Glass Menagerie - BBC Sessions (1968-1969)

The Internet is amazing. (But you already knew that, I'm sure.) Just yesterday, I'd never even heard of the band Glass Menagerie. Then I happened to stumble across their anthology album and saw that they had enough BBC sessions to make up and album. Since they were a late 1960s British band dabbling in poppy and psychedelic rock sounds, I figured it was a given I'd like their stuff, and I was right. A couple hours later, I'd listened to all their music, edited all their BBC sessions, made the cover art, and here you are.

The reason I'd never heard of the British band Glass Menagerie is because they're pretty damn obscure. They never released an album while they were together, though that anthology I mentioned came out decades later. They only released five singles, and none of them came close to being hits. In retrospect, it's kind of remarkable that they got as much BBC exposure as they did.

Perhaps that had something to do with how good they were with cover versions. The BBC seemed to really like that. For instance, the obscure band Orange Bicycle got to perform dozens and dozens of BBC sessions mostly because they could do covers of musical acts that the BBC usually couldn't get on air much, if at all. Seven of the 18 songs here are covers of then-recent, popular songs. But note that still leaves the lion shares as originals. This band definitely had talent with their own material.

This band is so obscure that they don't seem to even have a Wikipedia page. (Or at least I can't find it. Unfortunately, there are many other things called "Glass Menagerie," so maybe I couldn't get past that.) If that's so, I don't think I've ever come across that before while looking up musical acts for this blog. Instead, here's a link to a blog that has a long write-up about the band's history:

Glass Menagerie

In short, they really only recorded for two years, 1968 and 1969. Musical tastes were changing and the band seemed to be going nowhere fast. So they broke up in early 1970 and generally joined other bands. Their main vocalist and songwriter, Lou Stonebridge, joined a new band called Paladin. They had a couple of prog rock albums in the early 1970s before breaking up as well. One band member effectively joined the Bee Gees and stuck with them through "Saturday Night Fever" and long after that.

Most of the songs here come from the anthology mentioned above, called "Have You Forgotten Who We Are?" But surprisingly, that left out some songs that I found elsewhere. There even was one John Peel session where only two of the four songs were chosen for the anthology, and the other two had just as good sound quality. Five of the songs here are unreleased (plus the bonus track). The songs had the usual problem of the era, that BBC DJs liked to talk over the beginnings and the ends. I did my usual thing of using the UVR5 program to wipe out that talking while keeping the music. Those are all the songs with "[Edit]" in their titles. A couple of the unreleased songs don't sound as good as the rest, but they weren't that far off.

The one song that sounded really rough is the one relegated to bonus track status: "Love Me Two Times (Long Version)." Note that I actually have this song as the fourth track too. The bonus track is the exact same performance, except that version is six minutes long, and the fourth track version is less than three minutes long. What happened is that the long version was recorded for a John Peel session. But some songs from that were later selected to be rebroadcast for the more poppy "Top of the Pops" radio show, and a drastic cut was made, loping off a big jammy section in the middle. The short version survived in excellent sound quality and made it onto the official anthology, but I could only find a rough sounding version of the long version. However, it seems a better quality of the long version does exist, on a grey market album simply called "BBC Sessions," the same as my album title. If anyone has that, please let me go, because I couldn't find it.

This album is an hour and two minutes long, not including the bonus track.

01 She's a Rainbow (Glass Menagerie)
02 Run Out of Time [Edit] (Glass Menagerie)
03 Somebody to Love [Edit] (Glass Menagerie)
04 Love Me Two Times [Edit] (Glass Menagerie)
05 Dear Mr. Fantasy (Glass Menagerie)
06 One More Heartache (Glass Menagerie)
07 You Didn't Have to Be So Nice (Glass Menagerie)
08 I Said Goodbye to Me [Edit] (Glass Menagerie)
09 I Can't Quit Her [Edit] (Glass Menagerie)
10 Do My Thing Myself [Edit] (Glass Menagerie)
11 Frederick Jordan (Glass Menagerie)
12 Watching the World Pass By (Glass Menagerie)
13 Putting It Off Till Another Day (Glass Menagerie)
14 Chequebook Girl (Glass Menagerie)
15 Life Is Getting It Together (Glass Menagerie)
16 She Came from Hell (Glass Menagerie)
17 Have You Forgotten Who You Are [Edit] (Glass Menagerie)
18 Do You Ever Think [Edit] (Glass Menagerie)

Love Me Two Times [Long Version] [Edit] (Glass Menagerie)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/WCW1ouCr

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/WYsjWFNLlu2l8f4/file

I couldn't find any color photos of the band. Not even the colorful and well illustrated anthology booklet has one, so there probably aren't any. But I did find a good black and white one. I colorized that using the Kolorize program, then I improved it some more with the Krea AI program.

Covered: Norman Gimbel: 1953-1986

It occurred to me the other day that I have dozens of albums in my Covered series ready to go, but I rarely seem to get around to posting them. So I'm going to make more of an effort to post these. I haven't gotten that much feedback on them, but I think they're pretty unique and interesting. So here's an especially interesting and unique songwriter: Norman Gimbel.

Who would have ever imagined that the same person involved in writing "The Girl from Ipanema" also helped write "Killing Me Softly with His Song" and the theme to the "Happy Days" TV show? That's range. I just found his obituary in the New York Times (he died in 2019 at the age of 94), and that called him "wildly versatile," adding that "Any attempt to categorize [his] musical leanings would be complicated." 

Gimbel was first and foremost a lyricist. He rarely wrote songs on his own. Typically, someone else would write the music while he would write the lyrics. But he also had a specialty of taking interesting songs in foreign languages and coming up with English lyrics for them. 

A typical case was "The Girl from Ipanema." It was written in 1962, with music by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. In early 1963, Jobim was recording the song in New York City with Joao Gilberto and Stan Getz when they came up with the idea of doing an English version. Gimbel was rushed in to come up with English lyrics on the spot. Gilberto's wife Astrid Gilberto happened to be the only Brazilian there who could speak English well, so she was drafted to sing the song, even though she had no professional singing background whatsoever. The result was a classic that shall be played in elevators until the end of time.

That collaboration worked so well that Gimbel ended up writing English lyrics to many of the biggest bossa nova classics from Brazil, like "How Insensitive (Insensatez)," "Meditation (Meditacao)," "So Nice (Summer Samba)," and "Drinking Water (Agua de Beber)." "Sway" is another classic that was originally in Spanish. "Bluesette" is a case where he wrote lyrics to an instrumental hit by Toots Thielemans.

But Gimbel just didn't have the skill of writing new lyrics for already existing songs. He often worked with other songwriters to create songs from scratch. His first song here is from 1953, and he stayed active songwriting well into the 2000s. He often co-wrote songs for TV shows, movies, and plays. Five of his songs were nominated for Academy Awards or Golden Globes or both. He won an Academy Award in 1979 for "It Goes like It Goes," the theme to the movie "Norma Rae."

In the 1970s, Gimbel often collaborated with Charles Fox on songs (though not exclusively). This led to the writing of "Killing Me Softly with His Song," which Rolling Stone Magazine has put on a list of the top 500 songs of all time. In the early 1970s, Gimbel and Fox signed an aspiring female musician, Lori Lieberman, to a management contract, promising to write songs for her. Lieberman went to see Don McLean in concert. She was so inspired by one of his songs ("Empty Chair," not "American Pie," though he played that too), that she wrote lots of notes for a potential. Excited, she immediately called Gimbel on the phone and shared her ideas. Gimbel honed them into lyrics, including coming up with the "Killing me softly with his song" line. He later said, "Her conversation fed me, inspired me, gave me some language and a choice of words." He then passed the lyrics to Fox, who wrote the music. 

So far, so good. But the controversy is that Gimbel and Fox took full songwriting credit, even though clearly Lieberman had an essential role in creating the song. Lieberman released a version of the song as a single in 1972 (produced by Gimbel and Fox), but it went nowhere. When Roberta Flack released her version in 1973, it went to Number One on the singles chart in the U.S., and Lieberman got nothing for it. (Flack's version was probably much more successful because she came up with a very different arrangement, even changing some of the melody and the chords.) Adding insult to injury, in later decades, both Gimbel and Fox denied that Lieberman had a role in writing the song, and also denied that it was inspired by a Don McLean concert, even though they'd already been quoted many times admitting both things. Presumably they got scared about being sued by Lieberman for a cut of the profits, but it turned out she never sued them.

