U2 - BBC Sessions, Volume 9: In Concert, Twickenham Stadium, London, Britain, 6-18-2005

Just two days ago (writing this in mid-February 2026), I posted a "BBC Sessions, Volume 7" for U2, a 1993 concert that I'd previously missed. A commenter noted US also did a 2005 concert that was broadcast for the BBC. I looked it up, and sure enough, that person was right. So I decided to get and post this one ASAP, because I was forced to do some renumbering. I had just renumbered the three albums in this series that come after this. I have renumbered them again. I hope most people hadn't had time to get that previous renumbering yet. And let's hope this renumbering sticks. If someone now tells me there was a 1982 concert U2 did for the BBC that I'd missed, I'll be tempted to go have a good cry!

Although my last U2 post was only two days prior to this one, there's been big U2 news in the meantime: they unexpectedly dropped an EP called "Days of Ash." This made a lot of headlines, because the songs addressed some current political topics. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it: "Produced by Jacknife Lee, the six-track EP contains five new songs, including protest songs addressing the killings of Minneapolis woman Renée Good, Iranian teenager Sarina Esmailzadeh, and Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen, as well as a poem by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai set to music. It is the first collection of original songs the band released since their studio album 'Songs of Experience' in 2017."

In other U2 posts, I've complained that the quality of the band's new songs has slowly gone downhill since the early 2000s. So I was very pleasantly surprised by this new EP. It helps that I agree with their political stances. But I think purely on a musical level, this is the best new music they've released in years. So I encourage you to check it out.

Anyway, back to this album. In 2005, U2 was still riding high, promoting 2004's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," which I would argue was their last solid album. (At least so far - this new EP gives me hope.) That album has their last big hits (again, at least so far), especially "Vertigo." So this contains the best songs from that album, plus classics from their earlier albums.

The BBC broadcast most of this concert, but not all of it. Apparently, the first time, the broadcast began around the start of "City of Blinding Lights," the ninth track, and then continued until the end. You can even hear lead singer Bono talking about this before that song begins. 

Later broadcasts included some of the earlier songs, but not all of them. Only three songs were missing: "The Electric Co.," "New Year's Day," and "Beautiful Day." I managed to find an audience bootleg for just those three songs. I did what I could, using the MVSEP program to split off the lead vocals and then run them through a filter to lessen the echo. I also used that program to get rid of the crowd noise during those songs. That helped some, but they still don't sound as good as the rest. However, they sound decent, or I wouldn't have included them.

Oh, also, I noticed the vocals were a bit low in the mix. So I ran all the songs through MVSEP to fix that as well. 

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent, with a partial exception of the three songs I mentioned above. 

This album is two hours and one minute long. 

01 Vertigo (U2)
02 I Will Follow (U2)
03 The Electric Co. (U2)
04 Elevation (U2)
05 New Year's Day (U2)
06 Beautiful Day (U2)
07 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (U2)
08 All I Want Is You (U2)
09 City of Blinding Lights (U2)
10 Miracle Drug (U2)
11 Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own (U2)
12 Love and Peace or Else (U2)
13 Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2)
14 Bullet the Blue Sky (U2)
15 Running to Stand Still (U2)
16 Pride [In the Name of Love] (U2)
17 Where the Streets Have No Name (U2)
18 One (U2)
19 Zoo Station (U2)
20 The Fly (U2)
21 Mysterious Ways (U2)
22 Yahweh (U2)
23 Vertigo [Second Version] (U2)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Fn8JUeyA

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/hw8lXuJouKkGA8Z/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

U2 - BBC Sessions, Volume 7: In Concert, RDS Arena, Dublin, Ireland, 8-28-1993

I recently discovered that I'd missed a 1993 U2 BBC concert. This was annoying, because it meant I'd have to renumber the four U2 BBC albums that come after this one. But in this case it's very much worth it because U2 was at or near the peak of the creativity and popularity around this time.

In 1991, U2 changed their sound with the classic album "Achtung, Baby." They followed that up in 1993 with an album in a similar vein, "Zooropa." This concert took place on the tour to support that album, so many of the songs are from those two albums. There also are a smattering of cover versions: "Unchained Melody," "Satellite of Love," "Help!," and "Can't Help Falling in Love." Also, as U2 likes to do, there were little snippets of other songs. For instance, "Bad" includes snippets from "Candle in the Wind," "Fool to Cry," and "The First Time." 

