Blue Mink - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1970-1974

Here is the second and last of BBC sessions albums for the British band Blue Mink.

As mentioned in the write-up for "Volume 1," Blue Mink was fairly popular in Britain in the early 1970s, having six Top Ten hits there. However, they never had any commercial success in the U.S. During the time period of this album, they had three big British hits: "The Banner Man," "Stay with Me," and "Randy." This has versions of the first two, but not "Randy."

Everything here is officially unreleased. Like "Volume 1," nearly all of it comes from BBC studio sessions, thanks to an anonymous friend who send the music to me. There are only two exceptions. "The Banner Man" comes from the "Whittaker's World of Music" BBC TV show, and "By the Devil (I Was Tempted)" comes from the "Cilla" BBC TV Show. 

The great thing about all the BBC sessions sources is the sound quality is excellent. The downside is BBC DJs were still in the habit of talking over the starts and ends of songs. So I had to fix that in the usual way, using the MVSEP audio editing program. That's why many of the songs have "[Edit]" in their titles.

Blue Mink's commercial success petered out after 1973. They had no songs that made the charts in 1974, and they broke up at the end of that year. But actually, except for the last song, which is from 1974, all the others here are from 1971 and 1972, when they were more popular. They may well have had more BBC sessions after 1972. However, around that time, the BBC began switching to just playing the record versions of songs. I'm not interested in posting that. So that's probably why their BBC appearances stopped after that, other than the occasional BBC TV show appearance.

This album is 48 minutes long. 

01 Mind Your Business [Edit] (Blue Mink)
02 Our World (Blue Mink)
03 Cat House [Edit] (Blue Mink)
04 Everybody's Singing like Now [Edit] (Blue Mink)
05 Live with Life [Edit] (Blue Mink)
06 Something [Edit] (Blue Mink)
07 We Have All Been Saved [Edit] (Blue Mink)
08 The Banner Man (Blue Mink)
09 Sunday (Blue Mink)
10 Count Me In [Edit] (Blue Mink)
11 Mayday [Edit] (Blue Mink)
12 Wacky, Wacky, Wacky (Blue Mink)
13 Just Goes to Show (Blue Mink)
14 Stay with Me (Blue Mink)
15 By the Devil [I Was Tempted] (Blue Mink)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/sYPYVgLE

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/EFQfVAaI75iIVz4/file

The cover image shows the band performing on an unknown TV show in April 1971. The image focuses on the band's two lead singers, Roger Cook and Madeline Bell.

Blue Mink - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1968-1970

I'm trying to prioritize posting BBC recordings from the 1960s and early 1970s that remain unreleased. Here's another collection of that. I've found enough for two volumes of BBC recordings by the band Blue Mink. Here's the first one.

If you've never heard of this band, here's their Wikipedia entry intro: "Blue Mink were a British six-piece pop group that existed from 1969 to 1977. Over that period they had six top 20 hit singles on the U.K. Singles Chart, and released five studio based albums. According to AllMusic: 'they have been immortalized on a string of compilation albums, each recounting the string of effervescent hits that established them among Britain's best-loved pop groups of the early 1970s.'" 

They're much better known in Britain than the U.S., because they had a bunch of hits in Britain, as mentioned above, but no hits at all in the U.S. They had two lead singers, Roger Cook and Madeline Bell. Both of them have appeared elsewhere in this music blog. Cook was one half of a songwriting team with Roger Greenaway. I've profiled their songwriting in the "Covered" series, as you can see here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/02/covered-roger-cook-roger-greenaway.html

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/02/covered-roger-cook-roger-greenaway_14.html

Cook and Greenaway generally wrote most of the songs for Blue Mink. But while Cook was a good lead vocalist, Madeline Bell sang just as much or more than he did. She was a Black American who had lived in Britain since the early 1960s. She was able to bring authentic American soul music vocals into the band's sound. So the hit songwriting of Cook and Greenaway plus the vocals of Bell was a powerful combination that separated this band from most other similar pop bands in Britain at the time.

Most of the songs here come from excellent sounding BBC studio session recordings given to me by a musical associate. I don't think these have been widely publicly available until now. One problem though was that BBC DJs in this time period often talked over the starts and ends of songs. In fact, of all the BBC studio session songs here, EVERY SINGLE ONE had BBC DJ talking over it! But I was able to get rid of that talking in the usual way, with the use of the MVSEP audio editing program. That's why all but the first two songs have "[Edit]" in their titles.

