Various Artists - Folk America at the Barbican - Greenwich Village Revisited, Barbican Theatre, London, Britain, 2-13-2009

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I've been finding a lot of new BBC related music lately, as I keep searching for things for my big BBC project. I recently stumbled across this. It seems that in 2009, singer-songwriter Billy Bragg hosted a TV series about American folk music. The final episode (the fourth, I think) was this concert, which starred some of the most important singers from the 1960s folk movement. As you can tell from the subtitle, "Greenwich Village Revisited," there was a particular emphasis in picking people from the influential Greenwich Village scene in New York City. In addition to Bragg, a Briton who first got famous in the 1980s, the concert starred Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, Carolyn Hester, Eric Andersen, and Judy Collins.

The entire concert was acoustic in nature, which was fitting, given the folk music they were paying tribute to. Each singer got to sing two or three songs (actually four in the case of McGuinn), and then they all came together at the end to do "Amazing Grace" as an encore.

If you like this type of music, this is a really nice concert. I believe it's unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 I Ain't Got No Home (Billy Bragg)
02 talk (Billy Bragg)
03 My Back Pages (Roger McGuinn)
04 talk (Roger McGuinn)
05 Oh Freedom (Roger McGuinn)
06 talk (Roger McGuinn)
07 Eight Miles High (Roger McGuinn)
08 talk (Roger McGuinn)
09 Turn, Turn, Turn [To Everything There Is a Season] (Roger McGuinn)
10 talk (Billy Bragg)
11 talk (Carolyn Hester)
12 The Last Thing on My Mind (Carolyn Hester)
13 talk (Carolyn Hester)
14 The House of the Rising Sun (Carolyn Hester)
15 talk (Billy Bragg)
16 I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night (Billy Bragg)
17 talk (Billy Bragg)
18 Violets of Dawn (Eric Andersen)
19 talk (Eric Andersen & Roger McGuinn)
20 Thirsty Boots (Eric Andersen with Roger McGuinn)
21 talk (Billy Bragg)
22 Both Sides Now (Judy Collins)
23 talk (Judy Collins)
24 Anathea (Judy Collins)
25 Someday Soon (Judy Collins)
26 talk (Judy Collins)
27 Amazing Grace (Judy Collins & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/MsBkvi6j

alternate:

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

The cover image is from this exact concert. However, I did a lot of manipulation in Photoshop to get it just as I wanted it. I started with a screenshot taken during the final song. But the image quality was very low-res. So I then took screenshots of the heads of each of the people in the image. I pasted those in for higher quality. I then ran the resulting image through the Krea AI program to iron out the kinks from having this really made out of six images. That helped. But then I did it again, and that helped some more.

Status Quo - In Concert, Paris Theatre, London, Britain, 3-1-1973

As I think I've mentioned previously, I'm not that much of a Statuo Quo fan. However, now that I'm being more generous in posting BBC albums from other artists, I figure I should be more generous to this band too. I know lots of people are fans, especially in Britain. So here's a BBC concert they did in 1973.

In the late 1960s, Status Quo had some success as with psychedelic music. Then musical tastes changed, and it took time for them to regain their footing. But in 1972, they released the studio album "Piledriver," cementing their new boogie shuffle sound. One song from it, "Paper Plane," was a Top Ten hit in Britain, their first one there since 1968. Although this concert took place in 1973, it was only a few months since the release of that album in late 1972.

This entire concert has been officially released on the huge box set "Live at the BBC." The sound quality is excellent.

Note that I have a new "Volume 4" to post as well. That means a 1988 BBC concert, previously "Volume 3," is now being renamed "Volume 5."

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 Junior's Wailing (Status Quo)
02 Someone's Learning (Status Quo)
03 talk (Status Quo)
04 In My Chair (Status Quo)
05 talk (Status Quo)
06 Railroad (Status Quo)
07 talk (Status Quo)
08 Don't Waste My Time (Status Quo)
09 talk (Status Quo)
10 Paper Plane (Status Quo)
11 Roadhouse Blues (Status Quo)
12 Bye Bye Johnny (Status Quo)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/mkA435z8

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/dmTAbpPFn9g1WWT/file

The cover photo shows band member Rick Parfitt, at some concert in 1973. I was looking for a photo of the entire band from that year, but I couldn't find much. However, I thought this one looked pretty neat, so I went with it.

Annie Lennox - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: BBC One Sessions, St. Luke's, London, Britain, 3-7-2009

A while back, I was looking for a good BBC concert from the Eurythmics. At the time, I didn't find one, but I found one from that band's lead singer, Annie Lennox, so I posted that. I since have discovered a lot more stuff. I've found three Eurythimcs BBC concerts. I've also found another from Lennox solo, so I'm posting that first.

The unique feature of this concert is that Lennox is backed by an orchestra. 

Lennox had a very successful solo career after the Eurythmics broke up around the end of the 1980s. Around the time of this concert, she released a greatest hits album called "The Annie Lennox Collection." It featured two new songs, and one of them, "Shining Light," was performed here. Other than that, she stuck to playing her most famous songs from the Eurythmics as well as her solo career to that point.

Oh, by the way, as you'd expect by now, I've renamed that earlier Lennox BBC concert mentioned above, adding "Volume 1" to the title. If you want the updated version, here's the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/12/annie-lennox-bbc-in-concert-riverside.html

This album is 57 minutes long.

01 Little Bird (Annie Lennox)
02 Walking on Broken Glass (Annie Lennox)
03 No More 'I Love You's' (Annie Lennox)
04 There Must Be an Angel [Playing with My Heart] (Annie Lennox)
05 Here Comes the Rain Again (Annie Lennox)
06 Cold (Annie Lennox)
07 talk (Annie Lennox)
08 A Thousand Beautiful Things (Annie Lennox)
09 Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves (Annie Lennox)
10 Ghosts in My Machine (Annie Lennox)
11 When Tomorrow Comes (Annie Lennox)
12 Shining Light (Annie Lennox)
13 Why (Annie Lennox)
14 Sweet Dreams [Are Made of This] (Annie Lennox)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/xZD9DiQm

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/OunDLZXOsP9bTWw/file

The cover photo is a screenshot taken from this exact concert.

Mary Chapin Carpenter - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, London, Britain, 11-3-1999

Here's another BBC concert from Mary Chapin Carpenter. This one is from 1999.

I previously posted a BBC concert she did in 1994. I recently have discovered some more. I found one from 1993, but I decided not to post it, because I've posted a 1993 concert she did in Glasgow that is almost exactly the same, except with more songs, more banter, and slightly better sound quality. It took place only two days apart. I've also discovered this one, and two more one from later years that I plan to post soon.

This concert took place after Carpenter released the album "Party Doll and Other Favorites." It's kind of an odd duck, because it's a mix of new songs, rare songs, and alternate versions of previous hits. A couple of the songs here, like "Party Doll" and "Almost Home," were new songs from that album. She also performed a funny original song she's never released, "If I Were a Diva."