You can read the whole story here. It paints Gimbel and Fox in a pretty bad light, especially since Gimbel was married yet having a secret affair with the much younger Lieberman at the time:

Killing Me Softly with His Song - Wikipedia

Also, here's his Wikipedia entry, if you want to read more about him in general:

Norman Gimbel - Wikipedia

Anyway, Gimbel may have done some ethically dubious things, but there's no doubt he was a great lyricist. Fox later said of him, "Norman had the extraordinary ability with his lyrics to capture the human condition with never an excessive word to describe a feeling or an action." He then pointed out how Gimbel could often conjure an entire song with its first line, and he offered examples: "Tall and tan and young and lovely," "Strumming my pain with his fingers," and "If it takes forever, I will wait for you."

This album is an hour and seven minutes long.

01 Ricochet [Rick-O-Shay] (Teresa Brewer)
02 Canadian Sunset (Sam Cooke)
03 The Girl from Ipanema (Astrud Gilberto, Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto)
04 I Will Follow Him (Peggy March)
05 How Insensitive [Insensatez] (Astrud Gilberto)
06 Bluesette (Vikki Carr)
07 Meditation [Meditacao] (Doris Day)
08 I Will Wait for You (Connie Francis)
09 So Nice [Summer Samba] (Astrud Gilberto & Walter Wanderley)
10 Watch What Happens (Lena Horne & Gabor Szabo)
11 Drinking Water [Agua de Beber] (Frank Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim)
12 I Got a Name (Jim Croce)
13 Killing Me Softly with His Song (Roberta Flack)
14 Wonder Woman (John Bahler)
15 Happy Days (Pratt & McClain)
16 Sway (Bobby Rydell)
17 Making Our Dreams Come True (Cyndi Grecco)
18 Ready to Take a Chance Again (Barry Manilow)
19 Different Worlds (Maureen McGovern)
20 It Goes like It Goes (Jennifer Warnes)
21 Only Love (Nana Mouskouri)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/P2BYQLtv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/MpTyosybz70Db69/file

Gimbel was very private and rarely photographed. The best I could find was a black and white photo from a 1984 awards ceremony. I colorized it using the Palette program, then improved it with the Krea AI program.

Tom Paxton - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Britain, 11-30-1995

Here is the fourth volume of Tom Paxton performing for the BBC... for now. I know of at least three BBC concerts he did between the last volume I posted, of a 1972 concert, and this one. I just can't find them. So who knows, perhaps we'll see a renumbering of this album eventually.

Paxton has been releasing roughly about an album a year since the mid-1960s. While he definitely has some older classics, he generally performed newer songs here, with the first two and last two songs being exceptions. One nice thing about this concert is that apparently folk singer Carolyn Hester was on the same bill (although I can't find her set), so she came out in the middle of the concert and sang with Paxton, and also came back for the last two songs.

This album is unreleased. The sound quality is very good.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Bottle of Wine (Tom Paxton)
02 talk (Tom Paxton)
03 What Did You Learn in School Today (Tom Paxton)
04 talk (Tom Paxton)
05 Bobbitt (Tom Paxton)
06 talk (Tom Paxton)
07 Looking for the Moon (Tom Paxton)
08 talk (Tom Paxton)
09 Getting Up Early (Tom Paxton with Carolyn Hester)
10 Passing through Tulsa (Tom Paxton with Carolyn Hester)
11 talk (Tom Paxton with Carolyn Hester)
12 Along the Verdigris (Tom Paxton with Carolyn Hester)
13 talk (Tom Paxton)
14 Anytime (Tom Paxton)
15 talk (Tom Paxton)
16 A Long Way from Your Mountain (Tom Paxton)
17 talk (Tom Paxton)
18 Little Girl (Tom Paxton)
19 talk (Tom Paxton)
20 Johnny Got a Gun (Tom Paxton)
21 talk (Tom Paxton)
22 The First Song Is for You (Tom Paxton)
23 It Was a Night like This (Tom Paxton)
24 talk (Tom Paxton)
25 The Last Thing on My Mind (Tom Paxton with Carolyn Hester)
26 talk (Tom Paxton with Carolyn Hester)
27 Ramblin' Boy (Tom Paxton with Carolyn Hester)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CDU11cXK

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/6wQfpV8H3rpf1cq/file

The cover photo is from a concert in Burnsville, Minnesota, on June 25, 1995.

Van Morrison - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: In Concert, Jazz and Blues Festival, Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Britain, 8-6-1995

Here's another volume of Van Morrison performing for the BBC. This time, it's a 1995 concert.

This concert is unusual in that he was backed by an orchestra, specifically the BBC Big Band. It occurred before the release of his album "How Long Has This Been Going On" near the end of the year. However, this was close to when that album was recorded, and many of the songs on her would also later appear on that album. There was an unusual amount of covers on that album, and there's quite a few covers here too, despite it being a relatively short concert (or, more likely, edit of a concert). Also, that album was credited to "Van Morrison with Georgie Fame and Friends." Georgie Fame is here as well, on keyboards and backing vocals.

This album is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 Alright, Okay, You Win (Van Morrison)
02 How Long Has This Been Going On (Van Morrison)
03 talk (Van Morrison)
04 Early in the Morning (Van Morrison)
05 Days like This (Van Morrison)
06 Who Can I Turn To [When Nobody Needs Me] (Van Morrison)
07 That's Life (Van Morrison)
08 I Will Be There (Van Morrison)
09 Vanlose Stairway (Van Morrison)
10 Blues in the Night (Van Morrison)
11 Haunts of Ancient Peace (Van Morrison)
12 Your Mind Is on Vacation (Van Morrison)
13 Moondance (Van Morrison)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/wgqSfhCa

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/C32vK0OisluGMtY/file

The cover photo is from a concert in Cardiff, Britain, on September 1, 1995.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 10 (1963-1979) (A MIKE SOLOF GUEST POST)

Here we go again with another Beatles Uncovered album by guest poster Mike Solof.

With this being the tenth volume, hopefully you know the drill by now. Mike remixes Beatles songs to bring out aspects that are generally underappreciated. Sometimes, he even pulls up interesting little bits that you almost certainly never even knew where there in the first place. Most of the songs here are from the Beatles, but there are a few songs from their solo careers included as well.

Also as usual, if you want to know more, check out the PDF included with the download files. Mike has written explanations of the edits for all the songs.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 I Am the Walrus [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
02 Two of Us [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
03 For You Blue [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
04 Can't Buy Me Love [Take 2] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
05 I've Got a Feeling [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
06 Steel and Glass [Mike's Mix 2025] (John Lennon)
07 Eight Days a Week [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
08 Rain [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
09 Don't Pass Me By [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
10 Here, There and Everywhere [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
11 Here Comes the Moon [Mike's Mix 2025] (George Harrison)
12 She Loves You [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
13 Dear Prudence [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
14 The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
15 My Dark Hour [Original Mix] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Steve Miller & Paul McCartney)
16 Blue Jay Way [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
17 Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/W7P5NDWj

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/VCdWxnSrf8Z5mui/file

The cover art is some art that Mike and I found while Googling about the Beatles and cats on the Internet. I don't know who originally made it. It's a parody of the "Beatles for Sale" album cover.

Bob Marley & the Wailers - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, Stanley Theater, Pittsburgh, PA, 9-23-1980

This is the fourth and last BBC album I'm posting from Bob Marley and the Wailers. It also happens to be the very last concert Marley ever gave!

In 1977, Marley was diagnosed with malignant cancer under the nail of the big toe of his right foot. Contrary to popular belief, this had nothing to do with a soccer injury he got earlier that year, since signs were the cancer had been there for some time already. He was only about 31 years at the time. He was advised to amputate his toe, but he decided against it, saying it went against his religious beliefs.

He went full speed ahead with his career, and for several years, the cancer didn't bother him that much. But slowly but surely, his health declined. On September 16, 1980, he started a new tour to promote his latest album, "Uprising." On September 21, just two days prior to this concert in Pittsburgh, he collapsed while jogging in Central Park in New York City. He was taken to the hospital, where it was discover the cancer had spread to his brains, lungs, and liver. It was very touch and go until the last minute whether this concert would take place at all. But a sold out crowd of 3,500 people were already there and excited, and he decided he didn't want to let down his fans.

