First up, if you’ve not downloaded this freaking masterpiece yet, please grab a copy now. It’s only 99p and proceeds go to Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America, two very worthwhile causes.
We’ve posted about this a couple of times already, but I’ve held off on putting up a review until the proper video came out. The staggering list of 60-ish musicians who’ve picked up their instruments to raise money for the above charities, is well publicised. But barring the intro, the last ever recording made my Jeff Beck, there’s been no confirmation of who plays which riff, lick or segment. Well, now you can see if you guessed right!
“Going Home” is a piece of music that’s in my bones. I used to hold a season ticket for St James’ Park until I left the country to go travelling, then settled down a bit too far away for the weekend commute. It is played before every home match as the teams go onto the pitch, a great tribute to Mark Knopfler who is as big a legend on Tyneside as Alan Shearer. When I heard about this extra special version, I was intrigued. I mean, did they get them all in a room at once? Did they each get told what parts to play? And how can you make it interesting when it runs over ten minutes?
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It turns out it was a bit of a mixture, though on the whole the guitarists just thew down their versions of the whole song or key riffs. Guy Fletcher then had the unenviable task of picking out the bits that worked best, then overseeing the task of cutting, slicing, pasting, mixing and all that wizardry to make the finished product sound so natural. Hands down, he and his team have worked more magic than the musicians, and that is high praise indeed.
There are very, very rare occasions when a song is bettered by a cover version. Some covers just sell better, or catch the public attention in the way the original never did. I’m almost tempted to say that this is better than the original… but then I listen to Knopfler’s solo effort and it does still have that special something. However, this is as good an update as you could ever hear. I have listened to it so many time since its release and I genuinely sat and watched the video right through, plonked in front of a big TV like I was watching a film, within a minute of the link arriving in my inbox. It starts slow, builds and the video is perfection in the way that it lets you know who is playing while matching the temp of the current segment. I got goosebumps all over again, and this is not hyperbole. I honestly, hand on heart, did.
Even the artwork. If you think it looks a bit like Sergeant Pepper’s, that’s because it was put together by Sir Peter Blake who did the sleeve for that very album. It features every musician you can hear, as well as Peter Riegert and Burt Lancaster who starred in the film Local Hero. I’m kicking myself that I didn’t buy the vinyl version before it sold out.
Watch the video, kick back, chill, let one of the best bits of music ever recorded wash over you… and buy a copy. It has a very high chance of hitting number one, and your pennies couldn’t be going to a better cause.
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Check out all the bands we review in 2024 on our Spotify and YouTube playlists!
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