Kaleidoscope - A Dream for Julie - Non-Album Tracks (1967-1970)

There are two 1960s psychedelic bands called "Kaleidoscope." There was a U.S. based band, probably best known for having guitarist David Lindley as a member. But I'm more interested in the British band of the same name, so that's the music here. 

The British Kaleidoscope only released two albums, "Tangerine Dream" in 1967, and "Faintly Blowing" in 1969. Then they changed their name to "Fairfield Parlour" (despite having the exact same band members) and released one more album in 1970, "From Home to Home." Furthermore, there was a fourth album, "White Faced Lady," that should have come out in 1971, but it wasn't and the band broke up. It eventually got released a couple of decades later. I'm ignoring the band name "Fairfield Parlour" since the only adds confusion. The band members later regretted the name change anyway, for instance releasing their archival album "White Faced Lady" with the "Kaleidoscope" name even though they were known as "Fairfield Parlour" at the time it was recorded.

Although the band didn't release much material, what they did put out is of a high quality. There are little to no live recordings that survive, unless you could BBC material, which I will deal with in another post. But they do have enough for a stray tracks album, which is this. The vast majority of songs here are A-sides (seven of them) or B-sides (six of those). There's also one song they only ever did for the BBC ("Jump in My Boat") and a bonus track, "Eye Witness."

This makes up a very solid album, more so than most stray tracks albums. A couple of the band's best known songs are here because they were only released as singles: "A Dream for Julie" and "Jenny Artichoke."

This album is 38 minutes long.

01 A Dream for Julie (Kaleidoscope)
02 Jenny Artichoke (Kaleidoscope)
03 Just How Much You Are (Kaleidoscope)
04 Jump in My Boat [Edit] (Kaleidoscope)
05 Do It Again for Jeffrey (Kaleidoscope)
06 Balloon (Kaleidoscope)
07 Bordeaux Rose (Kaleidoscope)
08 Just Another Day (Kaleidoscope)
09 Caraminda (Kaleidoscope)
10 I Am All the Animals (Kaleidoscope)
11 Song for You (Kaleidoscope)
12 Let the World Wash In (Kaleidoscope)
13 Medieval Masquerade [Instrumental] (Kaleidoscope)
14 Baby, Stay for Tonight (Kaleidoscope)
15 Eye Witness (Kaleidoscope)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16693430/KLEDOSCPE1967-1970_ADremfrJlie_atse.zip.html

I take it this band kept a low profile, because there are very few color photos of them, and most of those are used for album artwork already. I don't know where or when this photo is from, but at least it's in color and has decent resolution. For the text, I thought it was only fitting to use the font known as "kaleidoscope," so I did. :)

Elton John - BBC Sessions, Volume 13: Earl's Court Arena, London, Britain, 5-13-1993

Here's yet another in a very long series of Elton John BBC albums. This is the only BBC concert I found from the 1990s, but it's an especially good one.

In the early 1990s, John got clean after many years of drug problems. This concert was to support his 1992 album "The One." It got mixed reviews, but that doesn't matter much, because he only played three songs from it here: "Simple Life," "The One," and "The Last Song." Instead, by this time he had oodles of hits, and most of the concert was spent playing those. He also played two unexpected cover versions: "The Show Must Go On" by Queen and "Jumpin' Jack Flash" by the Rolling Stones.

The sound quality is excellent. However, there was one problem: I felt the lead vocals weren't loud enough. So I used the X-Minus audio editing program to boost the vocals for every song here.

I suspect some of the banter between songs was removed by the BBC, because there isn't much. There also were two spots between songs when the cheering faded down to nothing and then started again with the next song. I patched in some applause from other songs to cover the faded areas. No music was lost, but those could have been more spots were banter was removed.

This album is two hours and 34 minutes long.

01 Pinball Wizard (Elton John)
02 The Bitch Is Back (Elton John)
03 Take Me to the Pilot (Elton John)
04 I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues (Elton John)
05 Philadelphia Freedom (Elton John)
06 Empty Garden (Elton John)
07 Simple Life (Elton John)
08 The One (Elton John)
09 I Don't Wanna Go On with You like That (Elton John)
10 talk (Elton John)
11 Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters - Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters, Part 2 (Elton John)
12 talk (Elton John)
13 Come Down in Time (Elton John)
14 Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word (Elton John)
15 talk (Elton John)
16 Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (Elton John)
17 The Last Song (Elton John)
18 Funeral for a Friend - Love Lies Bleeding (Elton John)
19 Rocket Man [I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time] (Elton John)
20 Bennie and the Jets (Elton John)
21 Sad Songs (Elton John)
22 talk (Elton John)
23 The Show Must Go On (Elton John)
24 Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting (Elton John)
25 Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (Elton John)
26 Jumpin' Jack Flash (Elton John)
27 talk (Elton John)
28 Your Song (Elton John)
29 Sacrifice (Elton John)
30 Candle in the Wind (Elton John)

https://www.imagenetz.de/bMbHd

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/xShm5ZER

The cover photo was taken in Sun City, South Africa, in 1993.

Belle & Sebastian - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: John Peel Show, Maida Vale Studios, London, Britain, 12-18-2002

I'm lucky with this post, almost. I've been steadily moving through the BBC sessions of Belle and Sebastian in chronological order, and this is the sixth album. It also happens to be a Christmas-themed one. So I'm lucky this is getting posted so close to Christmas, 2022. But I'm only "almost" lucky, because I'm posting this two days after Christmas. I should have been more on the ball and posted it earlier. But hopefully you'll still be in the Christmas spirit for a little longer.

This is an unusual album, because it's a single BBC studio session, but long enough for a whole album. Plus, it has a Christmas theme. BBC DJ John Peel was a very big fan of Belle and Sebastian (he died in 2004), and this was done for John Peel's BBC show. I gather it went down much like a party, with lots of talking and joking between songs, but all I have here is the music.

It's a pretty fun album as Christmas albums/shows go. There are three kinds of songs here. One are some of Belle and Sebastian's best known songs, which seem to have no Christmas connection, such as "Step into My Office, Baby" or "The Boy with the Arab Strap." Another batch are traditional, well known Christmas songs, such as "Christmas Time Is Here," "O Little Town of Bethlehem," and "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." The third kind of songs are Christmas-themed, but very little known. For instance, "Santa Claus, Go Straight to the Ghetto" is a funky song originally done by James Brown. "Santa, Bring My Baby Back to Me" was done by Elvis Presley, and sounds like his style. As another example, "Santa Claus" was done by the Sonics and sounds like 1960s garage rock. "I Took Some Time for Christmas" is especially interesting, because it's a Belle and Sebastian original that apparently was only performed for this show. (Note that I also put this on the stray tracks album I made called "Ransomed by Tuesday," as well as "Santa Claus" and "Santa Claus, Go Straight to the Ghetto.")

There are three songs performed for this show that I didn't include: "O Come All Ye Faithful," "Silent Night" and "The Twelve Days of Christmas." These are well known Christmas songs that the band did in a typical way. There was nothing particularly special or interesting about their versions. Sometimes, less is more, and I felt this was a better album without them. In particular, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is a song that gets old fast, so it doesn't stand up to many repeat listenings.

This album is 42 minutes long.

01 Christmas Time Is Here (Belle & Sebastian)
02 Santa Claus (Belle & Sebastian)
03 Step into My Office, Baby (Belle & Sebastian)
04 Jonathan David (Belle & Sebastian)
05 Santa Claus, Go Straight to the Ghetto (Belle & Sebastian)
06 Photo Jenny (Belle & Sebastian)
07 O Little Town of Bethlehem (Belle & Sebastian)
08 Santa, Bring My Baby Back to Me (Belle & Sebastian)
09 If You Find Yourself Caught in Love (Belle & Sebastian)
10 The Boy with the Arab Strap (Belle & Sebastian)
11 O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (Belle & Sebastian)
12 Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying (Belle & Sebastian)
13 I Took Some Time for Christmas (Belle & Sebastian)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15602301/BellenS_2002_BBSessionsVolume6JhnPeelShow__12-18-2002_atse.zip.html

I don't know what the deal is with the cover photo I've included here. I found it on the Internet by searching for Belle and Sebastian and Christmas. It was a black and white photo with color Santa hats and a color Christmas tree added. I don't know if it was made by a fan, or if it was something the band did for some reason. Either way, I think it fits better than anything else I could come up with. I tinted the whole thing green, since I usually don't like black and white covers.

Aimee Mann - Prospect Park, New York City, 6-21-2018

I've mentioned previously that excellent sounding Aimee Mann live recordings are few and far between. She's released only one live album, in 2006, and the vast majority of concert bootlegs are audience recordings were merely okay sound. So when I came across this concert the other day, I thought I should post it. It was professionally recorded in order to be broadcast live on the radio (and Mann makes a few comments about being broadcast live), so the sound quality is great.

