Here is the autoresponse I received for my complaint about the BBC cutting short the Spinal Tap and Metallica sets at Live Earth (but leaving James Blunt’s untouched.)
Thank you for your e-mail.
We recognise that some viewers of the ‘Live Earth’ concert were annoyed that the sets by Metallica and Spinal Tap were not shown in full.
We were keen to show elements of all concerts from around the world and took editorial decisions in advance and on the day, about the times and places we would do that.
The concerts were very fluid in London and around the world and there was certainly no prejudice about heavy metal music or any other music; just a determination to do the best for the entire audience watching on BBC TWO and One during the day. This is inevitably a fine balance and we cannot please everyone all of the time. However, we of course apologise if any particular viewers were disappointed.
Please be assured that your comments have been fully registered and added to our daily audience log. This is an internal document that is made available to the web production teams and senior BBC management.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact the BBC.
The thing is, they’d already shown the Rihanna clip they played over the Spinal Tap all-bass “Big Bottom” in between a few artists earlier on that day, and a few of the many terrible pause-ridden between-act interviews could have used Crowded House being played over them. Plus, they had hours of time to use for that sort of thing during all the delays in the US gig. And it’s odd that they only did it to the acts that were actually popular and whose appearance was special, isn’t it?
They should have shown the full London gig. No interruptions, no zero-information interviews. Clips from other concerts and/or the short films in between bands. No excuses.
[edited: aargh, late-night unspotted malapropisms. Corrected.]
F L I C K E R I N G / F R A M E 