Given that context, it's remarkable how energetic and good Marley sounds in this concert. Dennis Thompson, who engineered all of Marley's concerts in the 1970s, later said, "Bob did not know how to give less than 100 percent at a concert, so even if his foot was dropping off, you would never know. His work, his music, took precedence over everything."

The tour was supposed to just be getting started. Many more dates were scheduled. But after this concert, all further dates were canceled. So Marley didn't announce during this concert that it would be the last one, since that was still up in the air at the time, but one must guess that he already had a good idea it was the last one, or at least close to the last. His health rapidly declined after that. He died on May 11, 1981, at the age of 36.

This album has been officially released as "Live Forever." The BBC didn't broadcast the concert at the time, but they did later. Marley was in the habit of occasionally recording his concerts on reel to reel tape, and this happened to be one of the ones that got recorded. After the cancellation of the tour and then his death eight months later, this recording took on new importance. The BBC broadcast it for the first time in 1991, while the official album came out in 2011.

Unfortunately, there's one major flaw with the recording: the tape ran out before the encore of "Work" and "Get Up, Stand Up." The "Live Forever" album tried to make up for this by resorting to an audience bootleg for the last two songs. Unfortunately, the sound quality is much worse. I decided to remove "Work" from my version of this concert, because the sound quality is that bad. However, I've kept "Get Up, Stand Up," since it was the very last song he performed in public, and it's such a great song. I did some audio editing to try to make that song together, but one can only do so much, even with the latest technology, so it still sounds pretty rough.

This album is an hour and 27 minutes long.

01 talk (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
02 Natural Mystic (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
03 talk (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
04 Positive Vibration (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
05 Burnin' and Lootin' (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
06 Them Belly Full [But We Hungry] (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
07 The Heathen (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
08 Running Away (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
09 Crazy Baldhead (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
10 talk (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
11 War - No More Trouble (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
12 Zimbabwe (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
13 Zion Train (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
14 No Woman, No Cry (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
15 Jamming (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
16 Exodus (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
17 Redemption Song (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
18 Coming In from the Cold (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
19 Could You Be Loved (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
20 Is This Love (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
21 Get Up, Stand Up (Bob Marley & the Wailers)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/JvNtbMGY

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/lMIDEaaIXwejwZG/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Marshall Crenshaw - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: BBC Rock Hour, Veteran's Memorial Coliseum, New Haven, CT, 6-27-1983

Back in 2023, I posted a Marshall Crenshaw BBC concert from 1982. I said he did two such concerts, one in 1982 and the other in 1983, and they were pretty similar so I would only post one. I'm being more inclusive these days, so I'm finally posting the other one. Here's that 1983 BBC concert.

One reason I didn't post the 1983 as well back then was because I said the sound quality was a little lower than the 1982 one. That is true. But I boosted the lead vocals relative to the instruments using the UVR5 program for all the songs here, and that helped.

In 1983, Crenshaw released his second studio album, "Field Day." It did well, mostly due to the minor hit "Whenever You're on My Mind," but there were a lot of complaints about the production. Anyway, the presence of songs from that album is the main difference between this and the 1982 BBC concert. It's nice that, when performed live, those production problems are generally absent.

This album is unreleased.

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 Monday Morning Rock (Marshall Crenshaw)
02 Brand New Lover (Marshall Crenshaw)
03 talk (Marshall Crenshaw)
04 I'll Do Anything (Marshall Crenshaw)
05 Here I Am (Marshall Crenshaw)
06 Whenever You're on My Mind (Marshall Crenshaw)
07 talk (Marshall Crenshaw)
08 I've Been Good to You (Marshall Crenshaw)
09 One Day with You (Marshall Crenshaw)
10 Mary Anne (Marshall Crenshaw)
11 Rockin' Around in N.Y.C. (Marshall Crenshaw)
12 talk (Marshall Crenshaw)
13 Try (Marshall Crenshaw)
14 Move It (Marshall Crenshaw)
15 Cynical Girl (Marshall Crenshaw)
16 Someday Someway (Marshall Crenshaw)
17 The Usual Thing (Marshall Crenshaw) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/dzuC6jdb

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/OpSZJY0MypbBbxg/file

The cover photo is from a concert in 1982.

Depeche Mode - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: BBC Radio 6 Music Festival, Barrowland, Glasgow, Britain, 3-26-2017

Here's another BBC concert by the band Depeche Mode. It's from 2017.

I have to confess that I lost track of Depeche Mode's music some point in the 1990s. But they're a rare band that made it big in the new wave genre in the early 1980s and kept selling well until today. They've sold over 100 million albums worldwide. 

This album is unreleased. The sound quality was a bit rough for a BBC recording. I ran all the songs through the UVR5 audio editing program to boost the lead vocals relative to the instruments. That helped. But still, the crowd noise is not great, making this almost sound like an audience boot at times. There's also no banter between the songs at all.

This album is an hour and 11 minutes long.

01 talk (Depeche Mode)
02 Going Backwards (Depeche Mode)
03 So Much Love (Depeche Mode)
04 Corrupt (Depeche Mode)
05 A Pain that I'm Used To (Depeche Mode)
06 World in My Eyes (Depeche Mode)
07 Cover Me (Depeche Mode)
08 Home (Depeche Mode)
09 Where's the Revolution (Depeche Mode)
10 Barrel of a Gun (Depeche Mode)
11 Walking in My Shoes (Depeche Mode)
12 Personal Jesus (Depeche Mode)
13 Enjoy the Silence (Depeche Mode)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Wm7U2WEG

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/VZuD5slLK2gxkkf/file

The cover photo is a screenshot of a video of this exact concert. It shows the band's lead singer Dave Gahan.

Paul Weller - BBC Sessions, Volume 14: In Concert, Carling Academy, Brixton, Britain, 11-26-2008

Here we go again with yet another Paul Weller BBC album. This time, it's another concert.

In 2008, Weller released the double album "22 Dreams." The fact that it was a double album was a promising sign that he was on a creative tear, and sure enough, in my opinion, it's one of his better solo albums. So late 2008 was a good time to check in with another concert.

Up until now, in posting all of these volumes in this BBC series, I've often relied on material that came out on the official box set "At the BBC." But that came out in 2008, so everything from this on forward chronologically is not on that. That almost always means unreleased, and this concert is unreleased. Yet the sound quality is still excellent, thanks to the usual high BBC standards. 

This album is an hour and 22 minutes long.

01 Intro [Are We Ready] (Paul Weller)
02 Peacock Suit (Paul Weller)
03 talk (Paul Weller)
04 22 Dreams (Paul Weller)
05 All I Wanna Do [Is Be with You] (Paul Weller)
06 From the Floorboards Up (Paul Weller)
07 All on a Misty Morning (Paul Weller)
08 talk (Paul Weller)
09 Brand New Start (Paul Weller)
10 Have You Made Up Your Mind (Paul Weller)
11 Wild Blue Yonder (Paul Weller)
12 Black River (Paul Weller)
13 Invisible (Paul Weller)
14 talk (Paul Weller)
15 One Bright Star (Paul Weller)
16 talk (Paul Weller)
17 Where'er You Go (Paul Weller)
18 Wildwood (Paul Weller)
19 Why Walk When You Can Run (Paul Weller)
20 The Butterfly Collector (Paul Weller)
21 Seaspray (Paul Weller)
22 talk (Paul Weller)
23 Echoes Round the Sun (Paul Weller)
24 The Changing Man (Paul Weller)
25 The Eton Rifles (Paul Weller)
26 talk (Paul Weller)
27 Push It Along (Paul Weller)
28 Whirlpool's End (Paul Weller)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/tCR7FBnS

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/q3Qav67HlZED5rU/file

The cover photo is from a concert in Munich, Germany, in October 2008.

The Beach Boys - BBC In Concert, Mermaid Theatre, London, Britain, 9-24-2012

It seems that every musical act of reasonable popularity gets to perform for the BBC eventually. That's less so for American acts who don't make it over to Britain much, such as the Beach Boys. It seems they almost missed doing something special until decades after their heyday, when they did this concert in 2012. If it was just the Mike Love-led version of the band, bereft of nearly all original members, I wouldn't bother posting it. But in 2012, the Beach Boys had a legitimate reunion to celebrate their 50th anniversary as a band, putting out a very good new album called "That's Why God Made the Radio." So I'm posting this concert that took place shortly after the release of that album.

