Joan Armatrading - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: 2011-2021

I was going through my music collection recently, and I noticed some albums in there that I thought I'd posted at my blog, yet I never had. Here's one. I previously posted five BBC albums by singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading. The previous four were concerts, but this one is a collection of studio sessions.

The first song is from a brief revival of the Old Grey Whistle Test BBC TV show in 2011. It has been released on an album, called "The Old Grey Whistle Test: Live." Everything else here is unreleased. The second song is from the BBC Folk Awards in 2016. Tracks three through five are from a 2016 radio session. Tracks six and seven are from another 2016 radio session. Finally, tracks eight and nine are from a 2021 radio session.

Most of the songs are in solo acoustic format, but not all. By the way, if anyone knows of additional BBC sessions by her that I missed, please let me know. It's easy to miss some of these.

This album is 36 minutes long. 

01 Empty Highway (Joan Armatrading)
02 Baby Blue Eyes (Joan Armatrading)
03 I Like It When We're Together (Joan Armatrading)
04 Love and Affection (Joan Armatrading)
05 The Weakness in Me (Joan Armatrading)
06 Loving What You Hate (Joan Armatrading)
07 Down to Zero (Joan Armatrading)
08 Already There (Joan Armatrading)
09 Drop the Pilot (Joan Armatrading)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/FTbswHgF

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/O8aaNKQZ8lWjGK3/file 

The cover photo was taken at the BBC Folk Awards at the Royal Albert Hall, in London, in 2016. The second song on the album is from this performance.

Joan Armatrading - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 12-5-1979

It's time for another episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. This one stars Joan Armatrading.

This concert took place at a strange time for Armatrading. She had been releasing an album a year for most of the 1970s, but she didn't release one in 1979. This was due to a financial dispute with her record company, which was later resolved. To fill the gap, a live album called "Steppin' Out" was released in Britain. But the record company didn't deem her popular enough to release the album there (though it did get released there many years later). Also to fill the gap, an EP was released in November 1979. One song on that, "Rosie," was a hit in 1980. This concert included a version of "Rosie," as well as "Love Song," which was otherwise only included on the "Steppin' Out" live album.

It's been a while since I put this album together, so I don't remember why two of the songs have "[Edit]" in their titles. Probably, it was due to voiceovers, since that was all too common a practice for this TV show. The sound quality is very good, despite this remaining unreleased. 

This album is 58 minutes long. 

01 Barefoot and Pregnant [Edit] (Joan Armatrading)
02 Rosie (Joan Armatrading)
03 talk (Joan Armatrading)
04 Cool Blue Stole My Heart [Edit] (Joan Armatrading)
05 talk (Joan Armatrading)
06 Back to the Night (Joan Armatrading)
07 Baby I (Joan Armatrading)
08 Love Song (Joan Armatrading)
09 Mama Mercy (Joan Armatrading)
10 Love and Affection (Joan Armatrading)
11 Show Some Emotion (Joan Armatrading)
12 You Rope Me, You Tie Me (Joan Armatrading)
13 Kissin' and a Huggin' (Joan Armatrading)
14 Tall in the Saddle (Joan Armatrading)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/66RaLUo2 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/DYKHlGSZ0nKXtNE/file

The cover photo is from a concert in Chicago, but not this concert. It's from the Park West venue, in July 1979. The original version was in black and white. But I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program.

Joan Armatrading - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1973-1977

If you think I've posted a "BBC Sessions, Volume 1" by Joan Armatrading, you're right. I first gave that name to a 1981 BBC concert she did. Then I found a 1977 BBC concert by her, and renamed the ones that came after that. Now, I've discovered a bunch of BBC studio sessions she did earlier in her career, so all the BBC albums by her after this got renumbered again. Sigh! Sorry. I wish I got all this right on the first go round.

In this case though, I had good reason for not posting the material in this album earlier, because most of it simply was beyond my reach. 

