Various Artists - Colombian Volcano Disaster Appeal Concert, Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain, 2-9-1986

Here's a really interesting benefit concert. There aren't a lot of musical acts, but the ones that took part gave interesting performances, often with some unusual song choices. The big stars were David Gilmour (formerly of Pink Floyd), Pete Townshend (formerly of the Who), Annie Lennox (of Eurythmics) and Chrissie Hynde (of the Pretenders).

In November of 1985, the Nevada del Ruiz volcano erupted, causing a natural disaster in Colombia. It melted glaciers and caused catastrophic flooding that killed over 25,000 people. A native Colombian musician, Chucho Merchan, with the help of Pete Townshend, organized this benefit concert to raise funds for the surviving victims and to help raise awareness of their plight. Highlights of the concert were broadcast in many countries around the world, and a DVD of parts of it was eventually released. 

I had been aware of this concert for a long time, but I could only find the sets from the main stars. I put songs from the David Gilmour and Chrissie Hynde sets on albums I've posted elsewhere on this blog. However, I recently found virtually the entire concert, with excellent sound quality. So that inspired me to post this, and sooner rather than later.

The first three acts were popular in Britain around the of this concert, though their popularity didn't last. Working Week was a British jazz-dance band that had a hit with the song "Venceremos (We Will Win)" in 1984, plus some other minor hits in 1985 and 1986. 

Jaki Graham, a British soul and dance singer, had three Top Ten hits in Britain in 1985 and 1986, with "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love," "Round and Round," and "Set Me Free." But curiously, it seems she was only given time to perform one song, and she chose a song that wasn't one of her hits. 

The Communards were a British synth-pop duo. They had two really big hits and some smaller hits in Britain, though they had no success in the U.S. In 1986, their version of "Don't Leave Me This Way" reached Number One in the British singles chart, and was the biggest hit of the year in that country. However, that single wouldn't be released until about six months after this concert, which explains why they didn't play it here. They also had another big hit with "Never Can Say Goodbye" in 1987. At the time of this concert, they'd only had one minor hit, "You Are My World," but they didn't play it here.

Here are their Wikipedia entries: 

Working Week (band) - Wikipedia 

Jaki Graham - Wikipedia 

The Communards - Wikipedia 

I don't feel the need to explain the other musical acts in this concert, since they're well known and I've posted albums by each of them at this blog already. However, the timing of how this concert fit into their careers is worth mentioning. David Gilmour started a full-time solo career in 1984 after Pink Floyd broke up in 1983. But he hadn't done much as a solo artist after putting out a solo album in 1984, so his appearance here was notable. He would lead a new version of Pink Floyd starting in 1987.

Similarly, Pete Townshend started a full-time solo career after the Who broke up in 1982. At the time of this concert, he'd only released one solo album, in 1985. But in this concert, he only performed three Who songs, plus "Save It for Later," a cover of an English Beat song. 

Annie Lennox was a member of Eurythmics at this time. However, at the time, she was taking a short break due to some trouble with her voice. That's probably why she only sang one song on her own (while also singing a duet at the end). It was very unusual for her to appear as a solo artist. Her solo career wouldn't really begin until her first solo album in 1992.

Similarly, Chrissie Hynde was a member of the Pretenders at this time. By 1986, the Pretenders had basically become Hynde plus whomever she wanted to work with. But I guess she was billed under her own name because she performed with some different musicians than her usual band at the time. Plus, it seems that freed her to play some more interesting songs. She only did two Pretenders songs, the first two in her set. Then she did covers by the Beatles ("In My Life"), the Righteous Brothers, ("Little Latin Lupe Lu"), Bob Dylan ("Property of Jesus"), and KC and the Sunshine Band ("Give It Up"). That probably was her most eclectic set list ever, and the fact the last song was a duet with Annie Lennox was even more interesting.   

By the way, I saw that both actors Peter Richardson and Harry Enfield spoke during the concert. So I figure one of them has to be the emcee talking between songs. It sounds like the same person talking each time, but I'm not familiar with their voices, so I don't know which one it would be. If anyone can tell, please let me know so I can fix the song title info.   

This album is exactly two hours long. 