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 The Hard Way (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
02 Shut Up and Kiss Me (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
03 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
04 Almost Home (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
05 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
06 Stones in the Road (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
07 I Feel Lucky (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
08 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
09 It Works (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
10 Friend to Me (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
11 Party Doll (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
12 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
13 If I Were a Diva (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
14 My Love Will Not Let You Down (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
15 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
16 Why Walk When You Can Fly (Mary Chapin Carpenter)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/7TvuAPWA

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/OUXi5muvDFJJm7H/file

The cover photo is from a concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London in June 2001.

UB40 - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1979-1983

A couple of days ago, I posted a UB40 BBC concert from 1985. At first, I called this "BBC Sessions, Volume 3." But then, after just a few hours, I saw a commenter talk about a 1980 BBC concert by the band that I'd missed. I went to go find it, and stumbled upon more early material. So I immediately changed that 1985 concert to "Volume 5." Now I'm getting around to fill in the missing two early volumes. This first one contains just BBC studio sessions.

The British reggae band UB40 was formed in late 1978. They quickly found success. By the end of 1979, they did their first BBC studio session, for famed BBC DJ John Peel. That session makes up the first three songs. The next two are from 1980 session. The four after that are from a 1981 session. The four after that are from a 1982 session. Finally, the last three are from a 1983. I couldn't find any more BBC studio sessions after that.

All but five of the performances here have been officially released. They come from various deluxe editions of the studio albums of that era. The exceptions are the four 1982 songs from an unreleased John Peel session (tracks 10 to 13), plus track 15, from a 1983 session. For some reason two other songs from that session got released, but that one got overlooked.

This album is an hour and seven minutes long.

01 Food for Thought (UB40)
02 25 Percent [Instrumental] (UB40)
03 King (UB40)
04 I Think It’s Going to Rain Today (UB40)
05 My Way of Thinking (UB40)
06 One in Ten (UB40)
07 Present Arms (UB40)
08 Silent Witness (UB40)
09 Sardonicus (UB40)
10 I Won't Close My Eyes (UB40)
11 Love Is All Is All Right (UB40)
12 Folitician (UB40)
13 Prince Baldhead Meets Gymslip and the School Girls at the Chemist (UB40)
14 Red Red Wine (UB40)
15 Nkomo-a-Go-Go [Instrumental] (UB40)
16 Please Don't Make Me Cry (UB40)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/cSpbh1RC

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/fQ7kuAhpVtrO3LL/file

The cover photo of the band was taken somewhere in Germany in 1982.

Bob Dylan - Rothbury Music Festival, Double JJ Ranch, Rothbury, MI, 7-5-2009

Last month (writing this in February 2025), I posted an excellent sounding Bob Dylan concert from 2001. Here's another excellent one, from 2009.

Both the 2001 and 2009 recordings are bootlegs on an unusual kind: they are examples of Assisted Listening Device (ADL) recordings. These are usually special feeds at concerts to help people who have hearing trouble. Every now and then, these recordings make it onto bootlegs. The ones I heard generally sound great, but they almost always have pristine sound of what was happening on stage, and very little crowd noise. It makes for a strange listen, as if the performer was playing to a bored audience that could barely be bothered to cheer.

Thankfully, these days, there are many ways to edit sound files. So I did to this concert recording what I did to the 2001: I split the crowd noise from everything else (using the MVSEP program), greatly boosted the cheering, the put the cheering back with the rest. Now, it sounds like a typical high quality soundboard boot. And that's extremely unusual for a Dylan concert from this era. There are lots of soundboard boots from earlier phases of his career. But from about 2000 onwards, there are basically none. The only exceptions I know of are these two ADL recordings from the 2001 concert and this one.

Dylan has had a late career renaissance, with many of his more recent album being both critically acclaimed and selling well. This concert took place a few months after the release of his studio album "Together Through Life," which was another winner, even reaching Number One on the album charts in some countries. Weirdly, he only performed one song from that album, "Jolene." But he played four from the previous album, "Modern Times" ("Rollin' and Tumblin," "Nettie Moore," "Spirit on the Water," and "Thunder on the Mountain"), and well as songs from other more recent albums like "Love and Theft" and "Time Out of Mind."

This album is one hour and 46 minutes long.

01 talk (Bob Dylan)
02 Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat (Bob Dylan)
03 Senor [Tales of Yankee Power] (Bob Dylan)
04 Tangled Up in Blue (Bob Dylan)
05 Rollin' and Tumblin' (Bob Dylan)
06 Spirit on the Water (Bob Dylan)
07 High Water [For Charley Patton] (Bob Dylan)
08 'Til I Fell in Love with You (Bob Dylan)
09 Po' Boy (Bob Dylan)
10 Highway 61 Revisited (Bob Dylan)
11 Ballad of a Thin Man (Bob Dylan)
12 Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again (Bob Dylan)
13 Nettie Moore (Bob Dylan)
14 Thunder on the Mountain (Bob Dylan)
15 Like a Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan)
16 Jolene (Bob Dylan)
17 All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan)
18 talk (Bob Dylan)
19 Blowin' in the Wind (Bob Dylan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/LGeWVRGo

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/B5HObNIxaDkwCTV/file

The cover photo comes from this exact concert.

Jimmy Webb - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Arts Theatre, Belfast, Britain, 3-22-1998

Jimmy Webb is a great songwriter. He's written many hits for others. I've documented this by posting two volumes of people covering his songs as part of my "Covered" series. But he's never had a hit of his own, despite being a fine singer and performer, and his many solo albums haven't gotten a lot of attention. A big reason for that is that he's generally given his best songs for others to covers, and rarely even did his own versions on his albums. But in the late 1990s, he did some tours in which he mostly did his most famous songs in acoustic mode. This BBC recording documents one such concert.

Note that in 1996, Webb released the studio album "Ten Easy Pieces," in which he finally performed many of those hits he wrote for others, but in an acoustic mode. So this concert is fairly similar to that album, as it seems he was still promoting it over a year after it was released. But about half the songs here are different, plus there's a big difference between a studio album and a live one, especially the banter between songs. 

Note that I previously posted a BBC concert he did in 1971. Now that I have a second one with this one, I've just renamed that earlier one "Volume 1." Here's the link it you want to get the updated version, which includes an improved cover image:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/06/jimmy-webb-bbc-in-concert-london.html

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 Shattered (Jimmy Webb)
02 talk (Jimmy Webb)
03 The Highwayman (Jimmy Webb)
04 talk (Jimmy Webb)
05 Galveston (Jimmy Webb)
06 talk (Jimmy Webb)
07 By the Time I Get to Phoenix (Jimmy Webb)
08 talk (Jimmy Webb)
09 All I Know (Jimmy Webb)
10 talk (Jimmy Webb)
11 Didn't We (Jimmy Webb)
12 talk (Jimmy Webb)
13 Nobody Likes to Hear a Rich Boy Sing the Blues (Jimmy Webb)
14 Wichita Lineman (Jimmy Webb)
15 talk (Jimmy Webb)
16 MacArthur Park (Jimmy Webb)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/HmuzrEwW

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/PLHvMs2s3qjGQCu/file

The cover photo is from a concert at the Jazz Cafe, wherever that is, in 1998. I improved it somewhat with the help of the Krea AI program.