Since U2 was from Dublin, Ireland, this concert was a homecoming for them. It was the second of two nights of concerts there. It also was the end of their European tour. They did a short swing through Australia, New Zealand, and Japan later that year. 

Keep in mind the renumbering of the four albums after this this I mentioned above, which means new album covers and changed mp3 tags and so forth. It took me some extra work to find them - maybe "U2" is too short to work for this internal search engine. So here are the links to help you, if you want to redownload them:

Volume 8: 

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2024/08/u2-bbc-sessions-volume-7-2000-2009.html

Volume 10: 

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/01/u2-bbc-sessions-volume-8-in-concert.html

Volume 11: 

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/01/u2-bbc-sessions-volume-8-acoustic.html

Volume 12: 

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/02/u2-bbc-sessions-volume-10-u2-at-bbc.html

(Note that I later changed the numbering of the last three after discovering material for a Volume 9.) 

This album is an hour and 58 minutes long. 

01 Intro (U2)
02 Zoo Station (U2)
03 talk (U2)
04 The Fly (U2)
05 Even Better than the Real Thing (U2)
06 Mysterious Ways (U2)
07 talk (U2)
08 One - Unchained Melody (U2)
09 Until the End of the World (U2)
10 New Year's Day (U2)
11 Numb (U2)
12 Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World (U2)
13 Angel of Harlem (U2)
14 When Love Comes to Town (U2)
15 talk (U2)
16 Stay [Faraway, So Close] (U2)
17 Satellite of Love (U2)
18 Bad (U2)
19 Bullet the Blue Sky (U2)
20 Running to Stand Still (U2)
21 Where the Streets Have No Name (U2)
22 Pride [In the Name of Love] (U2)
23 Desire (U2)
24 talk (U2)
25 Help (U2)
26 Ultra Violet [Light My Way] (U2)
27 With or Without You (U2)
28 Love Is Blindness (U2)
29 Can't Help Falling in Love (U2)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/XKB3WYMR

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/YGCRhMrsJHSDdUo/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program. 

Various Artists - 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 10-30-2009

I just posted the first day of the two-day long 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert, in 2009. Here's the second day.

This second day concert followed the same format as the one on the first day. Read my write-up for more details about this two-day concert in general. Suffice to say that for this day, four major musical acts were chosen: Aretha Franklin, Jeff Beck, Metallica, and U2. Each of them hosted one fourth of the concert, and each had special guests join them during their sections. 

I was a bit surprised by the choice of Jeff Beck, since his record sales weren't nearly as big as the others. It turns out that section was supposed to be for Eric Clapton, but he got sick at the last minute and had to back out. So Beck was another "guitar hero" to fill a similar role.

I detailed in my write-up for the first day of this concert how I put a longer concert out of material from a DVD, plus the HBO broadcast, plus an audience bootleg. That's the same case here, except I didn't find an audience boot for all the otherwise missing songs. I did find such a boot for some of the Metallica songs, but that didn't even have the entire Metallica set. But it did get me "You Really Got Me," with Ray Davies of the Kinks as the guest. 

The Wikipedia page for this concert lists all the songs that were performed, in their correct order. Here's that page:

25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concerts - Wikipedia 

Based on that, it looks like I'm missing five songs. Here are the songs that I couldn't find:

Drown in My Own Tears - Jeff Beck (or possibly Aretha Franklin, I'm not sure)
Cause We've Ended as Lovers - Jeff Beck
Rough Boy - Jeff Beck & Billy Gibbons
One - Metallica
Stone Cold Crazy - Metallica 

That's too bad, but at least the vast majority is here. If anyone has any of the missing songs, please let me know. The first day concert that I posted is a little over four hours long, whereas this one is two and a half hours long. If you add in the missing songs, this probably totals about three hours, not four. So I think the first day one is a little longer, and better. I'll bet some of that was due to Bruce Springsteen, as his section on the first day was extra long.

One interesting note about this concert is that the collaboration of Metallica with Lou Reed - a very unexpected pairing - eventually led to the recordings of the album "Lulu," a joint Metallica and Lou Reed release, in 2011. 

A couple of performers who appeared in the first day concert also appeared in this one. Jeff Beck played a song on the first day, and had his own section here. Sting sang duets on both days. And Bruce Springsteen had his own section on the first day, and sang two songs with U2 here. Jerry Lee Lewis also opened both days with a song.

