Heatwave Festival, Mosport Park, Bowmanville, Canada, 8-23-1980, Part 7: The Kings

Here is the seventh and final album from the 1980 Heatwave Festival. This time, it's a set by the Canadian band the Kings.

I must admit that, prior to making this album, I only knew about the Kings for one reason, and that was their song "This Beat Goes On - Switchin' to Glide." This medley was a minor hit in the U.S. in 1980, just missing the Top Forty. It came from their debut album, "The Kings Are Here," which was released in 1980 prior to this concert. Unfortunately, their next album, released in 1981, didn't do so well, and their record company dropped them. They continued on for a long time after that, but their peak of popularity had to be 1980, right around the time of this concert.

That said, they definitely were not popular enough to be the headliners for the festival. True, they were the last act, but some festivals has lesser known musical acts be the last act, allowing some people to leave early instead of having everyone try to leave all at once, right after the biggest name finished their set.

This unreleased recording comes from a very different source than all the other albums I've posted so far. Those were all recorded by professionals who went to the festival to record the Teenage Head set for a possible live set and stayed to record all the other sets by the biggest acts. This instead comes from video footage. Apparently, a separate crew was there to film the acts, but the only acts that gave permission were Teenage Head and the Kings. The video was later posted on YouTube by the Kings' official channel. I converted that to mp3 format. 

The good news is the sound quality is just about as good as the other sets. The bad news is only part of the set was filmed. Apparently, their full set was 55 minutes long. That makes sense, because all the other acts I've posted from this festival had sets of about 55 minutes to an hour, other than Elvis Costello, who was the headliner and played longer. This is only the last 29 minutes. 

But at least that's better than nothing. The Kings don't have an official album from this time period, although they do have one from a few years later, called "Party Live '85."

Another problem is that much of the recording of their hit medley "This Beat Goes On - Switchin' to Glide" was missing. All of "Switchin' to Glide" was there, but the vast majority of "This Beat Goes On" was lost. So, using the version from the "Party Live '85" album, I replaced what was missing. That's why that song has "[Edit]" in the title.

Most of the songs are originals. However, the last one, "California Girls," is a cover of the Beach Boys classic.

This album is 29 minutes long.

124 Borrowing Time (Kings)
125 Don't Let Me Know (Kings)
126 Run Shoes Running (Kings)
127 My Habit (Kings)
128 This Beat Goes On - Switchin' to Glide [Edit] (Kings)
129 Partyitis (Kings)
130 talk (Kings)
131 California Girls (Kings)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16275947/VAHtwveFstivlMsprtPrkBwmnvlleCnda__8-23-1980_07_TKngs.zip.html

The cover image comes from this exact concert. It's a screenshot from the video footage.