The first two songs are not from the BBC. In fact, they are from Blue Mink even formed as a group. But Madeline Bell had a solo career going on before, during, and after her time in Blue Mink. These two songs are from an obscure U.S. T.V. show in 1968 called "Live at the Bitter End." It showed live performances at the Bitter End venue in New York City. These two songs only featured Bell singing live lead vocals over recorded instrumentation, but I thought they were worth including anyway. 

Also, later in the album, there was one BBC session of three songs featuring Bell from her solo career. So I included them here as well.

In case you're not familiar with Blue Mink's music, the two big hits they had in Britain during the time span on this volume were "Melting Pot" and "Good Morning Freedom." Both of those are included here.

This album is 41 minutes long. 

01 I'm Gonna Make You Love Me [Live Lead Vocals Only] (Madeline Bell)
02 Picture Me Gone [Live Lead Vocals Only] (Madeline Bell)
03 Melting Pot [Edit] (Blue Mink)
04 Gimme Reggae [Edit] (Blue Mink)
05 The Onion Song [Edit] (Blue Mink)
06 Mary Jane [Edit] (Blue Mink)
07 Good Morning Freedom [Edit] (Blue Mink)
08 Morning Dew [Edit] (Blue Mink)
09 Proud Mary [Edit] (Blue Mink)
10 Country Chick [Edit] (Blue Mink)
11 How Much Do I Love You [Edit] (Madeline Bell)
12 You're Messing Up My Mind [Edit] (Madeline Bell)
13 We're So Much in Love [Edit] (Madeline Bell)
14 Jubilation [Edit] (Blue Mink)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/RJEnuDXi 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/0GNgfn7HtOOWiHy/file

The cover image shows Blue Mink in 1970. I don't know who all the band members are. But in front is Roger Cook (with the beard) and Madeline Bell (with the Coca Cola T-shirt). 

Alan Price - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: Alan Price, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, Britain, 12-1-1980

Once upon a time, back in 2022, I started posting BBC albums for Alan Price. I had plans to post two such albums for him, which seemed about right for his level of popularity. Then I found two more, and posted those. And I found two more BBC albums with him and Georgie Fame as a duo, and posted them as well. I thought that was a lot, more than expected. But now, I've found FOUR more BBC volumes for him! Here's the first of those four.

The reason I found four more albums from him all at once is that it turns out he was the star of a four part T.V. series for the BBC in 1980, and good copies have survived until today. Each episode consisted of a half an hour-long concert and nothing else. Furthermore, each of the episodes had specific musical themes. So Price played songs that fit those themes instead of his own songs. I believe that, between the four episodes, he only sang one of his songs. I don't know when the episodes were filmed exactly (I'm using the broadcast dates, since that's all I know), but they were broadcast on consecutive weeks.

This first episode had the theme of "Black music." That's pretty damn broad and vague, but hey, I didn't come up with the themes. In any case, it gave Price an excuse to sing some of his favorite songs from various genres, so that's what he did here. And one feature of these episodes is that each one featured at least one other guest singer. Madeline Bell was the choice this time, singing prominently on two of the songs.

The last song, "The House of the Rising Sun," isn't actually from this concert. But I found a version of Price singing the song on another BBC T.V. show ("Jeremy Taylor"), earlier in 1980. I stuck it on this album, instead of some of the other episodes, because I have other bonus tracks for some of them, and it fits the theme... maybe. I say "maybe" because nobody knows who actually wrote "House of the Rising Sun" or where it came from. The earliest versions go back to the 1920s, but apparently those are based on still earlier versions from the 1800s. So we don't know if it was originally written by a Black person or not. But it fits into the general Black blues tradition, in any case. 

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

This album is 33 minutes long. 

01 Introduction [Instrumental] (Alan Price)
02 Sir Duke (Alan Price)
03 talk (Alan Price)
04 A Stranger's Lament (Alan Price)
05 talk (Alan Price)
06 Beat Out a Rhythm on a Drum (Alan Price & Madeline Bell)
07 talk (Alan Price)
08 Cherry Red (Alan Price)
09 talk (Alan Price)
10 Go Where I Send Thee (Alan Price & Madeline Bell)
11 talk (Alan Price)
12 What'd I Say (Alan Price)
13 Keep a-Knockin' (Alan Price)
14 The House of the Rising Sun (Alan Price)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/UfKvgz3Y

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/MzMWzLg9hJuATOT/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from this exact concert.