The Beach Boys were great for many years. But by 1997, founding brothers Dennis Wilson and Carl Wilson had died, and the band's genius songwriter Brian Wilson had long ago left the band for a solo career. Founding member Mike Love kept the band going with lots of touring, but it was a nostalgic oldies act that just played the same hits over and over again. So it was a surprise in 2012 when all surviving members of importance reunited for a new album and tour: Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, and David Marks. It was even more surprising to me when their new album of original material was so good.

Unfortunately, the reunion didn't last long. Love was making a very good living performing concerts with his version of the band, with only Johnston of the other long-time members taking part, and he wanted to get back to that without having to share the profits with the others. Plus, there were long standing tensions between Love and Wilson in particular. Despite strong demand for more albums and touring, the reunited band only did about 75 concerts. This one was the third to last one, with the reunion ending four days later. 

It's probable that the BBC edited this unreleased concert down to fit an hour-long time slot, as the BBC often does. If so, they probably cut out songs from the band's then-new album "That's Why God Made the Radio." There's only one song here from that, "Isn't It Time."

This album is an hour long.

01 talk (Beach Boys)
02 Do It Again (Beach Boys)
03 Catch a Wave (Beach Boys)
04 Surfin' Safari (Beach Boys)
05 talk (Beach Boys)
06 Please Let Me Wonder (Beach Boys)
07 Then I Kissed Her (Beach Boys)
08 talk (Beach Boys)
09 Isn't It Time (Beach Boys)
10 talk (Beach Boys)
11 Why Do Fools Fall in Love (Beach Boys)
12 Don't Worry Baby (Beach Boys)
13 talk (Beach Boys)
14 I Get Around (Beach Boys)
15 Heroes and Villains (Beach Boys)
16 God Only Knows (Beach Boys)
17 Wouldn't It Be Nice (Beach Boys)
18 California Girls (Beach Boys)
19 Good Vibrations (Beach Boys)
20 Help Me, Rhonda (Beach Boys)
21 Rock and Roll Music (Beach Boys)
22 Surfin' U.S.A. (Beach Boys)
23 Barbara Ann (Beach Boys)
24 Fun, Fun, Fun (Beach Boys)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/qXrJ8EGX

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/vzxqoETNImuOO7N/file

The cover photo isn't from this exact concert, but it's close. It's from their next concert, at the Royal Albert Hall in London, on September 27, From left to right: Brian Wilson, David Marks, Mike Love and Al Jardine.

Joan Armatrading - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: Sight and Sound, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 11-5-1977

Sigh. Yet another BBC album renumbering. Please be patient. I'm trying to get all this fixing done in one big push. In Joan Armatrading's case, I was aware of this 1977 concert, but I decided not to post it mainly because the sound quality wasn't that good. However, it turns out I had an inferior copy that also had fewer songs. I recently found a much better version, so I'm posting it after all.

The three other Armatrading BBC albums I've posted already come after this one chronologically, so they all needed to be renumbered. Here are the links for those:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/11/joan-armatrading-bbc-in-concert.html

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/04/joan-armatrading-bbc-sessions-volume-2.html

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/01/joan-armatrading-bbc-sessions-volume-3.html

I tend to think of Armatrading as someone who made it big in the 1980s, but she began performing music in public in the late 1960s, and her first album was released in 1972. In 1976, she had her first hit with "Love and Affection." It only made the singles chart in Britain. But in the U.S. she was popular enough to appear on the "Saturday Night Live" TV show in 1977. 

This unreleased concert was part of BBC's "Sight and Sound" series, which meant it was broadcast on TV. (Thus the sight as well as the sound.) I believe the first song wasn't included, as it isn't on most bootleg versions of this concert, and it makes the whole concert longer than an hour. But I did find one version with it included.

By the way, I've found a big amount of BBC concerts I'd missed recently, which as led to this spate of renumbering. In addition to this one and the ones I've already posted, I've found BBC concerts she did in 1985, 1999, and 2007. If you want me to post any and all of them, let me know. I'll do it if there's enough interest. I also found that she did no less than eight sessions with BBC DJ John Peel from 1972 to 1976. I would have liked to make an album out of that, but it seems all of that has been lost except for a couple of songs from a 1975 session and all of a 1976 session. That's not enough for an album.

This album is an hour and two minutes long.

01 talk (Joan Armatrading)
02 Help Yourself (Joan Armatrading)
03 talk (Joan Armatrading)
04 Never Is Too Late (Joan Armatrading)
05 talk (Joan Armatrading)
06 Show Some Emotion (Joan Armatrading)
07 talk (Joan Armatrading)
08 Willow (Joan Armatrading)
09 talk (Joan Armatrading)
10 Opportunity (Joan Armatrading)
11 talk (Joan Armatrading)
12 Won't You Come on Home (Joan Armatrading)
13 talk (Joan Armatrading)
14 Steppin' Out (Joan Armatrading)
15 Love and Affection (Joan Armatrading)
16 talk (Joan Armatrading)
17 Cool Blue Stole My Heart (Joan Armatrading)
18 talk (Joan Armatrading)
19 Mama Mercy (Joan Armatrading)
20 talk (Joan Armatrading)
21 Kissin' and a Huggin' (Joan Armatrading)
22 Tall in the Saddle (Joan Armatrading)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/bG8Si2F7

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/wgqR6SaxNnuX8yE/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took of the video of this exact concert. I used the Krea AI program to improve the image quality.

Various Artists - Woody Guthrie All-Star Tribute Concert, Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA, 9-12-1970

In 1967, legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie died after being bedridden with health problems for many years. In early 1968, there was a tribute concert for him in New York City. Then, in 1970, there was a second tribute concert for him in Los Angeles, which is presented here. I'm not sure why it was thought a second concert was needed, but perhaps it was for people on the West Coast. Highlights of both concerts were combined onto one album, which was released in 1972. 

Like the 1968 show, this one had spoken word recitations between many of the songs. In my opinion, the music bears many repeat listenings, but I get bored with the spoken word parts. So this is a version of just the music, exactly the same as I did with my earlier post of the 1968 concert. Decades later, both concerts were officially released in full, so this recording comes from that.

Many of the musical acts in this concert were the same as the one in the 1968. Arlo Guthrie, Richie Havens, Pete Seeger, and Odetta took part in both. However, the undoubted biggest name of the 1968 concert was Bob Dylan, and he wasn't present here. But another big star in the folk music world, Joan Baez, was only present here. That was also the case for Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Country Joe McDonald, and Earl Robinson. This concert also was half an hour longer.

If you prefer always listening to this with the spoken word recitations, you have the official album version for that. I'm just giving you a different option.

This album is an hour and 30 minutes long.

01 Oklahoma Hills (Arlo Guthrie)
02 So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh [Dusty Old Dust] (Pete Seeger & Joan Baez)
03 Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad (Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Country Joe McDonald, Pete Seeger & Arlo Guthrie)
04 Hobo's Lullaby (Joan Baez)
05 Ramblin' Round (Odetta)
06 I Ain't Got No Home (Pete Seeger & Arlo Guthrie)
07 Pretty Boy Floyd (Country Joe McDonald)
08 Nine Hundred Miles (Richie Havens)
09 Plane Wreck at Los Gatos [Deportee] (Joan Baez)
10 John Hardy (Odetta)
11 Hard Travelin' (Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Country Joe McDonald, Earl Robinson, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie & Joan Baez)
12 Vigilante Man (Richie Havens)
13 1913 Massacre (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
14 Do Re Mi (Arlo Guthrie)
15 Pastures of Plenty (Joan Baez)
16 Roll On Columbia (Earl Robinson & Pete Seeger)
17 Mail Myself to You (Earl Robinson)
18 Howdido (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
19 Woman at Home (Country Joe McDonald)
20 The Sinking of the Reuben James (Pete Seeger)
21 Jesus Christ (Arlo Guthrie)
22 I've Got to Know (Arlo Guthrie & Joan Baez)
23 This Train Is Bound for Glory (Country Joe McDonald, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez & Odetta)
24 This Land Is Your Land - So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh [Dusty Old Dust] (Everybody)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/NPeRiSD5

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/eVOGzmZgFPw3LgA/file 

The cover image is from this exact concert. From right to left, that's Richie Havens, Joan Baez, Odetta, Pete Seeger, and Arlo Guthrie. It's from the final encore. However, I had to do some Photoshop editing to get everyone to fit in with a decent size. The singers were standing with some big gaps of empty space between the microphones, so I moved them much closer together.

Status Quo - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: 1973-2005

Here's another Status Quo BBC album that I'd overlooked. This time, it's an album of studio sessions.

