Various Artists - The Big TNT Show, Moulin Rouge, Los Angeles, CA, 11-30-1965

A few days ago (writing this in February 2026), I posted the audio to the "TAMI Show" concert. As I mentioned in my write-up, that's one of the all time great 1960s concerts, which was made into a movie in 1964. The people who made that movie basically repeated the formula in 1965 with this one, "The Big T.N.T. Show." Although this concert isn't as famous as the TAMI Show, I'd argue the star power and performances here are even better.

Just like the TAMI Show, what sets this apart from other musical shows on TV and the like is that there was no lip-syncing. Everything was done live in front of an audience. Actually, each act performed their set three times, and then the film footage from the best versions were used for the movie. 

By the way, technically "T.N.T." was an acronym for "Tune n' Talent," but clearly they just wanted to call it "T.N.T." for the "explosive" connotation, and then made up an acronym for it.

The idea was to use the most popular music acts popular with kids at the time. Musical trends had changed a lot in the year since the TAMI Show. One big change was that folk-rock was suddenly all the rage. So this concert had some folk music acts that had been lacking in the TAMI Show. In addition to folk rock like the Lovin' Spoonful and the Byrds, Joan Baez and Donovan performed in solo acoustic mode. One curiosity is that Baez sang "You Lost that Lovin' Feeling," which didn't seem like her type of song at all. But the music in the show was directed by legendary producer Phil Spector, and that's a song he actually co-wrote, so my guess is he got her to sing it.

Additional, some classic soul acts were included, like Ray Charles, Bo Diddley, Ike and Tina Turner. Country was represented by Roger Miller, and pop by Petula Clark. It was a very diverse line-up, with no repeats from the TAMI Show. 

It seems like this movie was commercially successful, as was the TAMI Show. So it's a shame no similar film was made in 1966 or after. However, I read one mention that the movie wasn't as successful as the TAMI Show. This was blamed on the fact that it was edited and released so quickly that there wasn't time for proper production. Remarkably, the movie was in the theaters by the end of 1965, less than a month after the concert!

Also, perhaps, with musical trends changing so fast, it grew too difficult to bring these many big stars together for one concert. These sorts of variety concerts with lots of acts performing short sets were rapidly fading away at the time, replaced by having just a couple of acts performing much longer sets.

Just as I did with the TAMI Show, I converted the video to audio format, then chopped it into mp3s. The sound quality was a little bit better with this one, so I didn't have to make any adjustments. 

Here's the Wikipedia article:

The Big T.N.T. Show - Wikipedia 

Here's an interesting article that discusses both this movie and the TAMI Show:

https://cavehollywood.com/the-t-a-m-i-show-and-the-big-t-n-t-show-out-on-blu-ray-dvd/

This album is an hour and 30 minutes long. 

01 [I Can't Get No] Satisfaction [Instrumental Version] (David McCallum)
02 What'd I Say (Ray Charles)
03 Downtown (Petula Clark)
04 Do You Believe in Magic (Lovin' Spoonful)
05 You Didn't Have to Be So Nice (Lovin' Spoonful)
06 Hey Bo Diddley (Bo Diddley)
07 Bo Diddley (Bo Diddley)
08 500 Miles (Joan Baez)
09 There but for Fortune (Joan Baez)
10 Georgia on My Mind (Ray Charles)
11 Let the Good Times Roll (Ray Charles)
12 talk (Donovan)
13 You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling (Joan Baez)
14 Be My Baby (Ronettes)
15 Shout (Ronettes)
16 Dang Me (Roger Miller)
17 talk (Roger Miller)
18 Engine Engine No. 9 (Roger Miller)
19 King of the Road (Roger Miller)
20 talk (Roger Miller)
21 England Swings (Roger Miller)
22 talk (David McCallum)
23 Turn, Turn, Turn [To Everything There Is a Season] (Byrds)
24 The Bells of Rhymney (Byrds)
25 Mr. Tambourine Man (Byrds)
26 You're the One (Petula Clark)
27 My Love (Petula Clark)
28 talk (David McCallum)
29 Universal Soldier (Donovan)
30 Summer Day Reflection Song (Donovan)
31 Bert's Blues (Donovan)
32 Sweet Joy (Donovan)
33 Shake (Ike & Tina Turner)
34 A Fool in Love (Ike & Tina Turner)
35 It's Gonna Work Out Fine (Ike & Tina Turner)
36 Please, Please, Please (Ike & Tina Turner)
37 Goodbye, So Long (Ike & Tina Turner)
38 Tell the Truth (Ike & Tina Turner)
39 1-2-3 [Instrumental Version] (David McCallum)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/dTkPhgcn

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Kjs0z43hqpeffYb/file

The main picture in the cover art shows Tina Turner in this exact concert. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program. The text and design at the top and sides are taken from a concert poster. I did some repositioning and cleaning up for those areas.

Various Artists - Peace Sunday, Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA, 6-6-1982, Part 1: Gil Scott-Heron, Jesse Colin Young, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, and Donovan

I really like posting big rock festivals. I feel these often get forgotten. This was a very interesting one. Just look at some of the musical acts that took part: Gil Scott Heron, Jesse Colin Young, Bonnie Raitt, Donovan, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Stevie Wonder, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Dan Fogelberg, Stevie Nicks, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, and Tom Petty. However, the problem with this one is that only known recording is a problematic audience bootleg. However, I have spent many, many hours getting this into listenable shape. It's still far from ideal sound quality, but I think it's definitely worth listening to, after all the audio edits I've made. I've split this long concert into five albums. This is the first one.

First, let me explain what this concert was about. In the early 1980s, the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia (then the Soviet Union) heated up. Ronald Reagan was president of the U.S., and struck a more militaristic posture, such as calling Russia "the evil empire." The U.S. decided to base intermediate nuclear weapons in Western Europe for the first time. This led to a growing anti-nuclear war movement, which was related to an anti-nuclear power movement triggered by the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979. 