01 talk (emcee)
02 Inner City Blues [Make Me Wanna Holler] (Working Week)
03 Sweet Nothing (Working Week)
04 South Africa (Working Week)
05 Shot in the Dark (Working Week)
06 talk (emcee)
07 Heaven Knows (Jaki Graham)
08 talk (emcee)
09 Sentimental Journey (Communards)
10 Forbidden Love (Communards)
11 Don't Slip Away (Communards)
12 talk (emcee)
13 talk (Mike Oldfield & Maggie Reilly)
14 Moonlight Shadow (Mike Oldfield & Maggie Reilly)
15 talk (emcee)
16 You Know I'm Right (David Gilmour)
17 Run like Hell (David Gilmour)
18 Out of the Blue (David Gilmour)
19 Comfortably Numb (David Gilmour)
20 talk (emcee)
21 I'm One (Pete Townshend)
22 talk (Pete Townshend)
23 Save It for Later (Pete Townshend)
24 Pinball Wizard (Pete Townshend)
25 Magic Bus (Pete Townshend)
26 talk (emcee)
27 Blame It on the Sun (Annie Lennox)
28 talk (emcee)
29 Time, the Avenger (Chrissie Hynde)
30 Back on the Chain Gang (Chrissie Hynde)
31 talk (Chrissie Hynde)
32 In My Life (Chrissie Hynde)
33 Little Latin Lupe Lu (Chrissie Hynde)
34 Property of Jesus (Chrissie Hynde)
35 Give It Up (Chrissie Hynde & Annie Lennox)
36 talk (emcee)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/t9XbbPYK 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/DEK86KzNjctEOg0/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. It's a screenshot I took from a video. It shows Chrissie Hynde and Annie Lennox together, on the last song in the concert. The video was very low-res and blurry, so the image has issues. But I was happy to at least come up with this, since I couldn't find any images of the two of them together. 

Various Artists - 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 10-30-2009

I just posted the first day of the two-day long 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert, in 2009. Here's the second day.

This second day concert followed the same format as the one on the first day. Read my write-up for more details about this two-day concert in general. Suffice to say that for this day, four major musical acts were chosen: Aretha Franklin, Jeff Beck, Metallica, and U2. Each of them hosted one fourth of the concert, and each had special guests join them during their sections. 

I was a bit surprised by the choice of Jeff Beck, since his record sales weren't nearly as big as the others. It turns out that section was supposed to be for Eric Clapton, but he got sick at the last minute and had to back out. So Beck was another "guitar hero" to fill a similar role.

I detailed in my write-up for the first day of this concert how I put a longer concert out of material from a DVD, plus the HBO broadcast, plus an audience bootleg. That's the same case here, except I didn't find an audience boot for all the otherwise missing songs. I did find such a boot for some of the Metallica songs, but that didn't even have the entire Metallica set. But it did get me "You Really Got Me," with Ray Davies of the Kinks as the guest. 

The Wikipedia page for this concert lists all the songs that were performed, in their correct order. Here's that page:

25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concerts - Wikipedia 

Based on that, it looks like I'm missing five songs. Here are the songs that I couldn't find:

Drown in My Own Tears - Jeff Beck (or possibly Aretha Franklin, I'm not sure)
Cause We've Ended as Lovers - Jeff Beck
Rough Boy - Jeff Beck & Billy Gibbons
One - Metallica
Stone Cold Crazy - Metallica 

That's too bad, but at least the vast majority is here. If anyone has any of the missing songs, please let me know. The first day concert that I posted is a little over four hours long, whereas this one is two and a half hours long. If you add in the missing songs, this probably totals about three hours, not four. So I think the first day one is a little longer, and better. I'll bet some of that was due to Bruce Springsteen, as his section on the first day was extra long.

One interesting note about this concert is that the collaboration of Metallica with Lou Reed - a very unexpected pairing - eventually led to the recordings of the album "Lulu," a joint Metallica and Lou Reed release, in 2011. 

A couple of performers who appeared in the first day concert also appeared in this one. Jeff Beck played a song on the first day, and had his own section here. Sting sang duets on both days. And Bruce Springsteen had his own section on the first day, and sang two songs with U2 here. Jerry Lee Lewis also opened both days with a song.

The sound quality is generally excellent. The quality is actually higher here than on the first day, because I only have one song sourced from an audience boot this time ("You Really Got Me," as mentioned above). I ran into many of the same problems with the first day, such as having to smooth over the transitions between songs by adding extra cheering noises. Read my write-up about the other concert for more details on all that. 

This album is two hours and 33 minutes long.

