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.

Various Artists - Prince's Trust Rock Gala, Wembley Arena, London, Britain, 6-5-1987

I just posted the Prince's Trust concert from 1986. This is the 1987 concert. It's the same basic idea, but many of the songs and performers are different. Both are very worthwhile listens.

Like the 1986 concert, this one started with some newer musical acts. With the benefit of hindsight, some were good choices, and others... not so much (cough cough, Curiosity Killed the Cat and Go West, cough cough). But if you don't like all the artists, that's okay, because none of the first few acts lasted more than a single song.

There were fewer big name artists in this concert than the 1986 one. Plus, the entire concert was about half an hour shorter. (If, in fact, this is the whole thing - I'm not entirely sure.) But on the other hand, the finale was probably even more impressive. I'll get to that in a minute.

First though, I want to point out that, like the 1986 concert, for many of the songs, there was a backing band made up of many stars. I don't know which songs exactly, because I can't find the full video of this concert on YouTube. But, for instance, when Ben E. King sang his song, his backing band included Phil Collins on drums, Midge Ure on rhythm guitar, and Eric Clapton on lead guitar.

But the big deal was the finale. In the 1986, the biggest star was ex-Beatle Paul McCartney. But the 1987 concert outdid that by having two ex-Beatles performing together: George Harrison and Ringo Starr! Harrison's appearance was a particularly big deal because he hadn't performed in concert since his 1974 tour (other than a couple of brief appearances in the finales of other artist's concerts). 

I randomly stumbled across a description of the concert's finale in a 2015 article in Guitar World Magazine. Here it is:

"On June 5, 1987, three of the five original musicians who appeared on the classic Beatles 'White Album' track 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' reunited to perform the song live at the Prince's Trust Rock Gala in London's Wembley Arena. George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Eric Clapton were joined in an all-star U.K. band, including Elton John, Phil Collins, Jeff Lynne, Ray Cooper, and... well, if you're wondering who that understandably happy bassist is, it's Mark King from Level 42. Harrison, Starr, and Clapton last performed the song live 16 years earlier at the Concert for Bangladesh in New York City. What most interesting about this performance is the fact that A., the normally Strat-happy Clapton is playing a beautiful Gibson Les Paul, just as he did on the original 1968 recording, and B., the also-Strat-happy Harrison joins Clapton in the extended guitar solo at the end of the song. The two guitarists trade solos and feed off each other's energy, and their intertwining lines are often pretty damn cool."

In addition to that, someone, I'm guessing Clapton, played a guitar solo for "With a Little Help from My Friends," a song that normally lacked any solo. It's a shame that Jeff Lynne apparently didn't sing any of his Electric Light Orchestra hits. But he sang backing vocals on all three of the Beatles songs at the end. Given that Lynne is a huge Beatles fan, this must have been the closest he ever got to a fantasy of being a part of the Beatles, getting to sing with Harrison and Starr, with Clapton on guitar for good measure!

This album is an hour and 45 minutes long.

01 Running in the Family (Level 42 with Eric Clapton)
02 If I Was (Midge Ure)
03 Misfit (Curiosity Killed the Cat)
04 Don't Look Down (Go West)
05 Invisible (Alison Moyet)
06 Through the Barricades (Spandau Ballet)
07 So Strong (Labi Siffre)
08 Run to You (Bryan Adams)
09 Hearts on Fire (Bryan Adams)
10 Somebody (Bryan Adams)
11 talk (Dave Edmunds & Bryan Adams)
12 The Wanderer (Dave Edmunds & Bryan Adams)
13 talk (Eric Clapton)
14 Wonderful Tonight (Eric Clapton)
15 Behind the Mask (Eric Clapton)
16 Stand by Me (Ben E. King)
17 talk (Phil Collins)
18 Reach Out, I'll Be There - I Can't Help Myself - Same Old Song (Phil Collins & Paul Young)
19 You've Lost That Loving Feeling (Phil Collins & Paul Young)
20 talk (Elton John)
21 Your Song (Elton John)
22 Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting (Elton John)
23 talk (George Harrison & Ringo Starr)
24 While My Guitar Gently Weeps (George Harrison & Eric Clapton with Ringo Starr & Jeff Lynne)
25 Here Comes the Sun (George Harrison with Ringo Starr & Jeff Lynne)
26 With a Little Help from My Friends (Ringo Starr with George Harrison, Eric Clapton & Jeff Lynne)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/W4HtwzDd

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/6mOchiVwGJ0ZR4P/file

I searched the Internet pretty thoroughly for a color version of the group photo from this concert. All I could find was a black and white version. I tinted it blue. If anyone can find the color version, please let me know so I can upgrade this. There are way too many people in the photo for me to try to make a colorized version.

Live Aid - Wembley Stadium, London, Britain, 7-13-1985, Part 3: Howard Jones, Bryan Ferry, Paul Young with Alison Moyet, and U2

This is the third out of five parts of the London portion of Live Aid. I've previously posted all of the Philadelphia portion.

The first act in this set is Howard Jones. Unfortunately for him, he was only allowed one song. The song he chose, "Hide and Seek," was a hit in Britain, but he had five bigger hits at the time that he didn't get to perform.

Bryan Ferry was next. He'd alternated between being lead singer for the band Roxy Music and doing his own projects since the early 1970s. But Roxy Music broke up in 1983. Ferry's solo album "Boys and Girls" hit Number One in the British charts the month before this concert. Note that the lead guitarist in his band for his entire set was David Gilmour, formerly of Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd also broke up in 1983, and the band members were too upset with each other to reunite for Live Aid. So presumably this was how Gilmour found a way to take part. Pink Floyd lead singer Roger Waters attended the concert back stage, but wasn't considered popular enough as a solo act to get a performance slot.

