Goldsmith blames Glastonbury for lack of Beyonce coverage

Veteran UK promoter Harvey Goldsmith, has blamed the BBC's "obsession" with Glastonbury as the reason why the Beyonce led 'Chime for Change' concert didn't get live TV coverage in the UK, despite Goldsmith saying 1 billion other people watched the concert around the world. The concert, which has already chalked up post show stories of Jennifer Lopez's diva excesses (stemming fro, tweets made by fellow performer John Legend's fiance), also featured Ellie Golding, Florence & The Machine, Jessie J, Mary J Blige, Timbaland, Rita Ora and Jay-Z, who joined his wife for the finale.  Goldsmith told the Daily Mail "The idea behind the concert is to launch a charity which will help millions of women and young girls around the world. In a lot of countries it went out live. In fact in most of them" adding "‘I am disappointed that the BBC did not broadcast the event live. I think all the BBC is interested is in Glastonbury. They have got about five million people working on it. It’s their jolly and everything else gets short shrift."

The concert, produced by a US led team headed up by Kevin Wall, was screen for one hour at 10.50pm on BBC1 as edited highlights, just twenty minutes after the show ended, and the show  included a addresses from Madonna, Desmond Tutu and actress Salma Hayek. A spokesman for BBC1 said it had taken the decision to broadcast only highlights from the concert because the show had commercial sponsors, including Gucci, whose creative director Frida Giannini, co-organised the event.