Paul Carrack - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: Friday Night Is Music Night, LSO St. Luke's, London, Britain, 5-15-2009

Here's a second Paul Carrack BBC album, from 2009. Like the first one, it's a concert. But this is an unusual concert for Carrack because he's backed by an orchestra.

As I mentioned with my write-up for the first volume, Carrack has worn many hats in his long music career, being the lead singers for the bands Ace, Squeeze, and Mike + the Mechanics at different times, as well as having a lengthy solo career.

Carrack's time as one of the lead singers for Mike + the Mechanics ended around 2005, and his solo career hit albums and singles had petered out by this time. But he still had a rich back catalog to draw on here, which is what he mostly did, performing songs by Ace, Squeeze, and especially Mike + the Mechanics. The lead single from his latest album, "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City," was performed here, but it's actually a cover of a 1970s hit song by Bobby "Blue" Bland. 

This album is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 talk (Paul Carrack)
02 How Long (Paul Carrack)
03 talk (Paul Carrack)
04 Another Cup of Coffee (Paul Carrack)
05 talk (Paul Carrack)
06 I Don’'t Want to Hear Any More (Paul Carrack)
07 talk (Paul Carrack)
08 Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City (Paul Carrack)
09 Eyes of Blue (Paul Carrack)
10 talk (Paul Carrack)
11 The Living Years (Paul Carrack)
12 talk (Paul Carrack)
13 Tempted (Paul Carrack)
14 talk (Paul Carrack)
15 I Don'’t Want Your Love, I Need Your Love (Paul Carrack)
16 talk (Paul Carrack)
17 Over My Shoulder (Paul Carrack)
18 talk (Paul Carrack)
19 No Doubt about It (Paul Carrack)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/h3Q7rdou

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/KM7GiNKZAEwwnM6/file

The cover photo is from a concert on October 25, 2009.

Van Morrison - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: One Irish Rover, Barbican Centre, London, Britain, 2-19-1990

Here's another BBC album performed by Van Morrison. This time, it's another concert, though note it's a short one.

For the last album in this series, I used material from a 1991 BBC documentary about Morrison called "One Irish Rover." That was made up of music from several different sources, which includes this concert. But only about half of the music here actually made it to that documentary. Luckily though, a bootleg exists of more. So, unlike "Volume 4," everything here has soundboard-level sound quality. It is a fairly short concert though, at less than an hour. I'm not sure if that's because the boot is incomplete or if it was just a short concert.

 The interesting thing about this concert is that Morrison was backed by a full orchestra, specifically the Danish Radio Big Band. So, like the concert for "Volume 4," which was a short concert filmed expressly for the BBC documentary, this too could have been put on mainly to be filmed for the documentary in order to have some songs with an orchestra. But Morrison's usual band at the time was also on hand, including keyboardist Georgie Fame. He can be heard occasionally on call and response vocals.

The "Volume 4" concert I've been mentioning took place in late 1989. This one took place in early 1990. However, no new album had been released in the meantime. His next studio album, "Enlightenment," wouldn't be released until late 1990. None of the songs here were from that. However, three of them, the last three here, were from his 1989 album "Avalon Sunset."

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 talk (Van Morrison)
02 I Will Be There (Van Morrison)
03 Here Comes the Knight (Van Morrison)
04 Haunts of Ancient Peace (Van Morrison)
05 Celtic Swing (Van Morrison)
06 Got to Go Back (Van Morrison)
07 A New Kind of Man (Van Morrison)
08 Listen to the Lion (Van Morrison)
09 Vanlose Stairway (Van Morrison)
10 I'd Love to Write Another Song (Van Morrison)
11 Orangefield (Van Morrison)
12 Whenever God Shines His Light (Van Morrison)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GJgjHpis

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/3ctkoRwuY2Qq1Kp/file

The cover photo is taken from a screenshot of the "One Irish Rover" video. I ran it through the Krea AI program to improve the details.

Alison Moyet - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Town and Country Club, London, Britain, 7-17-1991

Here's another Alison Moyet BBC concert album from 1991.

I posted a 1984 Moyet BBC concert back in 2022. Since there was just the one, that didn't have "BBC Sessions, Volume 1" in the name. But at the same time I'm posting this one, I'm making that "Volume 1." It seems Moyet hasn't toured that much, and live bootlegs from her are very rare, so I highly suspect there won't be a "Volume 3."

Moyet isn't very well known in the U.S., but she's had a lot more success in Britain. In 1991, she released the album "Hoodoo," which just about reached the Top Ten in Britain, but didn't even make the Top 100 in the U.S. This concert was naturally was part of a tour to promote that album.

The changes are good this was edited down from a longer concert by the BBC. So maybe that's why it didn't include her three big Top Ten hits since the 1984 concert I previously posted: "Is This Love," "Weak in the Presence of Beauty," and "Love Letters." However, it does include a nice version of the Aretha Franklin classic, "Chain of Fools," which Moyet had not yet released on album at the time.

I got very lucky with this recording. Most of it is unreleased. And the version I found started in the middle of the first song, "It Won't Be Long." But it turns out five songs from it were included as bonus tracks to a deluxe edition of the "Hoodoo" album, and one of them happened to be that song. So I used that version instead of the incomplete one I had.

Here's the link to the now renamed 1984 BBC concert mentioned above:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/11/alison-moyet-bbc-in-concert-dominion.html

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 It Won't Be Long (Alison Moyet)
02 Ordinary Girl (Alison Moyet)
03 Only You (Alison Moyet)
04 Hoodoo (Alison Moyet)
05 talk (Alison Moyet)
06 Rise (Alison Moyet)
07 talk (Alison Moyet)
08 Wishing You Were Here (Alison Moyet)
09 Never Too Late (Alison Moyet)
10 Chain of Fools (Alison Moyet)
11 Find Me (Alison Moyet)
12 talk (Alison Moyet)
13 [Meeting with My] Main Man (Alison Moyet)
14 talk (Alison Moyet)
15 Ne Me Quittez Pas (Alison Moyet)
16 Without You (Alison Moyet)
17 Don't Go (Alison Moyet)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/5yuKbNRd

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/E9NhyvXWVLNzNsW/file

All I know about the cover photo is that it is said to date to 1991.

UB40 - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: In Concert, Brighton Centre, Brighton, Britain, 11-4-1985

Here's another UB40 BBC album. This one is a concert from late 1985.

In my previous write-ups for UB40 albums, I've stated that I liked this band the most in their early years, before they moved in a more mainstream direction. This is the tail end of the period I like the most. It came a couple of months after the release of their studio album "Baggaridim." That contained two hits, both covers, "I Got You Babe" and "Don't Break My Heart." They performed both of those here, although "I Got You Babe" was a duet with Chrissie Hynde, so it was done here without the duet aspect.

This album is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.

Note that, while putting this together, I noticed that I'd posted two previous BBC albums by UB40, but I didn't include "Volume 1" and "Volume 2" in their titles. But I also simultaneously discovered two more BBC albums that I'd missed. So those earlier ones because "Volume 3" and "Volume 4," with two even earlier ones to come. I also upgraded their cover art. So if you want those updated versions, here are the links:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/11/ub40-bbc-sight-and-sound-regal-theatre.html

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/11/ub40-bbc-in-concert-london-britain-1-7.html

This album is an hour and 33 minutes long.

