Belinda Carlisle - BBC Radio 2 Live in the Park, Hylands Park, Chelmsford, Britain, 9-6-2025

Here's more from the poll results for the BBC Radio 2 Live in the Park Festival from earlier this month (writing this in September 2025). This is a set by Belinda Carlisle, former lead singer of the Go-Go's.

While I think Carlisle is a good singer and I like a lot of her songs, I'm bummed she didn't sing even one song by the Go-Go's. Not even "We Got the Beat?" Really? She had a lot of success with a solo career in the late 1980s and 1990s, and most of the songs come from that. Curiously, she released a new album just a couple of weeks prior to this concert, "Once Upon a Time in California," and she didn't play a single song from it. It's a covers albums of famous songs, so I think those songs would have gone over reasonably well with the crowd. Perhaps she felt limited by the time, since this concert is pretty short, due to there being lots of musical acts getting squeezed into the festival.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 43 minutes long. 

01 [We Want] The Same Thing (Belinda Carlisle)
02 talk (Belinda Carlisle)
03 Summer Rain (Belinda Carlisle)
04 talk (Belinda Carlisle)
05 Big, Big Love (Belinda Carlisle)
06 talk (Belinda Carlisle)
07 I Get Weak (Belinda Carlisle)
08 Circles in the Sand (Belinda Carlisle)
09 Big Scary Animal (Belinda Carlisle)
10 Live Your Life Be Free (Belinda Carlisle)
11 Leave a Light On (Belinda Carlisle)
12 Heaven Is a Place on Earth (Belinda Carlisle)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uVyb3KxB

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/R6pfRWgubak9to3/file 

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

The Beach Boys and Friends - 25 Years Together, Waikiki Shell, Honolulu, HI, 12-12-1986

Here's a really interesting Beach Boys concert, featuring lots of special guest stars. It was a TV special filmed in Waikiki Beach in Hawaii to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the formation of the band, back in 1961. The Beach Boys stayed on stage the entire time. Often they performed their own songs, but sometimes they were the backing band for: Ray Charles, Gloria Loring, Glen Campbell, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, the Everly Brothers, Jeffrey Osborne, Belinda Carlisle, and Three Dog Night. That's a pretty impressive list.

I happened to stumble across a video of this concert on YouTube. I converted that to an audio file and cut it into mp3s. While doing so, I deliberately cut out some things. For instance, there were some long talking segments by actor Patrick Duffy in which he talked extensively about the history of the Beach Boys. It wasn't terrible, but it didn't have relistening value, so I axed it. I also cut out a few other little things, like some really bad jokes or cheesy comments made by the Beach Boys between songs. 

I gotta say, I put a lot of effort into making this a better listen. One big problem was there was a constant noise coming from the crowd all the time, through every song. Probably, microphones were stuck in the crowd to capture that audience noise in order to supposedly increase the excitement level. Or some of it could have been added in later. That has happened even to officially released live albums occasionally. Regardless, I used the MVSEP to get rid of most of the crowd noise, except for the bits you'd expect at the starts and ends of the songs. The sonic difference was dramatic, like suddenly being able to hear after taking ear muffs off. 

The last two songs have "[Edit]" in their titles due to extra editing on them. For "The Spirit of Rock and Roll," an announcer came on near the end of the song and talked over it. Luckily, that didn't last too long, and I was able to patch it by bringing in a section from elsewhere in the song. "Good Vibrations" was much more difficult. For some stupid reason, the song was repeatedly interrupted by brief comments made by random people, saying things like "Happy anniversary to the Beach Boys!" These comments clearly were filmed on the beach at a different time and spliced into the footage. This happened about ten times, through random points in the song. Worse, the volume of the song itself was briefly turned way down, ruining the rhythm. I found a different live version of the song from the 1980s and patched in bits of that, or patched in sections from elsewhere in the same version. It was a real pain in the ass to fix, but all those dumb comments are gone now.

I think this is a really interesting concert, a lot better than what I'd expected from the Beach Boys at this point in their career. The main negative is that the band tried to cram in too many songs for the limited time they had for their TV special. So many of the songs are short versions, sometimes in medleys. There's even a couple that are a minute or less. But there are a lot of plus sides. One nice thing is that Brian Wilson usually didn't tour with the band, but he was here and involved. In fact, he looked as healthy and fit as he ever did, after some rough years in the late 1970s and early 1980s. 

