On 14 May 2003, The Pepsi Silver Clef Concert took place in Manchester to raise money for the Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy and The Brit Trust.  In case you weren’t there (and I’m expect several million of the population weren’t), the whole thing was recorded and is now available on DVD and VHS, to recapture the highlights of the pop event.

Composed entirely of British acts, we are subjected to the following artists: Busted, Mis-Teeq, Javine, Big Brovaz, Girls Aloud (wonder if they talked to Javine?!?), Liberty X, Emma, Atomic Kitten, Craig David, and the finale is supplied by Blue.

The more astute among you will notice I used the phrase ‘subjected to’, rather than a more complimentary term. This is because I found the DVD somewhat disappointing, even as a pop fan. For a start, as soon as Busted came on, it was apparent they were miming. For a live concert that is unacceptable. Most of the other bands were too, apart from Atomic Kitten. Occasionally singing a line over the top of the track or speaking to the crowd does not let you get away with this!

The extras feature some backstage footage interspersed with querying spotty teenagers with Croydon face-lifts who their favourite bands are. This is the most entertaining part of the DVD!  What I also found quite amusing was Emma Bunton promising the crowd she’ll "be back with a big surprise".  Could it be a Spice Girls reunion?  Would she be wearing a lovely new outfit?  No!  She returns to sing '2 Become 1'. Big bloody deal (judging by the crowd’s reaction they felt the same!)

The extras also allow multi-angled viewing for Atomic Kitten and Blue, and you can also pick your favourite band member and just watch them throughout the entire performance. My sister and I decided to do this with Duncan from Blue, as we both find him repulsive and egotistically annoying plus we wanted to watch him with the same morbid curiosity as one slows down to look at a car crash.

When you usually watch a band’s performance, the camera angles are always jolting about all over the place so you never get to see a band member for longer than a few seconds, but doing this shows all of Duncan’s facial gurning in an attempt at looking sexy for the whole performance.

This would be good for a younger sibling’s birthday or Christmas present, but in reality it is just an extended show of Top Of The Pops.
(2/5)

Release Date: 15 September 2003

The Pepsi Silver Clef Concert