01 If It Happens Again (UB40)
02 Keep On Moving (UB40)
03 As Always You Were Wrong Again (UB40)
04 talk (UB40)
05 Don't Break My Heart (UB40)
06 Cherry Oh Baby (UB40)
07 talk (UB40)
08 Johnny Too Bad (UB40)
09 talk (UB40)
10 Sweet Sensation (UB40)
11 Love Is All Is Alright (UB40)
12 Red Red Wine (UB40)
13 talk (UB40)
14 One in Ten (UB40)
15 Please Don't Make Me Cry (UB40)
16 Dubmobile (UB40)
17 talk (UB40)
18 I Got You Babe (UB40)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/o7qcbgVX

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/D9g3locZ147WeKz/file

The cover shows lead vocalist Ali Campbell at a concert in Massey Hall, London, on March 11, 1985. The original was in black and white. I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program.

Nick Lowe - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: BBC Four Sessions, LSO St. Luke's, London, Britain, 6-7-2007

Here's another BBC concert by Nick Lowe. This one is from 2007. It was shown on BBC TV, so you can find a video of it on YouTube (at least when I checked recently).

As I've mentioned in my write-up for "Volume 1," Lowe changed his style in the early 1990s, going from a lively rocking style to more of a mellow one, based more on rootsy soul and country sounds. This volume comes six years after "Volume 1," and shows Lowe two albums deeper into his new sound. His most recent album at the time was "At My Age," released not long prior to this concert.

This concert is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. I didn't have to do any editing or remixing.

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 Heart (Nick Lowe)
02 talk (Nick Lowe)
03 What's Shakin' on the Hill (Nick Lowe)
04 Without Love (Nick Lowe)
05 Lately I've Let Things Slide (Nick Lowe)
06 Has She Got a Friend (Nick Lowe)
07 I Trained Her to Love Me (Nick Lowe)
08 talk (Nick Lowe)
09 Indian Queens (Nick Lowe)
10 Cruel to Be Kind (Nick Lowe)
11 You Inspire Me (Nick Lowe)
12 talk (Nick Lowe)
13 Long Limbed Girl (Nick Lowe)
14 Hope for Us All (Nick Lowe)
15 The Other Side of the Coin (Nick Lowe)
16 Shting Shtang (Nick Lowe)
17 A Man in Love (Nick Lowe)
18 [What's So Funny 'Bout] Peace, Love and Understanding (Nick Lowe)
19 I Knew the Bride [When She Used to Rock and Roll] (Nick Lowe)
20 The Beast in Me (Nick Lowe)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Yzphc8qi

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/uzTPjmEhZXSC8vf/file

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

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 9 (1964-1979) (A MIKE SOLOF GUEST POST)

It's time for another volume of "The Beatles Uncovered" by guest poster Mike Solof. We've made it to Volume 9, and Mike already has two more almost ready to go.

As usual, Mike has taken some Beatles songs, as well as a few songs from their solo careers, and remixed them to bring out hidden or little noticed aspects. You probably know the drill by now, if you've listened to any of his previous volumes in this series.

I don't feel the need to say much more, because Mike has detailed notes about the edits to each song in the PDF file he's included with the download zip, just as he's done with previous volumes.

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 A Day in the Life [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
02 Doctor Robert [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
03 If I Needed Someone [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
04 Revolution No. 1 [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
05 And I Love Her [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
06 Every Night [Mike's Mix 2025] (Paul McCartney)
07 Back in the U.S.S.R. [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
08 Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
09 Oh, Darling [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
10 Faster [Mike's Mix 2025] (George Harrison)
11 Good Night [Take 10 - Vocals Only Mix] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
12 Cry Baby Cry [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
13 Come Together [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
14 I Me Mine [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
15 Happiness Is a Warm Gun [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
16 Scared [Mike's Mix 2025] (John Lennon)
17 A Hard Day's Night [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
18 Tomorrow Never Knows [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ssi49Z9T

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/JglA0fISlxNJ1gK/file

If you want an explanation for the, uh, rather unusual cover photo, you'll have to read the PDF file included in the download.

The Temptations - BBC In Concert, Arlington Theatre, Santa Barbara, CA, 12-1984

Here's an album of the Temptations performing in concert for the BBC. It's the only BBC album of theirs I could find, though something else could pop up in the future. For instance, I saw mention of a BBC concert at Portsmouth in 1993, but I can't find it.

This one went to the top of my "albums to be posted" pile because I recently got help from musical associate MZ on it. I could tell there was something wrong, but it was beyond my limited abilities to fix it. MZ reduced the bass in some frequencies and boosted the tremble in others, though the high tremble was completely missing so there was nothing to be done about that.

It's too bad this concert isn't from a couple of years earlier. In 1982 and 1983, most of the original Temptations reunited for a reunion tour and album, including former lead singers Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin. However, Kendricks' voice was weakened due to chain smoking, and Ruffin was addicted to drugs, and there were all sorts of personality clashes and problems. So Kendricks and Ruffin were let go at the end of the tour. 

By the time of this concert, there were a couple more personnel changes. A key one was the addition of a brand new member, Ali-Ollie Woodson. His involvement brought new success, because he co-wrote the song "Treat Her like a Lady" with long-time band member Otis Williams, and sang lead vocals on it. Released as a single in 1984, it was the band's biggest hit since 1975, reaching Number Two on the R&B charts, and almost reaching the Top Ten in Britain. It also turned out to be the band's last big hit.

So naturally this concert includes "Treat Her like a Lady," as well a couple of other then-recent songs, "Sail Away," "My Love Is True (Truly for You)," and a little bit of "Standing on the Top." Otherwise, the band made sure to do most of their biggest classic hits. Interestingly though, they finished off the concert with three covers of then-recent huge hits that they'd had nothing to do with: "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang, "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson, and "All Night Long" by Lionel Richie.

This album is unreleased. It also was very hard to find. I was only able to find a stream of it on the Internet, and then I converted it to individual mp3s.

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 Introduction (Temptations)
02 Get Ready (Temptations)
03 The Way You Do the Things You Do (Temptations)
04 Ain't Too Proud to Beg (Temptations)
05 I Wish It Would Rain (Temptations)
06 Treat Her like a Lady (Temptations)
07 talk (Temptations)
08 My Love Is True [Truly for You] (Temptations)
09 talk (Temptations)
10 Sail Away (Temptations)
11 My Girl (Temptations)
12 Can't Get Next to You - Papa Was a Rolling Stone (Temptations)
13 Band Introductions - Standing on the Top (Temptations)
14 talk (Temptations)
15 Celebration - Billie Jean (Temptations)
16 All Night Long (Temptations)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/A5eSCHSE

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/J5TBnjn27lNP3wT/file

The cover photo shows that band in concert at something called the "Super Night of Rock n' Roll" in 1984. The photo shows Melvin Franklin, Ali-Ollie Woodson, Otis Williams, Ron Tyson, and Richard Street.