01 talk (Tom Hanks)
02 Great Balls of Fire (Jerry Lee Lewis)
03 Baby, I Love You (Aretha Franklin)
04 Don't Play That Song [You Lied] (Aretha Franklin)
05 Make Them Hear You (Aretha Franklin)
06 talk (Aretha Franklin)
07 Chain of Fools (Aretha Franklin & Annie Lennox)
08 Theme from New York, New York (Aretha Franklin)
09 Think (Aretha Franklin & Lenny Kravitz)
10 [I Never Loved a Man] The Way I Love You (Aretha Franklin)
11 Respect (Aretha Franklin)
12 People Get Ready (Sting & Jeff Beck)
13 Freeway Jam [Instrumental] (Jeff Beck)
14 talk (Jeff Beck)
15 Let Me Love You Baby (Buddy Guy & Jeff Beck)
16 Big Block [Instrumental] (Jeff Beck)
17 Rice Pudding [Instrumental] (Billy Gibbons & Jeff Beck)
18 Foxy Lady (Billy Gibbons & Jeff Beck)
19 A Day in the Life [Instrumental Version] (Jeff Beck)
20 For Whom the Bell Tolls (Metallica)
21 talk (Metallica)
22 Turn the Page (Metallica)
23 talk (Metallica)
24 Sweet Jane (Lou Reed & Metallica)
25 talk (Metallica)
26 White Light-White Heat (Lou Reed & Metallica)
27 talk (Metallica)
28 Iron Man (Ozzy Osbourne & Metallica)
29 Paranoid (Ozzy Osbourne & Metallica)
30 talk (Metallica)
31 You Really Got Me (Ray Davies & Metallica)
32 All Day and All of the Night (Ray Davies & Metallica)
33 Enter Sandman (Metallica)
34 Vertigo (U2)
35 Magnificent (U2)
36 talk (U2)
37 Because the Night (U2, Bruce Springsteen & Patti Smith)
38 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (U2 & Bruce Springsteen)
39 Mysterious Ways (U2)
40 Where Is the Love - One (U2 & the Black Eyed Peas)
41 talk (U2)
42 Gimme Shelter (U2, Mick Jagger, Fergie & will.i.am)
43 talk (U2)
44 Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of (U2 & Mick Jagger)
45 Beautiful Day (U2)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/UZjACSG5

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/mtktsXHvZPk8rgE/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From left to right: Bono, The Edge, Fergie, and Mick Jagger.

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.

Eurythmics - VH-1 Storytellers, Grand Ballroom, Manhattan Center, New York City, 9-28-1999

Here's another album from the VH-1 Storytellers TV show. This time, it's the Eurythmics. (Technically, their name is just "Eurythmics" without the "the," but I think most people add the "the.")

The band was very popular during the 1980s. But by 1990, after eight albums in eight years, they were burned out and the band went on a long hiatus. They finally reunited with a new album, "Peace," in 1999. They toured to support it through 1999 and 2000, and this show was part of that tour. Since then, they've only done less than ten shows, most of them short appearances at awards shows.

One nice thing about these Storytellers shows is that some musical acts who rarely talk on stage are put in a position to talk. This show is a case in point. Lead singer Annie Lennox even mentions in her banter that she almost never talks on stage, yet once she got started talking, it was like she couldn't stop and went on for about three minutes before the next song. The only other member of the band, Dave Stewart, talked about an equal amount.

By the way, I list "McGinty's Meal and Ale" as a song in the set list, but that's a stretch. In reality, Lennox just sang a snippet of this song acappella that lasts only about 20 seconds. But I did a little Googling to figure out the song title, so I figured it was useful to include that information.

This album is 44 minutes long.

01 Who's That Girl (Eurythmics)
02 talk (Eurythmics)
03 Missionary Man (Eurythmics)
04 talk (Eurythmics)
05 McGinty's Meal and Ale (Eurythmics)
06 talk (Eurythmics)
07 Sweet Dreams [Are Made of This] (Eurythmics)
08 talk (Eurythmics)
09 17 Again (Eurythmics)
10 talk (Eurythmics)
11 Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves (Eurythmics)
12 talk (Eurythmics)
13 Why (Eurythmics)
14 talk (Eurythmics)
15 Here Comes the Rain Again (Eurythmics)
16 talk (Eurythmics)
17 I'm Alive (Eurythmics)
18 Ball and Chain - Would I Lie to You (Eurythmics)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17168871/TEURYTHMCS1999StrytllrsGrndBllromMnhttnCntrNwYrkC__9-28-1999_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/hKiwgkju

The cover photo of Annie Lennox is a screenshot I took of a video of this exact concert. I then used the Krea AI program to upgrade the image.

Various Artists - Songs in the Key of Life - A Grammy Awards Tribute to Stevie Wonder, Nokia Theatre, Los Angeles, CA, 2-10-2015

Here's something a little different than my usual stuff. It's a tribute concert for Stevie Wonder. But because it's from relatively recently, 2015, it has a whole different bunch of musical acts performing songs for him than those that typically show up in these kinds of tribute concerts that I post. There are very big stars that I usually don't have on my blog, such as Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, Lady Gaga, and Ariana Grande. Whether you like those kinds of stars or not, they all performed classic Stevie Wonder songs, so it was very hard to go wrong. Plus, the concert ended with a short set by Stevie Wonder himself.

