Let's not be afraid. | | | | Coldplay's Chris Martin at the One Love Manchester benefit, June 4, 2017.
(Kevin Mazur/Getty Images) | | | | | rantnrave:// Two weeks after her own concert was attacked by a terrorist bomber and less than 24 hours after ENGLAND suffered another horrific attack, you could hardly have blamed ARIANA GRANDE if she was too traumatized—or scared or rattled or defeated—to get back onstage in MANCHESTER. But instead, she and a consort of pop and rock stars delivered a flawless, exemplary all-star benefit that answered evil and chaos with a message of love, harmony and almost heroic professionalism. It may sound trivial to rave about a show's stage management, but that may have been the most impressive thing about this stadium show, with more than a dozen acts, that was pulled together in a matter of days—as if to loudly proclaim, you can't knock us off our feet, not even a little. As for the performances at ONE LOVE MANCHESTER, you will not—or should not—ever doubt JUSTIN BIEBER's chops again after witnessing his passionate two-song solo acoustic set, and Grande and MILEY CYRUS heartwarming re-creation of their version of CROWDED HOUSE's "DON'T DREAM IT'S OVER" showed that it's OK for two singers with undeniable chops to play it a little loose sometimes. As for your rumored fantasy headliners, if OASIS's LIAM and NOEL GALLAGHER can't find it in their hearts to reunite for this, perhaps it's time to put away your dreams of them reuniting for anything. But in their place, we got COLDPLAY's CHRIS MARTIN and JONNY BUCKLAND tearing through Oasis' "DON'T LOOK BACK IN ANGER" and backing a solo Liam on "LIVE FOREVER," and Liam, in an unannounced set, delivering a perfect replica of "ROCK 'N' ROLL STAR," complete with a guitarist who looked like Noel circa 1996. Grande sealed the show with a gymnastic version of "OVER THE RAINBOW" that may have made you cry Olympic tears. Beautiful. The concert raised at least $3 million for the BRITISH RED CROSS. UMG, whose roster includes Grande, donated $500,000; organizers said TWITTER, SPOTIFY and YOUTUBE pitched in, too... THOM YORKE vs. ROGER WATERS on the boycott-ISRAEL movement. Without taking sides in a deep and complicated issue, I would like to credit the two rock frontmen with debating/arguing a heated subject like adults, even through what appears to be considerable anger in both directions. Also, it should be noted they agree on two things: Their love for NIGEL GODRICH and their loathing for BENJAMIN NETANYAHU... Descendants of BOB MARLEY taking a shot at magazine publishing (guess which mag!) and American football... "Search it all you want, check your local library, you'll never find a rhyme like this in any dictionary." RIP JEFFREY CAMPBELL aka THE EDUCATED RAPPER of UTFO. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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