Ray Davies - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: Proms in the Park, Hyde Park, London, Britain, 9-9-2017

This is the fourth, and probably last album of Ray Davies performing for the BBC. I rarely if ever do this, but I feel the need to put a performance warning on this. At the time of this concert, Davies was about 75 years old, and unfortunately, age was seriously effecting his voice. So behave. It's definitely not terrible by any means, but you can tell things are not what they used to be.

In fact, I think he realized his vocal troubles, because this was his last concert. Prior to this, he hadn't given any concerts since 2015, and only a few then. After this, according to setlist.fm, he only played one song in public in 2018, and that's it. Given that it's now 2025 as I write this, the voice and body only gets more worn out with time. So, if nothing else, this concert has historic importance as Davies' last concert. (If that turns out to be true, I think it's fitting that the last song he played was "Days.")

However, Davies must have realized his voice was weakening, because he smartly compensated for that by being backed with female vocalists, and also a full choir on some songs. That certainly helps.

2017 was a significant year, because Davies put out the studio album "Americana," his first new studio album in about ten years. He would put out another in 2018 ("Our Country - Americana, Part 2"). Only two songs were performed from the new album, "Message from the Road" and "A Place in Your Heart." That's quite significant, because it seems those are the only two times he ever sang them in public.

The sound quality is excellent, despite the fact that it's unreleased. Davies' voice was low in the mix. Perhaps that was intentional, due to the problems mentioned above. But I still felt the urge to fix the mix, so I boosted him somewhat, using the UVR5 audio editing program.

This album is 38 minutes long.

01 You Really Got Me Intro [Instrumental] (Ray Davies)
02 Victoria (Ray Davies)
03 talk (Ray Davies)
04 Dedicated Follower of Fashion (Ray Davies)
05 talk (Ray Davies)
06 Dead End Street (Ray Davies)
07 talk (Ray Davies)
08 You Really Got Me (Ray Davies)
09 talk (Ray Davies)
10 Message from the Road (Ray Davies)
11 A Place in Your Heart (Ray Davies)
12 talk (Ray Davies)
13 Sunny Afternoon (Ray Davies)
14 talk (Ray Davies)
15 All Day and All of the Night (Ray Davies)
16 talk (Ray Davies)
17 Waterloo Sunset (Ray Davies)
18 talk (Ray Davies)
19 Days (Ray Davies)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/FsudfwQc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/0K2XlwX6FlJKDqZ/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Neil Young - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: In Concert, Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Britain, 6-26-2009

Here is Neil Young's third, and so far last, BBC concert. It's from the huge, annual Glastonbury Festival in 2009.

This was the first and still only time that Young has performed at Glastonbury. However, as I write this in February 2025, it has been reported that Young is scheduled to be one of the headliners in the summer of 2025. (There were news reports that he canceled due to a dispute with the BBC, but then later reports that he undid the cancellation.) So let's hope that later in 2025 there will be a "Volume 4" in this series.

This 2009 concert was not performed with his band Crazy Horse. However, you'd be excused if you thought otherwise, because this was very much in the same rocking mode as his Crazy Horse stuff. Instead, his band was just called his "Electric Band."

This is also a long, complete concert, nearly two hours long. Only some of his songs were broadcast on BBC TV or radio, less than an hour's worth. But somehow the full version was made public with excellent sound quality, so I'm posting all I can.

A couple of months prior to this concert, Young released his latest studio album, "Fork in the Road." He didn't promote it much in this concert, however, performing a grand total of one song from that album, "Get Behind the Wheel." Instead, he did classics from all phases of his long music career, plus a cover of "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles as the final encore. 

This album is an hour and 46 minutes long.

01 Hey Hey, My My [Into the Black] (Neil Young)
02 Mansion on the Hill (Neil Young)
03 talk (Neil Young)
04 Are You Ready for the Country (Neil Young)
05 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Neil Young)
06 talk (Neil Young)
07 Spirit Road (Neil Young)
08 talk (Neil Young)
09 Words (Neil Young)
10 Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young)
11 Mother Earth [Natural Anthem] (Neil Young)
12 The Needle and the Damage Done (Neil Young)
13 talk (Neil Young)
14 Comes a Time (Neil Young)
15 Unknown Legend (Neil Young)
16 Heart of Gold (Neil Young)
17 Down by the River (Neil Young)
18 Get Behind the Wheel (Neil Young)
19 Rockin' in the Free World (Neil Young)
20 talk (Neil Young)
21 A Day in the Life (Neil Young)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/VULQrp4d

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/igfY1KUTrJHXZ6f/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Poll Results So Far

Update: in the first version of this blog post, I mentioned that all the Bestfile links had stopped working. I'm glad to report they're all working again, so never mind.

With that out of the way, here are the BBC poll results so far. There may still be some votes trickling in, and I hope there are, since there are a lot of ties here. I'll keep adding in more votes as they come in. But here's the results as of now:

Peter Gabriel             xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Richard Thompson          xxxxxxxxxxxx

Elvis Costello            xxxxxxxxxx

Incredible String Band    xxxxxxxxxx

XTC                       xxxxxxxxx

Sandy Denny               xxxxxxxx

Mott the Hoople           xxxxxxxx

Camel                     xxxxxxx

Thin Lizzy                xxxxxxx

Queen                     xxxxxxx

Caravan                   xxxxxxx

Tom Petty & Heartbreakers xxxxxxx

Family                    xxxxxx

Bruce Springsteen         xxxxxx

R.E.M.                    xxxxxx

Be Bop Deluxe             xxxxxx

Bridget St. John          xxxxxx

Billy Bragg               xxxxxx

Blodwyn Pig               xxxxx

Santana                   xxxxx

Man                       xxxx

Renaissance               xxxx

Robert Plant              xxxx

Loudon Wainwright III     xxxx

Wishbone Ash              xxxx

Barclay James Harvest     xxxx

Slade                     xxxx

Johnny Cash               xxxx

Stone the Crows           xxx

James Taylor              xxx

Police                    xxx

Pretenders                xxx

Crowded House             xxx

Cure                      xxx

Dr. Feelgood              xxx

Flaming Lips              xxx

Nanci Griffith            xxx

Genesis                   xxx

Robyn Hitchcock           xxx

B.B. King                 xxx

Nils Lofgren              xxx

Frankie Miller            xxx

Gary Moore                xxx

Siouxsie & the Banshees   xxx

Atomic Rooster            xxx

Emmylou Harris            xxx

Eric Clapton              xx

Psychedelic Furs          xx

Radiohead                 xx

White Stripes             xx

Sparks                    xx

Nazareth                  xx

Bryan Adams               xx

Oasis                     x

Graham Parker             x

Simple Minds              x

Amy Winehouse             x

Tears for Fears           x

Texas                     x

Blur

Curved Air

Sting

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Supergrass

I must say, I'm pretty surprised by the results so far. Some famous names are way down the list, and some lesser known ones are near the top. And it's interesting that when I did the earlier poll with fewer choices, the Incredible String Band got the most votes, but now they're tied for ninth. Anyway, while I'm still intent on finishing off posting the BBC albums for the musical acts where I've already posted at least one BBC album already, there's no reason I can't at least get started on this list a little bit soon. So I'll probably start posting one or two acts from the top in the next week or so. 