The sound quality is generally excellent. The quality is actually higher here than on the first day, because I only have one song sourced from an audience boot this time ("You Really Got Me," as mentioned above). I ran into many of the same problems with the first day, such as having to smooth over the transitions between songs by adding extra cheering noises. Read my write-up about the other concert for more details on all that. 

This album is two hours and 33 minutes long.

01 talk (Tom Hanks)
02 Great Balls of Fire (Jerry Lee Lewis)
03 Baby, I Love You (Aretha Franklin)
04 Don't Play That Song [You Lied] (Aretha Franklin)
05 Make Them Hear You (Aretha Franklin)
06 talk (Aretha Franklin)
07 Chain of Fools (Aretha Franklin & Annie Lennox)
08 Theme from New York, New York (Aretha Franklin)
09 Think (Aretha Franklin & Lenny Kravitz)
10 [I Never Loved a Man] The Way I Love You (Aretha Franklin)
11 Respect (Aretha Franklin)
12 People Get Ready (Sting & Jeff Beck)
13 Freeway Jam [Instrumental] (Jeff Beck)
14 talk (Jeff Beck)
15 Let Me Love You Baby (Buddy Guy & Jeff Beck)
16 Big Block [Instrumental] (Jeff Beck)
17 Rice Pudding [Instrumental] (Billy Gibbons & Jeff Beck)
18 Foxy Lady (Billy Gibbons & Jeff Beck)
19 A Day in the Life [Instrumental Version] (Jeff Beck)
20 For Whom the Bell Tolls (Metallica)
21 talk (Metallica)
22 Turn the Page (Metallica)
23 talk (Metallica)
24 Sweet Jane (Lou Reed & Metallica)
25 talk (Metallica)
26 White Light-White Heat (Lou Reed & Metallica)
27 talk (Metallica)
28 Iron Man (Ozzy Osbourne & Metallica)
29 Paranoid (Ozzy Osbourne & Metallica)
30 talk (Metallica)
31 You Really Got Me (Ray Davies & Metallica)
32 All Day and All of the Night (Ray Davies & Metallica)
33 Enter Sandman (Metallica)
34 Vertigo (U2)
35 Magnificent (U2)
36 talk (U2)
37 Because the Night (U2, Bruce Springsteen & Patti Smith)
38 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (U2 & Bruce Springsteen)
39 Mysterious Ways (U2)
40 Where Is the Love - One (U2 & the Black Eyed Peas)
41 talk (U2)
42 Gimme Shelter (U2, Mick Jagger, Fergie & will.i.am)
43 talk (U2)
44 Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of (U2 & Mick Jagger)
45 Beautiful Day (U2)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/UZjACSG5

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/mtktsXHvZPk8rgE/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From left to right: Bono, The Edge, Fergie, and Mick Jagger.

Various Artists - Elvis: The Tribute, Pyramid Arena, Memphis, TN, 10-8-1994

Here's another interesting tribute concert, with loads of big stars. All of the songs performed were made famous by Elvis Presley. 

This concert seems to have mostly disappeared down the memory hole. An album of highlights from the concert was released, called "It's Now Or Never: The Tribute To Elvis." However, it's only 45 minutes long, containing just 15 songs. But the full two plus hour long concert was broadcast on TV at the time, so excellent sounding video footage of it exists.

This concert took place in 1994 despite the lack of any big anniversary or other important timely reason for it. Instead, the Elvis Presley estate decided that Presley's music was being forgotten by younger generations, so the concert was meant to help bring his music back into the spotlight.

As you can see from the album cover or the song list, a great many music stars performed in this concert. A few more - Jon Bon Jovi, Jeff Beck, and Cher, at least - backed out at the last minute. I found that mentioned in a newspaper article, though it didn't give a reason why. 

I used two versions of the video files of this concert, converted them to audio format, and broke them into mp3s. During that process, I cut out some material. There were several sections of a few minutes each that consisted of short films highlight different aspects of Presley's life. I removed all of those, plus their intros, since they were meant mainly to be seen, not heard. I also edited out some more talk by the announcers. However, I kept all the intros relevant to the songs. Plus, of course, I kept all the music.

The concert was mostly hosted by Karen Duffy, an MTV DJ, and singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson. But actor John Stamos introduced a few acts, and TV host Phil Donohue introduced one, and sometimes one act introduced the next one.

Occasionally, I had a little trouble with the edits at the starts and ends of songs. For instance, there were quick cuts to or away from TV commercials, as well as the short films I mentioned above. I tried my best to smooth things out, but occasionally the transitions between tracks is abrupt.