As far as song selection goes, there aren't any big surprises, such as rarities or unusual covers. But it does what you'd expect, presenting songs from her latest album at the time, plus her best known songs going all the way back to "Voices Carry" with her band Til Tuesday.

Other than that, there's not much to say. There were no problems that needed fixing. She played with a small band.

This album is an hour and 12 minutes long.

01 talk (Aimee Mann)
02 4th of July (Aimee Mann)
03 talk (Aimee Mann)
04 Little Bombs (Aimee Mann)
05 talk (Aimee Mann)
06 Patient Zero (Aimee Mann)
10 talk (Aimee Mann)
07 The Moth (Aimee Mann)
08 Labrador (Aimee Mann)
09 Humpty Dumpty (Aimee Mann)
11 Rollercoasters (Aimee Mann)
12 talk (Aimee Mann)
13 You Never Loved Me (Aimee Mann)
14 talk (Aimee Mann)
15 Goose Snow Cone (Aimee Mann)
16 Save Me (Aimee Mann)
17 Going through the Motions (Aimee Mann)
18 Borrowing Time (Aimee Mann)
19 talk (Aimee Mann)
20 Long Shot (Aimee Mann)
21 One (Aimee Mann)
22 Wise Up (Aimee Mann)
23 talk (Aimee Mann)
24 Voices Carry (Aimee Mann)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15601850/AimeMn_2018_ProspectPrkNewYorkCity__6-21-2018_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from a concert in Red Rocks, Colorado, in September 2018.

Chris Isaak - BBC in Concert, Town and Country Club, London, Britain, 3-12-1991

Here's something else I came across as part of my BBC project. As far as I can tell, it's the only concert Chris Isaak has performed for the BBC.

This concert arguably took place at Isaak's commercial peak. His biggest hit is "Wicked Game," which was released in 1989. However, it only made a minor impact at the time. Then it was included in the movie "Wild at Heart" in 1990, and got enough buzz to get re-released as a single. It finally reached the US Top Ten in January 1991, just two months before this concert.

Normally, BBC concerts sound excellent. This one, though, wasn't up to their usual standards. That could be due to someone recording it off the radio in less than ideal circumstances. I had a feeling it could be improved, but in a way that was beyond my limited abilities. So I passed this on to my musical associate MZ. He made a number of different tweaks across all the songs to improve the mix and increase the clarity. I think it sounds much better than before, thanks to his work. It still doesn't have excellent sound quality, but it's almost there.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 Dancin' (Chris Isaak)
02 Lovers Game (Chris Isaak)
03 talk (Chris Isaak)
04 You Owe Me Some Kind of Love (Chris Isaak)
05 Wicked Game (Chris Isaak)
06 Gone Ridin' (Chris Isaak)
07 Wild Love (Chris Isaak)
08 Don't Make Me Dream about You (Chris Isaak)
09 talk (Chris Isaak)
10 Beautiful Homes (Chris Isaak)
11 talk (Chris Isaak)
12 Diddley Daddy (Chris Isaak)
13 A Town without Pity (Chris Isaak)
14 In the Heat of the Jungle (Chris Isaak)
15 talk (Chris Isaak)
16 Blue Hotel (Chris Isaak)
17 talk (Chris Isaak)
18 Caldonia (Chris Isaak)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15127801/ChrisIsk_1991_BBConcertTownCountryClubLondonBritain__3-12-1991_atse.zip.html

The cover photo appears to come from this exact concert, as it was taken at the Town and Country Club, in London, in 1991.

The Who - The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA, 12-4-1973

A lot of live music from the Who has been officially released. But an issue I have is that they tended to do the same songs over and over, especially songs from "Tommy." A really great album they did was "Quadrophenia" in 1973. But usually they only did songs from the album in the 1973 tour, other than a few of the best known songs from it, like "Love Reign O'er Me." And no full concert from that 1973 has ever been officially released, despite the release of a super deluxe edition of the "Quadrophenia" album. So here's the live album they should put out.

The Who's 1973 had many musical problems. Most of them related to the use of prerecorded tapes in order to capture the full complexity of the music from the "Quadrophenia" album. But playing along to prerecorded tapes hadn't been done much before, and they kept having technical problems. But luckily, the second to last show of the tour, in Philadelphia, is considered of the best shows of the tour, if not the best. And that one happened to be professionally recorded for a radio station broadcast. The last night of the tour, in Landover, Maryland, was also recorded for the same reason, but that performance isn't considered as good, and it had technical issues. Also, the Philadelphia concert has an extra encore of "Naked Eye" that the Landover show doesn't have.

At first, only parts of both shows were broadcast, combined into one highlights show for the "King Biscuit Flower Hour." But eventually, bootlegs of all of both shows appeared. However, the Philadelphia one is missing the key song "Love Reign O'er Me." So I've used the Landover version to fill in that gap.

There also were some mixing issues with the Philadelphia recording. Specifically, some of the vocals weren't prominent enough. This was especially the case when John Entwistle or Pete Townshend were singing. It seems their microphones weren't set to the same volume as the band's usual lead singer, Roger Daltrey. So for a few songs, I used the X-Minus audio editing program to boost some of the vocals (the ones with "[Edit]" in their names). This recording is a soundboard, which is great, but one could hear so little of the audience that the reaction after each song seemed muted. So I boosted the applause after each song. I also think there's some missing bits between a few of the songs, especially towards the end. One could tell for instance when loud applause was suddenly cut to near total silence. I made some more edits to make those transitions sound natural.

I think "Quadrophenia" was one of the band's best albums, and this live version is excellent. If you're a Who fan, you should get this.

This album is an hour and 51 minutes long.

01 I Can't Explain (Who)
02 Summertime Blues (Who)
03 talk (Who)
04 My Wife [Edit] (Who)
05 My Generation (Who)
06 talk (Who)
07 I Am the Sea (Who)
08 The Real Me (Who)
09 The Punk and the Godfather [Edit] (Who)
10 talk (Who)
11 I'm One (Who)
12 talk (Who)
13 5;15 (Who)
14 talk (Who)
15 Sea and Sand [Edit] (Who)
16 talk (Who)
17 Drowned (Who)
18 Bell Boy [Edit] (Who)
19 talk (Who)
20 Doctor Jimmy [Edit] (Who)
21 Love Reign O'er Me (Who)
22 Won't Get Fooled Again (Who)
23 Pinball Wizard (Who)
24 See Me, Feel Me (Who)
25 Naked Eye (Who)

https://www.imagenetz.de/mgHR2

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/6rPMfmWn

The cover photo was taken in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 27, 1973.

Brandi Carlile - Home Concerts 5: Still Home for the Holidays, Maple Valley, WA, 12-13-2020

I'm kind of embarrassed to admit it, but there still are albums from the lockdown phase of the Covid pandemic that I haven't posted yet. In this case, it's a lucky thing, because I happened to notice this one with less than a week until Christmas, and it's a Christmas themed album.

This is just like the other Brandi Carlile home concerts I've posted, same location, same acoustic format. But since it took place in mid-December 2020, it's all Christmas songs. Two of the songs are originals: "Christmas 1984" and "The Heartache Can Wait." Carlile is backed by her long-time collaborators, "the twins," Phil and Tim Hanseroth. For "Baby, It's Cold Outside," she duets with her wife, Catherine Carlile.

For two songs, they're joined by the "Compound Kids," which just means the kids of the people living in the compound she lives in. They're horribly out of tune most of the time, as little kids usually are, but I left those songs in because the kids are very cute (as well as wanting to present the entire show).

This album is an hour and 21 minutes long.

01 talk (Brandi Carlile)
02 What Christmas Means to Me (Brandi Carlile)
03 talk (Brandi Carlile)
04 All I Want for Christmas (Brandi Carlile)
05 talk (Brandi Carlile)
06 Christmas 1984 (Brandi Carlile)
07 talk (Brandi Carlile)
08 Last Christmas (Brandi Carlile)
09 talk (Brandi Carlile)
10 O Holy Night (Brandi Carlile)
11 talk (Brandi Carlile)
12 River (Brandi Carlile)
13 talk (Brandi Carlile)
14 Hard Candy Christmas (Brandi Carlile)
15 talk (Brandi Carlile)
16 Baby, It's Cold Outside (Brandi Carlile & Catherine Carlile)
17 talk (Brandi Carlile)
18 Instrumental (Brandi Carlile)
19 talk (Brandi Carlile)
20 The Heartache Can Wait (Brandi Carlile)
21 talk (Brandi Carlile)
22 Mary (Brandi Carlile)
23 talk (Brandi Carlile)
24 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Brandi Carlile with the Compound Kids)
25 talk (Brandi Carlile)
26 Jingle Bells (Brandi Carlile with the Compound Kids)
27 talk (Brandi Carlile)
28 Hallelujah (Brandi Carlile)
29 talk (Brandi Carlile)
30 Silent Night (Brandi Carlile)
31 talk (Brandi Carlile)
32 Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Brandi Carlile)
33 talk (Brandi Carlile)
34 The Heartache Can Wait (Brandi Carlile)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15281123/BrandiC_2020_HomeConcrts5StillHmeforHolidaysMapleVlleyWA__12-13-2020_atse.zip.html

The cover photo shows Carlile flanked by "the twins." It comes from an article promoting the concert. I also took the text at the top from more promo material.