Boy, are these sessions spread out in time. The first three tracks come from a 1973 session hosted by BBC DJ John Peel. Tracks 4 through 7 come from a 1989 acoustic session. The remaining tracks are from a 2005. 

Status Quo did a bunch of studio sessions from 1966 to 1972, which make up Volumes 1 and 2 in this series. But it seems these are the only three sessions they did after that, even though their popularity grew quite a lot. I think a big part of that is that the BBC often switched to broadcasting concerts instead of studio sessions in the early 1970s, especially for a band like this one, which thrived in a concert setting.

All of the songs here come from the official box set "Live at the BBC." However, I had issues with the 1989 acoustic session, and I made changes to all the songs. The problem, in my eyes at least, is that the BBC DJ, Steve Wright, was one of those loud and aggressive morning DJ types, although he had an afternoon show at this time. It seems he couldn't help by try to make himself to focus on attention, loudly saying things all through the songs. So, using the UVR5 audio editing program, I tried to edit out his commentary over the music as much as possible. Sometimes I couldn't do it when he was talking while the band members were singing, but I got rid of most of it. I also got rid of the clapping and cheering, thanks to the MVSEP audio editing program. So now you can hear the actual songs being performed. If you prefer all the DJ talk, there's still the official box set version for you to have that option.

This album is 39 minutes long.

01 Paper Plane (Status Quo)
02 Softer Ride (Status Quo)
03 Don't Waste My Time (Status Quo)
04 In My Chair [Edit] (Status Quo)
05 Caroline [Edit] (Status Quo)
06 From a Jack to a King - Down the Dust Pipe [Edit] (Status Quo)
07 Railroad [Edit] (Status Quo)
08 Caroline (Status Quo)
09 The Party Ain't Over Yet (Status Quo)
10 Whatever You Want (Status Quo)
11 Belavista Man (Status Quo)
12 Rockin' All Over the World (Status Quo)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/PosJQdGo

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/4zydP2amyCMYIzi/file

The cover photo shows the band in 1978. That's Francis Rossi, Alan Lancaster, Rick Parfitt, John Cocklan, and Andy Bown.

Hall & Oates - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: Old Grey Whistle Test, Wood Lane BBC 2 TV Centre, London, Britain, 5-18-1976

Still yet another renumbering. I previously posted a 1990 Hall and Oates concert as their only BBC album. But then I discovered this one, from 1976.

The Old Grey Whistle Test was a long-running BBC TV show. Typically, they had several different musical acts on each episode, but occasionally they would devote an entire episode to just one act. This was one such time. It's a bit surprising Hall and Oates got that much attention, because they weren't that popular yet, especially in Britain. They only had one minor hit in Britain at the time, "She's Gone," which just missed hitting the Top Forty singles chart in 1976. "Sara Smile" was a big hit in the U.S. that year too, but it completely missed the singles chart in Britain. Even so, I'm surprised it wasn't performed here. (Or at least it didn't get included if the BBC edited the show down.) Most of the big hits they're known for would come later, in the early 1980s.

This performance is unreleased. I couldn't find a bootleg of this anywhere. However, I found individual videos for all the songs on YouTube. I also found a set list with the correct song order. So I put them in order and edited them to make smooth transitions between songs. 

As mentioned above, I renamed the 1990 BBC concert they did after finding this one. Here's the link for that:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/07/hall-oates-bbc-in-concert-town-and.html 

I also found a 2003 BBC concert they did, so I plan on posting that. However, they also did a BBC concert in Battersea Park, London, at some point in 1998, which I can't find. So if anyone has that, please pass it on to me so I can post it.

01 Camellia (Hall & Oates)
02 talk (Hall & Oates)
03 Lady Rain (Hall & Oates)
04 Laughing Boy (Hall & Oates)
05 I'm Just a Kid [Don't Make Me Feel like a Man] (Hall & Oates)
06 Is It a Star (Hall & Oates)
07 talk (Hall & Oates)
08 She's Gone (Hall & Oates)
09 Gino [The Manager] (Hall & Oates)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/cZZko5HQ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/BkQCz36VcVe2nBM/file 

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a YouTube video of this exact concert.

Covered: John Carter & Ken Lewis: 1963-1977

A couple of months ago (writing this in March 2025), I posted an album of BBC sessions by the British band the Ivy League. They're not that well remembered today, probably because they only stayed together a couple of years, but they had a few good hits. It turns out that the Ivy League was just one of many bands led by the songwriting team of John Carter and Ken Lewis. Here's another installment in my "Covered Series" that highlights the best song written by them.

John Carter and Ken Lewis first met each other when they were going to school together in Birmingham in the 1950s. They soon began writing songs together. In 1960, they moved to London and began trying to sell their songs, but didn't have much success at first. It turns out their vocals blended really well together, so they began focusing on singing harmony vocals. They found a lot of work doing backing vocals for other musical acts in Britain. For instance, that's them singing most of the backing vocals on "I Can't Explain" by the Who. They formed the band the Ivy League with a third person, Perry Ford, as another way to get their music to the public.

They had their first really big break in 1964, when the Herman's Hermits took their song "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat" all the way to Number Two in the U.S. In 1965, their own band the Ivy League had two Top Ten hits in Britain with "Funny How Love Can Be" and "Tossing and Turning." 

However, Carter and Lewis were mainly interested in songwriting and recording in the studio. Carter left the Ivy League in early 1966 and Lewis left in early 1967. In addition to giving songs to existing musical acts, they started making up their own groups. For instance, they created the band the Flower Pot Men, and had a big hit with their song "Let's Go to San Francisco." Suddenly, they needed an actual band to go on the road to promote the song, so they picked out a bunch of other studio musicians to perform in concerts. The same thing happened with the song "White Collar Worker," supposedly by the band the Ministry of Sound. In fact, the song was sung by Carter, and backed by studio musicians.

This process repeated itself a lot. Other supposed bands like Stamford Bridge, Scarecrow, and Stormy Petrel were really just Carter and/or Lewis plus backing musicians. Carter also sang lead vocals on "Winchester Cathedral," by the New Vaudeville Band, which hit Number One in the U.S. in 1966. That isn't included here, however, since it was written by someone else (Geoff Stephens). Once again, the supposed band for that song didn't actually exist, and a band was quickly put together to promote the song once it became a huge hit.

The hits became less frequent as the 1960s turned into the 1970s and musical styles were changing. Lewis broke up the songwriting partnership in 1971. Suffering from depression, he quit the music business entirely.

However, "Beach Baby" was a big hit for Carter in 1974, reaching Number Four on the singles chart in the U.S., and doing similarly well in other countries. Carter cowrote that with his wife Jill Shakespeare. Once again, the supposed group behind the song, First Class, didn't actually exist at first, but a band was created once there was demand for concert appearances.

To be honest, I don't even know how many of the songs here are actually sung by Carter and/or Lewis, since they used so many pseudonyms. But a bunch of them are like that, for sure. For instance, "Starbreaker" could be another fake band. They probably sing some backing vocals on some others as well.

Lewis spent the rest of his life in a very low key way in the English countryside. Apparently, he lived simply off songwriting royalties and traveled the world a lot. He died in 2015 at the age of 74. 

Carter, by contrast, never really left the music business. As the hits dried up in the mid-1970s, he morphed into writing jingles for commercials. He also concentrated more on producing and business aspects for the music industry. He is still alive as I write this in 2025.

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

01 That's What I Want (Marauders)
02 Is It True (Brenda Lee)
03 Sweet and Tender Romance (McKinleys)
04 Funny How Love Can Be (Ivy League)
05 Can't You Hear My Heartbeat (Herman's Hermits)
06 That's Why I'm Crying (Ivy League)
07 White Collar Worker (Ministry of Sound)
08 Tossing and Turning (Ivy League)
09 Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James (Manfred Mann)
10 Little Bit O'Soul (Music Explosion)
11 Let's Go to San Francisco (Flower Pot Men)
12 Time and Motion Man (Episode Six)
13 My World Fell Down (Sagittarius with Glen Campbell)
14 Sunshine Girl (Herman's Hermits)
15 Letter to Josephine (Haystack)
16 My Sentimental Friend (Herman's Hermits)
17 Knock, Knock, Who's There (Mary Hopkin)
18 I Want to Be Where You Are (Scarecrow)
19 Hello Hello Hello (Stormy Petrel)
20 Dreams Are Ten a Penny (Kincade)
21 Beach Baby (First Class)
22 Sound of Summer (Starbreaker)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/qhYRW65o

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/EbujOmzWfP5R1J9/file

There are very few good photos of Carter or Lewis. Most of what I could find were from the Ivy League era, and even then they were almost always wearing sunglasses. I found separate black and white photos of them and put them together. Then I colorized them using the Palette program. After that, I used the Krea AI program to improve the image quality. Carter is the one wearing sunglasses.