Scotty Moore, D.J. Fontana, James Burton, and the Jordanaires didn't have any performances on their own. However, all of them were key backing musicians or singers for Presley. From time to time, they backed up some of the other music acts. 

All of the performances were live from the concert, with two exceptions. I think "Too Much" by NRBQ actually took place before the TV broadcast began. But I slotted it into a logical spot in the concert. And U2 didn't show up for the concert, but sent video footage of their performance to be broadcast instead.

By the way, if you want to know more about the concert, I found a New York Times article of it from the time. Here's the link (I think you have to click on Option 2 to see it):

RemovePaywall | Free online paywall remover 

This album is two hours and three minutes long.

01 talk (Karen Duffy)
02 Good Rockin' Tonight (Sammy Hagar)
03 Too Much (NRBQ)
04 Baby, Let's Play House (Michael Hutchence & NRBQ)
05 talk (Kris Kristofferson & Karen Duffy)
06 talk (Chet Atkins)
07 How's the World Treating You (Chet Atkins)
08 talk (Karen Duffy)
09 Mystery Train (Dwight Yoakam)
10 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
11 Don't Be Cruel (Marty Stuart with the Jordanaires)
12 talk (Marty Stuart)
13 All Shook Up (Cheap Trick)
14 talk (John Stamos)
15 That's Alright Mama (Kris Kristofferson)
16 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
17 One Night (Billy Ray Cyrus with the Jordanaires)
18 talk (Karen Duffy)
19 Lawdy Miss Claudy (Travis Tritt)
20 talk (Karen Duffy)
21 Blue Moon [Edit] (Chris Isaak with Scotty Moore & D.J. Fontana)
22 Love Me (Mavericks)
23 talk (John Stamos)
24 talk (Carl Perkins)
25 Blue Suede Shoes (Carl Perkins with Scotty Moore & D.J. Fontana)
26 talk (Carl Perkins)
27 Rip It Up (Iggy Pop)
28 Memories (Mac Davis)
29 talk (Mac Davis)
30 talk (Bryan Adams)
31 Hound Dog (Bryan Adams with Scotty Moore & D.J. Fontana)
32 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
33 Always on My Mind (Sam Moore)
34 talk (Karen Duffy)
35 Heartbreak Hotel (John Cale)
36 talk (Karen Duffy)
37 I Want You, I Need You, I Love You (Ann Wilson)
38 talk (Karen Duffy)
39 Teddy Bear (Tanya Tucker)
40 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
41 Trouble (Paul Rodgers)
42 talk (Phil Donahue)
43 [Marie's the Name] His Latest Flame (Scorpions)
44 Can't Help Falling in Love (U2)
45 talk (Kris Kristofferson & Karen Duffy)
46 It's Now or Never (Wet Wet Wet)
47 talk (Mac Davis)
48 Love Me Tender (Tony Bennett)
49 talk (Mac Davis)
50 Young and Beautiful (Aaron Neville)
51 talk (Mac Davis)
52 Jailhouse Rock (Michael Bolton with Scotty Moore, D.J. Fontana & Carl Perkins)
53 talk (Karen Duffy)
54 Tryin' to Get to You (Faith Hill)
55 talk (John Stamos)
56 See See Rider (Jerry Lee Lewis with James Burton & NRBQ)
57 Kentucky Rain - Suspicious Minds (Eddie Rabbitt & Mavis Staples)
58 talk (Karen Duffy)
59 Burning Love (Melissa Etheridge)
60 talk (John Stamos)
61 Amazing Grace (Billy Ray Cyrus & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GWnJSkKo

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/cqa2ziePj3VTmo8/file 

The cover image is a pretty weird one for this concert, but bear with me for the explanation. It depicts Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley (the daughter of Elvis Presley). They had recently gotten married at the time of this concert. (Their marriage only lasted from 1994 to 1996). The weird thing is that neither of them performed at this concert. However, they did attend it. At one point near the end, you can hear the announcer mention their names, along with those of Janet Jackson (Michael Jackson's sister) and Priscilla Presley (Lisa Marie Presley's mother). All four of them briefly stood up and waved to the crowd. 

The main reason I chose them for the cover is because this was the only decent photo from the concert that I could find. The mere fact they were at the concert made news, especially due to the fact that they had just been recently married. I think the image shows the two of them backstage before or after the concert. Even this picture was rather low-res and rough, but I used the Krea AI program to improve the image quality. 

