In the summer of 1994, as no football fan needs reminding (since the Republic of Ireland was there), North America hosted the World Cup for the very first time. This weekend marks the anniversary of the final and the concert that preceded it, the night the Three Tenors - Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti - who'd sung on the eve of the deciding match in Italy in 1990, came together again.
 
That first collaboration, amid the ruins of the ancient Caracalla Baths in Rome, had been conceived as a fundraiser for Carreras's charity which he'd set up following his recovery from leukaemia. There had been no indication of the phenomenon the Three Tenors would become. When it came to discussing performing rights for the CD and video that would follow that first concert, the singers settled for a flat fee - said to be $500,000 each - rather than taking a percentage of sales.