UB40 - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: Rock Goes to College, Keele University, Keele, Britain, 11-25-1980

Here's another UB40 BBC album. It's a concert from 1980. Once again, I'm renumbering and reorganizing. (Sigh!) So I'm posting this concert from 1980 despite having already posted three from after this.

You can thank the music blog Voodoo Wagon for this one. After I posted a 1985 UB40 BBC concert, the person behind that blog pointed out that I'd missed this concert. I looked into it and saw that I'd known about this concert some time ago, but I'd decided against posting it mainly due to sound quality issues. But thanks to technological advances with audio editing in recent years, I decided to give it another try. 

The first thing I did was combine two recordings together. The BBC broadcast this twice, in different forms. First was a broadcast called "Rock Goes to College." Then, over a year later, there was another one called "BBC College Concert." The first one had "King" and "Little by Little," but not "My Way of Thinking," "Burden of Shame," "Madam Medusa," and "Wildcat." So I did my best to put them all together, although I had to guess at the song order in some cases. Both versions had one song before some introductory comments by BBC DJ Richard Skinner, but different songs, so I ended up having two songs before those comments.

Then I tackled sound quality issues. First, I ran all the songs through the MVSEP program. There was a constant crowd noise through some songs, though not others. I got rid of that wherever I could find it, while leaving crowd noise between songs and of course cheering at the ends of songs. Then I ran all the songs through the UVR5 program to properly balance the lead vocals compared to the instruments. It turns out that was poorly mixed for all the songs, often being really low in the mix. The end result is I think this sounds noticeably better than before. 

Another problem is the first song, "King," began partway through the song, missing the first two minutes or so, roughly up until the vocals began. So I used the version I included in "Volume 1" of this series to fill in the missing section. I added a little crowd noise at the start to get that to better fit in, since I actually used a BBC studio session version. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in its title.

The music here remains officially unreleased. However, there's another UB40 BBC concert, from June 1981, that can be found on the deluxe edition of the band's album "Present Arms." I've decided not to include that one in this series since it is officially released, and the song list is pretty similar to this one, seeing as it took place only about six months later.

This album is an hour long.

01 King [Edit] (UB40)
02 My Way of Thinking (UB40)
03 talk by Pete Drummond (UB40)
04 Strange Fruit (UB40)
05 talk (UB40)
06 The Earth Dies Screaming (UB40)
07 talk (UB40)
08 Little by Little (UB40)
09 Burden of Shame (UB40)
10 talk (UB40)
11 I Think It's Going to Rain Today (UB40)
12 talk (UB40)
13 Tyler (UB40)
14 Food for Thought (UB40)
15 talk (UB40)
16 Madam Medusa (UB40)
17 talk (UB40)
18 Wildcat [Instrumental] (UB40)
19 talk (UB40)
20 Signing Off (UB40)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oXE1XvEC

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/nx0pKDl9uIxiQaP/file

The cover shows lead singer Ali Campbell in concert somewhere in London in September 1980.

BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Cambridge Junction, Cambridge, Britain, 9-6-1993

Here is the second, and seemingly last, BBC album from Maria McKee. It's a 1993 concert. I say "seemingly last" because I can't find any others and as I write this in 2025 it appears McKee has more or less wound down her musical career.

My favorite McKee album is "You Gotta Sin to Get Saved." That was released in June 1993, just a few months prior to this concert. So naturally she played a lot of songs from that. Though she did songs from earlier albums as well, including from when she was a part of the band Lone Justice in the 1980s.

Everything from this concert has been officially released on the album "Live at the BBC." About half of that comes from a 1991 concert, and the rest comes from this concert. With the 1991 concert, I was able to find the rest of the concert in decent quality. But I don't know if there was more to this concert, and I haven't found any signs of a bootleg of it.

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 East of Eden (Maria McKee)
02 I Can't Make It Alone (Maria McKee)
03 My Lonely Sad Eyes (Maria McKee)
04 I Forgive You (Maria McKee)
05 My Girlhood Among the Outlaws (Maria McKee)
06 This Property Is Condemned (Maria McKee)
07 Breathe (Maria McKee)
08 Nobody's Child (Maria McKee)
09 The Way Young Lovers Do (Maria McKee)
10 Why Wasn't I More Grateful [When Life Was Sweet] (Maria McKee)
11 You Gotta Sin to Be Saved (Maria McKee)
12 You Are the Light (Maria McKee)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/avirHyiV

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/a7WIehQ2swfuCyS/file

The cover photo is from an appearance on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" TV show in July 1993.

Various Artists - Folk America at the Barbican - Greenwich Village Revisited, Barbican Theatre, London, Britain, 2-13-2009

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I've been finding a lot of new BBC related music lately, as I keep searching for things for my big BBC project. I recently stumbled across this. It seems that in 2009, singer-songwriter Billy Bragg hosted a TV series about American folk music. The final episode (the fourth, I think) was this concert, which starred some of the most important singers from the 1960s folk movement. As you can tell from the subtitle, "Greenwich Village Revisited," there was a particular emphasis in picking people from the influential Greenwich Village scene in New York City. In addition to Bragg, a Briton who first got famous in the 1980s, the concert starred Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, Carolyn Hester, Eric Andersen, and Judy Collins.

The entire concert was acoustic in nature, which was fitting, given the folk music they were paying tribute to. Each singer got to sing two or three songs (actually four in the case of McGuinn), and then they all came together at the end to do "Amazing Grace" as an encore.

If you like this type of music, this is a really nice concert. I believe it's unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 I Ain't Got No Home (Billy Bragg)
02 talk (Billy Bragg)
03 My Back Pages (Roger McGuinn)
04 talk (Roger McGuinn)
05 Oh Freedom (Roger McGuinn)
06 talk (Roger McGuinn)
07 Eight Miles High (Roger McGuinn)
08 talk (Roger McGuinn)
09 Turn, Turn, Turn [To Everything There Is a Season] (Roger McGuinn)
10 talk (Billy Bragg)
11 talk (Carolyn Hester)
12 The Last Thing on My Mind (Carolyn Hester)
13 talk (Carolyn Hester)
14 The House of the Rising Sun (Carolyn Hester)
15 talk (Billy Bragg)
16 I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night (Billy Bragg)
17 talk (Billy Bragg)
18 Violets of Dawn (Eric Andersen)
19 talk (Eric Andersen & Roger McGuinn)
20 Thirsty Boots (Eric Andersen with Roger McGuinn)
21 talk (Billy Bragg)
22 Both Sides Now (Judy Collins)
23 talk (Judy Collins)
24 Anathea (Judy Collins)
25 Someday Soon (Judy Collins)
26 talk (Judy Collins)
27 Amazing Grace (Judy Collins & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/MsBkvi6j

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/kYDFYTvdQgOVFwe/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. However, I did a lot of manipulation in Photoshop to get it just as I wanted it. I started with a screenshot taken during the final song. But the image quality was very low-res. So I then took screenshots of the heads of each of the people in the image. I pasted those in for higher quality. I then ran the resulting image through the Krea AI program to iron out the kinks from having this really made out of six images. That helped. But then I did it again, and that helped some more.

Status Quo - In Concert, Paris Theatre, London, Britain, 3-1-1973

As I think I've mentioned previously, I'm not that much of a Statuo Quo fan. However, now that I'm being more generous in posting BBC albums from other artists, I figure I should be more generous to this band too. I know lots of people are fans, especially in Britain. So here's a BBC concert they did in 1973.

In the late 1960s, Status Quo had some success as with psychedelic music. Then musical tastes changed, and it took time for them to regain their footing. But in 1972, they released the studio album "Piledriver," cementing their new boogie shuffle sound. One song from it, "Paper Plane," was a Top Ten hit in Britain, their first one there since 1968. Although this concert took place in 1973, it was only a few months since the release of that album in late 1972.

This entire concert has been officially released on the huge box set "Live at the BBC." The sound quality is excellent.

Note that I have a new "Volume 4" to post as well. That means a 1988 BBC concert, previously "Volume 3," is now being renamed "Volume 5."