This concert in 1982, which was attended by about 85,000 people, was meant to draw attention to the nuclear war issue, and put pressure on the U.S. to reduce it's aggressive policies. It was just one of many around that time. For instance, one week later, there was a protest march and concert in New York City attended by about a million people that was the biggest protest in history up until that time. In 1983, there were 50 simultaneous protests across the U.S. Also in 1983, the TV movie "The Day After" depicted the results of a nuclear war on a family. It was one of the top ten most watched TV shows of all time, showing how concern was spiking over the issue. In Europe, there were even more opposition and protests. Eventually, there were peace talks, and in 1987, the U.S. and Russia signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which led to the destruction of all intermediate range nuclear weapons. That, and other peace treaties, helped lower the tensions and fear.

It turns out the protesters had good reason to be concerned. In 1983, the world actually came very close to being destroyed in a nuclear war, entirely by accident. A Russian early warning system mistakenly showed five nuclear missiles heading towards Russia. A Russian engineer on duty was supposed to pass the warning up the chain of command. But he had a feeling it was a false alarm, and didn't pass the warning on. It turned out he was right, and the early warning system had malfunctioned.

You can read all about it in this Wikipedia article:

1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident - Wikipedia 

The common perception is that the trend of musicians staging benefit concerts for altruistic reasons began with Live Aid in 1985. But this concert was in 1982. And there were others like it in those years, such as the No Nukes concerts in 1979, and the 1982 New York City concert I mentioned above, which starred Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Bonnie Raitt, and many more. (I've only found some of that one, but I'm looking for more.)

Okay, so that explains what this concert was all about. Now, let me address the sound quality issue. As I mentioned above, the only source I could find for this concert is a merely decent audience bootleg. It suffered from the usual problems audience boots have, some one which I could fix, and some I couldn't. It's clear the person who recorded it turned their tape recorder off between songs a lot, so we miss many introductions and other banter. There was nothing I could do about that. 

But the main problem, of crowd noise, was one I could fix, although it turned out to be a very big pain in the ass. For starters, I ran all the songs through the MVSEP program, specifically separating the crowd noise from everything else. Then I wiped out most of the crowd noise, except where it was appropriate to keep, for instance at the ends of songs and during sing-alongs. That alone made a BIG difference. There had been a constant level of backround noise, and I got rid of nearly all of it. 

However, there was more crowd noise that was harder to fix. Often during songs, people near the taper would shout "WOOHOO!" and the like. Sometimes there would be entire conversations. I ran all the songs through MVSEP again, splitting the vocals from everything else. Then I carefully went through the vocals and got rid of anything that didn't belong. Occasionally, the bits I wanted to remove overlapped with singing, and I couldn't remove it. But that was relatively rare. Most of the time, people saved their "woohoos" and such for the instrumental parts.

The result is still not great. But it's way better than before, in my opinion, and sometimes it could be mistaken for soundboard quality. Luckily, the audience bootleg was fundamentally good. If that hadn't been the case, I wouldn't have taken on this time-consuming task.

Luckily, as far as I can tell, the taper did record all the songs by all the musical acts, even if some of the banter is gone. For instance, not only is there no introduction of the first artist, Gil Scott-Heron, the recording began in the middle of some comments he made. And while we have an introduction for Donovan, we don't have one for Jesse Colin Young. Lots of little missing bits like that. But the main thing is the music.

Oh, speaking of the banter, that often was muffled and hard to understand. So I ran all the "talk" tracks through the Adobe voice enhancer program. That only works for talking, not singing, but it really helps with the clarity.

This album is 52 minutes long.  

01 talk (Gil Scott-Heron)
02 Alien (Gil Scott-Heron)
03 talk (Gil Scott-Heron)
04 Please Save the Children (Gil Scott-Heron)
05 talk (Gil Scott-Heron)
06 Shut 'Em Down (Gil Scott-Heron)
07 Imagine (Jesse Colin Young)
08 Let's Get Together with Susie Young, Graham Nash & Jerry Corbitt (Jesse Colin Young)
09 talk (Graham Nash)
10 Military Madness (Graham Nash)
11 talk (Bonnie Raitt & Graham Nash)
12 Love Has No Pride (Bonnie Raitt with Graham Nash)
13 talk (Graham Nash)
14 Sunshine Superman (Donovan)
15 Season of the Witch (Donovan)
16 Mellow Yellow (Donovan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/JPtfeBmR

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Drcen3BFlcbmwxj/file

I found photos of musical acts performing for all the albums I've made out of this festival, except for this first part. However, I did find this cover of the official program for the festival, and I thought the image of a nuclear bomb blast morphing into a tree was interesting, so I used it. I had to crop it a bit, and clean it up some in Photoshop. Other than that, the only change I made was adding the text at the bottom. All the text at the top was on the original image.

Donovan - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 12-30-1974

Here's yet another album that's an episode from the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. This one features singer-songwriter Donovan, in 1974.

In the early 1970s, Donovan's sales dropped. I think his songwriting remained strong, but also more inconsistent. This concert took place shortly after the release of his 1974 album "7-Tease." That was one of his weaker albums from the time, but it still had some good songs, like the first one here, "Rock and Roll Souljer." Three more songs, "Salvation Stomp," "How Silly," and "The Ordinary Family," also come from that album. 

One highlight here is a cover song, "Travelling Light." On the same day Donovan was taping this TV episode, John Sebastian and David Bromberg were taping a joint episode for the show as well, as Donovan's finished. So Donovan had them join him on that song.

Note that Donovan's episode was shared by Dave Mason, who separately performed a short set. That's why this is well short of an hour long. I would have included the Mason part, except I haven't been able to find it in worthy sound quality. If anyone does have it, please let me know so I can add it in.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is pretty good. One banter track has "[Edit]" in its title. That's because there were some loud bursts of static while Donovan was talking for a few seconds. However, I was able to use the MVSEP program to get rid of nearly all the static. 

This album is 34 minutes long. 