Thanks again for the helpful feedback!

Joe Jackson - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: Nakano Sun Plaza, Tokyo, Japan, 10-21-1986

Just a few days ago, I posted Volume 4 in a series of BBC albums by Joe Jackson. Here's Volume 5, from 1986.

Note that involves yet another renumbering. I already posted a Volume 5, which is a 1995 concert. This one slipped my attention, since it usually isn't mentioned as a BBC concert. But I found it on the BBC website, so it definitely is. Thus, that 1995 concert has become Volume 6. You can find an updated link to it here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2024/02/joe-jackson-bbc-sessions-volume-5-in.html

This concert took place a few months after the release of Jackson's album "Big World." So naturally a lot of songs are from that. But it's a complete and generously long concert, so there are also lots of songs from earlier in his career.

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

This album is an hour and 44 minutes long.

01 One More Time (Joe Jackson)
02 talk (Joe Jackson)
03 Wild West (Joe Jackson)
04 talk (Joe Jackson)
05 Right and Wrong (Joe Jackson)
06 You Can't Get What You Want [Til You Know What You Want] (Joe Jackson)
07 talk (Joe Jackson)
08 [It's A] Big World (Joe Jackson)
09 Home Town (Joe Jackson)
10 On Your Radio (Joe Jackson)
11 Shanghai Sky (Joe Jackson)
12 talk (Joe Jackson)
13 Fifty Dollar Love Affair (Joe Jackson)
14 talk (Joe Jackson)
15 Cancer (Joe Jackson)
16 Be My Number Two (Joe Jackson)
17 Breaking Us in Two (Joe Jackson)
18 Steppin' Out (Joe Jackson)
19 Survival (Joe Jackson)
20 Soul Kiss (Joe Jackson)
21 talk (Joe Jackson)
22 It's Different for Girls (Joe Jackson)
23 talk (Joe Jackson)
24 The Jet Set (Joe Jackson)
25 talk (Joe Jackson)
26 Monday Papers [Sunday Papers] (Joe Jackson)
27 talk (Joe Jackson)
28 Tonight and Forever (Joe Jackson)
29 talk (Joe Jackson)
30 Jack You're Dead - What's the Use of Getting Sober - Jumpin' Jive (Joe Jackson)
31 I'm the Man (Joe Jackson)
32 Man in the Street (Joe Jackson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GFiBApCp

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/hK4OUtEX2bqUscJ/file

The cover photo is from a concert in 1986 Arnhem, Netherlands, on December 14, 1986.

Suzanne Vega - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Britain, 6-16-1989

Back in the summer of 2023, I posted a BBC album by Suzanne Vega, but then forgot to follow up with more. Finally, here's another one. 

This is from the big annual Glastonbury Festival, though perhaps it wasn't so big back in the 1980s. As I write this in 2025, Vega has performed at this festival a surprising number of times. Seven times in all so far: 1989, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2011, 2014, and 2022. However, the only BBC recording I can find from her is this 1989. That's also surprising, since the BBC didn't broadcast many sets back then, and has broadcast more and more as time has gone on. So if anyone has any of her other Glastonbury sets, please pass them on so I can post those too.

I read an interview with Vega many years after this concert in which she was asked: "What is the closest you've come to death?" She responded, "A death threat at Glastonbury Festival in 1989. The police told me not to go on, but I said I had to because I was headlining. So I wore a bullet-proof vest. It seemed unlikely that I would be assassinated, but it was shocking and very stressful." Given that, I give her kudos for putting on a remarkably poised performance here.

Vega was probably close to the peak of her popularity around this time. Her 1988 album "Solitude Standing" did especially well in the the British charts, making it to Number Two there, compared to Number 11 in the U.S.

This concert is unreleased, but the sound quality is excellent.

This album is 44 minutes long.

01 talk (Suzanne Vega)
02 Solitude Standing (Suzanne Vega)
03 talk (Suzanne Vega)
04 Small Blue Thing (Suzanne Vega)
05 Cracking (Suzanne Vega)
06 talk (Suzanne Vega)
07 Freeze Tag (Suzanne Vega)
08 Left of Center (Suzanne Vega)
09 The Queen and the Soldier (Suzanne Vega)
10 talk (Suzanne Vega)
11 Pilgrimage (Suzanne Vega)
12 talk (Suzanne Vega)
13 Men in a War (Suzanne Vega)
14 talk (Suzanne Vega)
15 Luka (Suzanne Vega)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/9biG2euk

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/sp4Lj5eJxpBNIhu/file

All I know is this photo is from 1989. However, I saw a really poor quality photo of her at Glastonbury this year, and I think she's wearing the same jeans jacket, so it could be from this show.

Paul McCartney - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: Rockshow, Kingdome, Seattle, WA, 6-10-1976

Another day, another big renumbering for my BBC project. Sigh! Sorry, folks, yet again. But I figure more music is always better. In this case, I'd missed a 1976 concert by Paul McCartney. As a result, I've had to renumber five later BBC albums by him.

First off, beware that this album is very similar to the official live album "Wings Over America." That's because it's from the same tour, and McCartney basically played the exact same songs every stop of that tour. But there are key differences. For starters, while the official album used the same set list as a typical show, and thus this show too, the songs were selected from a bunch of different concerts. I believe the only song on that album to come from this show is "Spirits of Ancient Egypt."

This concert recording is entangled with another document from that tour, the concert movie "Rockshow." This is billed as a film of this very Seattle concert, but cut down to the length of a typical movie, about an hour and a half. However, despite the billing on the promotional material, most of the songs come from three other concerts, with only about five songs from this Seattle one. But the BBC did broadcast big sections of this concert at some point. That's why this is the best sounding bootleg from the 1976 tour, and only one of two with soundboard level sound quality.

So I tried to put together an album with all the songs played in Seattle on this date. About three-fourths of this actually is from the Seattle show. For the remaining fourth, I used an audio rip of the "Rockshow" movie. I believe all of those extra songs I used come from Los Angeles about two weeks later. I've put the details in the mp3 tags, as usual. But in case you're curious, the non-Seattle songs are tracks 22 to 26, 30, 31, 32, 37, 38, 39, 46, and 47.

As I mentioned above, the set list for this concert is nearly identical to the "Wings Over America" album. The only key difference is that the song "Go Now" is missing here, since it wasn't played this night. (There was a spot late in the concert for band member Danny Laine to sing a song, and he chose "Time to Hide" instead of "Go Now," his more common choice. On the live album, they included versions of both.) However, this concert is about eight minutes longer than that album, despite having one less song. That's because there's more banter between songs here. Also, the cheering at the ends of songs often goes on longer.

I've previously stated that I prefer having whole concerts over official live albums that select songs from lots of different concerts. I like to hear what really happened. That's especially the case here, because "Wings Over America" reportedly had lots of overdubs and fixes. With this, you get the real deal, warts and all.

One problem with this recording was the lead vocals were low in the mix. (That's such a common problem for bootlegs, and even live recordings, I've found.) This was the case for both the Seattle and Los Angeles sourced songs. So I fixed that for all the songs, using the UVR5 audio editing program. I also had to do some finessing to get the two different sources to fit together, for instance tinkering with the crowd noise between songs from different sources.

