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Sound Relief raises $5m

XYZ Networks did a fantastic job in broadcasting the Sound Relief concerts in marathon, dual channel broadcasts on Saturday.

sreliefSound Relief‘s Sydney and Melbourne concerts on Saturday raised $5 million.

Organisers said it was the biggest paying audience at any Australian concert or charity event.

As a television event, screening from midday to around 10:30pm on both Channel [V] and MAX it was a knockout. XYZ Networks executed a terrific marathon of dynamic music entertainment. Watching a drenched audience rock to The Presets, or seeing Marcia Hines hovering in the wings with a Qantas choir waiting for the rain to pass were moments only live telly can capture.

Sure the commentary by some of the young presenters filling in between stage changes was like telethon filler (after all do we really care what Gabriella Cilmi thinks about global warming?), but it was all part of the charm of a mammoth broadcast.

By nightfall it was a treat choosing in between Split Enz reunited in Melbourne or Icehouse in Sydney at the same time. That was followed by Peter Garrett and Midnight Oil closing Melbourne or Barry Gibb and Olivia Newton-John closing Sydney. If you missed one, it was happily replayed on the other channel in between acts.

A bit more money could also be made if a Free to Air broadcaster picked up the rights to a highlights edition. The performances are certainly worth of it so the rest of the country can see it. Ditto for a DVD.

The day will go down as our own Live Aid.

Congrats to all involved, including director Peter Ots in Melbourne and especially the crowds for enduring the weather!

18 Responses

  1. Great if it makes it to DVD but even better if it comes out on Blu-Ray – no need to cut any performances then.

    The only FTA channels that really could have shown this and done it justice are the ABC and SBS.The commercial FTA’s would have butchered it or wanted it run to their schedules.

  2. According to Herald Sun, there won’t be any further screening’s, including highlights etc, because of a clause in the contract signed by the various artists who preformed. A DVD may be released, but only after all the legal issues are solved.

  3. thankyou XYZ Networks u have done a great job, no FTA network or MTV for that matter really cares about australian music, or any music for that matter. hope u continue to support music into the future. i think the FTA networks should of had a highlight program on but they didnt.

  4. Only in Australia would you see a minister up on stage leading his band! Midnight Oil definitely my highlight, they still sound so good after so many years. Also – the Presets – looked like the whole place was jumping moreso than every other performance. Thought Olivia and Andy Gibb were a little boring, but its all a matter of taste really…

    I agree free to air should have had something on even if it was a highlights show especially since almost all of them contributed to putting the show together.

  5. @HuggaBounce

    Wolfmother was shown, at the same time as Jet was on in Melbourne(I watched the concert on V and Max at various times of the day).

    Highlight for me? Hunters and Collectors back together, Split Enz and the Midnight Oil. I would of liked to of seen Icehouse(Sydney) but they were on at the same time as either H&C or Split Enz.

  6. A friend of mine said XYZNetworks did not broadcast the Wolfmother session from either Melbourne or Sydney. Instead they cut to other artists playing simultaneously or interviewed bands or had presenters “fill”. Is this true? If so, why would they intentionally blacklist Wolfmother like that?

  7. Weekend Sunrise stated just after the 9:30am news that the concert would be released on DVD. No details though about how much will be shown on the DVD.

    I’d like to say a big thanks to ABC’s Triple J who also covered the concerts for those of us without Foxtel. Only disappointment was that it was delayed in non AEDT states, but that wasn’t a major.

  8. They’d be crazy not to make a DVD out of this! I’d gladly pay the $80+ these Aid DVD’s usually go for, and it will raise a ton of money for years to come.

    If not I’ll be making my own DVD out of the IQ’s recording. Shame it kept storming here so the satellite signal cut out a few times.

    1. There’s a lot of rights issues involved, which will likely prevent any replay. I think a DVD is being looked at especially since it has attrcted so much buzz. Not sure whether the international acts would remain. Keep u posted if I hear of anything.

  9. It was a great day of music, but surely the absolute highlight had to be the session in the storm by The Presets…talk about whipping the crown into a frenzy. Also great that that highlight belongs to performers from today’s scene and not bands that where at their peak before most of the younger audience where born.

    Rare that I would ever give the upper hand to Sydney, but with The Presets and Coldplay, there line up came out on top for mine!

  10. I read that a CD and DVD will be made of the event. It was so awesome in Melbourne that it will go down as one of the best events in Australian musical history

  11. Peter Ots knows his stuff, no question of that.

    What a shame it wasn’t on FTA, it deserved to be so the other 75% of the country could have seen it and a lot more money could have been raised to boot. If it was on FTA where everyone could be a part of it, then it would have been our own Live Aid.

    Going by the clips I saw on the news, I’d almost guarantee there’ll be a DVD release of some sort – they put a lot more effort into it than the usual Channel V fare.

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