And while the Beach Boys mostly played their expected classics, there was a couple of really nice surprises. One was a version of "Heaven" near the end of the concert. This was released on a Carl Wilson solo album and never officially done by the Beach Boys. The other one that is even more interesting is the closing song, "The Spirit of Rock and Roll." At the time, Brian Wilson was working on his first solo album. But there were many false starts before the album, simply called "Brian Wilson," was released in 1988. At one point, there was nearly enough material for an album to be released, only for it to be scrapped and most of the songs discarded. Some of this later became a popular bootleg called "Sweet Insanity." "The Spirit of Rock and Roll" was one of those discarded songs. So it's interesting that it was not only chosen for inclusion in this special, but it was the finale. This appears to be the ONLY time the song was ever performed by the Beach Boys, as opposed to Brian Wilson solo.

But maybe the most interesting thing of all were the special guests, the vast majority of whom have stood the test of time. Gloria Loring is better known as an actress than a singer, but she had a good voice and had a big hit in 1986 with "Friends and Lovers," which she sang here. Other than that though, the guests mostly sang Beach Boys songs, while being backed by the actual Beach Boys on backing vocals and instruments. For instance, not only did the back up Ray Charles singing and playing keyboards on "Sail On, Sailor," but Charles was the one playing the prominent keyboard part in the "Good Vibrations" finale. I particularly liked hearing Belinda Carlisle singing a Beach Boys song as well as a soul classic.

Everything here is unreleased, I believe. The sound quality is very good, though not great. 

This album is an hour and ten minutes long. 

01 talk (Beach Boys)
02 Help Me, Rhonda (Beach Boys)
03 Fun, Fun, Fun (Beach Boys)
04 California Girls (Beach Boys)
05 California Dreamin' (Beach Boys)
06 talk (Beach Boys)
07 Sail On, Sailor (Beach Boys & Ray Charles)
08 Sloop John B (Beach Boys)
09 Do It Again (Beach Boys)
10 talk (Beach Boys)
11 Friends and Lovers (Beach Boys & Gloria Loring)
12 I Can Hear Music (Beach Boys & Gloria Loring)
13 talk (Beach Boys & Glen Campbell)
14 In Cars (Beach Boys & Glen Campbell)
15 talk (Beach Boys & Glen Campbell)
16 Little Deuce Coupe (Beach Boys & Glen Campbell)
17 The Little Old Lady from Pasadena (Beach Boys & Glen Campbell)
18 I Get Around (Beach Boys & Glen Campbell)
19 Barbara Ann (Beach Boys)
20 talk (Beach Boys & the Fabulous Thunderbirds)
21 Rock and Roll Music (Beach Boys & the Fabulous Thunderbirds)
22 Be True to Your School (Beach Boys)
23 Don't Worry Baby - Getcha Back (Beach Boys & the Everly Brothers)
24 Wake Up Little Susie (Beach Boys & the Everly Brothers)
25 Surfer Girl (Beach Boys)
26 Come Go with Me (Beach Boys)
27 talk (Beach Boys)
28 Disney Girls [1957] (Beach Boys)
29 God Only Knows (Beach Boys & Jeffrey Osborne)
30 talk (Beach Boys with Paul Shaffer)
31 Surfer Girl [Reprise] (Beach Boys with Paul Shaffer)
32 Surf City (Beach Boys with Paul Shaffer)
33 Surfin' U.S.A. (Beach Boys with Paul Shaffer)
34 Wouldn't It Be Nice (Beach Boys & Belinda Carlisle)
35 Band of Gold (Beach Boys & Belinda Carlisle)
36 talk (Beach Boys & Three Dog Night)
37 Darlin' (Beach Boys & Three Dog Night)
38 talk (Beach Boys)
39 Heaven (Beach Boys)
40 Good Vibrations [Edit] (Beach Boys & Everyone)
41 talk (Beach Boys)
42 The Spirit of Rock and Roll [Edit] (Beach Boys & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/eYAr29uv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/lny0w2Q0FB2gE8x/file

I had a hard time finding a good cover photo by taking a screenshot from a video. If I used a long distance shot showing many people, it was too low-res and blurry. I chose this one from the "Good Vibrations" finale. From right to left, that's Gloria Loring, unknown, Al Jardine, and Belinda Carlile. I used Krea AI to boost the image quality.

Belinda Carlisle - Belinda Live, Tower Theatre, Upper Darby, PA, 5-25-1988

Belinda Carlisle was the main lead singer of the Go-Go's. (And she sometimes still is, with reunions.) She was even more successful with a solo career. I'm not as much of a fan of that, as she went in more of a slick, middle of the road direction that didn't suit her as well, in my opinion. Still, she did have some good solo hits.

I wouldn't be posting this except for the fact that I stumbled across a video while looking for Go-Go's stuff. It's a DVD that was released as part of a 2009 special edition of her 1987 album "Heaven on Earth." I didn't see it existing in audio format anywhere, so I converted it to mp3s and broke it up into song tracks.