I've known for some time that Armatrading performed no less than eight studio sessions for BBC DJ John Peel from 1972 to 1976, playing three to four songs each. You can see the details here:

Joan Armatrading | John Peel Wiki | Fandom

That should have been enough material for one BBC studio sessions album, maybe two. Unfortunately though, the vast majority of those performances either weren't saved and have been lost, or they only exist in some private vault. The only session I could find was the last one, from 1976. I also found a couple of performances she did in the 1970s for the BBC TV show "The Old Grey Whistle Test," but I decided that wasn't enough to make an album.

But in recent weeks I've been in touch with a musical associate who has been sending me lots of great material for the BBC radio show "Top of the Pops." It turns out that some of the otherwise lost performances she did for John Peel's show were rebroadcast on Top of the Pops. Those have been saved in pristine condition. I think this is a great find because it includes two songs she wrote, "Some Kind of Love Song" and "Freedom," which as far as I can tell not only are still officially unreleased and unbootlegged, but there's virtually no mention of their existence on the Internet (other than the fact that they'd been performed on Peel's show). 

Please don't forget to redownload all the Armatrading BBC volumes after this one, since they are newly renumbered, with resulting changes to the cover art and mp3 tags. 

This album is 48 minutes long. 

UPDATE: On December 4, 2025, I added a song I'd missed, "Woncha Come on Home."

01 Child Star (Joan Armatrading)
02 talk (Joan Armatrading)
03 Gave It a Try (Joan Armatrading)
04 Lonely Lady [Edit] (Joan Armatrading)
05 Alice (Joan Armatrading)
06 Freedom (Joan Armatrading)
07 Some Kind of Love Song (Joan Armatrading)
08 No Love for Free (Joan Armatrading)
09 Down to Zero (Joan Armatrading)
10 Help Yourself (Joan Armatrading)
11 Kissin' and a Huggin' (Joan Armatrading)
12 People (Joan Armatrading)
13 Love and Affection (Joan Armatrading)
14 Steppin' Out (Joan Armatrading)
15 Woncha Come on Home (Joan Armatrading with Georgie Fame)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/gdZkcna7

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/gDqbFDG1Xhz8ZP8/file

The cover image is a photo taken during her "Old Grey Whistle Test" TV appearance in 1973, which make up the first three tracks here. I used the Krea AI program to improve the detail. 

Joan Armatrading - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: Sight and Sound, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 11-5-1977

When I first posted some Joan Armatrading BBC albums, I skipped this one. I was aware of this 1977 concert, but I decided not to post it mainly because the sound quality wasn't that good. However, it turns out I had an inferior copy that also had fewer songs. I recently found a much better version, so I'm posting it after all.

I tend to think of Armatrading as someone who made it big in the 1980s, but she began performing music in public in the late 1960s, and her first album was released in 1972. In 1976, she had her first hit with "Love and Affection." It only made the singles chart in Britain. But in the U.S. she was popular enough to appear on the "Saturday Night Live" TV show in 1977. 

This unreleased concert was part of BBC's "Sight and Sound" series, which meant it was broadcast on TV. (Thus the "sight" as well as the "sound.") I believe the first song wasn't included in the abroadcast, as it isn't on most bootleg versions of this concert, and it makes the whole concert longer than an hour. But I did find one version with it included, and it seems to have been performed in the actual concert.

This album is an hour and two minutes long.

UPDATE: On April 25, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is the same, but I changed the album title, after making an earlier volume of BBC music by her that I'd missed.