01 Rock and Roll Souljer (Donovan)
02 Catch the Wind (Donovan)
03 talk (Donovan)
04 Salvation Stomp (Donovan)
05 Lalena (Donovan)
06 talk (Donovan)
07 How Silly (Donovan)
08 There Is a Mountain (Donovan)
09 talk (Donovan)
10 The Ordinary Family (Donovan)
11 talk (Donovan)
12 Travelling Light (Donovan with John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
13 talk [Edit] (Donovan)
14 Happiness Runs (Donovan)
15 Colours (Donovan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/7tuLXjn1

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/Khwj7OiyMBiHbr1/file

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

Donovan - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: In Concert, Paris Theatre, London, Britain, 11-14-1981

Here is the sixth volume of Donovan performing for the BBC. This is a 1981 concert, with some solo acoustic, and some with a band.

Boy, did I get lucky with this recording! I had been aware of this recording for years. But when I posted the first five volumes of Donovan at the BBC, I avoided posting this one due to sound quality issues. There was a lot of hiss on it, and I wasn't sure how to get rid of it. (One can use noise reduction for that, but it degrades the music too, so I almost always avoid that.) So I decided to deal with this problem later. Recently, here in early 2025, I'm trying to finish off all the series of BBC albums for musical acts where I've posted some already, so I can get to new ones. I was just about to tackle this, when I noticed that someone posted a brand new version of this concert just two days ago, because the BBC recently re-broadcast it. This version had excellent sound quality, saving me the trouble of dealing with the earlier version. God bless the BBC!

In the late 1970s, Donovan's musical style fell out of favor, thanks to new musical trends like disco, punk, and new wave. He generally kept a low profile, living in the desert in California raising his family for a few years and not releasing much new music. This, apparently, was part of his first tour of Britain in six years. Thankfully, rather than trying to ape new trends, like going new wave with synths all over his music, he kept to his old style. This sounds like it could be from 1971 as easily as 1981. That may not have been the popular move to make at the time, but it looks smart in retrospect.

I believe this is entirely unreleased. 

This album is 56 minutes long.

01 talk (Donovan)
02 Sunshine Superman (Donovan)
03 talk (Donovan)
04 Jennifer Juniper (Donovan)
05 talk (Donovan)
06 Lelena (Donovan)
07 talk (Donovan)
08 Universal Soldier (Donovan)
09 Catch the Wind (Donovan)
10 talk (Donovan)
11 Love Is Only Feeling (Donovan with Astrella Leitch)
12 Lady of the Flowers (Donovan)
13 talk (Donovan)
14 Johnny Tuff (Donovan)
15 talk (Donovan)
16 Neutron (Donovan)
17 Hurdy Gurdy Man (Donovan)
18 Colours (Donovan)
19 Season the Witch (Donovan)
20 Mellow Yellow (Donovan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/XhNmAvDN

alternate:

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

The cover photo is from 1981, probably from a TV appearance. But I don't know the details.

Donovan, Buffy Sainte-Marie, & Roger Cook - Songwriters' Circle, Porchester Hall, London, Britain, 10-14-2011

I recently got a couple requests to post a BBC album by Buffy Sainte-Marie. I looked, and it seems there's only a couple of songs here and there, not nearly enough for an album. However, I remembered I have this, and I've been trying to make a point of posting more of these interesting "Songwriters' Circle" concerts. So here you are, with Donovan, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Roger Cook.

As usual, this BBC TV program brought together three talented and famous singer-songwriters, and had them take turns performing their own songs in solo acoustic mode. In this case more than most episodes of this show, I feel the three musicians liked each other and the music they made. One can hear this with some of the between-song banter, as well as they way they supported each other on some songs with backing vocals and such. In the case of Donovan and Buffy Sainte-Marie, their musical connection went way back, because Donovan covered Sainte-Marie's song "Universal Soldier" in 1965 and had a hit with it, which was the first big commercial success for both him and Sainte-Marie.

I've posted a lot of Donovan's music at this blog already, with more planned to come, so I don't feel the need to introduce him. Sainte-Marie was one of the most famous female singer-songwriters in the 1960s and 70s. But while she had some success with her own songs, for instance "Soldier Blue" reached the Top Ten in Britain and many other countries in 1971, she's had more success with others covering her songs. The most prominent example of this is "Up Where We Belong." She started it, and it was finished off by two professional songwriters. A duet version by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes reached Number One in the U.S. singles chart in 1982, and was one of the biggest hits of the year.

I'm writing this in 2025. In recent years, Sainte-Marie has faced controversy because she prominently identified as Native American for her entire music career, but a 2023 investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) concluded that this wasn't true, and she is of English and Italian descent. She has since stated, "My mother told me that I was adopted and that I was Native, but there was no documentation as was common for Indigenous children at the time," and "I don't know where I'm from or who my birth parents are, and I will never know." She hasn't attempted to settle the dispute by publicly posting DNA results.

Here's her Wikipedia page if you want to know more:

Buffy Sainte-Marie - Wikipedia

Roger Cook never had a successful music career of his own. However, he was an extremely successful professional songwriter, writing dozens of hits from the 1960s to the 1980s, often in partnership with Roger Greenaway. I would say more, except I plan on posting his hits in my "Covered" songwriter series. So I'll wait for more of an explanation there.

Here's his Wikipedia page:

Roger Cook (songwriter) - Wikipedia

This unreleased concert has been available as a video on YouTube, but I haven't seen it as an audio bootleg. I found a high quality version of the video and converted that to audio, and broke it into mp3s.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 Sunshine Superman (Donovan)
02 talk (Buffy Sainte-Marie)
03 Until It's Time for You to Go (Buffy Sainte-Marie)
04 talk (Roger Cook)
05 Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart (Roger Cook)
06 talk (Donovan)
07 Catch the Wind (Donovan)
08 talk (Buffy Sainte-Marie)
09 Codine (Buffy Sainte-Marie)
10 talk (Roger Cook)
11 You've Got Your Troubles (Roger Cook)
12 talk (Donovan)
13 Colours (Donovan)
14 talk (Buffy Sainte-Marie)
15 Little Wheel Spin and Spin (Buffy Sainte-Marie)
16 talk (Roger Cook)
17 Talking in Your Sleep (Roger Cook)
18 talk (Donovan)
19 Lalena (Donovan)
20 talk (Buffy Sainte-Marie)
21 I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again (Buffy Sainte-Marie)
22 talk (Roger Cook)
23 I Believe in You (Roger Cook)
24 talk (Donovan)
25 Mellow Yellow (Donovan)
26 talk (Buffy Sainte-Marie)
27 Up Where We Belong (Buffy Sainte-Marie)
28 talk (Buffy Sainte-Marie)
29 Universal Soldier (Buffy Sainte-Marie)
30 talk (Roger Cook)
31 I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (Roger Cook)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZPW7vK93

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/user/files/Anj3vGR3SMp1NMU/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It's a screenshot I took from a YouTube video, so the quality isn't the best. I improved it slightly with the Krea AI program.