U2 - BBC Sessions, Volume 12: U2 at the BBC, Abbey Road Studios, London, Britain, 11-16-2017

Here is the twelfth, and last, album of U2 performing for the BBC. At least the last so far, since they may well give more such performances in the future. This is a short but full concert. And it's one with a twist, since they are backed by a BBC orchestra.

This contains all the music from this concert, but it isn't entirely complete. You see, there was a BBC DJ who led lengthy question and answer sessions with the band members between some songs. In my opinion, those interview sections are good for one or two listens, but not the hopefully many repeat listens one could have of the music. So I cut most of that out. I only kept some of the answers if they fit as lead ins to the next song that was being played.

Also, the BBC has broadcast this multiple times, and included different songs, and different song orders, on different occasions. I consulted a U2 fan website and discovered a list of the true order the songs were played in, which was different from any of the BBC broadcasts. So I rearranged the songs to match the true order. This probably isn't the complete concert. For instance, one of the songs was played twice due to a filming problem. And some of the banter probably got edited out. But it has at least one version of every song that got performed.

As U2 likes to do, there are little snippets of other songs included in some of the songs. I didn't mention the snippets in the set list, because they're pretty short. But they included references to "Starman" by David Bowie, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division, "Invisible," "Father and Son" by Cat Stevens, "All You Need Is Love" by the Beatles, and "Walk to the Water."

The concert happened shortly after the release of the band's 2017 studio album "Songs of Experience." Five of the eleven songs played are from that album. I think that album is a lesser work compared to most of their earlier albums, but they chose the best ones and they sound pretty good here mixed with some older classics.

As far as I know, everything here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.

This album is 56 minutes long. 

UPDATE: On February 15, 2026, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is exactly the same, but I renumbered the album after finding two earlier albums in this series that I'd missed.

01 talk (U2)
02 Beautiful Day (U2)
03 talk (U2)
04 Lights of Home (U2)
05 talk (U2)
06 You're the Best Thing about Me (U2)
07 talk (U2)
08 Every Breaking Wave (U2)
09 With or Without You (U2)
10 talk (U2)
11 Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of (U2)
12 talk (U2)
13 Get Out of Your Own Way (U2)
14 One (U2)
15 Love Is Bigger than Anything in Its Way (U2)
16 13 [There Is a Light] (U2)
17 All I Want Is You (U2)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/48u1ZzC1

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/ajllx0FVPwutqcP/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. Sorry to bassist Larry Mullen, since I couldn't find a way to crop the picture without cutting him out, due to him being way off to the side.

U2 - BBC Sessions, Volume 10 - In Concert, Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Britain, 6-24-2011

Here's another album of U2 performing for the BBC. This is a concert.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I'm not that enthusiastic about new U2 music after the early 2000s. But if you feel the same, don't worry, because they only played two songs from their most recent album at the time, 2009's "No Line on the Horizon." (The two were "Get on Your Boots" and "Moment of Surrender," which are fine songs.) Instead, no doubt mindful of the fact they would be playing to a crowd of nearly 200,000 people, many of whom weren't big U2 fans already, they generally stuck to their greatest hits. Although I like the fact that they finished with "Out of Control," a relatively obscure song from their debut album in 1980.

As U2 likes to do, they slipped in little snippets of other songs here and there. In two cases, I added those to the song titles, because they were fairly significant. I didn't do that for some of the shorter snippet. Those include bits of "Independent Women," "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," "Move On Up," "Rain," "She Loves You," "Love Will Tear Us Apart," and "Pretty Vacant."

The sound quality is excellent. I don't believe anything here has been officially released.

This album is an hour and 40 minutes long.

UPDATE: On February 15, 2026, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is exactly the same, but I renumbered the album after finding two earlier albums in this series that I'd missed.

01 Even Better than the Real Thing (U2)
02 The Fly (U2)
03 Mysterious Ways (U2)
04 Until the End of the World (U2)
05 talk (U2)
06 One (U2)
07 Jerusalem - Where the Streets Have No Name (U2)
08 I Will Follow (U2)
09 talk (U2)
10 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (U2)
11 talk (U2)
12 Stay [Faraway, So Close] (U2)
13 Beautiful Day (U2)
14 Elevation (U2)
15 Get on Your Boots (U2)
16 Vertigo (U2)
17 Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2)
18 Bad (U2)
19 Pride [In the Name of Love] (U2)
20 With or Without You (U2)
21 Yellow - Moment of Surrender (U2)
22 Out of Control (U2)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/WSnkJuew

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/q7qjwfaJBYOYEtO/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. As you can see, it was raining heavily.

