By Russell Baillie
On the face of it, the charity concert Linda McCartney: Here, There and Everywhere (TV3, 9 tonight) might seem a cheerless prospect.
After all, the death of this Beatle's wife was even sadder because the McCartneys seemed one of the great rockbiz marriages - "an inspirational love story," as Neil Finn tells the Albert Hall audience during his slot early in the two-hour programme.
And it could get dreary for the fact that it was organised by Linda McCartney's vegetarian-in-arms, Chrissie Hynde (wonder if TV3 have sold any McDonald's ads around it?) to benefit their favourite animal charities, and it comes mostly backed by her band, the Pretenders.
Oh, and there's the small matter that it's a music tribute to someone who was long derided for her own musical ability.
But as it turns out, the whole bash proves rather enjoyable. Musically it is dead safe to be sure, and as visually static as these things will always be on television (one pity is that you can't quite get a good look at the Linda McCartney photographs used as backdrops).
But it has some heartfelt, exquisite performances as well as emotional moments (clue: guess who's the last man on). And quite enough humour too, care of MC comedian Eddie Izzard offering vege-irony in lines like: "Some bunny rabbit somewhere is going to go, 'Hey, those guys rocked for us.'"
The concert takes a while to warm up but the highlights include Finn backed vocally by Sinead O'Connor, the lyrics of his Crowded House song She Goes On poignant to the occasion; there's O'Connor herself on the ballad I Believe in You; Tom Jones, possibly not a vegetarian, makes a meal of the Beatles' She's A Woman; Marianne Faithfull gets backing from guitarist Johnny Marr on As Tears Go By; George Michael, who gets a standing ovation just for turning up, offers a poised Long and Winding Road then a 10-guitars version of his Faith; Elvis Costello says some smart things about the night and rounds off with a rousing What's So Funny (About Peace and Love and Understanding)?; and at the end, when a certain pop knight turns up, it's hard to avoid a very large lump in the throat.
Also, we see just some of the scampish behaviour for which O'Connor was attacked by the British tabloids - she throws a pair of Y-fronts at George Michael. Much of the rest has been edited out.
Oh, well. The makings of a nice night in. And the start of one possibly tasteless thought: would they be saying all these nice things about Yoko?
TV: For the love of Linda
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