The Jam - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: 1981-1982

This is the fifth album of the Jam playing for the BBC. It's also the second and last album of studio sessions.

Unfortunately, by this time, the Jam had become very successful, and I've noticed that the more successful a musical act tends to get, the less likely they are to do BBC studio sessions. So I felt obliged to look for different TV or radio shows to fill in the missing gaps, especially since there are no BBC studio sessions at all from the band's last year together, 1982.

The first two songs come from a British TV show called "Get Set for Summer." Those are unreleased. The next four are from an actual BBC studio session, and have been included on the official album "At the BBC." 

All the remaining songs, except for the last one, are from a Danish TV show called "Spil Op." The Jam hardly played live for any TV or radio shows in 1982, arguably their most commercially successful year, but for some odd reason they did do this one TV appearance in Denmark. There was a studio audience, but I very carefully removed as much crowd noise as I could, so these songs would fit with the other studio versions on this album. For some songs, I used the X-Minus audio editing program to remove some of the cheering over the music.

I was all set to post this album when I realized I hadn't included a version of "Beat Surrender." That was a Number One hit in Britain and one of the band's best songs, so I didn't want to leave that out. Luckily, it turns out they played it live on a British TV show once. So that unreleased version ends this album.

Although this is all of the band's studio sessions, they did do two more BBC concerts before breaking up, one in 1981 and the other in 1982. So expect those soon.

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 Boy about Town (Jam)
02 Pretty Green (Jam)
03 Absolute Beginners (Jam)
04 Tales from the Riverbank (Jam)
05 Funeral Pyre (Jam)
06 Sweet Soul Music (Jam)
07 Running on the Spot (Jam)
08 Circus (Jam)
09 Happy Together (Jam)
10 Ghosts (Jam)
11 In the Crowd (Jam)
12 Town Called Malice (Jam)
13 Pity Poor Alfie - Fever (Jam)
14 Precious (Jam)
15 Just Who Is the 5 O'clock Hero (Jam)
16 The Gift (Jam)
17 Move On Up (Jam)
18 Trans-Global Express (Jam)
19 Beat Surrender (Jam)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700761/TJAMM1981a-1982_BBSessonsVolum5_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from 1981. I don't know where it was taken. I used Photoshop to move the band members closer together.

Aretha Franklin - Duets, Nederlander Theatre, New York City, 4-28-1993

By the 1990s, Aretha Franklin had fallen from her golden era (1960s and 1970s) when it came to new material, but her mighty voice was still strong. A problem was that she suffered production issues, due to trying to sound current. That wasn't nearly as much of a problem when it came to live performances. Here's a very interesting one, because it's chock-a-block with duets with other big name musicians.

This was a benefit concert done for AIDS research. It was broadcast on national TV in the US as "Duets." As such, it was professionally recorded, and the sound quality is excellent. It also means that things moved very quickly, to make the best use of every second of screen time. Typically, even before the clapping from one song had finished, someone started had started to introduce the next one. Apparently, in real time, the show lasted four hours, with big delays between songs and multiple retakes. But then things were edited down for an hour-long show.

However, I found a review of the concert at the time in the New York Times, which you can read here:

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/29/arts/review-pop-aretha-franklin-in-stellar-company-and-on-her-own.html

From that, it sounds like this contains all of the songs performed, or at least all of the good stuff. (There's mention of a song Franklin lip-synced to at the end, strangely enough.) According to that review, Franklin sang circles around nearly all of her star guests, and I agree.

Musically, she wisely stuck to doing her classic songs, avoiding any songs from her latest album at the time, "What You See Is What You Sweat" (which wasn't very good). She also did two Motown songs she'd never done before, "Just to See Her" and "This Old Heart of Mine."

This seems like the sort of thing that was designed for an official release, but I see no sign of that having ever happened. By the way, it's rather odd in my opinion (since I don't see a logical Aretha connection), but actor Robert De Niro introduced one of the songs. And actor Dustin Hoffman also was on stage, but whatever role he had must have been cut from this recording.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Chain of Fools (Aretha Franklin with Elton John, Smokey Robinson & Rod Stewart)
02 talk (Aretha Franklin & Elton John)
03 Border Song [Holy Moses] (Aretha Franklin & Elton John)
04 talk (Gloria Estefan)
05 Coming Out of the Dark (Aretha Franklin & Gloria Estefan)
06 talk (Smokey Robinson)
07 Just to See Her (Aretha Franklin & Smokey Robinson)
08 talk (Robert De Niro)
09 I Never Loved a Man [The Way I Love You] (Aretha Franklin)
10 Think (Aretha Franklin & P.M. Dawn)
11 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
12 Since You've Been Gone [Sweet Sweet Baby] (Aretha Franklin & Bonnie Raitt)
13 [You Make Me Feel Like] A Natural Woman (Aretha Franklin with Bonnie Raitt & Gloria Estefan)
14 talk (Rod Stewart)
15 This Old Heart of Mine (Aretha Franklin & Rod Stewart)
16 People Get Ready (Aretha Franklin & Rod Stewart)
17 Spirit in the Dark (Aretha Franklin & Elton John)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15289916/ArethaF_1993_DuetNederlandrTheatreNewYrkC__4-28-1993_atse.zip.html

The cover photo comes from this exact concert. Franklin is in front with her hand held up. Behind her, from left to right, is: Smokey Robinson, Gloria Estefan, Rod Stewart, and Bonnie Raitt. The font, including the colors, comes from one of her albums. I replicated that for the additional writing.

Belle & Sebastian - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: Mandela Hall, Queens University, Belfast, Ireland, 12-21-2001

Here's the fifth of many Belle and Sebastian BBC albums. This one is another full concert.

Out of all of the Belle and Sebastian BBC albums I've posted or plan on posting, this is the only one that is fully released material. But I'm posting it for the sake of completeness. This makes up one of two discs of the album "The BBC Sessions." As such, the sound quality is excellent.

There's not much else to say. There were no problems or complexities. However, one interesting tidbit concerns the cover of "I'm Waiting for the Man," originally by the Velvet Underground. As you'll hear from the talking before the crowd, the band invited a random person from the crowd to come up and sing a song. That person suggested a Velvet Underground, and then did a good job singing that song. That might sound staged, but it's a real thing that happened. I know because I listened to a lot of covers by this band while putting together my covers albums by them, and there are a whole bunch of them that were sung by audience members. Apparently, this was a thing they sometimes did around this time period, though they seem to have stopped doing that a short time after this. The audience member was a guy named Barry Bartholomew. There was an article or two about him in the news after he heard himself singing once the official BBC album was released.

In addition to "I'm Waiting for the Man," "Here Comes the Sun" and "The Boys Are Back in Town" are also cover versions.

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 talk (Belle & Sebastian)
02 Here Comes the Sun (Belle & Sebastian)
03 There's Too Much Love (Belle & Sebastian)
04 The Magic of a Kind Word (Belle & Sebastian)
05 Me and the Major (Belle & Sebastian)
06 talk (Belle & Sebastian)
07 Wondering Alone (Belle & Sebastian)
08 talk (Belle & Sebastian)
09 The Model (Belle & Sebastian)
10 talk (Belle & Sebastian)
11 I'm Waiting for the Man (Belle & Sebastian with Barry Bartholomew)
12 The Boy with the Arab Strap (Belle & Sebastian)
13 The Wrong Girl (Belle & Sebastian)
14 Dirty Dream No. 2 (Belle & Sebastian)
15 The Boys Are Back in Town (Belle & Sebastian)
16 talk (Belle & Sebastian)
17 Legal Man (Belle & Sebastian)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15602317/BellenS_2001c_BBSessionsVolume5MandlaHall__12-21-2001_atse.zip.html

The cover photo of band leader Stuart Murdoch was taken in San Francisco in September 2001. The background was originally red, but I changed that to make it differ more from the red lettering (which I'm keeping consistent for all the albums in this series).

Kirsty MacColl - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Britain, 6-26-1992

In searching for more BBC material, I keep coming across tons of great music that I'd otherwise missed. One thing I've discovered is the music of Britain's yearly Glastonbury Festival. This festival has been taking place every summer since 1970. Since around the start of the 1990s, the BBC has been broadcasting most or all of it, usually after the festival is over. So expect many more Glastonbury Festival posts in the future. Here's one.

