March 6^th 2013 saw comedians descend on Wembley Arena for a fund-raising extravaganza: Give It Up For Comic Relief. All 3.5 hours of it.

Comic Relief had the gig’s proceeds ear marked for the support of people affected by drug / alcohol addiction. I can’t spot the amount raised (just from this gig) but the Arena’s capacity is 12,500 and Chortle said the tickets were £50 a head.

In 2013 Comic Relief overall raised £100.3m.

The gig and backstage interviews were broadcast by

• BBC Radio 2 (R2) – from 8pm on the 6^th
• BBC3 – from 10pm on the 6^th
• BBC1 – highlights from 11.35pm on the 8th

Getty Images have a whopping 419 images here. The 10 that just feature Jimmy are here.

The line up, in no particular order, featured music and comedy from:

• Russell Brand – Host
• Nick Grimshaw – DJ’ing on stage as the audience file in
• Jimmy Carr
• John Bishop
• Jack Whitehall
• Noel Gallagher
• Frankie Boyle
• Noel Fielding
• Jason Manford
• Kasabian
• Jessie J
• Rizzle Kicks
• Emeli Sande
• Doc Brown
• Nicole Scherzinger
• Paloma Faith
• Jake Bugg
• Eddie Izzard
• Simon Amstell

The Chortle review focussed on a negative perspective of how many drugs some of the performers have partaken of. But when has fund raising ever been about how sweet and innocent the performers are? If you are a big name and you are willing to give your time – is that not enough?

Beyond The Joke, in their review, make a similar point about a critical review of a comedian at a different fund raiser. The organiser had pointed out that the act “had agreed to step in at the last minute and did the show for free and if people are going to get slagged off they may be reluctant to do things for charity in future.”

Comedians and artists donated their time, The audience loved it. Money was raised to help others. Good enough for me.

Other Comic Relief posts can be seen here.

Other 2013 Comic Relief events were:

• Pix & Noses (photoshoot, promo video and Jimmy blowing noses with David Gandy – here
• Graham Norton’s Big Chat – here