This concert was professionally recorded and broadcast on TV in 2015. I hasn't been officially released in any format as far as I know, not even on video. But I found the video of it on YouTube. The sound quality is excellent, so I did my usual thing of converting it to audio and cutting it into individual mp3s. 

I edited out some sections where there was talking while video montages of Wonder's life were shown on a big screen. That didn't translate well to just a listening experience. I also edited out some speeches that didn't have much do to with the songs performed. There also is some banter by famous people who weren't always introduced, or at least not introduced each time, like LL Cool J, Jamie Foxx, and Tyler Perry. So keep an eye on the song list for those details.

This album is an hour and 20 minutes long.

01 Fingertips, Part 2 (Beyonce)
02 Master Blaster [Jammin'] (Beyonce & Ed Sheeran)
03 Higher Ground (Beyonce, Ed Sheeran & Gary Clark Jr.)
04 talk (LL Cool J)
05 I Believe [When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever] (John Legend)
06 talk (Maya Rudolph)
07 talk (Lady Gaga)
08 I Wish (Lady Gaga)
09 talk (Jason Derulo)
10 Signed, Sealed, Delivered [I'm Yours] (Ariana Grande & Babyface)
11 talk (LL Cool J)
12 My Cheri Amour (Annie Lennox)
13 talk (Pharrell Williams)
14 Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing (Pharrell Williams & Ryan Tedder)
15 talk (Tony Bennett)
16 For Once in My Life (Tony Bennett)
17 I Was Made to Love Her (Ed Sheeran)
18 talk (Tyler Perry)
19 You Haven't Done Nuthin' (Band Perry)
20 talk (Mary Wilson)
21 talk (Janelle Monae, India.Arie & Jill Scott)
22 As (Janelle Monae, India.Arie & Jill Scott)
23 talk (Andrea Bocelli)
24 I Just Called to Say I Love You (Andrea Bocelli)
25 talk (Jennifer Hudson)
26 All in Love Is Fair (Jennifer Hudson)
27 talk (LL Cool J)
28 Isn't She Lovely (Ne-Yo with Aisha Wonder)
29 talk (Jamie Foxx)
30 Contusion [Instrumental] (Stevie Wonder)
31 Sir Duke (Stevie Wonder)
32 You Are the Sunshine of My Life (Stevie Wonder)
33 Overjoyed - Ribbon in the Sky (Stevie Wonder)
34 Superstition (Stevie Wonder)
35 talk (LL Cool J with the voice of Martin Luther King, Jr)
36 talk (Stevie Wonder)
37 Happy Birthday (Stevie Wonder & Everyone)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16667103/VA-2015SngsinthKyofLfeAGrmmyAwrdTrbteNkaThetrLsAnglsCA__2-10-2015_atse.zip.html

 The cover is from this exact concert. From left to right, that's Stevie Wonder on piano, Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga, and Jennifer Hudson.

Annie Lennox - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: In Concert, Riverside Studios, London, Britain, 6-26-2003

As part of my big BBC project, I tried looking for a good BBC concert by the Eurythmics, but I haven't come across one yet. However, Annie Lennox was the lead singer of the Eurythmics, and went on to have a very successful solo career. I found a good unreleased BBC concert from her.

This is a particularly well timed concert. After Lennox's first two solo albums were massive sellers. "Diva" in 1992 (which sold seven million copies worldwide), and "Medusa" in 1996 (which sold a few million). Her next album, "Bare," still sold about a million copies. But after that, her sales dropped quite a lot. So this concert came right at the end of her very popular phase, and naturally contains the biggest hits from her early solo albums.

There are also three Eurythmics hits here: "Here Comes the Rain Again," "Would I Lie to You," and "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)." I'm guessing there were more, but this is a common case of the BBC editing a concert down to fit into an hour-long radio show slot.

This album is 55 minutes long.

UPDATE: On February 28, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is exactly the same, but I renamed the album to "Volume 1" after finding another BBC concert from her that took place after this.

01 Little Bird (Annie Lennox)
02 A Thousand Beautiful Things (Annie Lennox)
03 No More I Love You's (Annie Lennox)
04 Walking on Broken Glass (Annie Lennox)
05 Pavement Cracks (Annie Lennox)
06 Cold (Annie Lennox)
07 talk (Annie Lennox)
08 Here Comes the Rain Again (Annie Lennox)
09 Wonderful (Annie Lennox)
10 Bitter Pill (Annie Lennox)
11 Would I Lie to You (Annie Lennox)
12 Sweet Dreams [Are Made of This] (Annie Lennox)
13 Why (Annie Lennox)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Exec9pgw

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/mRR4AiXEFjBBSYv/file

The cover photo was taken during an appearance on "The Today Show" TV show in New York City in July 2003.