01 talk (Joan Armatrading)
02 Help Yourself (Joan Armatrading)
03 talk (Joan Armatrading)
04 Never Is Too Late (Joan Armatrading)
05 talk (Joan Armatrading)
06 Show Some Emotion (Joan Armatrading)
07 talk (Joan Armatrading)
08 Willow (Joan Armatrading)
09 talk (Joan Armatrading)
10 Opportunity (Joan Armatrading)
11 talk (Joan Armatrading)
12 Won't You Come on Home (Joan Armatrading)
13 talk (Joan Armatrading)
14 Steppin' Out (Joan Armatrading)
15 Love and Affection (Joan Armatrading)
16 talk (Joan Armatrading)
17 Cool Blue Stole My Heart (Joan Armatrading)
18 talk (Joan Armatrading)
19 Mama Mercy (Joan Armatrading)
20 talk (Joan Armatrading)
21 Kissin' and a Huggin' (Joan Armatrading)
22 Tall in the Saddle (Joan Armatrading)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/8cUxStxk

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/v52kq0wr1cHKj5u/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took of the video of this exact concert. I used the Krea AI program to improve the image quality.

Joan Armatrading - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: In Concert, Colston Hall, Bristol, Britain, 4-20-2010

Normally, I'm reluctant to post an album from a musical act that takes place well after their commercial and/or critical prime. For Joan Armatrading, that was mainly the 1970s and 80s. So I wasn't sure if I'd post this one. Then I listened to it. I was pleasantly surprised. 

I had no idea she rocked this much! I tend to think of Armatrading more of a singer-songwriter folkie type. But for this concert, she was in full rocking mode, with power chords and guitar solos and so on, more so than on the BBC concerts I'd posted from her. There were only a couple of songs done in more of an acoustic style. The song selection is very good too. This might be my favorite out of her BBC concerts.

Everything here is officially unreleased. The sound quality is excellent, so I didn't have to make any fixes.

This album is 57 minutes long. 

UPDATE: On April 25, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is the same, but I changed the album title, after making an earlier volume of BBC music by her that I'd missed.

01 Show Some Emotion (Joan Armatrading)
02 talk (Joan Armatrading)
03 All the Way from America (Joan Armatrading)
04 Into the Blues (Joan Armatrading)
05 Love and Affection (Joan Armatrading)
06 My Baby's Gone (Joan Armatrading)
07 talk (Joan Armatrading)
08 This Charming Life (Joan Armatrading)
09 The Weakness in Me (Joan Armatrading)
10 talk (Joan Armatrading)
11 Best Dress On (Joan Armatrading)
12 Call Me Names (Joan Armatrading)
13 Me Myself I (Joan Armatrading)
14 Willow (Joan Armatrading)
15 Drop the Pilot (Joan Armatrading)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vFiyKjne

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/QKtkhLLe5nQik5W/file

The cover photo is from a concert at Royal Albert Hall, in London, on April 13, 2008.

Various Artists - Prince's Trust Rock Gala, Wembley Arena, London, Britain, 6-20-1986

Hmmm. I could have sworn I'd posted this months ago. I'd posted the 1982 Prince's Trust concert a while back. I was getting to post the next one in the series, from 1987, when I did a search and noticed this one wasn't here. So now you'll get two in a row, as I'll be posting the 1987 one today as well. 

Prince Charles, the crown prince of Britain at the time, ran a charity to help troubled youths. It's still going as I write this in 2024, and Charles has finally become king. 

These concerts didn't happen every year. In fact, I don't think there was any after the 1982 one I mentioned until this one, although there was a Dire Straits concert in 1985 that benefited the charity. This one, though, was truly a star-studded event. Perhaps inspired by Live Aid in 1985, the big names showed up in droves.

In fact, I find this concert frustrating, because so much big name talent was underused. The concerts started with sets by Big Country, Suzanne Vega, and Level 42. I definitely like Big Country and Suzanne Vega (whereas Level 42, not so much), and I've posted albums by them here. But it seems very odd to me that they got to play four or five songs each, while much bigger names like Sting, Mark Knopfler, George Michael, David Bowie, and Mick Jagger got less than one full song, since they only appeared as part of duets. Very strange.

That said, what there is here is quite good. It's just that I wish there had been a lot more of it. But as far as I can tell, this was the complete concert. I guess the organizers had to keep things relatively short because the concert was broadcast live on TV and radio in Britain. I gather the reason Big Country, Suzanne Vega, and Level 42 had such surprisingly long sets was because one purpose of the show was to showcase new talent. This is a trend with the other Prince's Trust concerts I'm aware of. At least in this year the new acts would end up being pretty good. (Some other years weren't so lucky.)