Kirsty MacColl was shy about performing in public, and didn't tour that much. There are only a few live recordings by her with excellent sound quality. So it's a lucky thing that the BBC recorded this Glastonbury Festival performance in 1992. It finally got officially released as part of a box set in 2023.

The song selection for this concert is about what one would expect. However, she did surprise with a cover of the Clash song "Train in Vain (Stand by Me)."

The main concert is 38 minutes long.

UPDATE: On November 26, 2023, I changed the album title and cover art. The music of the concert is still the same, but I've made this Volume 2 in a series of BBC albums. I also removed the last two songs, because they weren't part of the concert. They were from a BBC TV show, so they've been moved to a different BBC album in this series.

01 A New England (Kirsty MacColl)
02 Innocence (Kirsty MacColl)
03 talk (Kirsty MacColl)
04 You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby (Kirsty MacColl)
05 Fifteen Minutes (Kirsty MacColl)
06 Happy (Kirsty MacColl)
07 Don't Come the Cowboy with Me, Sonny Jim (Kirsty MacColl)
08 Tread Lightly (Kirsty MacColl)
09 Train in Vain [Stand by Me] (Kirsty MacColl)
10 Walking Down Madison (Kirsty MacColl)
11 Free World (Kirsty MacColl)
12 talk (Kirsty MacColl)
13 There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis (Kirsty MacColl)
14 Soho Square (Kirsty MacColl)
15 Angel (Kirsty MacColl)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15260616/KirstyMacC_1992_BBinConcertGlastonuryFestivl__6-26-1992_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is undated, but I'd guess it comes from the early 1990s. The lettering of her name comes from one of her albums, but with the color changed.

Elastica - Unheard Music - Non-Album Tracks (1997-2001)

Here's the second of two stray tracks album I made for the British band Elastica.

In brief, Elastica put out a great album in 1995, simply called "Elastica." But then they struggled to come up with a worthy follow up. It turns out they were overwhelmed by success, and put partying and drugs above making more music. The lyrics to one of their songs ("Waking Up") on that 1995 album was a clue: "I'd work very hard, but I'm lazy. I can't take the pressure and it's starting to show. ... If I can't be a star I won't get out of bed." Anyway, they did come out with a second album in 2000, "The Menace." But it was a critical and commercial disappointment compared to their first album. They broke up in 2001. Lead singer Justine Frischmann then quit the music business altogether and became a painter.

So that's the context of the music for this album, as they struggled to match the expectations set by their great debut album. The songs are a mix of A- and B-sides (tracks 6, 7, 12, and 13), EP tracks (3 and 4), bonus tracks (8 and 9), and songs from soundtracks (1, 2, and 14). Three more songs (tracks 5, 10, and 11) are unreleased, with "Operate" being a studio outtake and "12XU" and "Moody" coming from a concert bootleg.

Given these stray tracks were probably considered not strong enough for the band's second album, I find it a surprisingly good listen. In fact, I actually prefer this to that second album. That album dabbled in electronica, trying to find a new second for the band. Whereas many of the songs here stick with the successful punk-pop sound of the debut album.

There was one odd problem with the songs here, however. After listening to it a couple of times, I suspected the lead vocals were low for most of the songs. I used the X-Minus audio editing program to split the vocal and instrumental parts into separate tracks. Looking at the results, I saw that indeed the vocals were usually well below what one would typically expect. So I boosted the vocals for nearly every song, even though I haven't marked them with "[Edit]" as I usually do. (There were a couple that were okay, and a couple are instrumentals.) 

This album is 36 minutes long.

01 In the City (Elastica)
02 Unheard Music (Elastica with Stephen Malkmus)
03 Miami Nice [Instrumental] [Demo] (Elastica)
04 Nothing Stays the Same [Demo] (Elastica)
05 Operate (Elastica)
06 Suicide (Elastica)
07 Bush Baby [Instrumental] (Elastica)
08 Faking [Demo] (Elastica)
09 You're OK (Elastica)
10 12XU (Elastica)
11 Moody (Elastica)
12 The Bitch Don't Work (Elastica)
13 No Good (Elastica)
14 Too Old to Die Young (British Meat Scene & Justine Frischmann)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15111393/Elastca_1997-2001_UnhrdMusic_atse.zip.html

I couldn't find any picture of the whole band from the time period here that I really liked. So I went with this one, which is from 1995.

Eric Clapton - Fight the Good Fight - Non-Album Tracks (1986-1988)

It's hard for me to get psyched about Eric Clapton these days. This is a stray tracks album for him, and the last time I posted one from him was in June 2020. What happened between then and now? The Covid pandemic, and Clapton's reaction. He released anti-mask and anti-vaccine songs, and generally acted like a jerk, putting the "right" to get paid for performing concerts over the health concerns of society at large.

So yeah, that's annoyed me. But famous musicians often are difficult people. If I didn't listen to any musicians who acted like jerks in one way or another, I'd have to throw out half of my music collection, at least. What he did isn't beyond the pale awful, like, say, R. Kelly or Bill Cosby. So I'm going to keep posting the rest of the albums I have prepared for him, especially since I made these albums long before the pandemic started.

Getting to the music here, the late 1980s were a strange time for Clapton. On one hand, he went for a slick, commercial sound with his 1986 album "August." But on the other hand, he still loved traditional blues. So this album has a mix of both sounds. His bluesy side is boosted by collaborations with Otis Rush, Chicken Shack, and Chuck Berry.

Five of the ten songs here are officially unreleased (tracks 1 and 3 through 6). "It's My Life Baby" and "Lady of Verona" are studio outtakes. The three others come from concert bootlegs. "Fight the Good Fight," a collaboration with the Bee Gees, comes from an obscure album for a children's animated TV series ("The Bunbury Tails"). The two instrumentals are from a movie soundtrack. The new version of "After Midnight" is from the "Crossroads" box set.

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 It's My Life Baby (Eric Clapton)
02 Fight the Good Fight (Eric Clapton with the Bee Gees)
03 Lady of Verona (Eric Clapton)
04 All Your Love [I Miss Loving] (Eric Clapton & Otis Rush)
05 Long Distance Call (Eric Clapton & Chicken Stack)
06 Sweet Sixteen [Edit] (Eric Clapton & Chicken Shack)
07 Wee Wee Hours (Eric Clapton & Chuck Berry)
08 Ruby [Instrumental] (Eric Clapton)
09 After Midnight [Crossroads Version] (Eric Clapton)
10 Travelling East [Instrumental] (Eric Clapton)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15101756/EricC_1986-1988_FightGoodFght_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken in Tokyo, Japan, in November 1987.

The Indigo Girls - The ArtsCenter, Carrboro, NC, 3-19-1988

A few days ago, I posted a 1991 concert by the Indigo Girls. In my opinion, this female duo peaked in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but there's very little in the way of good concert recordings from them (other than their 1995 live album "1200 Curfews," but that's a mixed bag of all sorts of things, including some studio tracks). The fan website https://lifeblood.net/ has an incredible selection of hundreds of Indigo Girls bootlegs. Looking through their early years though, I only saw two that stood out in terms of sound quality: the 1991 one I posted, and this one.

This one is a soundboard bootleg. Unfortunately, soundboards can vary in quality, and this one sounded merely good, not excellent. So I passed it on to my musical associate MZ. I had the feeling he could make improvements to it that were beyond my limited skills. It turns out I was right. He made several tweaks across all the songs that significantly improved the sound quality. I still wouldn't say this has great sound quality, but it's very listenable now, and above all other Indigo Girls concert recordings from this time period.

This concert is drastically different from the 1991 one I recently posted. In 1988, the Indigo Girls were just starting to get famous. They hadn't even signed a major record label deal yet (although they had released one album independently in 1987, "Strange Fire). Whereas by 1991, they'd released two more albums, one of which had gone platinum twice. So perhaps it's not surprising that in this show they played just as an acoustic duo, because that was probably all they could afford at the time, while they played with a full band in the 1991 show.

The song list in this concert is very interesting, in my opinion. Between their 1987 album "Strange Fire" and their breakthrough hit album in 1989, "Indigo Girls," they wrote a lot of new songs. There were enough unreleased songs for them to put out another album, and in fact I've posted a version of this album that could have been, which I've called "Thin Line." You can find that here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-indigo-girls-thin-line-various.html

Many of the songs performed here are ones I've put on that album: "Cold as Ice,"  "Life's So Strange," "Up in Smoke," "I Should Have Never Crossed Your Path," and "The Ballad of Squeaky Fromme." Plus, they did two other unreleased rarities, "Peace Song" and "White House Blues." They also did some covers: "Summertime," "All Along the Watchtower," "American Tune," and "Love of the Common People." So this represents a kind of forgotten chapter in their career, with about half of the songs unknown even to fans who have all of their official albums.