This is a good time for a Belinda Carlisle concert, in my opinion. She arguably reached her commercial peak with the "Heaven on Earth" album, and its Number One hit "Heaven Is a Place on Earth." But she still wasn't that far removed from her time with the Go-Go's (they broke up in 1984). So this is a good mix of solo and Go-Go's songs. 

Since making this, I noticed that a live album from her 1988 tour was released for Record Store Day in 2022. However, that one doesn't have a single Go-Go's song on it, probably for contractual reasons. So I prefer this, even though it's shorter overall.

This album is just one second longer than exactly one hour.

01 I Feel Free (Belinda Carlisle)
02 Mad about You (Belinda Carlisle)
03 Lust to Love (Belinda Carlisle)
04 I Get Weak (Belinda Carlisle)
05 Fool for Love (Belinda Carlisle)
06 Circle in the Sand (Belinda Carlisle)
07 World without You (Belinda Carlisle)
08 Nobody Owns Me (Belinda Carlisle)
09 Our Lips Are Sealed (Belinda Carlisle)
10 Vacation (Belinda Carlisle)
11 Heaven Is a Place on Earth (Belinda Carlisle)
12 Love Never Dies (Belinda Carlisle)
13 Head Over Heels (Belinda Carlisle)
14 We Got the Beat (Belinda Carlisle)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15109415/BelindaC_1988_TowrTheatreUpperDarbyPA__5-25-1988_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken at the San Remo Festival in Italy in 1988.

The Go-Go's - WMMR-FM, Emerald City, Cherry Hill, NJ, 8-31-1981

I'm particularly happy with how this album turned out. If you're interested in hearing the Go-Go's live at all, you really should listen to this. The Go-Go's put out three albums in the early 1980s, plus a reunion album in 2001. Despite that limited discography, they are celebrated enough to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

They've never released an official live album per se, but a complete 1981 live show was included on the deluxe edition of their debut album "Beauty and the Beat." I had that concert in my music collection for a long time, but I wasn't much of a fan due to the sound quality, which was just okay. But I figured that was as good as it got, since it was the one chosen for the official release. However, it turns out that this concert, which took place just eleven days after the Boston show on the deluxe edition, sounds noticeably better. It was broadcast live by a Philadelphia radio station (Cherry Hill is in New Jersey, but on the outskirts of Philadelphia), so it was professionally recorded.

Furthermore, when I listened to this, I noticed that the lead vocals were rather low in the mix. So I used the X-Minus audio editing program to boost the vocals relative to the instruments for all the songs. After that change, in my opinion, this sounds way better than the Boston concert on the deluxe edition. And since it took place only eleven days later, the set list is the same.

Additionally, three of the songs have "[Edit]" in their names because I made further edits on top of the lead vocals adjustments. For the song "Tonite," as soon as the song ended, a radio DJ spoke over the cheering to briefly promote his radio station. Thanks to the magic of X-Minus, his vocals were removed and I was able to keep the cheering. For the song "Can't Stop the World," the song came to a sudden end right at the last chord. Then when the banter began afterwards, it started in mid-sentence. Clearly, something was missing there. So I used the recording of the Boston show to fill in the gap, allowing that final chord to ring out. Luckily, the banter appeared to be exactly the same for the intro to the next tune, so I was able to patch in the missing words too.

The Go-Go's sound great here. This concert is relatively short, just 51 minutes long. But they played every song on their debut album "Beauty and the Beat" plus some more, such as "London Boys," "Cool Jerk," "Vacation," "Let's Have a Party," and "Surfing and Spying."

01 Skidmarks on My Heart (Go-Go's)
02 How Much More (Go-Go's)
03 Tonite [Edit] (Go-Go's)
04 talk (Go-Go's)
05 Fading Fast (Go-Go's)
06 London Boys (Go-Go's)
07 Cool Jerk (Go-Go's)
08 talk (Go-Go's)
09 Automatic (Go-Go's)
10 Lust to Love (Go-Go's)
11 Can't Stop the World [Edit] (Go-Go's)
12 talk [Edit] (Go-Go's)
13 This Town (Go-Go's)
14 Vacation (Go-Go's)
15 talk (Go-Go's)
16 You Can't Walk in Your Sleep [If You Can't Sleep] (Go-Go's)
17 Our Lips Are Sealed (Go-Go's)
18 Let's Have a Party (Go-Go's)
19 We Got the Beat (Go-Go's)
20 talk (Go-Go's)
21 Surfing and Spying [Instrumental] (Go-Go's)
22 Beatnik Beach (Go-Go's) 

https://www.upload.ee/files/15292921/TGogo_1981_WMMFMEmerldCityChrryHillNJ__8-31-1981_atse.zip.html

I couldn't find any great photos of the band in concert in 1981. But I did find one from 1982, so that's what's here on the cover. It comes from a concert in Sacramento, California, in August 1982. I took the band name at the top from the artwork of one of their singles.