Georgie Fame & Friends - BBC Sessions, Volume 7: Friday Night Is Music Night, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Cheltenham, Britain, 5-3-2013

Here's another BBC album by Georgie Fame. This one is rather unusual in that it's kind of a celebration of him having over 50 years in the music business. It features some longtime collaborators as special guests: Alan Price, Zoot Money, and Madeline Bell.

Most of the songs were put together in a careful way, in order to tell the story of Fame's career, with interesting tidbits during the banter. For instance, the first song performed was one that he sang at a musical audition back in 1959. 

The special guests didn't have really big roles, but each of them got at least one spotlight song. And most of Fame's most famous songs were performed before the concert was over.

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

This album is an hour and 36 minutes long. 

01 talk (Georgie Fame)
02 High School Confidential (Georgie Fame)
03 talk (Georgie Fame)
04 What'd I Say (Georgie Fame, Alan Price, Zoot Money & Madeline Bell)
05 talk (Georgie Fame)
06 Parker's Mood (Georgie Fame)
07 Jumpin' with Symphony Sid (Georgie Fame)
08 talk (Georgie Fame)
09 It Should Have Been Me (Georgie Fame & Zoot Money)
10 talk (Georgie Fame)
11 Everything Happens to Me (Georgie Fame)
12 talk (Georgie Fame)
13 Flamingo Allnighter (Georgie Fame, Alan Price, Zoot Money & Madeline Bell)
14 talk (Georgie Fame)
15 Yeh Yeh (Georgie Fame)
16 talk (Georgie Fame)
17 Sunny (Georgie Fame)
18 talk (Georgie Fame)
19 Seventh Son (Georgie Fame)
20 Rosetta (Georgie Fame & Alan Price)
21 talk (Madeline Bell)
22 Sweet Georgie Fame (Madeline Bell)
23 The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde (Georgie Fame)
24 talk (Georgie Fame)
25 Entertaining Mr. Sloane - Eros Hotel (Georgie Fame)
26 The Singer (Georgie Fame)
27 talk (Georgie Fame)
28 The Old Music Master (Georgie Fame)
29 talk (Georgie Fame)
30 The Nearness of You (Georgie Fame & Madeline Bell)
31 talk (Georgie Fame)
32 Get Away (Georgie Fame)
33 Rhythm King (Georgie Fame)
34 talk (Georgie Fame)
35 Funny How Time Slips Away (Georgie Fame)
36 talk (Georgie Fame)
37 Saturday Night Fish Fry (Georgie Fame, Alan Price, Zoot Money & Madeline Bell)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GQ6fG1Ej

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/aIzBBDFey9dNRUb/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. 

Georgie Fame - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: BBC Four Sessions, LSO St. Luke's, London, Britain, 4-24-2005

Here's another BBC album by British singer Georgie Fame. This is the sixth such album. It's a concert.

Fame, like Price, had his commercial heyday in the 1960s. But he was much more successful than Price, including having three Number One singles in Britain. So he remained popular enough in the 2000s for the BBC to broadcast one of his concerts. He boosted his appeal by including some other 1960s stars as guests: Geno Washington, Zoot Money, and Madeline Bell. Each of them got song to sing lead vocals. Then Money and Bell came back to help with the last song.

This concert is unreleased. It's from a BBC TV series called "BBC Four Sessions." I converted the video to audio then broke it into mp3s.

By the way, the date in the title is almost certainly the broadcast date, not the actual date of recording, which I always prefer to use when it's known.

This album is 58 minutes long.

UPDATE: On November 12, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is exactly the same. But I found an earlier volume in this series that I'd missed, so the volume number changed. That meant the title, cover art, and mp3 tags changed too. 

01 Lawdy Miss Clawdy (Georgie Fame)
02 talk (Georgie Fame)
03 Get on the Right Track (Georgie Fame)
04 talk (Georgie Fame)
05 Zulu (Georgie Fame)
06 talk (Georgie Fame)
07 Humpty Dumpty (Georgie Fame & Geno Washington)
08 Yeh Yeh (Georgie Fame)
09 talk (Georgie Fame)
10 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Georgie Fame & Zoot Money)
11 talk (Georgie Fame)
12 Point of No Return (Georgie Fame)
13 talk (Georgie Fame)
14 The Blues and Me (Georgie Fame & Madeline Bell)
15 talk (Georgie Fame)
16 Get Away (Georgie Fame)
17 talk (Georgie Fame)
18 Flamingo Allnighter (Georgie Fame with Madeline Bell & Zoot Money)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uYQ59GvH

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/mM69bsW1kFJwm0q/file

The cover photo is from a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London, on March 15, 2004.