Sound Relief was a stunning concert for Australian music-lovers but if you weren't at the gigs or tuned in on the day, then bad luck - it won't be shown again (unless you want to download the audio and/or video here, of course).
Organisers yesterday revealed there was a no-repeat clause in the contracts of the 30-plus acts who took to stages in Melbourne and Sydney. It means there will be no future replays or even condensed specials on the bushfire and floods charity to be broadcast on TV or radio.
Footage not to be broadcast again includes John Farnham performing with Cold Play, Hunters and Collectors and Midnight Oil re-forming and The Presets' performance in a torrential downpour with natural lightning effects. Event producer Mark Pope - who also staged 2005's Wave-AID concert which inspired Saturday's shows - said repeats were normally included in festival contracts.
"The problem was we had to cram 12 months of work into five weeks and we were making decisions on the fly," he told Confidential yesterday. "There were too many legal complexities and interests at every level to go into future broadcasts - so what we've seen is what we've seen."
The concerts were aired on FM networks and pay TV's Max and V channels after "nibbles" of interest from free-to-air networks went nowhere. Pope said he wanted both concerts fully covered live, and Max and V - owned by XYZ Networks - were the only broadcasters able to do it. "With all the business and commerce angles to it, we wanted to keep politics out of it - and imagine if the concerts hadn't been broadcast," he said.
But there is long term hope. A future DVD has not been ruled out, pending future complex legal negotiations with all parties involved.
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