One special aspect of this concert is how much the big stars in the second half of the show performed together. You don't really see it in the artist credits on each song. For instance, typically, Phil Collins played drums, Elton John played piano, Midge Ure of Ultravox played rhythm guitar, and Eric Clapton or Mark Knoplfer played lead guitar. At one point, you can hear Rod Stewart joke about how happy he is to finally get Elton John in his backing band. But that's not all. You really the watch the video this (the whole thing can be found on YouTube as I type this) to see all the stars backing each other.

The highlights are many, too many for me to describe. But I'll point out that the biggest start of the evening had to be Paul McCartney, who closed the show. Keep in mind that, from the perspective of 1986, McCartney hadn't barely played in any concerts since the 1970s. Starting in 1989 he would go on a world tour, and he would tour often after that. But he'd only made three other concert appearances in the 1980s prior to this, and each one was just for a couple of songs at most. (For instance, he played one song for Live Aid in 1985.)

By the way, note that there's a flaw with the duet of "Dancing in the Street" by David Bowie and Mick Jagger. For some reason, Bowie's vocals are way down in the mix. I currently don't have the means to fix that, since it's tricky with them singing together most of the time. But with audio editing technology advancing recently, it probably will be fixable eventually.

Note that various versions of this concert have been officially released, both on audio and video. But as far as I can tell, none of them are complete. The audio version, for instance, is only the length of a single album. So there's a lot more music here.

This album is two hours and 17 minutes long.

01 Introduction (Emcee)
02 talk (Big Country)
03 Wonderland (Big Country)
04 Fields of Fire (Big Country)
05 talk (Big Country)
06 Look Away (Big Country)
07 Chance (Big Country)
08 talk (Big Country)
09 In a Big Country (Big Country)
10 talk (Big Country)
11 talk (Suzanne Vega)
12 Tom’s Diner (Suzanne Vega)
13 talk (Suzanne Vega)
14 Cracking (Suzanne Vega)
15 Small Blue Thing (Suzanne Vega)
16 talk (Suzanne Vega)
17 Marlene on the Wall (Suzanne Vega)
18 talk (Emcee)
19 Lesson in Love (Level 42)
20 Leaving Me Now (Level 42)
21 Something about You (Level 42)
22 talk (Level 42)
23 Your Song (Elton John)
24 talk (Phil Collins)
25 In the Air Tonight (Phil Collins)
26 talk (Emcee)
27 Better Be Good to Me (Tina Turner)
28 talk (Tina Turner)
29 Tearing Us Apart (Eric Clapton & Tina Turner)
30 talk (Eric Clapton)
31 Call of the Wild (Midge Ure)
32 talk (Midge Ure)
33 Money for Nothing (Mark Knopfler & Sting)
34 talk (Mark Knopfler)
35 Every Time You Go Away (Paul Young)
36 talk (Paul Young)
37 Reach Out (Joan Armatrading)
38 No One Is to Blame (Howard Jones)
39 talk (Rod Stewart)
40 Sailing (Rod Stewart)
41 I’m Still Standing (Elton John)
42 talk (Elton John)
43 Every Time You Go Away (Paul Young & George Michael)
44 talk (George Michael)
45 I Saw Her Standing There (Paul McCartney)
46 Long Tall Sally (Paul McCartney)
47 talk (Paul McCartney)
48 Dancing in the Street (David Bowie & Mick Jagger)
49 Get Back (Paul McCartney & Everyone)
50 talk (Paul McCartney)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/kFX6wzSe

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/FFh3i4FUiXCUiKw/file

Each time one of these concerts happened, there typically was a group photo. If anyone wants to identify all the people in the photo, that would be great.

