Children in Need Rocks Manchester


Children in Need Rocks Manchester was a charity music concert held at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England, on 17 November 2011. The concert was organised by Take That singer-songwriter Gary Barlow as one of a series of events to raise money for Children in Need 2011. It became the second Children in Need Rocks concert organised by Barlow, after the Children in Need Rocks the Royal Albert Hall in 2009.

Background

The concert was broadcast on BBC One, BBC One HD and BBC Radio 1 on Thursday 17 November 2011, the day before the official appeal telethon.
Short films of projects being funded by the charity were shown at various points throughout the show, often featuring one of the celebrities meeting a child or group of children.
The event was hosted by BBC Radio 1 presenters Chris Moyles and Fearne Cotton, along with former Doctor Who actor David Tennant. The acts performing at the concert included Canadian Michael Bublé, Jessie J, Coldplay, James Morrison, Barlow's fellow The X Factor judges, Tulisa Contostavlos and Kelly Rowland, Barlow himself and Lady Gaga. The house band was led by Mike Stevens and Steve Sidwell. Barlow revealed on The Chris Moyles Show when announcing the concert that he had personally contacted the acts he wanted to perform.
Tickets for the concert cost between £55 and £95, and the 12,000 tickets sold out within 10 minutes of going on sale on 16 September 2011. Some tickets were also bought by radio stations and television programmes to be auctioned, with one pair of tickets being sold to a BBC Radio Jersey listener for £2010. The concert raised over £2,500,000 including from text donations during the programme. The total would be added to the £26 million which was donated by the British public during the telethon the next day.

Performances