There also is a lot of interesting banter, with talking before every song. This took place at an interesting time for them, right as they were transitioning from playing small clubs. They mostly still sound like they're talking to friends in a very small venue.

There were no big sonic flaws. However, I edited the song "All Along the Watchtower" because I felt the vocals were low in the mix. I used the X-Minus audio editing program to boost them. Also, I suspect the very end of that song got cut off. I tried to make it sound like it had a proper ending, especially by adding some audience applause.

This concert is an hour and 53 minutes long.

01 talk (Indigo Girls)
02 Prince of Darkness (Indigo Girls)
03 talk (Indigo Girls)
04 Cold as Ice (Indigo Girls)
05 talk (Indigo Girls)
06 Lifeblood (Indigo Girls)
07 talk (Indigo Girls)
08 Crazy Game (Indigo Girls)
09 talk (Indigo Girls)
10 Secure Yourself (Indigo Girls)
11 talk (Indigo Girls)
12 Up in Smoke (Indigo Girls)
13 talk (Indigo Girls)
14 Nashville (Indigo Girls)
15 talk (Indigo Girls)
16 Left Me a Fool (Indigo Girls)
17 talk (Indigo Girls)
18 White House Blues (Indigo Girls)
19 talk (Indigo Girls)
20 Center Stage (Indigo Girls)
21 talk (Indigo Girls)
22 Make It Easier (Indigo Girls)
23 talk (Indigo Girls)
24 Strange Fire (Indigo Girls)
25 talk (Indigo Girls)
26 Never Stop (Indigo Girls)
27 talk (Indigo Girls)
28 Pushing the Needle Too Far (Indigo Girls)
29 talk (Indigo Girls)
30 Summertime (Indigo Girls)
31 talk (Indigo Girls)
32 Walk Away (Indigo Girls)
33 talk (Indigo Girls)
34 I Should Have Never Crossed Your Path (Indigo Girls)
35 Peace Song (Indigo Girls)
36 The Ballad of Squeaky Fromme (Indigo Girls)
37 Life's So Strange (Indigo Girls)
38 talk (Indigo Girls)
39 All Along the Watchtower [Edit] (Indigo Girls)
40 American Tune (Indigo Girls)
41 talk (Indigo Girls)
42 Love of the Common People (Indigo Girls)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/9DYDk4Jc

The cover is a screenshot I took of the duo on the TV show "The David Sanborn Show" in 1989. I took the fancy lettering of the band's name from a concert poster.

Huey Lewis & the News - BBC in Concert, Dominion Theatre, London, Britain, 10-28-1984

My BBC project has taken me in some unexpected direction for me, and I'm sure will continue to do so. I'm not much of a Huey Lewis and the News fan, although I like some of their hits. However, I noticed they did a concert for the BBC in 1984, near the peak of their popularity. I listened to it, and it was pretty good. But also, I checked out the band's biography and was surprised to see they've only released one live album, and that was recorded in 2005, way after their popularity had peaked. So this can serve as the 1980s live album they should have put out.

The sound of this bootleg is excellent, although the crowd noise is rather loud. But I had one beef with this. Namely, it happened a little early to include some of their biggest songs. The album "Sports" was released in 1984, and this is from the tour to support that. It was their most popular album, going platinum seven times over. But a year later, they released the Number One hit "The Power of Love," used in the movie "Back to the Future." Then their 1986 album "Fore!" had some other big songs. That too was a big seller, but their popularity quickly declined after that.

Since this is probably the only live album from them that I'm going to have, I included three more songs from a 1986 bootleg concert: "Hip to Be Square," "Jacob’s Ladder," and "The Power of Love."

 01 The Heart of Rock and Roll (Huey Lewis & the News)
02 Trouble in Paradise (Huey Lewis & the News)
03 Don't Make Me Do It (Huey Lewis & the News)
04 talk (Huey Lewis & the News)
05 If This Is It (Huey Lewis & the News)
06 Heart and Soul (Huey Lewis & the News)
07 Walking on a Thin Line (Huey Lewis & the News)
08 It's Alright (Huey Lewis & the News)
09 Finally Found a Home (Huey Lewis & the News)
10 Some of My Lies Are True [Sooner or Later] (Huey Lewis & the News)
11 Workin' for a Livin' (Huey Lewis & the News)
12 talk (Huey Lewis & the News)
13 I Want a New Drug (Huey Lewis & the News)
14 Sea Cruise (Huey Lewis & the News)
15 talk (Huey Lewis & the News)
16 Hip to Be Square (Huey Lewis & the News)
17 Jacob’s Ladder (Huey Lewis & the News)
18 The Power of Love (Huey Lewis & the News)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15845002/HueyLws_1984_BBinConcertDminionTheatre__10-28-1984_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken at a concert in Irvine, California, in April 1984. I found the band's logo on the Internet and added that in.

Alan Price & Georgie Fame - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1969-1971

NOTE: In February 2022, I posted an album of Alan Price and Georgie Fame together playing for the BBC. Since then, I've come across more material, enough to split that album in two. It so happens that most of the new material is from this time period, 1969 to 1971, while the stuff I already had is mostly from 1972 to 1973. So I renamed the existing one into "Volume 2," and this mostly new material becomes a new album of "Volume 1." But if you like this, you'll definitely want to get the redone "Volume 2," which also has some new songs on it.

Here's the link for that:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/02/alan-price-georgie-fame-bbc-sessions.html

I've already posted albums of Alan Price's BBC sessions and Georgie Fame's 1960s BBC sessions. The BBC solo sessions for both of them end towards the end of the 1960s because they teamed up as a duo for a few years. They first got together for a 1969 TV special, and that's represented with the first three songs here.

It was an unusual pairing in that both of them were lead singers and piano players, but they made it work. They generally traded lead vocals on most of these songs, or sang in harmony. 

After those TV special songs come three songs with just Price. All three songs are from 1970 BBC studio sessions. I've included them here because they fit better chronologically than tacking them onto the last solo Price BBC album I made.

Price and Fame only put out one album as a duo in 1971, and had a big hit in Britain with the song "Rosetta." When that came out, they did more BBC studios sessions as a duo. All the rest of the songs here are from three BBC sessions they did in 1971.

Everything on this album is officially unreleased. Virtually all of the BBC studio sessions were made available to me thanks to musical associate Marley. Those come from BBC transcription discs, and they have excellent sound quality.

As if often the case, the BBC DJs talked over the music sometimes. So as I usually do, I used the X-Minus audio editing program to wipe their talking while keeping the music. That's why so many songs have "[Edit]" in their names. I edited "Bring It on Home to Me" from the 1969 TV special for a different reason, but I forget what it is exactly.

By the way, theses are the four songs I had from the previous version of this album, before I split it in two: "Good Day Sunshine," "Great Balls of Fire," "Home Is Where Your Heart Is," and "Time I Moved On." All the rest are new.

This album is 41 minutes long.

01 Great Balls of Fire (Alan Price & Georgie Fame)
02 Bring It on Home to Me [Edit] (Alan Price & Georgie Fame)
03 Good Day Sunshine (Alan Price & Georgie Fame)
04 Saveloy Dip [Edit] (Alan Price)
05 Sunshine and Rain [Edit] (Alan Price)
06 When the Battle is Over [Edit] (Alan Price)
07 Can't Take It Much Longer [Edit] (Alan Price & Georgie Fame)
08 Mama Roux [Edit] (Alan Price & Georgie Fame)
09 Rosetta [Edit] (Alan Price & Georgie Fame)
10 Everyday [Edit] (Alan Price & Georgie Fame)
11 The Dole Song [Edit] (Alan Price & Georgie Fame)
12 Home Is Where Your Heart Is (Alan Price & Georgie Fame)
13 Time I Moved On (Alan Price & Georgie Fame)
14 Follow Me [Edit] (Alan Price & Georgie Fame)
15 I'm a Gambler [Edit] (Alan Price & Georgie Fame)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16373050/ALANPRCEGEORGFM1969-1971BBSssonsVolum1_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from 1971, but I don't know any of the details. The colors were washed out, but I improved that somewhat in Photoshop.

Larkin Poe - Shoulder to Shoulder - Non-Album Tracks (2013)

Larkin Poe recently released a new album (as I write this in December 2022). It's called "Blood Harmony," and it's very good, one of their best. To celebrate that, I want to post something else from them. Unfortunately, they've been very slow with new songs for their "Tip O' the Hat" covers series lately, so I'm still waiting to post the next album in that series. I don't have anything else worthy from 2022. So instead here's something towards the beginning of their career.

Even though the sisters Megan and Rebecca Lovell that make up Larkin Poe are relatively young, in their early thirties as I write this, their music career goes way back. Back when they were teenagers, they were in a trio with their older sister, Jessica Lovell. They had some success, but broke up in 2009 when Jessica apparently quit the music business. They renamed themselves "Larkin Poe" and carried on as a duo. 

