, the crowd was asked to wave skyward for the opening aerial shot of the concert. At other times, while the stage was being set for the next act, the audience was told to cheer as if the last band had just finished.

The performances also were interrupted periodically to show video clips about Lennon’s life. None of the information was new to anyone familiar with him.

In the end, the entire company of artists, along with Ono and her and Lennon’s son Sean, came on stage to sing “Give Peace a Chance.” The audience swayed and sang along until it all ended and they filed out of the concert to the sound of Lennon singing “Imagine.”