There was a real buzz around the Royal Albert Hall, everybody was excited and expectant about what they were going to see. Cosplayers milled around; Rinoa was accompanied by a pair of SeeDs, a Cid Highwind cosplayer had somehow managed to bring in a huge spear, but perhaps the highlight was a man dressed in golden spandex with a chocobo hat.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, where the show was held.
Arnie Roth burst upon the stage to the crowd's excitement. The excitement reached fever pitch when he introduced Masashi Hamauzu and of course, Nobuo Uematsu. Uematsu was his typical eccentric self, wearing white socks with sandals. The crowd went even crazier when Roth declared that the previously unannounced Hironobu Sakaguchi was in attendance, although the spotlight failed to find him so who knows if the great man himself was really there.
The London Philharmonic orchestra was in fine form, and opened with the Prelude, accompanied by footage of the 14 FF games up on the main screen. Roth, full of energy and charisma, announced that they would be breaking from the usual Distant Worlds format because of how special the concert was, and that they would be going through the FF games in order, and the orchestra immediately went into a medley of FF1-3, with my personal favourite of course being the Rebel Army theme from FFII.
Masashi Hamauzu, Arnie Roth and Nobuo Uematsu.
Battle With Four Fiends followed, with some incredible Amano Artwork of the fiends accompanying it, followed by the main theme from FFV. The debut of Phantom Forest was next, which was a particularly stirring piece. The screen behind it showed Sabin travelling through the forest, interspersed with Amano artwork of Sabin, Cyan and Shadow, and it was nice to soak in the images as the music played.
One Winged Angel was of course FFVII's contribution. Roth told everyone they would recognise it with just three notes, and he was right. He then encouraged the crowd to sing along, and this prompted the 5,000 in the audience to sing, in their best falsetto, "Sephiroth!" I don't think there were many people who sang along to the actual song, though, even though the lyrics were on the big screen. OWA isn't exactly the singalong type of song.
Prior to the Distant Worlds concert, a morning event showcased a variety of artwork from the series.
Don't Be Afraid from FFVIII soon followed, which began with a very amusing shot from Dollet on the big screen of Zell raging out at a barking dog, before he, Seifer and Squall took off running. One of my personal favourites of the night, You're Not Alone was the next song to be played, followed by Zanarkand.
Before the intermission, a new Chocobo medley was debuted. This began with a video from one of the online FFs of a baby chocobo hatching, following its owner and waggling its butt. The audience "awwed" and laughed as appropriate. The song then began in earnest, and featured FFV's Samba de Chocobo. The choir, the London Voices, enthusiastically shouted the "HUH!" part, which was accompanied by the baby Chocobo from XIII chirping, and the audience was doubled over with laughter. The choir also spelled out the word C-H-O-C-O-B-O and there was more footage from XIII. This went down really well and the crowd went into the intermission on a high.
The Chocobo Medley arrangment from the London Show.
I think the second half of the concert began a little weakly, with not many people recognising the Vana'Diel March. I will admit I drifted off and was lost in admiring the Vana'Diel scenery that was playing out on the big screen, but there was still a good response when Arnie Roth asked if there were many online players next. The Dalmasca Estersand came after, and then Blinded by Light played. It's a favourite song of mine, and the harpist was put to good use, but I felt it lacked a little bit of the impact of the original. I still enjoyed it, however.
Susan Calloway came out to sing the main theme from FFXIV, Answers, and we were told Uematsu had hand picked her himself. I thought she seemed a little nervous when she came out onto the stage in a very sparkly dress, but if she was, it certainly didn't show as she put out a virtuoso performance. The Theme of Love from IV was the next song, and this went down well, and then Arnie Roth informed the crowd another surprise guest was here, Crystal Kay. I personally did not know who she was, but the crowd went wild. She certainly seemed to enjoy it a lot more than Susan Calloway did, grinning and waving as she strode onto the stage to sing Eyes on Me.
Arnie Roth and the London Philharmonic orchestra.
The famous opera from FFVI was the penultimate performance, and we were told Uematsu had composed extra music to extend this. Numerous words have already been written about the live rendition of this, so I will put a personal slant on it as it was my first time and say that it blew me away to hear what those in the VI Opera House must have heard.
Roth tried to leave the stage to end the concert but was not allowed, and came back out to announce they could not finish without playing a quintessential theme. Someone yelled out "AERIS'S THEME!" so loud that the entire Hall must have heard it, but Roth said it wasn't. The first few notes of "Final Fantasy" played and the audience drowned out the first 10 seconds or so with applause.
The concert finished with all performers receiving a passionate and thunderous reception for putting on a fantastic show, and the walk back to the underground station seemed to be filled with a swarm of happy people.
Sounds like quite the event, doesn't it! You can bask in the awe and talk about how much you wanted to be there like me, or share your Distant Worlds stories in the comments below.
Please note that all images and video were courtesy of Aimee and Tomasz; check our their blogs to see other cool action from the Distant Worlds concert and the exclusive Final Fantasy Special Event. Other videos of the concert can be found here.
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