At some point, I may way to go even further back in time with them, if there's interest, but for now here's an album I've made of their best songs from 2013. That was the year before they released their first full length album, "Kin." In 2013, they released an EP with a singer-songwriter named Blair Dunlop. (He hasn't been as successful as Larkin Poe has since then.) They also released an album with a Norwegian singer-songwriter named Thom Hell. His music career has continued, but to low sales.

What I've done is taken what I consider the best of the EP, called "Killing Time," and the album, called "The Sound of the Ocean Sound," then added five more apparently original songs from the time that remain officially unreleased. About half of the songs on the EP were mainly sung by Dunlop, so I left those off, except "Sea of Faces," where the lead vocals are shared between Dunlop and Larkin Poe. Even more than half of the songs on the album were mainly sung by Hell, so I left those off too.

The songs "Goldilocks," "Voodoo Doll," "Mr. Mechanic," and "Carrot and the Stick" all are unreleased and come from concerts. I'm not entirely sure, but I'm guessing they're all originals. ("I'll Keep It with Mine" is a cover though, written by Bob Dylan.) I edited "Goldilocks" and "Voodoo Doll," using the X-Minus audio editing program to boost the lead vocals. Even so, those two still sound a bit rough. I also used X-Minus to cut out some talking over the music near the start of "Mr. Mechanic."

This album is 48 minutes long. If you've enjoyed their other albums, you should enjoy this one too.

01 Killing Time (Blair Dunlop & Larkin Poe)
02 I'll Keep It with Mine (Blair Dunlop & Larkin Poe)
03 Sea of Faces (Blair Dunlop & Larkin Poe)
04 I Belong to Love (Thom Hell & Larkin Poe)
05 Shoulder to Shoulder (Thom Hell & Larkin Poe)
06 P.S. I Love You (Thom Hell & Larkin Poe)
07 Wait for Me (Thom Hell & Larkin Poe)
08 Goldilocks [Edit] (Larkin Poe)
09 Voodoo Doll [Edit] (Larkin Poe)
10 Mr. Mechanic [Edit] (Larkin Poe)
11 Carrot and the Stick (Larkin Poe)
12 Strangler Fig (Blair Dunlop & Larkin Poe)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15261965/LarkinP_2013_ShouldrtoShoulder_atse.zip.html

For the cover, I found a photo that came with the "Killing Time" EP, even though it wasn't the cover of that. It had Blair Dunlop in the middle, but I used Photoshop to slide Megan Lovell over in front of him, making him disappear. Sorry, Blair. I took the writing of the band's name and the framing from a concert poster. Then I added the album name at the bottom.

Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III - Songwriters' Circle, BBC, London, Britain, 9-26-2010

In my constant search for more BBC material, I've come across some unusual things. Such as this. It's a concert where Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega, and Loudon Wainwright III were all on stage the whole time together and took turns playing their own songs. But the other two didn't just sit and listen when it wasn't their turn. They'd practiced some in advance, or often sang or played guitar. Thompson, in particular, is an excellent lead guitar player and frequently added his guitar skills to the songs by the other two. It's a very interesting three-way musical interaction by three great musical artists.

Apparently, this "songwriter's circle" is something the BBC has been doing since at least the 1990s. The format is always the same, bringing three musicians together to take turns playing songs. I'll try to post more, but these are hard to find since they don't get the interest a show by just one artist does, yet they aren't various artists shows with tons of different acts either. If you have any others, please let me know.

This show is officially unreleased. But, as you'd expect from the BBC, the sound quality is excellent. You can watch the whole thing on YouTube.

This album is an hour and four minutes long.

00 talk (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
01 Keep Your Distance (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
02 talk (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
03 Marlena on the Wall (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
04 talk (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
05 One Man Guy (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
06 talk (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
07 1952 Vincent Black Lightning (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
08 talk (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
09 Luka (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
10 talk (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
11 Dead Man (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
12 talk (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
13 Down Where the Drunkards Roll (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
14 talk (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
15 Frank and Ava (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
16 talk (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
17 House (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
18 talk (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
19 I Feel So Good (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
20 talk (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
21 Gypsy (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
22 talk (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
23 Be Careful There's a Baby in the House (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
24 talk (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
25 Genesis Hall (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
26 talk (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
27 Tom's Diner (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
28 talk (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)
29 The Swimming Song (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega & Loudon Wainwright III)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15852812/ThompsVegaWainw_2010_SongwritrsCircleBBCLondnBritain__9-26-2010_atse.zip.html

The album cover is a screenshot taken from the YouTube video of this concert. I used Photoshop to move Wainwright closer to the other two.

Dire Straits - BBC Sessions (1978-1992)

Dire Straits never played much for the BBC. They did two show BBC concerts in 1978. The second and slightly longer one has been officially released as the album "Live at the BBC," so I'm not going to bother with that one. (Although, if you're a stickler for accuracy like I am, note that the last song on that, "Tunnel of Love" is from a different, non-BBC concert.) However, I'm using the first BBC show they did plus a few other things to cobble together enough material for this BBC album.

That first BBC show took place in March 1978, six months before their debut album was released. The first four songs here are from that. There wasn't much applause in the first place, since the band was unknown to the audience at the time, having formed mere months earlier. I've removed what applause remained so the songs fit with some studio tracks later in the album. Note that "Sultans of Swing" was also played at this concert, but the recording of that doesn't seem to have been bootlegged.

Given what a great song "Sultans of Swing" is, it's a lucky thing that the band played it for the BBC again in 1978, for the BBC TV show "The Old Grey Whistle Test." So that version is here. It's officially unreleased, like everything else on this album. The next song, "Tunnel of Love," was also done for that show, but in 1980.

The rest of the album come from non-BBC sources, but they're still radio or TV appearances. These are all such appearances I could find that weren't lip-synced (other than a full show done for the "Rockpalast" TV show in Germany in 1979). The next two songs, "Romeo and Juliet" and "Skateaway," were done for the US TV show "Fridays" in 1980. 

After that, there's a big skip in time. Dire Straits had massive success in 1985 with their album "Brothers in Arms," but I couldn't find any live radio or TV show appearances from that time period. Then there was an extensive hiatus until a final album in 1991. The last four songs come from a US radio station appearance in 1992 supporting that album. It was one of the last things the band did before breaking up. It contains two songs, "Wild Theme" and "The Long Highway," that the band never released. I've put them on the second Dire Straits stray tracks albums I made. But I'm including them here too so one can have all four songs from that radio session together. 

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 Down to the Waterline (Dire Straits)
02 Water of Love (Dire Straits)
03 Wild West End (Dire Straits)
04 Lions (Dire Straits)
05 Sultans of Swing (Dire Straits)
06 Tunnel of Love (Dire Straits)
07 Romeo and Juliet (Dire Straits)
08 Skateaway (Dire Straits)
09 Two Young Lovers (Dire Straits)
10 Iron Hand (Dire Straits)
11 Wild Theme [Instrumental] (Dire Straits)
12 The Long Highway (Dire Straits)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15110369/DireSts_1978-1992_BBSessions_atse.zip.html

The cover photo shows the band backstage at the Marquee Club in London in 1978.

All Links Are Fixed!

Good news! It's taken me a long time, but I believe I've fixed all the links for all the albums. I may have missed a couple here and there, but 99 plus percent should work now. If you come across any that are still broken, please do let me know. I've fixed hundreds of links in recent weeks. Now that things are in a good state, I'm going to try to be more vigilant to keep it that way.

For many months now, I've been working on improving the volume balance between songs, as well as changing the mp3 tags to make it easier for people to listen to these albums in some programs, such as iTunes. (That involves moving information from the album field to the comments field.) As I've been fixing those links, I've been systematically making that change with all the new links. I still have a good ways to go with that though. 

As an aside, I haven't been keeping close track, but I noticed this blow has recently surpassed four millions views, and there are now over 2,000 albums posted. :)

The Jam - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: Rainbow Theatre, London, Britain, 12-4-1979

The Jam played a concert for the BBC almost every year they were in existence. So, another year, another concert. 

In November 1979, one month before this concert, the Jam released the album "Setting Sons." It's a classic five-star album in my opinion, and naturally the band played a lot of songs from it.

There's not much else to say. The sound quality is excellent, as you'd expect from the BBC. This was officially released as part of "The Jam at the BBC," as a limited edition bonus disc.

