Monday, September 30, 2019

The Kinks - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: Soap Opera Live - New Victoria Theatre, London, Britain, 6-14-1975

Us Kinks fans are lucky this concert exists. You see, in the early to mid-1970s, Ray Davies, leader of the Kinks, was really into concept albums. He recorded four of them in a row. When touring, he presented them in full, essentially putting on musicals more than typical rock concerts. But out of all his concept albums, only this one was recorded with excellent soundboard quality. That's because one show was recorded for a BBC TV show. This is the audio to that show.

The Kinks played all of their 1975 "Soap Opera" album, and not much else. (There's one medley of three early hits worked into the concept, and one song from the album, "Holiday Romance," wasn't played  since it didn't fit into the story that well.) In order not to alienate audience members who wanted to hear the old songs, the Kinks would play one set of older songs and then finish by playing the "Soap Opera" album. Unfortunately, the BBC only televised the "Soap Opera" part, so that's all there is here.

The "Soap Opera" album is 38 minutes long, and this concert is 57 minutes long. The extra length is mainly due to the dialogue that takes place between songs. Pretty much all the talking takes place between Ray Davies' character and an actress (June Ritchie) playing his wife. I think the dialogue is entertaining and to the point. More importantly, the "Soap Opera" concept doesn't make much sense on the album. But presented this way, it makes a coherent, intelligent story. Once you hear this, you'll be able to appreciate the album much better.

Only three of the songs from this show have been officially released, as bonus tracks to a later version of the "Soap Opera" album. The sound quality of those are the same as the rest of the songs here.

UPDATE: On November 29, 2022, I updated the mp3 download file. I didn't change the music. But I realized that since this is a BBC recording, I should add it to the series of Kinks BBC albums I've made. Thus, I changed the title, cover art, and mp3 tags. All BBC albums after this one are renumbered.

01 Everybody's a Star [Starmaker] (Kinks)
02 talk (Kinks)
03 Ordinary People (Kinks)
04 talk (Kinks)
05 Rush Hour Blues (Kinks)
06 talk (Kinks)
07 Nine to Five (Kinks)
08 When Work Is Over (Kinks)
09 Have Another Drink (Kinks)
10 talk (Kinks)
11 Underneath the Neon Sign (Kinks)
12 talk (Kinks)
13 You Make It All Worthwhile (Kinks)
14 Ordinary People [Reprise] (Kinks)
15 talk (Kinks)
16 A Well Respected Man - Dedicated Follower of Fashion - Sunny Afternoon (Kinks)
17 talk (Kinks)
18 Ducks on the Wall (Kinks)
19 talk (Kinks)
20 [A] Face in the Crowd (Kinks)
21 talk (Kinks)
22 You Can't Stop the Music (Kinks)
23 Everybody's a Star [Starmaker] [Reprise] (Kinks)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16135390/TKNKS1975b_BBSessonsVlum6NwVctraThtreLndnBrtin__6-14-1975_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo doesn't come from this exact show, although you can find YouTube videos of the whole thing. But it does come from the same tour, so they would have been wearing the same outfits. I believe this photo depicts the moment Ray Davies' character is helped into a business suit when he takes on his "Norman" persona.

10 comments:

  1. Great site. But the multiple tagging creates individual tracks being recognised as individual albums in player applications. Totally frustrating. Please any help. I've tried retaghing software. Doesn't work. Spoils your hard and brilliant work.

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    1. If you don't like the tagging, why not just use a program like Tag and Rename or Mp3tag? I use both. Why wouldn't it work? If it didn't work, I wouldn't be able to make the mp3 tags that you don't like in the first place. It would only take you a few moments to change all the tags in an album to the exact same thing, if that's what you want.

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  2. Thanks Paul for the reply. I love your site, your time, creative mind and detailed tags too! It's the music player I have issues with! I tried android applications to try re tag. Which is probably the issue. So thanks for the feedback. I thought the Robyn Hitchcock covers album of Syd Barrett was a sublime masterpiece! That's the Flaming I'm into. Many Thanks. Any further Neil Young it Crazy Horse would be really appreciated. Perhaps a compilation oh a Horseless Neil would be fun? Live at Crooked Lake is amazing.

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    1. You're welcome. Definitely check out "Tag and Rename." It's pretty much the standard for mp3 tagging, and I believe it's still free. If not, I'm sure there are free knockoffs.

      I plan on posting a lot more Neil. I haven't done much of his stuff from the 1970s because he has it pretty well covered with his Archives box set and lots of archival releases. But I plan to do a lot more from 1980 onwards. For instance, since he has a lot of lean years in the 1980s, I plan to post albums that gathers all the good stuff, both released and not, up until about 1988, when his career got back on track again (IMHO).

      I'm afraid I've never really paid much attention to Crazy Horse sans Neil, but it's on my to-do list. (It's a very long list.)

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  3. Sounds Great! There's lots to mine from the archives. The uncompiled 'oh Lonesome Me' album has a listing under the songs note card and the archive has lots of alternative tracks that would make it up into an as yet unheard coherent listen. Hmmm. 80's Neil. Is an acoustic Landing On Water possible or Old Ways? I definitely think so! Those would be great!

    There's a great boot of Neil doing some rare acoustic tracks at the Horde festival tent before he played the main stage. I found some of the material but there's lots I can't source.

    Looking forward to your hard work. Starting off with The Ducks...got to be a sublime mind who digs that!!!

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    1. Unfortunately, I don't have enough for an acoustic Landing on Water or Old Ways. The problem is sound quality. A lot of Neil bootlegs from the 1980 are audience sourced and don't sound very good. But I do have some interesting acoustic stuff that sounds good.

      What's the Horde thing you speak of? I'm not familiar with that.

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  4. Hi Paul.
    The Horde festival is an album that should exist. Neil toured the festival in 1997 with Crazy Horse. Here is the excellent Sugar mountain site's list of venue's and dates.
    https://sugarmtn.org/sm_getshowsgrid.php?tour_key=153&flag=2

    But. It doesn't reflect the unofficial set listing of the tour, which is a mystery. The festival had an acoustic tent set up the 'Workshop Stage' and Neil would play impromptu songs to a very small audience. As related here...http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org/2016/06/comment-of-moment-1997-horde-side-stage.html?m=1

    Also

    http://www.musicbox-online.com/horde97.html#axzz61BQRBHAy

    Even a Video here of yet another rendition of Heart of Gold. But you get the feel.
    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=RD4OlEW6B2qEY

    And there are tapes of these performances and the sound quality, intimacy and rare setlists put them on par with Citizen Kane Junior Blues of 1974! Until the radio show announced their existence!
    I can't find my original CD. Argh.
    That's why I mentioned it. It's hard to track down due to the main stages electric boots popping up on searches. I got very excited with the Boot I found and have been frustrated ever since trying to re find it. Anyhow, many thanks for your site. I will stop yacking on about my Neil obsession. But you really must listen to the first Crazy Horse album. Neil plays on it and it's the natural follow up to everybody knows this is nowhere. It might just be better!!!

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    1. Thanks for the info. If you ever find that boot, please let me know.

      I have heard that Crazy Horse album and I like it. I don't think it's better than EKTIN though. I haven't heard their stuff post-Danny Whitten yet because I figured he was the main creative force.

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    2. I saw HORDE ‘97 in Camden, NJ. It rained hard, but Neil rocked the house. Would love to hear that show (or any Neil Show, especially from that tour)

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