U2 - BBC Sessions, Volume 11 - Acoustic Session, BBC Radio 2, London, Britain, 10-15-2014

I think it's undeniable U2's music has declined in quality since the early 2000s. One can see it in critical ratings and well as sales. And that's typical for most musical artists. Very few can stay on top creativity after decades. That said, they still have done some interesting stuff in their later years. This is an interesting BBC studio session because the band played their songs in an acoustic style. Actually, it's more accurate to call this semi-acoustic, since they played most of these songs with bass and drums. But still, these are definitely different arrangements of these songs.

This session took place after the release of the band's studio album "Songs of Innocence." That was the album that was controversially included for free for about 500 million Apple iTunes users. It caused a backlash, since many people felt it was forced on them.

The first six songs all come from the "Songs of Innocence" album. The seventh song, "Ordinary Love," wouldn't be released until the 2017 album "Songs of Experience." Those first six songs were later included on a deluxe edition of "Songs of Innocence," but the seventh is still unreleased. 

This album is rather short. So I added an extra song at the end, "Mysterious Ways." It's also done in a similar style, so I think it fits right in. It's unreleased, coming from a tour rehearsal in 2015.

This album is 30 minutes long. 

UPDATE: On February 15, 2026, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is exactly the same, but I renumbered the album after finding two earlier albums in this series that I'd missed.

01 Every Breaking Wave (U2)
02 California [There Is No End to Love] (U2)
03 Raised by Wolves (U2)
04 Cedarwood Road (U2)
05 Song for Someone (U2)
06 The Miracle [Of Joey Ramone] (U2)
07 Ordinary Love (U2)
08 Mysterious Ways (U2)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CQ3VCsnN

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/PvbTYGoMe5xhmdg/file

For this session, U2 performed in Abbey Road Studios in London, where the Beatles recorded most of their albums, including "Abbey Road." For fun, the band did a photo shoot that was a nighttime version of the Beatles' iconic "Abbey Road" album cover.

US Festival '83, Glen Helen Regional Park, San Bernardino, CA, 5-30-1983 - Day 3, Part 5: U2

The fifth act on Day Three of the 1983 US Festival is the Irish band U2.

It's important to keep in mind that, by the end of the 1980s, U2 was one of the biggest musical acts in the world, but that definitely wasn't the case at the time of this festival. By this time, the band had hit it big in Britain and Ireland. Their third and most recent album, "War," was released in early 1983 and reached Number One in Britain. But the band hadn't made much of an impression in the U.S. yet. They resolved to change that by touring to support "War." When the tour started in February 1983, they were booked in clubs. But as the tour went on, and word of mouth grew, they moved to halls, and then to arenas. The US Festival, with about 200,000 in attendance on Rock Day, was their biggest break, by far.

Berry Fay was the promoter putting the 1983 US Festival together. He already happened to be a big fan of the band. He later recalled, "They were originally booked to be on the first night with the Clash. But Bono called and said we'd really rather not be on the new wave night, we'd rather be on the rock 'n' roll night. So I just moved 'em, I'd have done anything for those guys."

The set list and performance is very similar to that of the video "U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky." That's no coincidence, because that video was filmed in Colorado just one week after this festival. But the resulting live album "Under a Blood Red Sky" is significantly shorter than the video or this festival performance at only 35 minutes (and most it actually was taken from other concerts on that tour). It was the release of that video and live album later in 1983 that really broke the band in the U.S., especially since the video was repeatedly shown on T.V., starting in July 1983, well before the live album release. The "War" album was lingering in the album charts, but went way up, eventually peaking at Number Twelve.

This is sourced from a soundboard worthy bootleg. As far as I know, everything from this remains officially unreleased.

This album is 57 minutes long.

045 Gloria (U2)
046 I Threw a Brick through a Window (U2)
047 A Day without Me (U2)
048 talk (U2)
049 An Cat Dubh (U2)
050 Into the Heart (U2)
051 New Year's Day (U2)
052 Surrender (U2)
053 Two Hearts Beat as One (U2)
054 talk (U2)
055 Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2)
056 Cry - The Electric Co. (U2)
057 I Will Follow (U2)
058 talk (U2)
059 '40' (U2)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17039589/VA-1983USFstvlDay0305UToo_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/mCg6sqvQ

The cover photo of the band's lead singer Bono wading into the crowd is from this exact concert.