Donovan - The Bottom Line, New York City, 4-10-1976

This is one of my favorite Donovan concert recordings, if not the favorite. It's unreleased, but the sound quality is excellent, due to the fact that it was professionally recorded for live broadcast on the radio at the time. It's a solo acoustic concert, mostly, which allows one to hear many of his songs in a different way. (There are two other musicians subtly backing him up.) And it came at an interesting point in his career, resulting in some lessen known but still very good songs to get played.

Donovan is very closely associated with the 1960s. As a cultural phenomenon, the 60's actually started a few years into the 1960s, maybe around 1963 or 1964, and ended a few years into the 1970s. By 1976, Donovan's hippie image seemed increasingly out of step with cultural trends at the time. Then 1977 came along, with punk and disco, and his popular declined even more. So 1976 was the tail end of his most popular and creative era. For instance, note the archival retrospective album for him, "Troubadour," deals with that whole period, 1964 to 1976. After 1976, Donovan found it hard to even get record contracts to make new albums. But he was still going pretty strong up through 1976. I think a lot of his 1970s output is underappreciated.

So this turns out to be a really good time for a concert recording. He was still writing and performing excellent new songs, such as "Dark Eyed Blue Jean Angel," while also doing his older hits.

There were a few problems with the bootleg recording though. One of them was that the DJ for the radio station broadcasting the concert often cut in for station identification between songs. With some audio editing, I was able to remove all of that DJ talk while still keeping the appropriate amount of cheering after each song. The songs with "[Edit]" in their names are all cases where I had to make significant edits to get rid of the DJ chatter. Also, on a few songs, but only a few, the lead vocals were low in the mix. So I used the UVR5 audio editing program to fix that.

After those changes, this is a really top notch recording. If you're a Donovan fan at all, you should give it a listen.

This album is an hour and 16 minutes long.

01 Sunshine Superman (Donovan)
02 There Is a Mountain (Donovan)
03 talk (Donovan)
04 Dark Eyed Blue Jean Angel [Edit] (Donovan)
05 talk (Donovan)
06 Laughing River (Donovan)
07 talk (Donovan)
08 Take Your Time (Donovan)
09 talk (Donovan)
10 Friends (Donovan)
11 Woman's Work [Edit] (Donovan)
12 talk (Donovan)
13 Catch the Wind (Donovan)
14 talk (Donovan)
15 My My They Sigh (Donovan)
16 Season of the Witch [Edit] (Donovan)
17 Black Widow [Edit] (Donovan)
18 Happiness Runs (Donovan)
19 talk (Donovan)
20 Lalena [Edit] (Donovan)
21 talk (Donovan)
22 Atlantis (Donovan)
23 I Love My Shirt (Donovan)
24 Mellow Yellow (Donovan)
25 Saturday Night (Donovan)
26 Hurdy Gurdy Man (Donovan)

This album is an hour and 16 minutes long.

https://www.upload.ee/files/16571793/DONVN1976ThBttmLneNwYrkC__4-10-1976_atse.zip.html

Wow, that's quite a suit Donovan is wearing. I wonder if they still make suits like that today. Anyway, I couldn't find any good photos of him in concert in 1976. This one is "circa 1975," but I don't know anything beyond that.

Isle of Wight Festival, Afton Down, Isle of Wight, Britain, 8-27-1970 to 8-30-1970 - 8-30-1970: Part 2: Donovan & Pentangle

After the hard rock of Free, the next two acts at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival had more of a folky sound: Donovan and Pentangle.

Unfortunately, just like the John Sebastian set I discussed previously, I have a recording of the full Donovan set, but it sounds terrible. It's an audience bootleg. Just like the Sebastian one, there was a near constant wind blowing on the microphone, messing with the vocals in a way that's impossible to improve. He played for about an hour, with the first half solo acoustic and the second half with his band Open Road.

But all is not lost, because three songs survived with worthy sound quality. "Catch the Wind" sounds the best, because it was included on the album "Message to Love" that went with the film documentary of the same name. The other two songs here apparently come from a better sourced bootleg.

We're lucky to have most of the Pentangle set. None of it has been officially released, nor did any of it appear on any bootlegs that I know of. However, in 2019, Colin Harper posted what he had of the set on YouTube, and I've taken it from there. Harper has written a book about Pentangle and has been involved in the rerelease of all their albums, so he's had access to material from their vaults. 

That's the good news. The bad news is, there were a number of problems with this recording. First off, the first three songs are missing: "Train Song," "Sally Free and Easy," and "Bruton Town." There was nothing I could do about that. Also, the first minute or so of "Hunting Song" was missing, and the last couple of minutes of the final song, "Pentangling," was missing. I found a good bootleg from the same year at Berkeley, and I patched in parts of that to fill in the missing sections. As a result, there are now about 37 minutes out of what had been a 55 minute set.

Pentangle was not happy with how their set went. Harper wrote: "The group always recalled the show as sub-par, to do with various offstage distractions, poor onstage sound, and someone stage-invading at one point and standing on singer Jacqui McShee's foot (indeed, you can hear her asking this person to get off her foot during 'Rain and Snow'). [However,] at this remove, it sounds like they acquitted themselves very well in the circumstances."

This album is 50 minutes long.

