[Slowhand] Eric Saves the Day

[John Mills]

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2009/06/26/millennium-stadium-s-tsunami-concert-was-saved-with-just-minutes-to-spare-91466-23984917/

Millennium Stadium's tsunami concert was saved with just minutes to spare

Jun 26 2009 by Lisa Jones, Western Mail

IT was a feat of organisation which drew plaudits from around the globe -
but the Tsunami Relief Concert at the Millennium Stadium so very nearly didn
't get off the ground.
As the iconic venue celebrates its tenth birthday today, concert organiser
and former Millennium Stadium chief executive Paul Sergeant revealed the
difficulty in finding an A-lister to headline the concert meant they were
just minutes away from pulling the plug on the event.
Organised in the space of three weeks, the concert was in response to the
devastation wreaked on millions of people in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka
and the Maldives on Boxing Day, 2004, when more than 200,000 people were
killed.
Having given themselves a deadline to come up with a top- class line-up, Mr
Sergeant said the concert - which went on to raise more than £1.25m - was
seven minutes from being cancelled because they couldn't find an A-list act
to top the bill.
But it did go ahead and its success helped to elevate the Stadium's status
on the world concert stage.
Mr Sergeant was speaking from his home in Brisbane on the 10th anniversary
of the first event to be held in the Stadium - a rugby friendly between
Wales and South Africa.
The Tsunami Concert, one of the biggest charity concerts since Live Aid in
1985, was organised on a wing and a prayer, with a small team of volunteers,
he said.
Sixty-thousand fans were entertained by Eric Clapton, Manic Street
Preachers, Keane and Charlotte Church in the marathon seven-hour concert.
But what the audience and the millions who watched it on television didn't
know was that the concert's future was resting on a precipice.
So that the event was securely policed, a deadline had to be set to
determine whether it would go ahead. A week's worth of frantic phone calls
across the globe had proved fruitless as famous names throughout the music
business said they could not play the gig.
Others were prepared to play on the proviso that a big name headlined it.
Mr Sergeant said: "We had to concentrate on getting an A-list artist. We
tried them all, but because it was Christmas, people were on their holidays
or out of the country.
"If we hadn't got any A-list artists, it wouldn't have happened.
"We agreed a deadline with the police. By 1.30pm the show was off, but we
agreed to give it another hour-and-a-half. If we hadn't got it confirmed by
3pm, the show was off.
"At seven minutes to three, Eric Clapton's manager rang to say that he would
play. Then it was a reality. It was happening in two weeks' time.
"There were a lot of other artists that wanted to play. It was Eric that
came to us with minutes to spare. Two hours later we were announcing it to
the world."
Mr Sergeant added: "It came together very quickly. When I look back on it I
realise what a huge moment that was; the 60,000 people who remember that
concert and the feeling of togetherness. It was a really chilly night but it
was as though we were in the middle of summer with the warmth there."
John Rostron, music promoter, was part of the team which put it together. He
said: "It was a ludicrous time scale in which to do something. It was a mix
of hesitancy from the acts and added to that the Millennium Stadium was
still trying to prove itself as a major event stadium.
"We had two press releases prepared; one which said the concert was going
ahead and one which said it was cancelled. We were really that close."
Mr Sergeant, who has been general manager of the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane
for the past two and a half years, is due to return to Wales in August to
become the new CEO of the Llanelli Scarlets Rugby Club and Parc Y Scarlets
Stadium.
He revealed another memory of his time at the Millennium Stadium. While the
whole of Wales was partying after winning the 2005 Grand Slam, he was in bed
with flu.
He said: "It was an incredible night. There was a great atmosphere. I had
the flu and I felt like the world was coming to an end. They came through
and won the Grand Slam and everybody went on to party. The rest of Wales was
having a huge party while I went home to bed."
Looking back at his time at the helm, he said: "When you've got a
high-profile venue, it looks easy to run from the outside, but it's actually
very complicated. It started to take some shape, although we were in
difficult financial times. Two years later we turned it around. I'm sure
some people thought we'd never come round from that rocky start."
The Millennium Stadium has gone on to host a succession of big name
concerts, from U2, to the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Robbie Williams. Only
last week, Take That sold out two successive nights.
It has also held sporting events such as Joe Calzaghe's boxing match against
Mikkel Kessler, which secured his title as world super-middleweight boxing
champion.
Calzaghe fought twice at the Stadium, his last fights on British soil before
he retired unbeaten in 2008 after double light-heavyweight title battles in
Las Vegas. He always said he felt a special affinity with the venue after
making his professional debut at the old Arms Park in 1993.
"Both my Millennium Stadium fights were massive nights and I'll never forget
the sound of tens of thousands of Welshmen spurring me on in my home city,"
he said.
"It's a privilege to be a part of the illustrious sporting history of the
place. It's only in retirement that you look back with genuine wonder at the
kind of atmosphere that only the Millennium Stadium can create. It has been
and I'm sure will continue to be the most fitting of venues for some of the
very biggest occasions of them all."