The Concert for George was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 29 November 2002 as a memorial to George Harrison on the first anniversary of his death.[1] The event was organised by Harrison's widow, Olivia, and his son, Dhani, and arranged under the musical direction of Eric Clapton. The profits from the event went to the Material World Charitable Foundation, an organisation founded by Harrison.
The concert opened with a traditional Sanskrit invocation, the Sarvesham chant, followed by Indian music starting with Anoushka Shankar, daughter of Ravi Shankar, playing "Your Eyes". Next, Anoushka Shankar, Dhani Harrison, and Jeff Lynne performed "The Inner Light", followed by a Ravi Shankar composition "Arpan" (Sanskrit for 'to give'), specially written for the occasion.
Next, there was a comedy interlude with four of the surviving members of the Monty Python troupe (Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones along with Python contributor Neil Innes) performing "Sit on My Face". Then, Michael Palin came out as an over-the-top announcer who eventually states that he only ever wanted to be a lumberjack. He was then joined by the Pythons, Innes, Carol Cleveland, Tom Hanks, and The Fred Tomlinson Singers to perform "The Lumberjack Song".[2]
The remainder of the concert featured "George's Band" and included the surviving members of the Beatles (Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr), Harrison's son Dhani Harrison, as well as musicians Eric Clapton, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Billy Preston, Jools Holland, Albert Lee, Sam Brown, Gary Brooker, Joe Brown, Ray Cooper, Andy Fairweather-Low, Marc Mann, Dave Bronze, Klaus Voormann, Jim Keltner and several other musicians who had appeared on Harrison's recordings over the years.[3]
They played a selection of mostly Harrison's songs, from both Beatles and post-Beatles eras, generally staying faithful to Harrison's arrangements. Performances included Lynne on "I Want to Tell You" and "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)"; Clapton on "If I Needed Someone" and "Beware of Darkness"; Petty on "I Need You" and "Taxman"; Petty, Lynne, Dhani Harrison, and Keltner on "Handle With Care" (reuniting most of the surviving Traveling Wilburys except for Bob Dylan); Clapton and Preston on "Isn't It a Pity"; Starr on "Photograph" and "Honey Don't"; McCartney on "For You Blue" and "All Things Must Pass"; McCartney and Clapton on "Something" (McCartney opening with a solo ukulele accompaniment that shifts into a full band version featuring Clapton); Clapton, McCartney, and Starr reuniting on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"; Preston on "My Sweet Lord"; and the group performance of "Wah-Wah".
Joe Brown closed the show with a rendition of "I'll See You in My Dreams" on ukulele, one of Harrison's favourite instruments.
The event was filmed and a motion picture version, directed by David Leland and photographed by Academy Award-winning cinematographer Chris Menges, was released on DVD on 17 November 2003. A compact disc version was also released on the same date although the Monty Python and Sam Brown tracks were not included on the CD. A Blu-ray version was released by Rhino Records on 22 March 2011.[4]
In 2018, to honour what would have been Harrison's 75th birthday, the concert made its debut on streaming services, and was issued on a vinyl LP set for the first time.[2]