U2 - BBC Sessions, Volume 8: 2000-2009

This album consists of BBC studio sessions performed by U2 from 2000 to 2009, though there was a very small studio audience for some of the songs.

U2 performed some BBC studio sessions in the early 1980s, when they were just starting to get famous. Later in the 1980s, they did some full concerts that were broadcast by the BBC. Then I don't think they did anything for the BBC for the entire 1990s. 

That takes us to 2000. That year, the band released the album "All that You Can't Leave Behind." The first five songs are from a BBC session promoting that album. Tracks 6 to 11 are from a 2004 session. The remainder are from two different sessions in 2009.

I cut out a few songs because they were essentially repeats without much variation. I don't remember what I cut out exactly, but I think there were two more versions of "Beautiful Day." As it is, I included two versions of that song here. Four would have been way too much, in my opinion. These two versions differ in that one includes a snippet of the Pogues song "A Rainy Night in Soho," and the other includes a snippet of the Beatles song "Blackbird." There also are two versions of "Vertigo." The first one is just the song done in a standard way. The second one includes snippets of "Substitute" by the Who and "She Loves You" and "Dig It," both by the Beatles.

This album is an hour and one minute long.

UPDATE: On February 15, 2026, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is exactly the same, but I renumbered the album after finding an earlier album in this series that I'd missed.

01 Elevation (U2)
02 New York (U2)
03 Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of (U2)
04 Beautiful Day - A Rainy Night in Soho (U2)
05 She's a Mystery to Me (U2)
06 Vertigo (U2)
07 All Because of You (U2)
08 talk (U2)
09 Miracle Drug (U2)
10 talk (U2)
11 Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own (U2)
12 Get on Your Boots (U2)
13 Beautiful Day - Blackbird (U2)
14 Breathe (U2)
15 talk (U2)
16 Magnificent (U2)
17 talk (U2)
18 Vertigo - Substitute - She Loves You - Dig It (U2)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ocr1ENj1

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/5OIrnWD1L4oXPN3/file

The cover photo of Bono and The Edge comes from a BBC performance, but not one of the ones featured here. It's from Top of the Pops at BBC Television Centre on October 15, 2004.

Various Artists - An All-Star Tribute to Johnny Cash, Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City, 4-6-1999

I've previously posted "All-Star Tribute" concerts for Paul Simon and Brian Wilson. I discovered they were part of a short-lived annual tradition at the TNT TV network. There are only a couple more, so I plan on posting them too. Here's the next one, an "All-Star Tribute" to country legend Johnny Cash.

In 1999, Cash's health was in serious decline. He wouldn't die until 2003, at the age of 71. But by 1999, he rarely gave public performances. As he mentioned in his stage comments here, he hadn't performed on stage in the past year and a half. After this, he would only make about half a dozen additional musical performances, none of them full concerts. So although he did sing at the very end of this concert, maybe with his health in mind he only sang two songs.

The rest of the concert featured an impressive roster of musical stars singing songs made famous by Cash. It should be noted that the biggest stars, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and U2, weren't actually there but videotaped musical performances that were played at the concert. 

Unfortunately, one person who couldn't sing at this concert was Cash's famous musical daughter Rosanne Cash. This concert happened to take place during a three-year time period in which Rosanne was unable to sing due to a polyp on her vocal chords. She did, however, give a brief speech.

Most of the concert was emceed by actor Jon Voight. However, some of the other banter was by singer-songwriter Larry Gatlin, actor Kevin Bacon, and actor Tim Robbins. There were some additional parts that I cut out. These were narrated video tributes to different stages of Cash's life. I cut those out because they were mainly meant to be seen, not heard.

Like the other "All-Star Tributes" in this series, this concert remains officially unreleased. I found the video of it on YouTube, then converted that to audio. The sound quality is excellent throughout.

This album is an hour and a half long.