017 Catch the Wind (Donovan)
018 Henry Martin (Donovan)
019 Train Whistle Blues (Donovan)
020 talk (Pentangle)
021 Light Flight (Pentangle)
022 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Pentangle)
023 Hunting Song [Edit] (Pentangle)
024 Rain and Snow (Pentangle)
025 House Carpenter (Pentangle)
026 Pentangling [Edit] (Pentangle)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15596244/IsleofWghtFestivlAftnDwnIsleofWghtBrtain__8-30-1970_Pt2DonovnPntngle.zip.html

The cover photo comes from this exact concert.

Various Artists - NME Poll Winners' Concert, Empire Pool, London, Britain, 4-11-1965

I read an interesting article today (in January 2022) about how the sale of new music is continually falling to all time lows every year, while interest in older music continues to rise. It's a good article. I suggest you check it out:

https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/is-old-music-killing-new-music

As the article points out, there's still plenty of good new music, it's just that's not what gets promoted and makes it big, due to screwed-up record companies and other factors. Compare the artists on the top of the charts today to the quality of the mainstream artists at the time of this 1965 concert: the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Animals, Dusty Springfield, Them (with Van Morrison), the Moody Blues, Donovan, and many more, all sharing the same stage! Is it any wonder that lots of people (including me) are more interested in this kind of music than the generic, pre-packaged pop of today? The amount of sheer talent bursting up the charts in 1965 was staggering.

The reason so many big names played this one concert was because it was an awards show of sorts for NME - New Musical Express, a British music magazine. NME began giving out yearly poll winner awards in 1953, and continue to do it until this day (2022 as I write this). At least through 1971, there were annual concerts to celebrate the winners. But unlike most awards shows, this concert just focused on music instead of bogging things down with lots of speeches and award presentations (though there was a short section for that). 

I would love to hear the 1966, 1967, and 1968 shows in full, since music just got better and better as the 1960s went on, in my opinion, and all sorts of interesting artists played in those later shows, including Cream, the Small Faces, the Move, the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Who, the Yardbirds, and lots more, including more appearances by big names in this concert, like the Beatles and Rolling Stones. It seems only the 1964, 1965 and 1966 shows are available on bootleg. I'm posting the 1965 one first as I think it's more interesting, with these mostly British Invasion acts more fully developed by then.

The sound quality is excellent throughout. This concert was professionally recorded in order to be broadcast on British TV a short time afterwards. The TV version was edited down, but somehow luckily a recording of the entire show has made its way to the public. You can watch the entire thing on YouTube, though it's only in black and white.

This concert took place before artists typically stretched out with lots of soloing and jamming and such. These songs don't differ that much from their studio versions (with a few exceptions, like Them and the Animals). But I still think this is a fascinating listen, as there aren't many quality concert recordings from this early in the 1960s. In particular, there were many artists who were pretty big back in the day but have little to no surviving audio or video of them in concert. Even for major names like the Animals and Dusty Springfield, there's very little from around this time period. And for the lesser known acts, this is often the only evidence of them in concert that seems to still exist.

I'm a big Kinks fan, so a minor disappointment for me is that the Kinks only played two songs. Even at this early stage in their career they were a big enough name to deserve more time. Apparently, this has to do with them being late to the show, as they had just got off a plane coming from another country. You can hear guitarist Dave Davies apologize about this between songs. According to some accounts, they actually played after the Beatles, as the very last act. However, the recording I used had them just before the Beatles, and that seems to fit in terms of the audience applause and announcement and such, so I'm keeping it that way.

As far as naming the artists for each song goes, technically I should have put the names of the emcee or emcees on many of the talk tracks. Some of those had band members talking, some had the emcees, and some where a mix. But rather than spend time dealing with all that, I just put the name of the act being introduced, for simplicity's sake. (Unfortunately, one of the emcees was DJ Jimmy Savile, who later was disgraced in a child molestation scandal. Thankfully, his role here is very minor.) I only put in the DJ names on the very first and last tracks, since those weren't linked to any particular artists.

A couple of the performers here are rather forgettable. I was tempted to cut out Freddie and the Dreamers and Sounds Incorporated in particular. But ultimately I decided it was best to present the entire thing unedited (although I cut out some annoying laughter by Freddie and the Dreamers between songs). Overall, I think the percentage of quality performers is quite high. 

The Beatles only got to do a 15 minute long set, but it's nice that you can actually hear them perform instead of being totally drowned out by screaming, as was typical of the time. Apparently, the arena (Empire Pool, later renamed Wembley Arena), held about 10,000 people. I'm sure that, by 1965, the Beatles could have filled up a much larger venue in London all on their own.

In case you're curious about who won the poll awards this year, there's a list at the NME website, which you can see here: 

https://www.nme.com/nme-awards/awards-history/1965-606223

It seems there were even more musical acts who performed but didn't make it to the recording for one reason or another. I'm not entirely sure if they actually performed, but these other names were included in the program given to the audience and were at least scheduled to perform: Tom Jones, the Bachelors, the Rockin' Berries, and Twinkle.  

This concert is two hours and 23 minutes long. I cut out some dead air between songs. But there was surprisingly little of that to begin with. Either this was already edited down, or this was a tightly run show.

