Rock On
Rock stars? At a charity event? Hosted by Daniel Bedingfield? This I had to see. So off I trotted to The Forum in north London for a most pleasant and informative Sunday evening of music, guest presenters and old Bedders freestyling in between. Believe me, it was quite a treat.
Prior to kickoff, I was lucky enough to chat to Bedingfield backstage. He helped set up the Stop the Traffik organisation two years ago in order to try and combat human trafficking - shockingly there are more slaves around today (an estimated 12m people) than there were 400 years ago.
Like us, he was looking forward to seeing the delectable Nerina Pallot and confided that he was going to bust out a new song of his own. Such delights. Bedingfield shared the compering duties with Lisa I'Anson and the gorgeous Samantha Morton, who strutted on stage in a huge pair of super-fabulous cork wedges.
An impressive coterie of stars showed up to support the cause including Rhys Ifans, who, when asked why he had come to the gig, sagely said, "because I like rock'n'roll music and I hate slavery" - I had to concur.
We also spotted:
Daisy Lowe skittering in late as Supergrass were about to perform, telling the bouncers, "My Dad's about to go on stage, please let me through!"
Kirsten Dunst hanging out in Razorlight's dressing room, then stage-side, watching boyfriend Johnny Borrell strut his skinny whites.
Natasha Bedingfield sitting back in the crowd with her family, enjoying the warm beer and soaking up the smoky atmosphere.
Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey from Supergrass hanging out with Ed Harcourt and Rhys Ifans in the pub next door before they went on stage.
My favourite performers of the night had to be Babyshambles bassist Drew McConnell, who stood out with his gorgeously refined solo acoustic mini-set, and rapper Emmanuel Jal, a former child soldier from Sudan, whose inspiring performance brought a certain gravitas to the event that no amount of indie-kid posturing could ever achieve. Saying that, Johnny and his Razorlights were on wicked form - a smaller stage makes all the difference, me thinks.
Lend your support at www.stopthetraffik.org
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