Re: the renumbering mentioned above, here are the links to all the renumbered ones, in order (ignore the numbers mentioned in the links):

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/05/paul-mccartney-bbc-sessions-volume-1-in.html

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/12/paul-mccartney-bbc-sessions-volume-2-in.html

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/07/paul-mccartney-chaos-and-creation-at.html

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/06/paul-mccartney-bbc-sessions-volume-3.html

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2024/01/paul-mccartney-bbc-sessions-volume-5-in.html

And by the way, at the time of this concert, this very much was a "Paul McCartney and Wings" concert, not just a Paul McCartney one. The other band members played prominent roles, with some of them even occasionally singing lead vocals. But I've billed this as just as McCartney concert since Wings didn't last the end of the 1970s and I want to be consistent with all the BBC albums that come after.

This album is two hours and five minutes long.

01 Venus and Mars - Rock Show (Paul McCartney)
02 Jet (Paul McCartney)
03 talk (Paul McCartney)
04 Let Me Roll It (Paul McCartney)
05 talk (Paul McCartney)
06 Spirits of Ancient Egypt (Paul McCartney)
07 talk (Paul McCartney)
08 Medicine Jar (Paul McCartney)
09 talk (Paul McCartney)
10 Maybe I'm Amazed (Paul McCartney)
11 talk (Paul McCartney)
12 Call Me Back Again (Paul McCartney)
13 talk (Paul McCartney)
14 Lady Madonna (Paul McCartney)
15 The Long and Winding Road (Paul McCartney)
16 talk (Paul McCartney)
17 Live and Let Die (Paul McCartney)
18 talk (Paul McCartney)
19 Picasso's Last Words [Drink to Me] (Paul McCartney)
20 Richard Cory (Paul McCartney)
21 Bluebird (Paul McCartney)
22 talk (Paul McCartney)
23 I've Just Seen a Face (Paul McCartney)
24 talk (Paul McCartney)
25 Blackbird (Paul McCartney)
26 Yesterday (Paul McCartney)
27 talk (Paul McCartney)
28 You Gave Me the Answer (Paul McCartney)
29 talk (Paul McCartney)
30 Magneto and Titanium Man (Paul McCartney)
31 talk (Paul McCartney)
32 My Love (Paul McCartney)
33 talk (Paul McCartney)
34 Listen to What the Man Said (Paul McCartney)
35 talk (Paul McCartney)
36 Let 'Em In (Paul McCartney)
37 Time to Hide (Paul McCartney)
38 talk (Paul McCartney)
39 Silly Love Songs (Paul McCartney)
40 Beware My Love (Paul McCartney)
41 talk (Paul McCartney)
42 Letting Go (Paul McCartney)
43 talk (Paul McCartney)
44 Band on the Run (Paul McCartney)
45 talk (Paul McCartney)
46 Hi, Hi, Hi (Paul McCartney)
47 Soily (Paul McCartney)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ch3YrJ4Z

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/0BE9MlT1Rk68rbx/file

A Bigger, Better Poll

A few weeks back, I had a poll asking which musical acts I should focus on when posting albums for my big BBC project. Since then, I've been digging deeper, and I've found lots more source material. So, if you don't mind, I'd like to redo that poll.

Here's a little background first. For the past month plus, I've been focusing mostly on posting BBC albums from musical acts where I've already posted at least one BBC album. This has led to a lot of renumbering as I keep finding new stuff. I've made a lot of progress, but I still have about 50 of those albums to post. That'll take me a few more weeks, probably. As I finish that off, I want to turn to posting BBC albums from musical acts for whom I've never posted any BBC stuff from before. A lot of those are "big name" artists. I define that as the ones I have at least four BBC albums that I have yet to post.

So below is a list of all such big name artists. It's going to take me ages to post all this stuff, not to mention lots of non-BBC stuff I'm posting too. (Plus, hundreds of BBC albums from artists where I have three or less albums.) So I'd like your feedback on what to prioritize. With this poll, I want to be a little more officious about it. I'd like you to limit your choices to no more than five names. That way, some people with longer lists don't have more voting power than others. The artists with the most votes will get my top priority when I start in on this in a few weeks. (Oh, and these results will supersede the results of the previous poll, since this is a more thorough one.)

Bryan Adams
Atomic Rooster
Barclay James Harvest
Be Bop Deluxe
Billy Bragg
Blodwyn Pig
Blur
Bridget St. John
Camel
Caravan
Johnny Cash
Eric Clapton
Elvis Costello
Crowded House
Cure
Curved Air
Sandy Denny
Dr. Feelgood
Family
Flaming Lips
Peter Gabriel
Nanci Griffith
Genesis
Emmylou Harris
Robyn Hitchcock
Crowded House
Incredible String Band
B.B. King
Nils Lofgren
Man
Frankie Miller
Gary Moore
Mott the Hoople
Nazareth
Oasis
Graham Parker
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Robert Plant
Police
Pretenders
Psychedelic Furs
Queen
Radiohead
Red Hot Chili Peppers
R.E.M.
Renaissance
Santana
Simple Minds
Siouxsie & the Banshees
Slade
Sparks
Bruce Springsteen
Sting
Stone the Crows
Supergrass
James Taylor
Tears for Fears
Texas   
Thin Lizzy
Richard Thompson
Loudon Wainwright III
White Stripes
Amy Winehouse
Wishbone Ash
XTC

Updates to Two Recently Posted Albums

Today, I was able to make key updates to two albums that I posted in recent weeks. In both cases, this is due to material sent me by anonymous contributors. Thanks to them!

The first one I want to mention is a Supertramp BBC concert I posted a couple of weeks ago. A person found a different BBC broadcast of the same show. It has three songs that the version I lacked, while missing some other songs. So I've added those in, making the album about 15 minutes longer. Here's the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/02/supertramp-bbc-sessions-volume-5-in.html

Also, just a couple of days ago, I posted Paul Weller's "Sold on Song" BBC concert from 2006. The version I posted is basically just the music, with very little of the talking between songs. But someone sent me the whole thing. There's so much talking, mostly in interview format, that it almost doubles the length, from 30 minutes to 56 minutes. I've decided to offer both versions, the mostly music one, and the full one. But if you go to this page, you'll find the added links to the full version:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/02/paul-weller-bbc-sessions-volume-13-sold.html 

The Beatles - Star-Club, Hamburg, Germany, 12-1962

I've been on the verge of posting this very early live Beatles album for a few months now. One reason is the sound quality. Bluntly speaking, the sound quality is pretty bad compared to just about everything else I've posted at this blog. But the good news is, thanks to recent advancements in audio editing technology, it sounds better than it ever has before. Still, this is not for the casual fan. 

The second reason is the story behind this recording is very complicated, and I lacked the enthusiasm for a long write-up. So I ultimately decided to skip most of what I was thinking of writing. Instead, I can point you to a Wikipedia article for the short version:

Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962 - Wikipedia 

But if you want to dig deeper, I've included a PDF of a lengthy but I think interesting article from Record Collector Magazine about the long and tangled story about this recording.

