Historic, star-stuffed rock concert returns

A star-stuffed concert will rerun on cable-TV Tuesday (Oct. 20), exactly 25 years after it debuted.
“The Concert for New York City” was held in Madison Square Garden on Oct. 20, 2001, six weeks after the World Trader Center attack. Now it will air from 7 p.m. ET Tuesday to midnight on MTV, MTV2, VH1 and Logo, again raising money for Robin Hood, a New York charity.
The original was organized by Paul McCartney (shown here), who quickly gathered other British acts to express a love for New York. David Bowie opened the night by combining “America” and his “Heroes”; McCartney closed it with six songs, sandwiching his new “Freedom” with “Yesterday” and “Let It Be.” The Who drew raucous approval; other British performers include Elton John, Eric Clapton and a duo of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
But Americans also played key parts. Bowie was followed by a Billy Crystal comedy routine, Bon Jovi (including “Livin’ on a Prayer”), Jay-Z and the Goo Goo Dolls (including “American Girl”).
The night also had Billy Joel (including “New York State of Mind”), James Taylor (including “Fire and Rain”), Destiny’s Child, Melissa Etheridge, Buddy Guy, Macy Gray, John Mellencamp, Janet Jackson, the Backstreet Boys and more.
Will Ferrell did a comedy routine as George W. Bush and Adam Sandler drew a big reaction with new material for his Opera Man character. There were also short films by Woody Allen, Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, Kevin Smith,. Edward Burns and Christian Charles, plus a segment from Ric Burns’ “New York: A Documentary Film.”
A one-hour version of the concert ran on CBS. Later, the full concert had 10th-year and 20th-year reruns; now comes the 25th.