​FILMS

Pre-Covid, I would attend many live concerts but that has all stopped with lockdowns and international performers unable to enter Australia. I have probably saved thousands of dollars not spending a fortune on concert tickets. Today I decided to visit my local cinema to see a singer I have seen live in concert before.

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I think it was back in 2010 when I went to Cliff Richard's concert where he performed with his backing band, The Shadows. He was 70 years old then and sounded like he did in his heyday. The concert film I saw today, 'Cliff Richard: The Great 80 Tour' was held in London last month and had been delayed by a year due to the pandemic. He was 81 then and still dancing and prancing around on stage like he was in his twenties. He still sounded good but the only problem with this concert was that he performed too much new material. When I see a concert featuring someone from the past, I want all the nostalgia and the hit songs. I'm not too interested in what new songs they have to promote. 

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Concerts in the cinema cannot compare to live concerts. There's no atmosphere and you feel so distant from the experience. I did watch it in a Gold Class cinema but even this was no comparison to the visual and auditory sensations of a live performance. One positive was that I didn't have to deal with tone deaf people singing along to their favourite songs. I still remember when I attended a Tom Jones concert and I hard more of the terrible singing of the lady next to me than Tom Jones himself!

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Concert films are always more expensive than regular feature film tickets. If you have never been to a concert before then you wouldn't mind paying a little extra. I have been to over 100 concerts in my life and even what I would consider a mediocre concert would have more atmosphere than a concert seen in a cinema.

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(Written on Saturday 27th November, 2021)

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