Various Artists - Prince's Trust Rock Gala, Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain, 6-5-1988

The Prince's Trust is a charity founded by then Prince Charles, the British crown prince. (He is now King Charles III) as I write this in 2024.) There have been a bunch of benefit concerts for the charity, each with many stars participating. Here's another one.

These Prince's Trust concerts have happened in a very irregular pace. I've already posted benefit concerts from 1982, 1986, and 1987. This one is from 1988. There were more from 1989 and 1990, so it started to seem like an annual thing. However, I think the next one after that took place in 1996. There have been at least five more since then, although I may well be missing some.

This one was similar to the previous two in similar ways. The concert started with some newer acts, like T'Pau and Wet Wet Wet, and they played more songs than one might expect, given the stature of the other acts in the concert. Both T'Pau and Wet Wet Wet actually played four songs each, according to setlists, but I only have two from T'Pau and three from Wet Wet Wet. I can't say I'm lamenting the missing songs, since I don't think one could compare them with nearly all of the acts that came later. Rick Astley and Black were a couple other acts that appeared early, and played the one big hit each of them was known for.

After that, there were many of the same "usual suspects" who played in previous Prince's Trust concerts, such as Phil Collins, Elton John, Howard Jones, Mark Knoplfer, and Eric Clapton. But there were some first timers too, like Leonard Cohen, the Bee Gees, Peter Gabriel, and Joe Cocker. It's frustrating to me that you have someone like Peter Gabriel, whose most recent album at the time, "So," had sold five million copies in the U.S. alone, only getting to play one song. But it is what it is, I guess.

I don't know the exact details, but I believe that many of the big stars backed each other towards the end of the concert, as was the case in previous years. Because people pay extra close attention to Eric Clapton's guitar playing, I was able to find out that once he took the stage with track 26 ("Behind the Mask"), he stayed on stage for the rest of the concert, including playing guitar on songs sung by Knoplfer, John, and Cocker.

Similarly, I was able to determine that Brian May of Queen didn't sing lead vocals on any songs, but he played lead guitar on a bunch of them: tracks 6, 8, 10, 16, 19, 24, 26, and 35. John Deacon, the bassist for Queen, also apparently played on some songs.

Currently, I'm only able to find a few songs from the 1989 and 1990 concerts. If anyone has the full concerts, please let me know. I may try to post the 1996 concert, but I'm probably missing about half of that one.

This album is two hours and two minutes long.

01 Heart and Soul (T'Pau)
02 China in Your Hand (T'Pau)
03 talk (Wet Wet Wet)
04 Wishing I Was Lucky (Wet Wet Wet)
05 Sweet Little Mystery - Twist and Shout (Wet Wet Wet)
06 Dancing with Tears in My Eyes (Midge Ure)
07 talk (Midge Ure & Rick Astley)
08 Never Gonna Give You Up (Rick Astley)
09 talk (Rick Astley & Black)
10 Wonderful Life (Black)
11 talk (Black & Leonard Cohen)
12 Tower of Song (Leonard Cohen)
13 talk (Phil Collins)
14 Doesn't Anyone Stay Together Anymore (Phil Collins)
15 talk (Phil Collins & the Bee Gees)
16 You Win Again (Bee Gees)
17 Jive Talkin' (Bee Gees)
18 talk (Bee Gees & Peter Gabriel)
19 Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel)
20 talk (Peter Gabriel & Howard Jones)
21 What Is Love (Howard Jones)
22 talk (Phil Collins)
23 I Missed Again (Phil Collins)
24 You Can't Hurry Love (Phil Collins)
25 talk (Phil Collins & Joe Cocker)
26 The Letter (Joe Cocker)
27 talk (Eric Clapton)
28 Behind the Mask (Eric Clapton)
29 Cocaine (Eric Clapton)
30 talk (Eric Clapton & Mark Knopfler)
31 Money for Nothing (Mark Knopfler)
32 talk (Elton John)
33 I Don't Wanna Go On with You like That (Elton John)
34 Layla (Eric Clapton)
35 With a Little Help from My Friends (Joe Cocker)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/cbyrisBH

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/jJV74b5uh8a36UP/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/gP7SW

Just like previous years, there was a group photo taken of the performers. Here are all their names.
Back row: Rick Astley, Howard Jones, Peter Gabriel, Joe Cocker, Phil Collins, Midge Ure
Middle row: Mark Knopfler, Brian May, Elton John, Eric Clapton
Front row: The Bee Gees, Robin, Barry and Maurice Gibb

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.