01 talk (Keith Fordyce & Jimmy Savile)
02 Bo Diddley - Pretty Thing (Moody Blues)
03 Go Now (Moody Blues)
04 talk (Freddie & the Dreamers)
05 Little Bitty Pretty One (Freddie & the Dreamers)
06 talk (Freddie & the Dreamers)
07 A Little You (Freddie & the Dreamers)
08 talk (Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames)
09 Yeh Yeh (Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames)
10 talk (Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames)
11 Walking the Dog (Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames)
12 talk (Seekers)
13 I'll Never Find Another You (Seekers)
14 talk (Seekers)
15 A World of Our Own (Seekers)
16 talk (Herman's Hermits)
17 Wonderful World (Herman's Hermits)
18 talk (Herman's Hermits)
19 Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter (Herman's Hermits)
20 talk (Ivy League)
21 Funny How Love Can Be (Ivy League)
22 talk (Ivy League)
23 Sweet and Tender Romance (Ivy League)
24 talk (Ivy League)
25 That's Why I'm Crying (Ivy League)
26 talk (Sounds Incorporated)
27 Time for You [Instrumental] (Sounds Incorporated)
28 talk (Sounds Incorporated)
29 In the Hall of the Mountain King [Instrumental] (Sounds Incorporated)
30 talk (Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders)
31 The Game of Love (Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders)
32 talk (Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders)
33 Just a Little Bit Too Late (Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders)
34 talk (Rolling Stones)
35 Everybody Needs Somebody to Love (Rolling Stones)
36 Pain in My Heart (Rolling Stones)
37 Around and Around (Rolling Stones)
38 The Last Time (Rolling Stones)
39 talk (Cilla Black with Sounds Incorporated)
40 Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah (Cilla Black with Sounds Incorporated)
41 talk (Cilla Black with Sounds Incorporated)
42 Going Out of My Head (Cilla Black with Sounds Incorporated)
43 talk (Donovan)
44 You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond (Donovan)
45 talk (Donovan)
46 Catch the Wind (Donovan)
47 talk (Them)
48 Here Comes the Night (Them)
49 Turn on Your Love Light (Them)
50 talk (Searchers)
51 Bumble Bee (Searchers)
52 talk (Searchers)
53 Let the Good Times Roll (Searchers)
54 talk (Dusty Springfield)
55 Dancing in the Street (Dusty Springfield)
56 talk (Dusty Springfield)
57 Mockingbird (Dusty Springfield)
58 I Can't Hear You [No More] (Dusty Springfield)
59 talk (Animals)
60 Boom Boom (Animals)
61 Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (Animals)
62 Talkin' 'bout You (Animals)
63 talk (Kinks)
64 You Really Got Me (Kinks)
65 Tired of Waiting for You (Kinks)
66 talk (Beatles)
67 I Feel Fine (Beatles)
68 talk (Beatles)
69 She's a Woman (Beatles)
70 talk (Beatles)
71 Baby's in Black (Beatles)
72 talk (Beatles)
73 Ticket to Ride (Beatles)
74 talk (Beatles)
75 Long Tall Sally (Beatles)
76 talk (Keith Fordyce)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/6niBfp48

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/RBH3ooSgczT5hrW/file

When I first posted this album in 2022, I used a black and white photo of the Beatles from the concert that I colorized. But looking at the cover again in 2026, I decided the photo wasn't very good. So I used a different photo of the Beatles from the concert that is zoomed in closer, and has more detail. This one also was black and white, and then colorized by me with the use of the Kolorize program.

I took most of the cover text from advertisements of the show, though I added in the list of some of the artists.

Donovan - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: 1973-1977

Here's the fifth and last of the albums I've made of Donovan at the BBC. However, I must say it's a real stretch to call this a BBC album, because only the first two songs were from BBC TV or radio shows. The rest are from various other TV and radio shows in the US, Germany, France, and Belgium.

Donovan's public and musical performance was closely tied with a 1960s flower power hippie image. He stumbled commercially in the early 1970s, having no more hit singles. However, in my opinion, he rallied creatively in the mid-1970s, writing a lot of solid songs. That time period is well represented here. A couple of the songs are versions of his 1960s hits ("Colours" and "Sunshine Superman"), and there's one cover, "Travelling Light." But pretty much all the rest are his better 1970s songs.

All of the performances here are officially unreleased. But because they come from TV and radio shows, the sound quality is generally high. There's a mixture of solo acoustic and full band performances. Most of the songs were done in front of audiences, but I generally edited out the cheering as much as possible to allow for a consistent studio sound.

As the 1970s progressed, Donovan found himself increasingly out of step with cultural and musical trends. I think it affected his creatively, and his career more or less petered out by the end of the 1970s. He would have later comebacks, but his TV and radio appearances also petered out for several years, so this is a good point to end this series.

This album is 37 minutes long.

01 Maria Magenta (Donovan)
02 Only the Blues (Donovan with John Denver)
03 Colours (Donovan & Nana Mouskouri)
04 Celia of the Seals (Donovan)
05 Sailing Homeward (Donovan)
06 Yellow Star (Donovan)
07 Sunshine Superman (Donovan)
08 Heart Full of Love (Donovan)
09 Rock and Roll Souljer (Donovan)
10 talk (Donovan)
11 Salvation Stomp (Donovan)
12 talk (Donovan)
13 How Silly (Donovan)
14 talk (Donovan)
15 Travelling Light (Donovan with John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
16 Local Boy Chops Wood [Edit] (Donovan)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15110749/Donovn_1973-1977_BBSessionsVolume5_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is said to be from a TV appearance "circa 1973," but I don't know any details beyond that.

Donovan - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, BBC Studios, London, Britain, 8-24-1972

Here's Volume 4 of Donovan at the BBC. This one is different from the others. Those were collections of various TV and radio sessions. He didn't seem to do any other such sessions for all of 1971 or most of 1972. But then in August 1972, he played a single BBC TV, "In Concert," that is presented here. It's 44 minutes long, and just features Donovan on acoustic guitar.

The songs played are from all points of his career so far. He played some of his old hits, like "Catch the Wind," "Colours," and "Mellow Yellow." But he also did a number of new songs, including two from his latest album "Cosmic Wheels," the songs "Cosmic Wheels" and "Maria Magenta." A few songs were still unreleased at the time: "Sailing Homeward," "The Ordinary Family," "People Call Me the Pied Piper," "Lovely Princess," and "A Well-Known Has-Been." There's also a fair amount of talking between songs, and audience participation on the song "Happiness Runs."

As you'd expect from the BBC, the sound quality is excellent, even though this show remains officially unreleased.   

There's one more BBC album to come after this, dealing with the years 1973 and 1974.