Singer Paul Young was next. Like some other acts, such as Howard Jones and Nik Kershaw, his popularity seemed to peak right around the time of Live Aid. He'd had two massive albums in Britain in 1983 and 1985, but his popularity would go into decline after that. Apparently, Alison Moyet wasn't famous enough to get her own time slot, but she did perform a duet with Young.

The final act in this part of the concert was U2. Their set was widely considered one of the highlights of Live Aid, along with Queen's set. Proof of this could be seen in the fact that all of their albums available at the time went back into the charts following the concert. They only played two songs. That's because they were given a fifteen minute time slot, and their second song, "Bad," went on for 13 minutes. They were supposed to finish with the song "Pride (In the Name of Love)," but they got the hook before they could play it. 

However, they made the most of their time, especially with the song "Bad." Although it was just one song, it contained snippets of the classic songs "Satellite of Love," "Ruby Tuesday," "Sympathy for the Devil," and "Walk on the Wild Side." In addition, during the song, apparently lead singer Bono saw a girl in the crowd who was getting crushed by the people around her. He tried to motion for the security staff to help her, but nobody did. So he left the stage, grabbed the girl, and pulled her to the stage. He then danced with her a little while. She later credited him with saving her life. That may be an exaggeration, but it was a dramatic gesture just the same, and made a big impression on the audience.

This album is an hour and two minutes long.

051 talk (Andy Peebles)
052 talk (Howard Jones)
053 Hide and Seek (Howard Jones)
054 talk (Andy Peebles)
055 Sensation (Bryan Ferry)
056 Boys and Girls (Bryan Ferry)
057 Slave to Love (Bryan Ferry)
058 Jealous Guy (Bryan Ferry)
059 talk (Andy Peebles)
060 talk (Paul Young)
061 Do They Know It's Christmas (Paul Young)
062 Come Back and Stay (Paul Young)
063 talk (Paul Young)
064 That's the Way Love Is (Paul Young & Alison Moyet)
065 talk (Paul Young)
066 Everytime You Go Away (Paul Young)
067 talk (Tommy Vance)
068 Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2)
069 Bad (U2)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15748935/LveAidJFKStdiumLondnPA__7-13-1985_Part3.zip.html

As usual with this series, I divided the cover into four sections so I could feature four of the musical acts. That's Howard Jones on the top left, Bryan Ferry on the top right, Alison Moyet and Paul Young on the bottom left, and Bono of U2 on the bottom right.

Alison Moyet - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: In Concert, Dominion Theatre, London, Britain, 11-25-1984

I have to admit that I have yet to fully investigate Alison Moyet's career. I'm basically just familiar with the hits. But I know that she's a very talented British singer who also has written many of her own songs. Even about half of the songs she did with her first band, Yaz (or Yazoo, as it's known in Britain) were written by her.

Probably the reason I'm not more familiar with her songs is that I'm an American, and while she's sold many millions of records in Britain, her career hasn't made much of a dent in the US. People do tend to know a few of her songs with Yaz, since they're everywhere, like "Only You" and "Don't Go," showing up in tons of TV shows and movies. But I suppose most people don't know that she's the singer of them. But her debut solo album "Alf" was arguably an even higher commercial peak for her. That album hit Number One on the British charts, and went on to sell at least three million copies worldwide.

This BBC concert took place a couple of weeks after "Alf" was released. Not surprisingly, it contains the best songs from that album, as well as a few of her biggest hits from Yaz, which broke up the year before. She also did a couple of Motown covers that she's never put on album, "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted" and "That's the Way Love Is." She also did a Billie Holliday song from the 1940s, "That Ole Devil Called Love." At the time of this concert, it was unreleased too. But she would release it as a single in 1985 and it would go all the way to Number Two on the British charts.

I just read the Wikipedia page for her "Alf" album. One thing you'll see mentioned a lot there is that although critics generally considered it a strong album, they had issues with the production. (There's so much bad production in the 1980s!) With this concert, you get all of her best songs up until that point, without most of the production problems, with some fun covers thrown in to boot.

This album is 57 minutes long.

UPDATE: On February 25, 2025, I updated the download file. The music is exactly the same, but I renamed the album, adding the "Volume 1" part after I found a "Volume 2." I then had to update the cover art and mp3 tags.

01 Love Resurrection (Alison Moyet)
02 Honey for the Bees (Alison Moyet)
03 Invisible (Alison Moyet)
04 What Becomes of the Broken Hearted (Alison Moyet)
05 Twisting the Knife (Alison Moyet)
06 talk (Alison Moyet)
07 That Ole Devil Called Love (Alison Moyet)
08 talk (Alison Moyet)
09 Winter Kills (Alison Moyet)
10 That's the Way Love Is (Alison Moyet)
11 All Cried Out (Alison Moyet)
12 talk (Alison Moyet)
13 Situation (Alison Moyet)
14 talk (Alison Moyet)
15 Only You (Alison Moyet)
16 talk (Alison Moyet)
17 Don't Go (Alison Moyet)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vxkL1oFJ

The good news is the cover photo comes from this same venue. However, it was from earlier in the month. I didn't tint a black and white photo. This photo really looks exactly like that. It looks like she was bathed in yellow lighting when the photo was taken.

In February 2025, I improved the cover image a bit with the use of the Krea AI program.