A Conspiracy of Hope, Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ, 6-15-1986, Part 2 - Little Steven, Bob Geldof, Stanley Jordan, Joan Armatrading & Jackson Browne

This is Part 2 of the final show of the 1986 "A Conspiracy of Hope" tour. If you want more information on the concert in general, read the write-up for Part 1. Here are just some basic facts about the songs and artists in this part.

Little Steven (Steven van Zandt), was a guitarist in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band from the early 1970s. However, he left that band to pursue a solo career in 1984, right before Springsteen became a superstar with his "Born in the U.S.A." album. He didn't have much commercial success as a solo artist, and later rejoined the E Street Band. But he did gain a lot of prominence in 1985 with his anti-Apartheid song "Sun City." I believe John Waite and Darlene Love joined him for his set here, but they only sang backing vocals.

Bob Geldof was the lead singer for the Irish band the Boomtown Rats. But he became more famous in the 1980s for his activism. He helped form the group Band Aid, and co-write their song "We Are the World." Then he organized the 1985 Live Aid concert. I believe he was backed up by Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul for his set here.

Stanley Jordan, a jazz guitarist, was an unusual addition to this concert. He released his debut album was released the year before this concert. It was a sensation, setting records on the jazz charts, due to his unique guitar playing style. He performed all the songs here alone on stage.

I've posted albums by Joan Armatrading and Jackson Browne at this blog before. They're famous enough that I hopefully don't need to describe them. Browne was arguably the most famous of the artists in this album, so it makes sense that his set was the longest of the four here, at 30 minutes. Note that the last song he performed, "I Am a Patriot," was actually written by Little Steven.

This album is an hour and 18 minutes long.

021 Los Desaparecidos (Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul)
022 Sanctuary (Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul)
023 Native American (Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul)
024 talk (Bob Geldof)
025 In the Pouring Rain (Bob Geldof)
026 talk (Bob Geldof)
027 Redemption Song (Bob Geldof)
028 talk (Stanley Jordan)
029 All the Children [Instrumental] (Stanley Jordan)
030 The Sound of Silence [Instrumental] (Stanley Jordan)
031 Eleanor Rigby [Instrumental] (Stanley Jordan)
032 Steppin' Out (Joan Armatrading)
033 Turn Out the Light (Joan Armatrading)
034 I Can't Lie to Myself (Joan Armatrading)
035 Love and Affection (Joan Armatrading)
036 For Everyman (Jackson Browne)
037 Soldiers of Plenty (Jackson Browne)
038 talk (Jackson Browne)
039 Lives in the Balance (Jackson Browne)
040 Till I Go Down (Jackson Browne)
041 For America (Jackson Browne)
042 talk (Jackson Browne)
043 I Am a Patriot (Jackson Browne)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uJpsNCe2 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/NdmmuokuuDu0D0o/file

The cover photo of Jackson Browne comes from this exact concert.

Various Artists - Prince's Trust Rock Gala, Dominion Theatre, London, Britain, 7-7-1982

I had decided that, in addition to working on my big BBC project and having other musical attentions, I want to make a more concerted effort to post "various artists" concerts. People know of the big ones, like Woodstock and Live Aid, but there are many lesser ones that often slip through the cracks, where they don't get officially released in full or at all, yet bootlegs aren't common either since there isn't one big performance by someone famous to draw attention.

Here's one such example. It's the first of several semi-annual Prince's Trust concerts from the 1980s that I plan on posting. I don't know much about these concerts since I'm not British and only recently discovered recordings of them. But I looked up the Prince's Trust on Wikipedia. It's a charity that was founded in 1978 by then Prince Charles, who is now King Charles III as I write this in 2023. It funds a variety of programs to help troubled youths. According to Wikipedia, it has been very successful and is the country's biggest youth-targeted charity.

This was the first benefit concert for the charity. More would be held in the 1980s, though not every year. They stopped happening around 1990, but then have resumed occasionally in the 2010s. The 1980s versions typically had impressive line-ups of usually British musical acts. 