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 Junior's Wailing (Status Quo)
02 Someone's Learning (Status Quo)
03 talk (Status Quo)
04 In My Chair (Status Quo)
05 talk (Status Quo)
06 Railroad (Status Quo)
07 talk (Status Quo)
08 Don't Waste My Time (Status Quo)
09 talk (Status Quo)
10 Paper Plane (Status Quo)
11 Roadhouse Blues (Status Quo)
12 Bye Bye Johnny (Status Quo)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/mkA435z8

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/dmTAbpPFn9g1WWT/file

The cover photo shows band member Rick Parfitt, at some concert in 1973. I was looking for a photo of the entire band from that year, but I couldn't find much. However, I thought this one looked pretty neat, so I went with it.

Annie Lennox - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: BBC One Sessions, St. Luke's, London, Britain, 3-7-2009

A while back, I was looking for a good BBC concert from the Eurythmics. At the time, I didn't find one, but I found one from that band's lead singer, Annie Lennox, so I posted that. I since have discovered a lot more stuff. I've found three Eurythimcs BBC concerts. I've also found another from Lennox solo, so I'm posting that first.

The unique feature of this concert is that Lennox is backed by an orchestra. 

Lennox had a very successful solo career after the Eurythmics broke up around the end of the 1980s. Around the time of this concert, she released a greatest hits album called "The Annie Lennox Collection." It featured two new songs, and one of them, "Shining Light," was performed here. Other than that, she stuck to playing her most famous songs from the Eurythmics as well as her solo career to that point.

Oh, by the way, as you'd expect by now, I've renamed that earlier Lennox BBC concert mentioned above, adding "Volume 1" to the title. If you want the updated version, here's the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/12/annie-lennox-bbc-in-concert-riverside.html

This album is 57 minutes long.

01 Little Bird (Annie Lennox)
02 Walking on Broken Glass (Annie Lennox)
03 No More 'I Love You's' (Annie Lennox)
04 There Must Be an Angel [Playing with My Heart] (Annie Lennox)
05 Here Comes the Rain Again (Annie Lennox)
06 Cold (Annie Lennox)
07 talk (Annie Lennox)
08 A Thousand Beautiful Things (Annie Lennox)
09 Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves (Annie Lennox)
10 Ghosts in My Machine (Annie Lennox)
11 When Tomorrow Comes (Annie Lennox)
12 Shining Light (Annie Lennox)
13 Why (Annie Lennox)
14 Sweet Dreams [Are Made of This] (Annie Lennox)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/xZD9DiQm

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/OunDLZXOsP9bTWw/file

The cover photo is a screenshot taken from this exact concert.

Mary Chapin Carpenter - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, London, Britain, 11-3-1999

Here's another BBC concert from Mary Chapin Carpenter. This one is from 1999.

I previously posted a BBC concert she did in 1994. I recently have discovered some more. I found one from 1993, but I decided not to post it, because I've posted a 1993 concert she did in Glasgow that is almost exactly the same, except with more songs, more banter, and slightly better sound quality. It took place only two days apart. I've also discovered this one, and two more one from later years that I plan to post soon.

This concert took place after Carpenter released the album "Party Doll and Other Favorites." It's kind of an odd duck, because it's a mix of new songs, rare songs, and alternate versions of previous hits. A couple of the songs here, like "Party Doll" and "Almost Home," were new songs from that album. She also performed a funny original song she's never released, "If I Were a Diva."

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 The Hard Way (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
02 Shut Up and Kiss Me (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
03 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
04 Almost Home (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
05 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
06 Stones in the Road (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
07 I Feel Lucky (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
08 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
09 It Works (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
10 Friend to Me (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
11 Party Doll (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
12 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
13 If I Were a Diva (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
14 My Love Will Not Let You Down (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
15 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
16 Why Walk When You Can Fly (Mary Chapin Carpenter)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/7TvuAPWA

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/OUXi5muvDFJJm7H/file

The cover photo is from a concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London in June 2001.

UB40 - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1979-1983

A couple of days ago, I posted a UB40 BBC concert from 1985. At first, I called this "BBC Sessions, Volume 3." But then, after just a few hours, I saw a commenter talk about a 1980 BBC concert by the band that I'd missed. I went to go find it, and stumbled upon more early material. So I immediately changed that 1985 concert to "Volume 5." Now I'm getting around to fill in the missing two early volumes. This first one contains just BBC studio sessions.

The British reggae band UB40 was formed in late 1978. They quickly found success. By the end of 1979, they did their first BBC studio session, for famed BBC DJ John Peel. That session makes up the first three songs. The next two are from 1980 session. The four after that are from a 1981 session. The four after that are from a 1982 session. Finally, the last three are from a 1983. I couldn't find any more BBC studio sessions after that.

All but five of the performances here have been officially released. They come from various deluxe editions of the studio albums of that era. The exceptions are the four 1982 songs from an unreleased John Peel session (tracks 10 to 13), plus track 15, from a 1983 session. For some reason two other songs from that session got released, but that one got overlooked.

This album is an hour and seven minutes long.

01 Food for Thought (UB40)
02 25 Percent [Instrumental] (UB40)
03 King (UB40)
04 I Think It’s Going to Rain Today (UB40)
05 My Way of Thinking (UB40)
06 One in Ten (UB40)
07 Present Arms (UB40)
08 Silent Witness (UB40)
09 Sardonicus (UB40)
10 I Won't Close My Eyes (UB40)
11 Love Is All Is All Right (UB40)
12 Folitician (UB40)
13 Prince Baldhead Meets Gymslip and the School Girls at the Chemist (UB40)
14 Red Red Wine (UB40)
15 Nkomo-a-Go-Go [Instrumental] (UB40)
16 Please Don't Make Me Cry (UB40)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/cSpbh1RC

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/fQ7kuAhpVtrO3LL/file

The cover photo of the band was taken somewhere in Germany in 1982.

Bob Dylan - Rothbury Music Festival, Double JJ Ranch, Rothbury, MI, 7-5-2009

Last month (writing this in February 2025), I posted an excellent sounding Bob Dylan concert from 2001. Here's another excellent one, from 2009.

Both the 2001 and 2009 recordings are bootlegs on an unusual kind: they are examples of Assisted Listening Device (ADL) recordings. These are usually special feeds at concerts to help people who have hearing trouble. Every now and then, these recordings make it onto bootlegs. The ones I heard generally sound great, but they almost always have pristine sound of what was happening on stage, and very little crowd noise. It makes for a strange listen, as if the performer was playing to a bored audience that could barely be bothered to cheer.

Thankfully, these days, there are many ways to edit sound files. So I did to this concert recording what I did to the 2001: I split the crowd noise from everything else (using the MVSEP program), greatly boosted the cheering, the put the cheering back with the rest. Now, it sounds like a typical high quality soundboard boot. And that's extremely unusual for a Dylan concert from this era. There are lots of soundboard boots from earlier phases of his career. But from about 2000 onwards, there are basically none. The only exceptions I know of are these two ADL recordings from the 2001 concert and this one.

Dylan has had a late career renaissance, with many of his more recent album being both critically acclaimed and selling well. This concert took place a few months after the release of his studio album "Together Through Life," which was another winner, even reaching Number One on the album charts in some countries. Weirdly, he only performed one song from that album, "Jolene." But he played four from the previous album, "Modern Times" ("Rollin' and Tumblin," "Nettie Moore," "Spirit on the Water," and "Thunder on the Mountain"), and well as songs from other more recent albums like "Love and Theft" and "Time Out of Mind."

This album is one hour and 46 minutes long.

01 talk (Bob Dylan)
02 Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat (Bob Dylan)
03 Senor [Tales of Yankee Power] (Bob Dylan)
04 Tangled Up in Blue (Bob Dylan)
05 Rollin' and Tumblin' (Bob Dylan)
06 Spirit on the Water (Bob Dylan)
07 High Water [For Charley Patton] (Bob Dylan)
08 'Til I Fell in Love with You (Bob Dylan)
09 Po' Boy (Bob Dylan)
10 Highway 61 Revisited (Bob Dylan)
11 Ballad of a Thin Man (Bob Dylan)
12 Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again (Bob Dylan)
13 Nettie Moore (Bob Dylan)
14 Thunder on the Mountain (Bob Dylan)
15 Like a Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan)
16 Jolene (Bob Dylan)
17 All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan)
18 talk (Bob Dylan)
19 Blowin' in the Wind (Bob Dylan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/LGeWVRGo

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/B5HObNIxaDkwCTV/file

The cover photo comes from this exact concert.