01 Jennifer Juniper (Donovan)
02 There Is a Mountain (Donovan)
03 Catch the Wind (Donovan)
04 talk (Donovan)
05 The Ordinary Family (Donovan)
06 Lovely Princess (Donovan)
07 talk (Donovan)
08 People Call Me the Pied Piper (Donovan)
09 A Well Known Has-Been (Donovan)
10 talk [Happiness Runs Practice] (Donovan)
11 Happiness Runs (Donovan)
12 Colours (Donovan)
13 talk (Donovan)
14 Sailing Homeward (Donovan)
15 Cosmic Wheels - Maria Magenta (Donovan)
16 talk (Donovan)
17 The Pee Song (Donovan)
18 Mellow Yellow (Donovan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/sfBF1pj3

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/bDHdO8yEBL6rcf5/file

The photo I used for the cover is a bit low-res. But I used it because it's a screenshot taken from this exact concert. In January 2025, I managed to improve the image somewhat with the Krea AI program.

Donovan - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1968-1970

Judging from recent comments, people seem to be enjoying the Donovan BBC album, so posting the next one is a good way to get back into the swing of posting music after my vacation.

I count 11 of 22 songs here that are actually from BBC TV or radio shows. Four of those are from "Bobbie Gentry," a BBC TV show starring Bobbie Gentry. Those include two duets with Donovan and Gentry.

Another big chunk of seven songs (from tracks 11 to 17) come from two appearances on the US TV show "The Smother Brothers Comedy Hour." This includes a duet version of "I Love My Shirt" with Donovan and the Smother Brothers, and a duet version with Donovan and Jennifer Warnes on "Time Is on the Run." Note that this is the same Jennifer Warnes who would have big hits in the 1980s with "Up Where You Belong" and "(I've Had) The Time of My Life." But at this time, her music career was just starting out. Her birth name was "Jennifer Warnes," but in the late 1960s she briefly used the stage names "Jennifer Warren" and simply "Jennifer." The reason Donovan dueted with her is because she was a part of the cast of the Smothers Brothers show at the time.

The last four songs come from appearances on various TV shows from the US, Belgium, and France. I was quite surprised that Donovan did a (rather off the cuff) version of "Get Back" by the Beatles, which had been a number one hit all over just a few months prior to his version.

A version of "There Is a Mountain' was included in Volume 2 of this series, but that is a solo version, and this is a duet version.

None of the performances here have been officially released. The sound quality is generally very good, despite the fact that the Smothers Brothers TV show songs and two others were performed in front of applauding audiences.

This album is 52 minutes long.

UPDATE: On June 6, 2022, I updated the mp3 download file with one song I'd missed, "Celia of the Seals." Thanks to Marley for sharing that one.

01 Mad John's Escape [Edit] (Donovan)
02 It's Been a Long Time (Donovan)
03 The Entertaining of a Shy Little Girl [Edit] (Donovan)
04 Hast Thou Seen the Unicorn [The Unicorn - The Owl and the Pussycat] [Edit] (Donovan)
05 Skip Along Sam [Edit] (Donovan)
06 Young but Growing [The Trees They Do Grow High] (Donovan)
07 There Is a Mountain (Donovan & Bobbie Gentry)
08 Bugs (Bobbie Gentry & Donovan)
09 A Sunny Day (Donovan)
10 Maria (Donovan)
11 Time Is on the Run (Donovan & Jennifer Warnes)
12 I Love My Shirt (Donovan & the Smothers Brothers)
13 Happiness Runs (Donovan)
14 Giggle in a Bubbley Bath (Donovan)
15 Angel's Thoughts (Donovan)
16 Little White Flower (Donovan)
17 Atlantis (Donovan)
18 Barabajagal [Love Is Hot] (Donovan)
19 Get Back (Donovan)
20 Someone Singing (Donovan & Andy Williams)
21 The Ferryman's Daughter (Donovan)
22 Hurdy Gurdy Man (Donovan)
23 Celia of the Seals [Edit] (Donovan)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15110630/Donovn_1968-1970_BBSessionsVolume3_atse.zip.html

The cover photo of Donovan comes from a concert in Denmark in 1969.

Donovan - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1967-1968

Here's Volume 2 out of my five volumes of Donovan performing for the BBC.

After no BBC sessions for all of 1966 due to a record company dispute, Donovan resumed with another one in January 1967. The first three songs are from that. But that seems to be it for 1967, or at least all that has survived. 

The next four songs are also from 1967, but from the French TV show "Bouton Rouge." This show is a treasure trove of great performances from the 1960s, especially because the artists played live without an audience, just like BBC sessions. (If you search YouTube from "Bouton Rouge" and "1967" or "1968," you'll find all sorts of interesting music videos.)

After that, the song "Lullaby of Spring" is a unique 1968 performance, but one done for a TV documentary. So I don't know when it was recorded, though it was broadcast in November 1968. The rest of the songs are from either BBC radio or TV shows.

All the performances here are officially unreleased. The sound quality is very good throughout. Donovan's musical style was broadening, and one result of that is we see him playing with a backing band on a lot of these songs.

Once again, three of the songs suffer from the BBC DJs talking over the music (the ones with "[Edit]" in their names). But I used the X-Minus audio editing program to wipe out the vocals while keeping the underlying music.

Just like Volume 1, there are two bonus tracks. And just like Volume 1, they're perfectly fine in terms of sound quality, but they're bonus tracks because they're repeats of songs on this album (though different performances).

This album is 46 minutes long, not counting the two bonus tracks.

01 Mellow Yellow (Donovan)
02 The Tinker and the Crab (Donovan)
03 Hampstead Incident [Edit] (Donovan)
04 Sand and Foam (Donovan)
05 Sweet Beverly (Donovan)
06 Hey Gyp [Dig the Slowness] (Donovan)
07 Season of the Witch (Donovan)
08 The Lullaby of Spring (Donovan)
09 As I Recall It [Edit] (Donovan)
10 Young Girl Blues [Edit] (Donovan)
11 Lalena (Donovan)
12 There Is a Mountain (Donovan)
13 Jennifer Juniper (Donovan)
14 An Old Fashioned Picture Book (Donovan)
15 Where Is She (Donovan)

Lalena (Donovan)
The Tinker and the Crab (Donovan)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15110626/Donovn_1967-1968_BBSessionsVolume2_atse.zip.html

The cover art shows Donovan at the 1967 National Jazz and Blues Festival in Berkshire, Britain, in August 1967.