Before I go any further, I want to say: all hail Lord Reith! The only reason I'm posting this is because a super Beatles fan by that name has made repeated efforts to improve this recording, each one sounding better than the last. The most recent one is from late 2024 (as I write this in February 2025). All I'm basically doing is posting what he did, with minor changes. He even is the one who came up with the PDF of the article mentioned above. I've also included a text file from him that explains some more about what he did. If you want to find more of his Beatles-centric audio editing, search for his name at the Beatlegs forum. He's one of the best at this audio editing stuff, for sure.

Here's a link to that forum:

https://forum.beatlegdb.com/

Anyway, while I'm not going to write a tome about this recording, I will give the basics. As most Beatles fans know, the Beatles honed their musical skills playing in small clubs in Hamburg, Germany, from 1960 to 1962, before they became famous. This recording comes from December 1962, when they were on the brink of fame. Their drummer Pete Best had recently been replaced by Ringo Starr, who plays drums on everything here. Their debut single "Love Me Do" was released in October 1962, and reached Number 17 in the British charts around the time these recordings were made. In fact, the Beatles didn't want to play in Hamburg anymore, but they felt obliged to finish off a contract they'd signed many months earlier.

Their stay this time was relatively short. They played from December 18th until December 31st. Nobody knows the exact dates these recordings were made, except that they come from that time period. What happened was, recording equipment was set up, and every now and then someone hit the record button, and nobody kept track of details. There are three big continuous chunks, probably recorded on different nights. Plus, there are some extra individual songs recorded here and there. 

So what we ended up with was a luck of the draw thing. For instance, no recording of "Love Me Do" made it, despite that being their sole hit single at the time that they certainly must have played. And we only got a couple of originals, "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Ask Me Why." But what really makes this fascinating is the Beatles played a bunch of cover songs. Some covers made their early studio albums or singles, and some were done later at the BBC and thus recordings survived, but for many, maybe half of the songs here, these are the only Beatles versions we have. 

Note that this version isn't complete. If you want that, check out Lord Reith's version at the Beatlegs forum. I didn't cut out much, but I cut out a few songs that had sound problems, or were otherwise problematic, such as a version of "Road Runner" that barely got started and then petered out after less than a minute. I also cut out some dead time between songs when nobody was talking. But I tried to keep as much as possible. For instance, there are three versions of "A Taste of Honey" here because each one is somewhat different. One is the standard Beatles version. Another has a little-known extra verse. And another has singer Tony Sheridan guesting on it. (The Beatles backed him in the studio for a couple of songs in 1962.)

I also tried to make some improvements to Lord Reith's edits. I couldn't do much with the actual songs. But for the times between songs, I separated out just the talking (using the UVR5 program) from everything else, then lowered the volume of everything else. That helped somewhat, but be warned that the banter between songs is often unintelligible due to the poor sound quality.

Finally, I have a bit to say about the history of this recording. The actual recording was done by Adrian Barber, the stage manager of the club. Apparently, the Beatles gave approval in return for free beer! Barber then gave the tapes to Ted Taylor, the leader of the Dominoes, another band playing in the club at the time. Some other bands were recorded as well, but few people care about that since those other bands never made it out of obscurity. 

Taylor tried selling the tapes to record companies starting in 1973. However, there wasn't much interest due to the poor sound quality. Eventually, a rather obscure company bought the rights to the tapes, and spent about $100,000 trying to improve the sound. They had partial success at best. The album was released in 1977 with the name "The Beatles Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962." Only 26 of the 30 different songs were included, with no duplicates. 

The Beatles then tried to sue, and years of legal battles ensued. Generally speaking, it was much like a game of whack-a-mole. Different versions of the album came out with different names and track lists in different countries, making it impossible to stop them all. In 1991 though, the massive company Sony tried to release a version. This led to more legal battles. Finally, in 1998, the Beatles won ownership of the tapes and the exclusive rights to release the material. They've just sat on them since. But after director Peter Jackson redid lots of material from the Beatles' "Get Back" sessions in 2022, he said he has the best version of this bootleg available, and he wants to use the latest cutting edge technology to make it sound truly good. Nothing has come of that since then, but who knows what the future may bring.

Anyway, if you want to know more about all that, check out the Wikipedia article above, or the PDF file included in the download. Hopefully, someday Jackson will perform a miracle on this material. In the meantime, this is the best version that's publicly available, in my opinion. 

Oh, another thing. When you listen to the vocals of the first song, you may think, "Who the heck is singing?" That's because that song, "Be-Bop-A-Lula," plus the third song, "Hallelujah, I Love Her So," were actually sung by other people and only backed by the Beatles. Horst Fascher, who sang one of those, was one of the club managers. He also was the club's bouncer and a former boxer. Fred Fascher, who sang the other one, was his brother. The Beatles relied on them for protection from unruly crowds, so letting them sing a little bit was a good way to keep them on their side.

My final comment: don't expect sonic miracles here. This is not for the casual fan, due to the sound quality. But it's fascinating if you're a die-hard Beatle fan and can handle the recording's flaws.

This album is an hour and 28 minutes long.

01 Be-Bop-A-Lula (Beatles & Fred Fascher)
02 I Saw Her Standing There (Beatles)
03 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
04 Hallelujah, I Love Her So (Beatles & Horst Fascher)
05 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
06 Red Hot (Beatles)
07 Sheila (Beatles)
08 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
09 Kansas City - Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey (Beatles)
10 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
11 Shimmy like Kate (Beatles)
12 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
13 Reminiscing (Beatles)
14 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
15 Red Sails in the Sunset (Beatles)
16 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
17 Sweet Little Sixteen (Beatles)
18 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
19 Roll Over Beethoven (Beatles)
20 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
21 A Taste of Honey [Extra Verse Version] (Beatles)
22 Nothin' Shakin' [But the Leaves on the Trees] (Beatles)
23 I Saw Her Standing There (Beatles)
24 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
25 To Know Her Is to Love Her [To Know Him Is to Love Him] (Beatles)
26 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
27 Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby (Beatles)
28 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
29 Till There Was You (Beatles)
30 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
31 Where Have You Been All My Life (Beatles)
32 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
33 Lend Me Your Comb (Beatles)
34 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
35 Your Feet's Too Big (Beatles)
36 I'm Talking about You (Beatles)
37 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
38 A Taste of Honey (Beatles)
39 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
40 Matchbox (Beatles)
41 Little Queenie (Beatles)
42 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
43 The Hippy Hippy Shake (Beatles)
44 talk (Beatles)
45 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
46 A Taste of Honey (Beatles with Tony Sheridan)
47 I Remember You (Beatles)
48 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
49 Ask Me Why (Beatles)
50 Besame Mucho (Beatles)
51 Mr. Moonlight (Beatles)
52 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
53 Falling in Love Again (Beatles)
54 I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry [Over You] (Beatles)
55 Long Tall Sally (Beatles)
56 I'm Talking about You (Beatles)
57 Twist and Shout (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CVJuAYuU

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/u7UoC9JNRT4FHtS/file

The cover photo shows the Beatles performing at the Star-Club at some point, though unfortunately Ringo Starr isn't included in the image. Note I used the venue's logo in the album title at the top.