Time and compassion: two of the most valuable things we can give.

Yesterday, there were truckloads of both at the Sound Relief concerts where music royalty, real-life royalty, former kings and queens of pop and skilled technicians provided their talents for one of the most joyful events this country has ever witnessed. 

And the audience, of course, played its role in making it so. Courtesy of Triple J, those of us in the sticks were privileged to hear it, too.

I’m about to touch on personal highlights, so please forgive omissions such as Jet and Kings of Leon, both of whom I admire but with whom I can’t claim much history. Apart from Coldplay, that is, who I think deserve special mention. 

Early on in the proceedings, Richard Kingsmill reported that Chris Martin, the singer with Coldplay, suffered a crowd-surfing wipeout after being accidentally detained by a security fence during his excursion from the stage. Later, the singer was attacked by giant yellow balloons when a promotional exercise for the band’s anthemic Yellow went awry. As performers know so well, timing is everything.

Those highly entertaining glitches only enhanced the performance, while the band’s generosity in accompanying John Farnham in the crowd-pleasing You’re the Voice was one of the day’s highlights.

Midnight Oil belied the fact that it’s been 10 years since their last performance together. Since first seeing them live in 1978, I’ve followed their progress and can now report that time has been kind to the band. I often wonder, though, why Garrett didn’t continue to berate government policies and social evils from the stage, instead of beating his head against the brick wall of party politics. 

The golden oldie that brought a tear to my eye was Hunters & Collectors’ Throw your arms around me. Its lyrics reach as broad an audience as a band could hope for, and it seems to have a particular resonance with young Aussie blokes. After parties in suburban Sydney, we used to hear groups of them drunkenly mangling its lyrics.

Unfortunately we missed Crowded House but we heard one of their greatest hits when it was re-played: Don’t dream it’s over. Who could resist singing along? Yesterday, the huge live audiences in Sydney and Melbourne couldn’t; nor, I suspect, could the millions who tuned in to the radio broadcast.

That the band can still excite an audience is a tribute to their enduring talent even if, after minimal rehearsal time, they had to rely on the participation of their audience.  

Giving someone a hand… it seems we’re good at that type of thing.