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 talk (Jam)
02 Girl on the Phone (Jam)
03 To Be Someone (Jam)
04 It's Too Bad (Jam)
05 talk (Jam)
06 Burning Sky (Jam)
07 talk (Jam)
08 Away from the Numbers (Jam)
09 Smithers-Jones (Jam)
10 talk (Jam)
11 The Modern World [Edit] (Jam)
12 talk (Jam)
13 Mr. Clean (Jam)
14 talk (Jam)
15 The Butterfly Collector (Jam)
16 Private Hell (Jam)
17 Thick as Thieves (Jam)
18 talk (Jam)
19 When You're Young (Jam)
20 Strange Town (Jam)
21 The Eton Rifles (Jam)
22 talk (Jam)
23 Down in the Tube Station at Midnight (Jam)
24 Saturday's Kids (Jam)
25 talk (Jam)
26 All Mod Cons (Jam)
27 David Watts (Jam)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700768/TJAMM1979_BBSessonsVolum4RainbwThetre__12-4-1979_atse.zip.html

The cover photo, just of lead singer Paul Weller, is from this very venue in the same month of 1979. However, the band played there four times that month, so I don't know if it's from this exact show.

The Indigo Girls - Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO, 6-21-1991

I continue to think that the Indigo Girls are underappreciated these days. I especially enjoy their music from the late 1980s and early 1990s. I wanted to hear something new (for me) from them, so I considered live recordings. There's a great 1995 official live album called "1200 curfews," so I went looking for something a little earlier than that. There are tons of bootlegs (which you can find at http://www.lifeblood.net), but I was surprised how few there are with excellent sound quality. Luckily, I found this one, which stands above the rest from that time period due to the fact that it was professionally recorded and broadcast on the radio.

That's the good news. The bad news, especially for me, is that whoever recorded it off the radio seems to have stopped the recording during the applause after every song. This was done way back in the day to save tape, though it's a bit strange to still be happening in the 1990s. Anyways, the good news is that whoever did that almost always recovered in time to record the banter between songs. But it was a pain for me because for virtually every song I had to find applause from other songs and patch that in at the end, to make the cheering long enough. The good news is that's done, and things should sound normal now.

There were a couple of additional problems though. For the songs "he History of Us" and "Closer to Fine," there were short sections in the middle that were missing. So I had to find other live versions of those songs and patch in the missing spots. That's why those two have "[Edit]" in their titles. (Although technically every song show have that since they all were edited for the applause problem.) 

The result is a really nice concert, in my opinion. This was a full band show, with some players coming and going, depending on the song, and some songs done just as an acoustic duo. All the expected well known songs were played, but also some interesting rarities, including a couple that were unreleased at the time, such as "No Way to Treat a Friend" and "The Ballad of Squeaky Fromme." 

The sound quality still isn't as good as "1200 Curfews," but that's a grab bag from all sorts of sources, including some studio tracks, whereas I prefer hearing a concert from start to finish.

This album is an hour and 42 minutes long.

01 talk (Indigo Girls)
02 Secure Yourself (Indigo Girls)
03 World Falls (Indigo Girls)
04 talk (Indigo Girls)
05 Hammer and a Nail (Indigo Girls)
06 talk (Indigo Girls)
07 Love's Recovery (Indigo Girls)
08 Pushing the Needle Too Far (Indigo Girls)
09 talk (Indigo Girls)
10 Crazy Game (Indigo Girls)
11 talk (Indigo Girls)
12 No Way to Treat a Friend (Indigo Girls)
13 talk (Indigo Girls)
14 Southland in the Springtime (Indigo Girls)
15 talk (Indigo Girls)
16 Watershed (Indigo Girls)
17 The Ballad of Squeaky Fromme (Indigo Girls)
18 talk (Indigo Girls)
19 The History of Us [Edit] (Indigo Girls)
20 Land of Canaan (Indigo Girls)
21 talk (Indigo Girls)
22 Center Stage (Indigo Girls)
23 talk (Indigo Girls)
24 Tried to Be True (Indigo Girls)
25 1 2 3 (Indigo Girls)
26 talk (Indigo Girls)
27 You and Me of the 10,000 Wars (Indigo Girls)
28 Kid Fears (Indigo Girls)
29 Prince of Darkness (Indigo Girls)
30 Welcome Me (Indigo Girls)
31 talk (Indigo Girls)
32 Left Me a Fool (Indigo Girls)
33 Closer to Fine [Edit] (Indigo Girls)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/U3LiuGNZ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/8iZFAidoVpZg73l/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/kxk7f

The cover photo was taken in Spain in October 1991. In the original photo, Amy Ray (dark hair) and Emily Saliers (light hair) were standing at least ten feet apart. I used Photoshop to bring Saliers much closer.

Cliff Richard - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: In Concert, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 12-15-1979

Here's the sixth volume of Cliff Richard playing for the BBC. It's the first one in the series so far that's a concert.

This volume is very different from all the previous ones in this series. If you've been avoiding those due to Richard's square, mainstream reputation, you might want to reconsider. Richard had a knack for blowing with the musical winds of change. In the late 1970s, he went in more of a rocking and almost new wave direction, though still tempered by his usual poppy style. I just read some reviews of his 1979 studio album, and more than one person used the term "power pop" to describe it. In all honesty, when I heard the second song here, I had to stop and double check who I was listening to, because it didn't sound like what I was expecting from him.

Richard's seemingly constant stream of hits lessened some in the mid-1970s. But he had a big hit with "Devil Woman" in 1976, his first Top Ten hit in the US. Then he had another Top Ten hit in the US in 1979 with "We Don't Talk Anymore." That one made it all the way to Number One in Britain. So he was hitting a commercial peak at the time of this concert. (Naturally, he played both of those songs near the end of this concert.) His 1979 album "Rock 'n' Roll Juvenile" was also a hit in Britain, so he played a lot of songs from that album, including "Carrie," which was a Top Five hit in Britain.

But at the same time, Richard had a big backlog of hits to play, and he did lots of those too. However, as he pointed out at one point during the concert, he came up with new arrangements for many of them. For instance, the song "Do You Want to Dance" (a Richard hit in Britain in 1962) was changed so drastically that I almost didn't recognize it at first.

This album is an hour and 29 minutes long.

01 Move It (Cliff Richard)
02 Doin' Fine (Cliff Richard)
03 The Young Ones (Cliff Richard)
04 talk (Cliff Richard)
05 Rock 'n' Roll Juvenile (Cliff Richard)
06 talk (Cliff Richard)
07 If You Walked Away (Cliff Richard)
08 I'm Nearly Famous (Cliff Richard)
09 talk (Cliff Richard)
10 Theme for a Dream (Cliff Richard)
11 talk (Cliff Richard)
12 Spanish Harlem (Cliff Richard)
13 talk (Cliff Richard)
14 Did He Jump (Cliff Richard)
15 Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music (Cliff Richard)
16 Sci Fi (Cliff Richard)
17 Carrie (Cliff Richard)
18 talk (Cliff Richard)
19 Never Even Thought (Cliff Richard)
20 talk (Cliff Richard)
21 My Luck Won't Change (Cliff Richard)
22 Green Light (Cliff Richard)
23 talk (Cliff Richard)
24 Miss You Nights (Cliff Richard)
25 talk (Cliff Richard)
26 Do You Want to Dance (Cliff Richard)
27 Monday thru Friday (Cliff Richard)
28 Devil Woman (Cliff Richard)
29 We Don't Talk Anymore (Cliff Richard)
30 talk (Cliff Richard)
31 Summer Holiday (Cliff Richard)
32 Living Doll (Cliff Richard)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16621665/CLIFFRCHRD1979BBSssonsVlum6InCncrtHmmrsmthOdeonLndnBritn__12-15-1979_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken at a concert in Manchester, England, in December 1979, the same month as this concert.

Various Artists - Apollo Hall of Fame, Apollo Theatre, New York City, 7-15-1993

The Apollo Theatre is a concert venue in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem with a legendary history. With Harlem being a predominantly black neighborhood and a center of black cultural trends, it's best known for featuring black musicians, especially in the soul genre. In 1993, the people running the venue decided to start a yearly hall of fame ceremony. For their first one, they had a two hour show broadcast on national TV honoring the first few inductees. Apparently, this hall of fame tradition has continued, but I've only found good recordings from the 1993 one.

I haven't been able to find the full show, so I only know bits and pieces. But it seems that year's inductees included Ray Charles, James Brown, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald.

Here's an article about it, from Variety Magazine at the time:

Apollo Theatre Hall of Fame - Variety

Ray Charles showed up and played, but James Brown did not. Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald had passed away by that time. But many other famous musicians performed. Some were in tribute to the inductees. For instance, Diana Ross sang two of Billie Holiday's songs. But other performers just seemed to be celebrating the legacy of the Apollo Theatre in general. 

When it comes to bootleg recordings, this concert is best known for the last few songs, led by blues guitarist B. B. King. First, he did a duet with guitarist Eric Clapton on the song "Rock Me Baby." Then he brought on guitarists Jeff Beck, Albert Collins, and Buddy Guy as well. The five of them all played solos on the same song, "Sweet Little Angel." After that, they were joined by everyone else from earlier in the show for the finale "Let the Good Times Roll." That probably was the only time those five guitar legends all played on stage together.