Donovan - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1965-1966

I recently posted about my overall BBC plans. Next up on my list for that is to post the BBC sessions of Donovan. I have five volumes planned from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, including one complete show. Here's the first one.

When Donovan first emerged on the music scene in Britain, he was in a folkie mode that was both unique yet influenced by Bob Dylan. That's what he is here, playing all his songs in solo acoustic mode. He does two Dylan songs here, "Who Killed Davey Moore," and "Daddy, You've Been on My Mind" (usually known as Mama, You've Been on My Mind").

I previously posted an album of his stray tracks from around 1965. Four of the exact same performances are both on here and there: the two Dylan songs I just mentioned, plus "Working on the Railroad" and "Runnin' from Home." Normally, I don't like repeats like that, but I figured I should have all the BBC performances on these BBC sessions albums.

Every single song here is officially unreleased. Also, for this album and indeed the whole series of albums, I've also collected performances he did on other TV and radio shows, not just the BBC. In this case, the first 13 songs are from the BBC, and the last six are not. For those last six, two are from a film called "The Big T. N. T. Show," one is from a US TV show, and the last three are from a Swedish TV show.

The songs are sorted chronologically, and that non-BBC stretch starts in late 1965 and continues into 1966. I'm sure there would have been more BBC performances to chose from, except that Donovan ran into some serious contract disputes with his record company. This delayed his next album "Sunshine Superman," as well as singles, for a few months in the US. But in Britain it was worse, and he couldn't put out any new music for all over 1966. Thus there were no BBC sessions there either. So these other performances try to make up for some of that gap.

For the 13 songs actually done at the BBC, there was the usual problem of BBC DJs talking over the music sometimes. It happened for six of the 13 songs (plus one of the bonus tracks). But I used the X-Minus audio editing program and wiped out the talking while keeping the underlying music.

There are two bonus tracks, "Catch the Wind" and "Colours." There's absolutely nothing wrong with them in terms of sound quality. The only reason they're just bonus tracks is because they're different BBC versions of songs already on the album. I believe I picked the better versions for the main album. The versions of "Colours" I picked has an extra verse at the end, compared to the bonus track version.

This album is 48 minutes long, not counting the bonus tracks.

01 San Francisco Bay Blues (Donovan)
02 Catch the Wind (Donovan)
03 Who Killed Davey Moore [Edit] (Donovan)
04 Colours (Donovan)
05 To Sing for You [Edit] (Donovan)
06 Working on the Railroad [Edit] (Donovan)
07 Candy Man (Donovan)
08 Runnin' from Home [Edit] (Donovan)
09 Universal Soldier (Donovan)
10 Little Tin Soldier [Edit] (Donovan)
11 Turquoise (Donovan)
12 Bert's Blues [Edit] (Donovan)
13 Daddy, You've Been on My Mind (Donovan)
14 Summer Day Reflection Songs (Donovan)
15 Sweet Joy (Donovan)
16 Three King Fishers (Donovan)
17 Celeste (Donovan)
18 Guinevere (Donovan)
19 Sunny Goodge Street (Donovan)

Catch the Wind [Edit] (Donovan)
Colours (Donovan)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15110521/Donovn_1965-1966_BBSessionsVolume1_atse.zip.html

The cover photo shows Donovan on the "Ready Steady Go" BBC TV show in early 1965. It could be when he performed the first song here, "San Francisco Bay Blues," which was also done on that TV show in early 1965, but I'm not sure.

Donovan - Universal Soldier - Non-Album Tracks (1965)

Donovan is a curious case for me. I think a lot of his songs are great, but there are many I consider duds. There are only a few of his albums I like all the way through. But it also turns out that he has lots of good songs that have only come out in obscure ways, such as bonus tracks, or not come out at all.

This album is a case in point. At the start of Donovan's career, in 1964 and 1965, he was in pure folkie mode, doing everything with just his vocals and acoustic guitar. This is the era that's his most consistent, in my opinion. He put out two albums in 1965, "What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid" and "Fairytale." In addition, there's an archival release called "Sixty Four" that covers most of his songs recorded in 1964. This album covers all his stray tracks from 1965. I was surprised to find there's just as much good music here as on either of his official 1965 albums.

The first half of this album consists of officially released material. He put out the EP "Universal Soldier" with three unique songs on it. Additionally, two more songs came out on a single ("Turquoise"), plus two more have come out on an archival collection.

The second half of the album is all still officially unreleased material. But I think it's just as strong, and the sound quality is surprisingly good for the time period. Half of these songs were played in concert, and the other half were played on the BBC. I suppose the reason many of these didn't get released at the time is that they were cover versions and he probably wanted to emphasize his original material.

Two of the songs are covers of Bob Dylan songs, and I'm guessing he especially wanted to avoid releasing any of those, since he was getting criticized as being a Dylan clone. But I really like both of them. He gives "Who Killed Davey Moore" a somewhat different arrangement that I think improves the song. "Daddy, You've Been on My Mind" is usually known as "Mama, You've Been on My Mind." I'm puzzled why he switched the gender, since Dylan and the other men who have covered it have called it "Mama."

Oh, by the way,  "Legend of a Girl Child Linda" is a Donovan original that later appeared on the "Sunshine Superman" album. But I prefer this version, without what I consider unnecessary orchestration.

01 Universal Soldier (Donovan)
02 Do You Hear Me Now (Donovan)
03 The War Drags On (Donovan)
04 Why Do You Treat Me like You Do (Donovan)
05 Every Man Has His Chain (Donovan)
06 Turquoise (Donovan)
07 Hey Gyp [Dig the Slowness] (Donovan)
08 Needle of Death (Donovan)
09 Legend of a Girl Child Linda (Donovan)
10 Sweet Joy (Donovan)
11 Bert's Blues (Donovan)
12 Who Killed Davey Moore (Donovan)
13 Working on the Railroad (Donovan)
14 Running from Home (Donovan)
15 Daddy. You've Been on My Mind (Donovan)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15110517/Donovn_1965_UniverslSoldier_atse.zip.html

The cover is the cover of the 1965 "Universal Soldier" EP, without any changes.