Critics give Diana gig tepid reviews

LONDON (Reuters) - For the critics, Sunday's memorial concert for Princess Diana was a day of cheesy anthems more akin to a family knees-up than a showcase of thrilling and edgy music, but few seemed surprised.

The music marathon, which lasted more than six hours at the newly refurbished Wembley Stadium, was organised by Princes William and Harry to honour their mother on what would have been her 46th birthday. She died in a car crash in Paris in 1997.

"As a celebration of the princess with some of the music she liked, and some her sons think she may have liked, what was on display was popular culture at its most inoffensive," Neil McCormick wrote in the Daily Telegraph.

"In general, however, the cheesier the anthem, the bigger the cheers."

With an audience ranging from teenagers to grandparents, the combination of U.S. rap stars Pharrell Williams and Kanye West and ageing crooners Tom Jones and Rod Stewart, not to mention the English National Ballet, was perhaps understandable.

"It was a menu eclectic enough to give the strongest stomach dyspepsia," said Alexis Petridis of the Guardian.

He said the old timers were more fun than "contemporary soft rockers and mushy crooners" like James Morrison, Natasha Bedingfield and Will Young.

On the night, the crowd warmed to Jones and his rendition of "Kiss" and Stewart's classic ballad "Sailing", while Take That also had the audience of 63,000 swaying with "Back For Good".

"Pharrell Williams and Kanye West were the edgiest artists the event had to offer," Petridis added.