A Conspiracy of Hope, Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ, 6-15-1986, Part 3 - Ruben Blades, Yoko Ono, Howard Jones, Miles Davis, Neville Brothers & Joan Baez

This is the third of out five albums of the final concert from the 1986 "A Conspiracy of Hope" tour. If you want to know more about the concert in general, check out the write-up for the first part.

This part has an even more eclectic group of artists than the other parts, in my opinion. There also was an emphasis on world music. That's especially true because of two famous musicians who took part, but didn't have sets of their own. Fela Kuti, from Nigeria, played two songs with the Neville Brothers. Carlos Santana, the main force behind the band Santana, played guitar on songs by Ruben Blades, Miles Davis, and the Neville Brothers.

Ruben Blades, from Panama, is one of the most famous musicians from Latin America. He hasn't had a lot of commercial success in the U.S., probably because he's generally stuck to singing in Spanish, as he did for his set here. But he's had dozens of hits in Spanish speaking countries. He's also won eleven Grammy Awards in the U.S., and has acted in many movies. Plus, he's been a politician in Panama.

Yoko Ono is best known for being the wife of John Lennon of the Beatles. She's been criticized for her avant garde singing style. However, she had a conventional hit in the U.S. and Britain in 1981 with the song "Walking on Thin Ice," which she played here.

British singer Howard Jones had a bunch of new wave hits in the 1980s, but he was only allowed to sing one for this concert, "No One Is to Blame."

Miles Davis is one of the most famous jazz musicians of all time. Unfortunately, his peak years were in the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s. He retired from music in the late 1970s, letting sex and drugs take over his life. He resumed his music career in the early 1980s and found his greatest commerical success with a more poppy style, but many jazz fans aren't fond of this phase of his career.

Today, the Neville Brothers are one of the most famous bands out of New Orleans, if not the most famous. But in 1986, they weren't that well known, having only released one album under that name, back in 1978. But some of the brothers in the band had had more success, especially Aaron Neville, who had a big hit way back in 1966 with "Tell It like It Is." Folk singer Joan Baez also had lots of success back in the 1960s. For this concert, she sang the Bob Dylan song "The Times They Are A-Changin'" in acappella style. But for the other songs, she was backed by the Neville Brothers. I think it was a successful, though unexpected, collaboration.

This album is an hour and 44 minutes long.

044 Cuentas del Alma (Ruben Blades)
045 talk (Ruben Blades)
046 Tierra Dura (Ruben Blades)
047 talk (Ruben Blades)
048 Todos Vuelven (Ruben Blades)
049 Muevete (Ruben Blades with Carlos Santana)
050 talk (Ruben Blades)
051 Walking on Thin Ice (Yoko Ono)
052 talk (Yoko Ono)
053 Imagine (Yoko Ono)
054 No One Is to Blame (Howard Jones)
055 One Phone Call - Street Scenes - Speak - That's What Happened [Instrumental] (Miles Davis)
056 Tutu [Instrumental] (Miles Davis)
057 Splatch [Instrumental] (Miles Davis)
058 Burn [Instrumental] (Miles Davis with Carlos Santana)
059 Big Chief (Neville Brothers)
060 Goodbye Forever (Neville Brothers)
061 Everybody Better Wake Up (Neville Brothers with Fela Kuti)
062 Midnight Key (Neville Brothers with Carlos Santana & Fela Kuti)
063 The Times They Are A-Changin' (Joan Baez)
064 Shout (Joan Baez & the Neville Brothers)
065 No Woman, No Cry (Joan Baez & the Neville Brothers)
066 Let It Be (Joan Baez & the Neville Brothers)
067 Amazing Grace (Joan Baez & Aaron Neville) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/c753n41S

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/G4UcLFfuso6gUuv/file

The cover photo is of Joan Baez and the Neville Brothers, and it comes from this exact concert.