Labi Siffre - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: In Concert, Hexagon Theatre, Reading, Britain, 5-14-1989

This is quite a surprise. I thought I'd posted all the BBC material that exists for singer-songwriter Labi Siffre. But a couple of days ago, an anonymous helper sent me this concert. To say it has been hard to find is an understatement. Once I knew the details about its existence, I did an Internet search and only found one mention of it. So hopefully this will bring it back into circulation.

Siffre had a few hits in Britain in the early 1970s, but his music career essentially petered out by the end of that decade. However, in the mid-1980s, he watched a TV documentary about Apartheid in South Africa, and that inspired him to write the song "(Something Inside) So Strong." When it was released in 1987, it went all the way to Number Four in the British singles chart. This gave his career a second wind. He released the album "So Strong" in 1988 (his first since 1975), which contained two more minor hits, "Listen to the Voices" and "Nothin's Gonna Change."

Be aware that the music is quite different from his 1970s stuff. That was very acoustic based. Whereas his late 1980s sound was more typical of that era, with a full band, synths, heavy drums, and so forth. In fact, I was surprised (and disappointed) that he seemed to entirely turn his back on his earlier music. He didn't play any of his earlier hits. His new music isn't bad, but it is a big change. One thing that remained consistent though was his interest in socially progressive topics in his lyrics, like fighting racism.

This album is an hour and 13 minutes long.

01 Lovers (Labi Siffre)
02 Listen to the Voices (Labi Siffre)
03 Schooldays (Labi Siffre)
04 Hard Road (Labi Siffre)
05 And the Wind Blows (Labi Siffre)
06 All I Wanna Do (Labi Siffre)
07 Never Let You Down (Labi Siffre)
08 How Sweet It Is [To Be Loved by You] (Labi Siffre)
09 I Will Always Love You (Labi Siffre)
10 talk (Labi Siffre)
11 With a Little Love (Labi Siffre)
12 Snowman (Labi Siffre)
13 talk (Labi Siffre)
14 Nothin's Gonna Change (Labi Siffre)
15 I'm Alright (Labi Siffre)
16 Hard Road [Second Version] (Labi Siffre)
17 [Something Inside] So Strong (Labi Siffre)
18 Home (Labi Siffre)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vEHzj6ZQ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/DE75rjUpf71GXyE/file

The cover photo is from the Prince's Trust concert in London in 1987. I've posted that concert here. It features Siffre performing one song, "(Something Inside) So Strong."