Royal Albert Hall, 4 October 2022

A star-filled line-up at the UK’s premier concert hall to celebrate James Bond’s 60th birthday.

Over the past 60 years, 007 has had many interactions with the Royal Albert Hall, from royal premieres to movies in concert, so what better venue to hold the official diamond anniversary concert. And talking of diamonds, what Bond concert would be complete without Diamonds are Forever, sung by Bond theme tune stalwart Dame Shirley Bassey?

Five-time Bond composer David Arnold curated/produced a concert on the eve of James Bond’s 60th anniversary (the 1962 premiere of Doctor No) that ticks a lot of boxes for the Bond fan. In one fell swoop there were four songs sung by original artists, as well as score selections accompanied by composers Arnold and Hans Zimmer. The former’s frequent orchestrator and collaborator Nicholas Dodd conducted the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.

Opening with Dame Shirley’s Diamonds are Forever was a ballsy move. How do you top it? Goldfinger of course. The audience was on its feet for two well-deserved standing ovations, the veteran singer looking visibly moved by the affection in the room – and boy, can she still hit those notes.

The evening continued by alternating a theme song with an orchestral piece, wisely jumping about non-chronologically so that it was a true variety show. Highlights were multiple. The thrill of hearing live performances by original artists Lulu (The Man With the Golden Gun) and Garbage (The World is Not Enough) jostled with startling new interpretations of classic hits – Ella Eyre’s powerful Licence to Kill and Skin’s Live and Let Die.

And then of course a rich selection of score from Barry (inevitably Capsule in Space and Thunderball), Marvin Hamlisch (Bond 77) and even an action cue from George Martin’s Live and Let Die. From the Arnold era we had Night at the Opera (Quantum of Solace) and Die Another Day. Newman was covered with a selection from Spectre and No Time to Die included Cuba Chase, accompanied by Hans Zimmer and David Arnold jamming on their guitars.

Lyricist Don Black shared some fun stories about his friend and collaborator John Barry, and David Arnold sang You Know My Name, reflecting on the tragedy of the loss of Chris Cornell. Paloma Faith had great fun belting out GoldenEye, John Grant gave us a low-key We Have All the Time in the World, and award-winning Celeste put her own spin on You Only Live Twice.

The evening concluded with the full version of Monty Norman’s James Bond theme, and because no encore had been planned, it was played twice!

Verdict: The mind boggles at the work involved in bringing together so many artists for such a banner event. Kudos to David Arnold and Eon Productions for staging such a party. I can’t imagine we’ll see its like again. 10/10

Nick Joy

The concert will be available on Prime Video later today