Jimmy Webb - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Arts Theatre, Belfast, Britain, 3-22-1998

Jimmy Webb is a great songwriter. He's written many hits for others. I've documented this by posting two volumes of people covering his songs as part of my "Covered" series. But he's never had a hit of his own, despite being a fine singer and performer, and his many solo albums haven't gotten a lot of attention. A big reason for that is that he's generally given his best songs for others to covers, and rarely even did his own versions on his albums. But in the late 1990s, he did some tours in which he mostly did his most famous songs in acoustic mode. This BBC recording documents one such concert.

Note that in 1996, Webb released the studio album "Ten Easy Pieces," in which he finally performed many of those hits he wrote for others, but in an acoustic mode. So this concert is fairly similar to that album, as it seems he was still promoting it over a year after it was released. But about half the songs here are different, plus there's a big difference between a studio album and a live one, especially the banter between songs. 

Note that I previously posted a BBC concert he did in 1971. Now that I have a second one with this one, I've just renamed that earlier one "Volume 1." Here's the link it you want to get the updated version, which includes an improved cover image:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/06/jimmy-webb-bbc-in-concert-london.html

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 Shattered (Jimmy Webb)
02 talk (Jimmy Webb)
03 The Highwayman (Jimmy Webb)
04 talk (Jimmy Webb)
05 Galveston (Jimmy Webb)
06 talk (Jimmy Webb)
07 By the Time I Get to Phoenix (Jimmy Webb)
08 talk (Jimmy Webb)
09 All I Know (Jimmy Webb)
10 talk (Jimmy Webb)
11 Didn't We (Jimmy Webb)
12 talk (Jimmy Webb)
13 Nobody Likes to Hear a Rich Boy Sing the Blues (Jimmy Webb)
14 Wichita Lineman (Jimmy Webb)
15 talk (Jimmy Webb)
16 MacArthur Park (Jimmy Webb)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/HmuzrEwW

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/PLHvMs2s3qjGQCu/file

The cover photo is from a concert at the Jazz Cafe, wherever that is, in 1998. I improved it somewhat with the help of the Krea AI program.

Paul Carrack - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: Friday Night Is Music Night, LSO St. Luke's, London, Britain, 5-15-2009

Here's a second Paul Carrack BBC album, from 2009. Like the first one, it's a concert. But this is an unusual concert for Carrack because he's backed by an orchestra.

As I mentioned with my write-up for the first volume, Carrack has worn many hats in his long music career, being the lead singers for the bands Ace, Squeeze, and Mike + the Mechanics at different times, as well as having a lengthy solo career.

Carrack's time as one of the lead singers for Mike + the Mechanics ended around 2005, and his solo career hit albums and singles had petered out by this time. But he still had a rich back catalog to draw on here, which is what he mostly did, performing songs by Ace, Squeeze, and especially Mike + the Mechanics. The lead single from his latest album, "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City," was performed here, but it's actually a cover of a 1970s hit song by Bobby "Blue" Bland. 

This album is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 talk (Paul Carrack)
02 How Long (Paul Carrack)
03 talk (Paul Carrack)
04 Another Cup of Coffee (Paul Carrack)
05 talk (Paul Carrack)
06 I Don’'t Want to Hear Any More (Paul Carrack)
07 talk (Paul Carrack)
08 Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City (Paul Carrack)
09 Eyes of Blue (Paul Carrack)
10 talk (Paul Carrack)
11 The Living Years (Paul Carrack)
12 talk (Paul Carrack)
13 Tempted (Paul Carrack)
14 talk (Paul Carrack)
15 I Don'’t Want Your Love, I Need Your Love (Paul Carrack)
16 talk (Paul Carrack)
17 Over My Shoulder (Paul Carrack)
18 talk (Paul Carrack)
19 No Doubt about It (Paul Carrack)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/h3Q7rdou

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/KM7GiNKZAEwwnM6/file

The cover photo is from a concert on October 25, 2009.

Van Morrison - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: One Irish Rover, Barbican Centre, London, Britain, 2-19-1990

Here's another BBC album performed by Van Morrison. This time, it's another concert, though note it's a short one.

For the last album in this series, I used material from a 1991 BBC documentary about Morrison called "One Irish Rover." That was made up of music from several different sources, which includes this concert. But only about half of the music here actually made it to that documentary. Luckily though, a bootleg exists of more. So, unlike "Volume 4," everything here has soundboard-level sound quality. It is a fairly short concert though, at less than an hour. I'm not sure if that's because the boot is incomplete or if it was just a short concert.

 The interesting thing about this concert is that Morrison was backed by a full orchestra, specifically the Danish Radio Big Band. So, like the concert for "Volume 4," which was a short concert filmed expressly for the BBC documentary, this too could have been put on mainly to be filmed for the documentary in order to have some songs with an orchestra. But Morrison's usual band at the time was also on hand, including keyboardist Georgie Fame. He can be heard occasionally on call and response vocals.

The "Volume 4" concert I've been mentioning took place in late 1989. This one took place in early 1990. However, no new album had been released in the meantime. His next studio album, "Enlightenment," wouldn't be released until late 1990. None of the songs here were from that. However, three of them, the last three here, were from his 1989 album "Avalon Sunset."

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 talk (Van Morrison)
02 I Will Be There (Van Morrison)
03 Here Comes the Knight (Van Morrison)
04 Haunts of Ancient Peace (Van Morrison)
05 Celtic Swing (Van Morrison)
06 Got to Go Back (Van Morrison)
07 A New Kind of Man (Van Morrison)
08 Listen to the Lion (Van Morrison)
09 Vanlose Stairway (Van Morrison)
10 I'd Love to Write Another Song (Van Morrison)
11 Orangefield (Van Morrison)
12 Whenever God Shines His Light (Van Morrison)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GJgjHpis

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/3ctkoRwuY2Qq1Kp/file

The cover photo is taken from a screenshot of the "One Irish Rover" video. I ran it through the Krea AI program to improve the details.

Alison Moyet - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Town and Country Club, London, Britain, 7-17-1991

Here's another Alison Moyet BBC concert album from 1991.

I posted a 1984 Moyet BBC concert back in 2022. Since there was just the one, that didn't have "BBC Sessions, Volume 1" in the name. But at the same time I'm posting this one, I'm making that "Volume 1." It seems Moyet hasn't toured that much, and live bootlegs from her are very rare, so I highly suspect there won't be a "Volume 3."

Moyet isn't very well known in the U.S., but she's had a lot more success in Britain. In 1991, she released the album "Hoodoo," which just about reached the Top Ten in Britain, but didn't even make the Top 100 in the U.S. This concert was naturally was part of a tour to promote that album.

The changes are good this was edited down from a longer concert by the BBC. So maybe that's why it didn't include her three big Top Ten hits since the 1984 concert I previously posted: "Is This Love," "Weak in the Presence of Beauty," and "Love Letters." However, it does include a nice version of the Aretha Franklin classic, "Chain of Fools," which Moyet had not yet released on album at the time.

I got very lucky with this recording. Most of it is unreleased. And the version I found started in the middle of the first song, "It Won't Be Long." But it turns out five songs from it were included as bonus tracks to a deluxe edition of the "Hoodoo" album, and one of them happened to be that song. So I used that version instead of the incomplete one I had.

Here's the link to the now renamed 1984 BBC concert mentioned above:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/11/alison-moyet-bbc-in-concert-dominion.html

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 It Won't Be Long (Alison Moyet)
02 Ordinary Girl (Alison Moyet)
03 Only You (Alison Moyet)
04 Hoodoo (Alison Moyet)
05 talk (Alison Moyet)
06 Rise (Alison Moyet)
07 talk (Alison Moyet)
08 Wishing You Were Here (Alison Moyet)
09 Never Too Late (Alison Moyet)
10 Chain of Fools (Alison Moyet)
11 Find Me (Alison Moyet)
12 talk (Alison Moyet)
13 [Meeting with My] Main Man (Alison Moyet)
14 talk (Alison Moyet)
15 Ne Me Quittez Pas (Alison Moyet)
16 Without You (Alison Moyet)
17 Don't Go (Alison Moyet)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/5yuKbNRd

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/E9NhyvXWVLNzNsW/file

All I know about the cover photo is that it is said to date to 1991.