Like thousands of
others I sat and watched the Iceland Inspires concert last week. Sadly
the venue
had to be moved due to pretty grim (understatment) weather along
Iceland's south
coast. It finally took place in the centre of Reykjavik and I guess that
an
increased audience made up for the drop in dramatism of the setting.
I've managed to get together 2 minutes of highlights below featuring Amiina, Steindor Andersen, Mammut, Glen Hansard, Damien Rice, Spiritualized, Dikta and Damien Rice (again). Then go here, for fuller highlights and performaces by Gus Gus, Hjaltalin, Retro Stefson and For A Minor Reflection around the Icelandic countryside. Still,
despite sitting in hot and sunny London it really made me want to be in
cold,
wet, grey Reykjavik.

Technically, the
show went well – the feed was really high quality and the sound was
good. I'm
no expert but to pull off a large scale live broadcast like that must be
pretty
difficult. And the show was good too: of the Icelanders, I felt that
Mammut
& Seabear did themsleves most good in reaching out to potential
overseas
audiences. And Amiina certainly did a fine job in what will always be
known as
the Status Quo slot at such events. And I have to say that the overseas
acts
really impressed me, especially Damien Rice and Glen Hansard. Sure, they
did
their jobs competently (Damien excelling himself by performing a rendition of an Icelandic lullaby – any more info very welcome!), they're both fantastically good musicians but I loved the way they
were
engaged and involved – I believe they both played smaller gigs in town
the night before and you could tell from their twitterings they were indeed… inspired by
Iceland.

More great photos of the event below of umbrellas (!), Hafdis Huld, Mammut, Damien Rice & Glen Hansard…