1996 - Hand in Hand for Children - Charity Event

07.04.1996 Festhalle Frankfurt
Charity 96 – Hand In Hand For Children
Backstreet Boys, Rednex, Culture Beat, Worlds Apart, Captain Jack, Scooter, Fun Factory, Masterboy, Mr. President, Boyzone

TV – channel “VIVA” in association with “Radio FFH” gathered loads of celebrities for a charity event which took place in the Frankfurter Festhalle and the venue was absolutely jammed. “Hand in Hand for children” is a cancer awareness project. All proceeds raised from the five hours program including those proceeds raised through the forthcoming charity CD will go to this very organisation.

All artists played royalty free and most of them had approximately 20 minutes on stage, where they were singing along to pre recorded music.

As usual, there were good bands and rather dodgy artists along the line but I enjoyed the 3.5 hours I could spend in there.

The VIVA DJs were brilliant and the bands were good animators.

When I arrived at the venue “Mr. President” was on stage. The band had had a hit just recently with “Up and away” all over Europe. Their show consisted of rather acrobatic dance moves and the voices of the singers and rappers were good.

Mr. President **

Up next was “Fun Factory”. The factory played their two known hit singles and the live rap wasn’t great. All in all there was no groove in the band, no spirit and I became quite bored.

Fun Factory *

In the tradition of Take That there were a number of boy bands that afternoon and it was “Worlds Apart” turn next. The dance choreography was great and their multi harmony vocals were really great although the songs itself were a bit tailored.

Worlds Apart **

The German / American co – production “Captain Jack” showed some diversity on stage. The Captain himself walked on stage in army uniform and military drill practising army songs with the audience. Because one of the security officers did not clap along Captain Jack made him do some squats and he did well. Their show was fun to watch. Unfortunately, their latest single sounds exactly like the one before.

Captain Jack **

Really special were “Masterboy”. Their female singer looked a lot like Annie Lennox and her vocal range must have been the same. Her voice blew me away by storm. The band was professional all throughout and they used pyrotechnics and different lighting during their set and that really made a difference.

Also on a positive note they were the first to really communicate with their audience.

Masterboy ***

Before they left the stage they introduced the next act: “Scooter” with the words “please welcome three boys from Hamburg ..” and everybody new that for the next 20 minutes hardcore techno is on the menu.

Everything must have been played with approximately 160bpm and Scooter’s current single in which they use the legendary Miss Marple™ melody sounded quite fresh.

Although it was meant as the highlight of the show, Scooters version of the Billy Idol classic “Rebel yell” was anything but good. A stiff upper lip and short blond hair obviously isn’t enough to come across as a serious Billy Idol song and the song really sucked.

Never the less the band was nice to watch and “Hyper, Hyper” still kicked ass.

Scooter **

Next in line: the Irish “Boyzone”. They started off with newly arranged Cat Stevens classics. And well arranged they were, too. Unfortunately the live vocals weren’t any good at all and the band failed to impact.

Boyzone *

Worlds Apart but also a boy band “Backstreet Boys” were up next. They were the real deal so it seemed. Well dressed but not the least arrogant they performed their songs honest and their acapella songs were great to listen to.

One of the boys spoke about how he had lost his dad to cancer and reminded everybody how important the event was and that it made sense to buy the CD.

The VIVA DJs Mola and Sherri also mentioned the CD a lot and reminded people what they were there for.

During set changes clips of other celebrities were screened and / or interviews were held on stage for instance with the winners of the “Gesicht 95” (Face 05) model competition.

Back to music. Two more acts in particular I was waiting for and I knew they would be up soon: “Culture Beat” and “Rednex”.

Finally – Culture Beat on stage and the audience went ballistic. They played last years hit: “Mr. Vain” and the latest “Crying in the rain” as well as the one song everybody was waiting for: “Inside out”. The live vocals were the best vocals I had heard in ages.

Mr. Vain ***

“Rednex” was on next and I was surprised to see young and old sing along to their unique mix of Dance floor and country. “Cotton eye Joe” was massive. Rednex turned the hall into an ocean of light while performing “Wish you were here”.

Rednex **

See also Ronan Keating 2000