Waste of time

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

This movie starts off with a real downer. Ravi Shankar and three other Indian musicians get set to play on their weird Indian musical instruments. But first, Shankar informs the audience that they must be quiet while he is playing, because this is the kind of music you have to concentrate on. And then he tells everyone not to smoke while he is playing. The audience is quite chastened, and they clap politely after the first number. But it wasn't a number. The musicians were only tuning up their instruments. But with that kind of music, who can tell? They could have played the wrong notes on instruments out of tune, and nobody would have known the difference. Once that is over, and the Western musicians start playing normal music, things get a lot better, especially when half the musicians start smoking, letting the audience know that Mrs. Grundy has left the stage, and everyone can loosen up.

The world was suffering Beatle withdrawal symptoms. Despite the fact that individual Beatles were coming out with solo albums like someone shelling peas, the magic had somehow gone. With the wonderful gesture of the Concert for Bangla Desh, George Harrison took a big step towards generating some substitute magic (having already gone some way towards that with the majestic All Things Must Pass album).The Beatles had broken new ground in so many ways during their career, and now George chalked up another first - the first major all star multimedia benefit event.And it didn't hurt that the music was pretty good, either.Yes, it was a surprise to everyone that Dylan turned up and knocked out a short set (I'm not a great Dylan fan, so it didn't do a lot for me) but, to me, the highlight was hearing George doing a sprinkling of Beatles songs which sounded very unlike what I was used to (in those pre-bootleg, pre-Anthology days).And, I understand, a splendid time was guaranteed for all.

sadness in his eyes / told me that he wanted help/Before his country dies.That's what Harrison wrote in his single "Bangla Desh" ,released late July 1971 ."My friend" is ,as anybody knows,Ravi Shankar.Apart from Leon Russel's dreadful performance -with the eventual exception of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" - ,all that remains is good ,even splendid.Highlighs include Clapton/Harrison's duet on "while my guitar gently weeps" ,the lovely "Here comes the sun" with the late Pete Ham on an acoustic guitar and Dylan's five songs which are a well chose menu :only "it takes a lot ...." seems weak by comparison but when you deal with such classics as "Tambourine man" "Blowin' in the wind" or "Hard Rain's a gonna fall";and Harrison's and Russel's back up vocals on "just like a woman" are worth the price of admission.Bob Geldof who was praised during the eighties for band aid was not the first one .....

..yet this concert is nowhere to be found......Damn. Ok, I'm the only reviewer here who hasn't seen the rockumentary, but I can assure you that it's not like I haven't been trying. Just don't know where to find the friggin' thing...If anyone knows, please e-mail me at [email protected] anyone's curious as to why I am so interested and desperate to see it-well I'm Dylan's #1 fan and heard the live recording of "Mr Tambourine Man" -sung during this concert, and wow..just hearing it was an experience I'll never forget. RIP George!