Love Affair - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1970-1973

Here is the second and last BBC album from the British band Love Affair. 

In 1968 and 1969, the time period dealt with in Volume 1, Love Affair had a handful of hits in Britain, with the biggest being the Number One hit "Everlasting Love." 

The band had an excellent lead vocalist in Steve Ellis. However, he grew dissatisfied with the direction the band was taking. They had tried to move away from their pop style to more of a rocking style, but their next single bombed. So he left for a solo career right at the start of 1970. He was replaced by August Eadon. I assume that's Eagon singing on the cover art and singing on most of these songs.

Unfortunately, after the change of singers, none of the band's singles made the charts in Britain. The only partial exception was "Lincoln County." While it didn't chart in Britain, at least it nearly reached the Top Ten in New Zealand. 

Still, the band was so popular from before that they kept getting sessions on the "Top of the Pops" radio show. Virtually everything here comes from that show, with the exception of "Gypsy," which is from an appearance on the "Disco 2" BBC TV show. (That was an early version of "The Old Grey Whistle Test.") The bonus track is from that show as well.

Also, most everything here is unreleased. The only exceptions are the songs "Bad Girl" and "She's Not There." Those appeared on the obscure various artists compilation album "British Beat Collection, Volume Four: Rare British Broadcasts The Beat Era, 1966-1970." As for the rest, that's all due once again to my awesome secret source, a musical friend who keeps sending me Top of the Pops material.

As with most Top of the Pops broadcasts from this time, the BBC DJs had a habit of talking over the music. So I did my usual thing, using the UVR5 audio editing program to keep the music but get rid of the DJ chatter. Those are all the songs with "[Edit]" in their titles. 

Note that not everything here is technically from Love Affair. As I mentioned above, the band's former lead vocalist Steve Ellis left for a solo career at the start of 1970. Although he released music in 1970 and 1971, it seems he wasn't invited to the Top of the Pops radio show those years. But he did a session for it in 1972 and another in 1973. So I've included those here as well, chronologically interspersed with more Love Affair sessions.

The bonus track "Bad Girl" is a bonus track mainly because this album already includes a different version of that same song. And that one has slightly better sound quality.

This album is 55 minutes long, not including the bonus track. 

01 Lincoln County [Edit] (Love Affair)
02 Bad Girl [Edit] (Love Affair)
03 She's Not There [Edit] (Love Affair)
04 Long Way Home [Edit] (Love Affair)
05 That's My Home [Edit] (Love Affair)
06 Gypsy [Edit] (Love Affair)
07 I Put a Spell on You (Love Affair)
08 Fool on the Hill [Edit] (Love Affair)
09 Help [Get Me Some Help] [Edit] (Love Affair)
10 Morning Paper (Ellis)
11 El Doomo (Ellis)
12 Good to Be Alive (Ellis)
13 Let Me Dance (Love Affair)
14 Liar (Love Affair)
15 Goodbye Boredom (Ellis)
16 Open Road (Ellis)

Bad Girl [Edit] (Love Affair) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/BfZ35J1m

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/c3ZFe0I8cwu2EDm/file

The cover photo was taken at the Revolution Club in London at some point in 1970.

Love Affair - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1968-1969

Up until recently, the only thing I knew about the band Love Affair was that they had a big hit in 1968 with the classic song "Everlasting Love." But it turns out I underestimated them because I'm an American and they were a British band that had much more success in Britain. They didn't even have a single hit in the U.S. Instead, soul singer Carl Carlton had the U.S. hit with "Everlasting Love" around the same time Love Affair took their version all the way to Number One in Britain. Furthermore, they have four more songs in or near the Top Ten in Britain in 1968 or 1969.

It seems that Love Affair is mostly forgotten today, but they were a big deal in Britain for those two years. They were considered pop idols, with screaming fans drowning them out during concerts, similar to what had happened to the Beatles. As a result of their popularity, they performed at a lot of BBC studio sessions, enough for two volumes.

The main reason I'm posting these albums is due to the same musical friend who has been sharing "Top of the Pops" BBC radio show sessions with me. It seems the vast majority of sessions he sent to me by this band not only haven't been officially released, they hadn't even been bootlegged until now. 

As usual for the time period, BBC DJ Brian Matthew talked over the beginnings and endings of many of the songs. So, like I usually do, I used the UVR5 audio editing program to wipe out his talking. That's why ten out of the 15 songs here have "[Edit]" in their titles.

Only five of the performances here have been officially released. Tracks 3, 4, and 15 come from the compilation album "Time Hasn't Changed Us - The Complete CBS Recordings." Tracks 2 and 14 come from different obscure various artists collection albums. 

Released or not, most everything here comes from the Top of the Pops BBC radio show. The only exceptions are tracks 3 and 4, from the BBC TV show "Colour Me Pop," and the last three songs, which are from a BBC studio session hosted by DJ Dave Lee Travis.

The band's biggest hit, "Everlasting Love," actually was released at the end of 1967. The band had two other big Top Ten hits in Britain in 1968: "Rainbow Valley" and "A Day without Love." But for whatever reason, only the first two songs here were performed in 1968. Everything else comes from 1969. I would guess that the band probably did some other BBC sessions in 1968 that have been lost. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a version of "Rainbow Valley" to include, although this album includes versions of all their other hits. Also note that I've included two versions of "Everlasting Love."

The band had a very good soulful sounding lead singer, Steve Ellis. However, he got frustrated with the way the band was pigeonholed as a pop group mostly covering songs written by professional songwriters, and wanted to expand into different styles. So he left the band for a solo career in early 1970. The band continued with a new lead singer, which will be the subject of Volume Two.

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 Everlasting Love (Love Affair)
02 I've Been Trying [Edit] (Love Affair)
03 All Along the Watchtower (Love Affair)
04 A Day in the Life [Instrumental] (Love Affair)
05 One Road [Edit] (Love Affair)
06 Everlasting Love [Edit] (Love Affair)
07 A Day without Love [Edit] (Love Affair)
08 Gone Are the Songs of Yesterday [Edit] (Love Affair)
09 Tinker Tailor [Edit] (Love Affair)
10 Bringing Back the Good Times [Edit] (Love Affair)
11 Rock Me Baby (Love Affair)
12 Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart (Love Affair)
13 Tale of Two Bitters [Edit] (Love Affair)
14 Baby I Know [Edit] (Love Affair)
15 Walk on Gilded Splinters [Edit] (Love Affair)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/2W1EcTmA

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/pbSrRLoxOUXdK2p/file

The cover photo shows the band performing on a TV show in 1968.