What I think is particularly interesting about them is that different stars didn't just perform with their usual backing bands and then leave the stage. That was sometimes the case, but other times, a house band would be formed that played for a bunch of different artists. For this show, Madness started out with a 26-minute long set, easily the longest of the show, and it was just them. Then came a reggae band called Unity, and it was just them. Joan Armatrading performed two songs next, alone on stage with her acoustic guitar.

After that, Phil Collins played his classic "In the Air Tonight" in an unusual stripped down version with just him on piano and no drums. From that point on, I'm pretty sure he didn't leave the stage for the rest of the concert. He backed "Jethro Tull" on drums. I put that name in quotes because it was really just lead singer Ian Anderson. Then the same band stayed on stage for the rest of the concert. It featured some big names playing together, including Phil Collins on drums, Pete Townshend on lead guitar, and Gary Brooker on keyboards. I found it especially interesting having Townshend playing guitar behind the likes of Kate Bush and Robert Plant. I don't know if that's happened on other occasions. You can watch the whole concert on YouTube if you want to see who played what exactly.

Speaking of Townshend, he was still mostly preoccupied being a member of the Who at this time and almost never performed in concert without them. So that's interesting all by itself. But he also said that his performance of "Slit Skirts" was the first time he'd played piano in public. But what really surprised the heck out of me is that the final song of the concert, "I Want to Take You Higher," was a cover of the Sly and the Family Stone classic funk sung mostly by Townsend (with Robert Plant on backing vocals). I looked it up on setlist.fm, and that's the only time he ever performed that.

Speaking of rare, Kate Bush concert appearances are slightly less rare than hen's teeth. She only sang one song and then left the stage. But this seems to be the only time she ever sang "The Wedding List" in front of an audience.

In case you're curious, Prince Charles and his new wife Princess Diana (they married the year before) sat in the balcony and watched the entire show. I wonder if they really enjoyed these musical styles or if they were just being polite.

The sound quality is pretty good, but not great. I took it from YouTube videos, and there was some loss of quality along the way. However, I used the UVR5 audio editing program to boost the lead vocals relative to the instruments in some cases, and that helped. I especially did a lot of that for "In the Air Tonight." In the beginning of the song especially, the vocals were very low. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in its title.

The album is an hour and 25 minutes long.

01 God Save the Queen (Madness)
02 House of Fun - Shut Up (Madness)
03 talk (Madness)
04 Tomorrow's Dream (Madness)
05 Madness (Madness)
06 talk (Madness)
07 One Step Beyond (Madness)
08 Baggy Trousers (Madness)
09 Driving in My Car (Madness)
10 It Must Be Love (Madness)
11 talk (Unity)
12 Crab Race (Unity)
13 talk (Joan Armatrading)
14 Love and Affection (Joan Armatrading)
15 talk (Joan Armatrading)
16 Steppin' Out (Joan Armatrading)
17 In the Air Tonight [Edit] (Phil Collins)
18 Jack in the Green (Jethro Tull with Phil Collins)
19 talk (Jethro Tull with Phil Collins)
20 Pussy Willow (Jethro Tull with Phil Collins)
21 talk (Midge Ure)
22 No Regrets (Midge Ure)
23 Let My Love Open the Door (Pete Townshend)
24 talk (Pete Townshend)
25 Slit Skirts (Pete Townshend)
26 A Whiter Shade of Pale (Gary Brooker)
27 talk (Gary Brooker)
28 The Wedding List (Kate Bush)
29 talk (Pete Townshend)
30 Worse than Detroit (Robert Plant)
31 I Want to Take You Higher (Pete Townshend & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vGspapgK

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/gOWdPKGbgy9TK02/file

alternate:

https://www.upload.ee/files/15483233/VarArtsts_1982_PrincsTrstRckGalaDomnionTheatrLondnBritain__7-7-1982_atse.zip.html

I could have taken a screenshot of the video for the cover art, but the video quality was merely okay. Luckily, I found a couple of photos. I chose one with Robert Plant (left), Mick Karn (center, the bassist in the band Japan), and Pete Townshend (right). The photo was in black and white, but I knew the colors from the video, so I made sure they matched, especially Plant's "Where's Waldo"-styled red and white shirt.