But the rest of the show has a lot going for it. Many soul legends from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s played. Some of them were getting up there in age and this would be their last time on a national TV, a kind of last hurrah.

This album is 54 minutes long. The TV special was two hours long. Even if you figure in time for commercials, there are songs I've missed. I found about half of this from a high quality bootleg, and the other half from YouTube videos. But, in my opinion, the sound quality is about the same from the two sources.

By the way, note that the shows two hosts were the actors Danny Glover and Bill Cosby. Since then, Cosby has been hit by sex scandal and has been imprisoned. It's strange for me to hear him host this show in light of what's happened to him. I've tried to minimize his comments between songs, but I kept the bare minimum in for things to be understood.

01 talk (Smokey Robinson)
02 This Little Light of Mine (Smokey Robinson & the Dixie Hummingbirds)
03 talk (Smokey Robinson)
04 Little Girl of Mine (Smokey Robinson & the Cleftones)
05 talk (Smokey Robinson)
06 Good Times (Bryan Adams & Smokey Robinson)
07 talk (Chuck Jackson)
08 Any Day Now (Chuck Jackson)
09 talk (Ben E. King)
10 Save the Last Dance (Ben E. King)
11 talk (Al Green)
12 Let's Stay Together (Al Green)
13 talk (Teddy Pendergrass)
14 Close the Door (Teddy Pendergrass)
15 Stand by Me (Ben E. King, Chuck Jackson, Al Green & Teddy Pendergrass)
16 Still Crazy After All These Years (Ray Charles)
17 talk (Diana Ross)
18 God Bless the Child (Diana Ross)
19 Fine and Mellow (Diana Ross)
20 talk (B. B. King)
21 Rock Me Baby (B. B. King & Eric Clapton)
22 talk (B. B. King)
23 Sweet Little Angel (B. B. King, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Albert Collins & Buddy Guy)
24 talk (B. B. King)
25 Let the Good Times Roll (B. B. King & Everyone)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701193/VA-ApolloHallFmeAplloThetreNYC__7-15-1993_atse.zip.html

For the cover, I found a photo of all five guitarists that played together near the end of the show. From left to right, it's Jeff Beck, Albert Collins, B. B. King, Eric Clapton, and Buddy Guy. It looks like the photo was taken backstage before or after the show. It's rather blurry, so if you know of a better version, or a better one, please let me know.

The Neville Brothers - Municipal Auditorium, New Orleans, LA, 10-31-1991

I'm a fan of the Neville Brothers. Since I'm focusing on posting BBC material lately, I wanted to see if they did anything for the BBC. They did. There's an hour-long concert from 1989. However, the ideal year for a concert, in my opinion, would be 1991, because my favorite album of theirs is "My Brother's Keeper" released in 1991. I didn't find any great bootlegs from that year. However, I found an excellent video of a 1991 concert on YouTube. So I've converted it to mp3 tracks and I'm sharing it here.

This concert has a lot of advantages over the 1989 BBC concert. For one thing, it's significantly longer. I also prefer the song selection. Plus, Dr. John shows up and sings one of his best songs, "Right Place, Wrong Time."

The band released a live album in 1994 called "Live on Planet Earth." That's a good one, but I think this concert is at least its equal. Despite coming from a YouTube video, the sound quality is excellent.

This album is an hour and 30 minutes long.

01 Hey Pocky Way - Walk on Gilded Splinters (Neville Brothers)
02 talk (Neville Brothers)
03 Voodoo (Neville Brothers)
04 Mojo Hannah (Neville Brothers)
05 talk (Neville Brothers)
06 My Brother's Keeper (Neville Brothers)
07 talk (Neville Brothers)
08 Sitting in Limbo (Neville Brothers)
09 My Blood (Neville Brothers)
10 It Feels like Rain (Neville Brothers)
11 Everybody Plays the Fool (Neville Brothers)
12 talk (Neville Brothers)
13 Love the One You're With - You Can't Always Get What You Want (Neville Brothers)
14 talk (Neville Brothers)
15 Ju Ju Sax [Instrumental] (Neville Brothers)
16 Sister Rosa (Neville Brothers)
17 talk (Neville Brothers)
18 Yellow Moon (Neville Brothers)
19 talk (Neville Brothers)
20 Brother Jake (Neville Brothers)
21 When You Go to New Orleans (Neville Brothers)
22 Right Place, Wrong Time (Neville Brothers & Dr. John)
23 Amazing Grace (Neville Brothers)
24 talk (Neville Brothers)
25 Rivers of Babylon (Neville Brothers)
26 Down by the Riverside (Neville Brothers)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15598570/TNevilleB_1991_MuniciplAditoriumNwOrleans__LA__10-31-1991_atse.zip.html

The cover is a screenshot I took from the YouTube video of this exact concert.

U2 - RTE Radio, National Stadium, Dublin, Ireland, 2-26-1980

So far, I've posted U2 stray tracks collections chronologically until the end of the 1990s. I plan to keep on going with that. But I recently came across this very early U2 concert, and I find it so fascinating that I want to post it straight away.

The Irish band U2 was formed in 1976. The band members were young, and it took them a couple of years to get their act together. But by 1979, they were seen as an up and coming act. Their very first single, "Another Day," was released (only in Ireland) on February 26, 1980, the same day as this concert. The band took a big risk and booked the National Stadium in Dublin, a venue that could hold 2,000 people. The show was also broadcast live on an Irish radio station. The gamble paid off. The show was well attended and was a big success. Even better, a record company executive attended the show and was so impressed that he offered the band a contract. They signed a four album deal with Island Records a month later, after working out the details. Their first album, "Boy," would come out in October 1980, nine months after this concert.

So this was a pivotal show in the band's history, arguably the most pivotal show they ever did. Only one song from this concert has been officially released, "Cartoon World." That presumably was put on a deluxe edition of the band's debut album "Boy" because there wasn't a good studio version of it. But the whole show is very much worth hearing. I checked, and there are no other bootlegs of shows this early with good sound quality. This is still a bit rough, but it's way ahead of the rest.

The recording had two big problems, however. The first is that the beginning of the first song was cut off. The second is that the end of the second to last song, "Out of Control," was also cut off, and all of the final song, "The Electric Co.," was missing. So I used other versions from slightly later to fill in the missing bits. For "The Electric Co.," I used an unreleased version recorded in the Netherlands in October 1980. By that time, the band was much more popular and playing to larger crowds, but they were still unknown in the Netherlands so they were playing to a smaller crowd that fits more with the sound of the rest of the songs here.

What's most interesting to me about this concert is how many songs were played that are unknown now to all but the most die-hard U2 fans. "Silver Lining," "Speed of Life," "The Magic Carpet," "Trevor," "Pete the Chop," "The Dream Is Over," "Cartoon World," and "Jack in a Box" are all songs that didn't get released at all at the time. "Another Day," "Boy-Girl," and "The Electric Co." only came out on singles. By the way, "Silver Lining" is almost exactly "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" but with different words, and "Trevor" got reworked into "Touch."

By the way, don't confuse "Pete the Chop" with a later B-side called "Treasure (Whatever Happened to Pete the Chop.)" The story there is that the band's manager loved the song "Pete the Chop," figuring it had a poppy sound that could give them their first hit. However, the band disliked it because they thought it was too poppy, and stopped playing it in concerts. The manager kept bugging them about it, asking "Whatever Happened to 'Pete the Chop.'" Somehow, that inspired them to write a new song about the missing song. Although it's a different song, it does contain some bits from the earlier song. Personally, while it's a nice song, it doesn't sound like a super poppy, should-have-been-a-hit song to me.

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

01 Silver Lining [Early Version of 11 O'Clock Tick Tock] [Edit] (U2)
02 Speed of Life (U2)
03 The Magic Carpet [Life on a Distant Planet] (U2)
04 talk (U2)
05 Stories for Boys (U2)
06 Trevor [Early Version of Touch] (U2)
07 talk (U2)
08 Another Time, Another Place (U2)
09 talk (U2)
10 Another Day (U2)
11 Pete the Chop (U2)
12 The Dream Is Over (U2)
13 Cartoon World (U2)
14 Jack in a Box (U2)
15 Shadows and Tall Trees (U2)
16 talk (U2)
17 A Day without Me (U2)
18 Twilight (U2)
19 talk (U2)
20 Boy-Girl (U2)
21 Out of Control [Edit] (U2)
22 The Electric Co. (U2)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15256751/UTwo_1980_RTERdioNationlStadiumDblinIreland__2-26-1980_atse.zip.html

I couldn't find any color photos of the band in concert from 1980. Instead, I used a black and white one taken at the Arcadia Ballroom, Cork, Ireland, on March 1, 1980. I used the Pixbim program to colorize it. That didn't do much since it's a complicated image, so I did most of the colorizing myself in Photoshop. One can see from the photo what a dramatic showman lead singer Bono already was at that time.