Joan Armatrading - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Britain, 6-27-1992

Here's a BBC album by Joan Armadtrading. This time, it's a set at the massive annual Glastonbury Festival in 1992.

Armatrading's music career actually began in the early 1970s. By the time of this concert, she'd had quite a few hits, especially in Britain, though none of them were huge. The Glastonbury Festival is a very big deal, with audiences of more than 100,000 people. So she played a tight set, with almost no talking between songs, of her best material. Three of the songs came from her most recent album, 1992's "Square the Circle." Unfortunately, she didn't include "Wrapped Around Her," which was the sole hit from the album in Britain.

The sound quality is as good as you'd expect from the BBC.

This album is 56 minutes long.

UPDATE: On April 25, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is the same, but I changed the album title, after making an earlier volume of BBC music by her that I'd missed.

01 Crazy (Joan Armatrading)
02 I'm Lucky (Joan Armatrading)
03 Down to Zero (Joan Armatrading)
04 True Love (Joan Armatrading)
05 Someone's in the Background (Joan Armatrading)
06 Can I Get Next to You (Joan Armatrading)
07 Love and Affection (Joan Armatrading)
08 talk (Joan Armatrading)
09 Drop the Pilot (Joan Armatrading)
10 Kissin' and a Huggin' (Joan Armatrading)
11 Show Some Emotion (Joan Armatrading)
12 Me Myself I (Joan Armatrading)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/JQq4stft

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/szyMTrP2bvRt52S/file

The cover photo is from a 1992 concert, but I don't know which one.

Joan Armatrading - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: In Concert, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 12-12-1981

Here's a 1981 BBC concert performed by British singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading.

Armatrading has only had a few significant hits, mostly in Britain only, mainly "Love and Affection," "My Myself I" and "Drop the Pilot." But she's been a steady success since the 1970s, and is still going as I write this in 2022. However, her most commercially successful records came between 1976 and 1983. So 1981 is a pretty good time for a live concert from her.

The concert is unreleased, but it is up to the usual high BBC standards of sound quality. The only gripe I have with it is that it doesn't include my favorite song from her, "Drop the Pilot," which was a hit in 1983. (Fun fact: the chorus of that song mentions the very obscure word "mahout," which is what one calls a person who rides and trains an elephant!) So I found a soundboard bootleg of that song and another popular one from 1983, "(I Love It When You) Call Me Names," and added those two to the end. 

The concert was a little short at only 58 minutes, compared to the usual concert length of about an hour an a half. With the two extra songs, that stretches it to an hour and seven minutes.

UPDATE: On April 25, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is the same, but I changed the album title, after making an earlier volume of BBC music by her that I'd missed.

01 I'm Lucky (Joan Armatrading)
02 Down to Zero (Joan Armatrading)
03 talk (Joan Armatrading)
04 I Wanna Hold You (Joan Armatrading)
05 Rosie (Joan Armatrading)
06 Cool Blue Stole My Heart (Joan Armatrading)
07 Love and Affection (Joan Armatrading)
08 talk (Joan Armatrading)
09 Eating the Bear (Joan Armatrading)
10 talk (Joan Armatrading)
11 When I Get It Right (Joan Armatrading)
12 I Can't Lie to Myself (Joan Armatrading)
13 Me Myself I (Joan Armatrading)
14 talk (Joan Armatrading)
15 The Weakness in Me (Joan Armatrading)
16 Tall in the Saddle (Joan Armatrading)
17 [I Love It When You] Call Me Names (Joan Armatrading)
18 Drop the Pilot (Joan Armatrading)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/xAt47Ntn

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/MAmJ65hcG9AwCaO/file

The cover art comes from an appearance on the Midnight Special TV show in late 1980. I improved it a bit with the use of the Krea AI program.