01 Jackson - Orange Blossom Special (Sheryl Crow & Willie Nelson)
02 talk (Jon Voight)
03 I Guess Things Happen That Way (Chris Isaak)
04 Get Rhythm Intro (Chris Isaak)
05 Get Rhythm (Chris Isaak)
06 talk (Jon Voight & John Carter Cash)
07 talk (Willie Nelson)
08 I Still Miss Someone (Willie Nelson)
09 talk (Jon Voight)
10 talk (June Carter Cash)
11 Ring of Fire (June Carter Cash)
12 talk (Jon Voight)
13 Train of Love (Bob Dylan)
14 talk (Jon Voight)
15 The Man in Black (Mavericks)
16 talk (Jon Voight)
17 The Ballad of Ira Hayes (Kris Kristofferson)
18 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
19 Sunday Morning Coming Down (Trisha Yearwood with Kris Kristofferson)
20 talk (Larry Gatlin)
21 Ghost Riders in the Sky (Brooks & Dunn)
22 talk (Jon Voight)
23 Tennessee Flat Top Box (Lyle Lovett)
24 talk (Lyle Lovett)
25 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
26 Give My Love to Rose (Bruce Springsteen)
27 talk (Jon Voight)
28 Flesh and Blood (Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow & Mary Chapin Carpenter)
29 talk (Kevin Bacon)
30 Delia's Gone (Wyclef Jean)
31 talk (Jon Voight)
32 talk (Dave Matthews)
33 Long Black Veil (Dave Matthews & Emmylou Harris)
34 talk (Jon Voight)
35 talk (Rosanne Cash)
36 talk (Marty Stuart)
37 Belshazzar (Marty Stuart with the Fairfield Four)
38 talk (Jon Voight & Bono)
39 Don't Take Your Guns to Town (U2)
40 talk (Jon Voight)
41 talk (Tim Robbins)
42 Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash)
43 talk (Johnny Cash)
44 I Walk the Line (Johnny Cash with June Carter Cash)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/VysgekNb

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/FO4eXOKBVGBjELk/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/dmd9S

The cover shows John Mellencamp with Johnny Cash at this exact concert. Curiously, Mellencamp didn't appear in any of the songs. Perhaps he had a song or two that got cut out of the TV broadcast, or perhaps he had a non-performing role, I don't know. But I thought it was a good photo to show how Cash was honored.

U2 - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: In Concert, Point Depot, Dublin, Ireland, 12-31-1989

This is a particularly good installment in the series of U2 BBC albums. It came at the very end of the tour to promote the 1988 album "Rattle and Hum," so it mostly contains songs from that album, plus the album before it, "The Joshua Tree." It's highlighted by a guest appearance from blues legend B.B. King.

The recording of this concert has a strange history. It has been officially released, but just barely. It was broadcast live not just by the BBC in Britain, but in many other countries, so it was widely bootlegged from the beginning. In 2004, it was released as part of the digital box set "The Complete U2." But you could only get it if you got the entire, very large box set. As the Wikipedia entry makes clear, you can't buy the tracks individually on iTunes or anywhere else:

Live from the Point Depot - Wikipedia

As I mentioned above, B.B. King was a special guest. He played and sang on the "Rattle and Hum" track "When Loves Come to Town," so naturally he joined U2 in playing that song in this concert. But he also joined in "Love Rescue Me," including singing some lead vocals. And I don't think he was on stage, but his band helped perform the song "Angel of Harlem," adding a horn section that was key to the song.

Note that this concert is billed as taking place on December 31, 1989. I'm sure that's what appeared on the tickets, so that's the date I'm using here. But if you listen to the recording, it starts with a New Year's countdown and a performance of "Auld Lang Syne." So pretty much everything after the first minute is really from very early on January 1, 1990. 

Note that some of the songs in the song list are more like snippets. For instance, "The Times They Are A-Changin'" is really just one verse sung acappella. "Dirty Old Town" was also brief. There are some other snippets not mentioned in the song titles, such as a bit of "Exodus" by Bob Dylan during the performance of " I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking for," and a bit of "Suspicious Minds" in "Angel of Harlem." And unfortunately, "All I Want Is You" was cut way down, to less than a minute.

This concert marked the end of an era for U2, since it was the last show of a long tour. Lead singer Bono famously mentioned during his banter that the band was going to go away for a while and rethink their sound. That's exactly what they did. They would reemerge two years later with the classic album "Achtung Baby."

Unfortunately, it would be much, much longer before they performed for the BBC again. But they would eventually, so this album series will continue.

This album is an hour and 43 minutes long.

01 talk (U2)
02 Auld Lang Syne (U2)
03 Where the Streets Have No Name (U2)
04 I Will Follow (U2)
05 talk (U2)
06 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking for (U2)
07 MLK (U2)
08 One Tree Hill (U2)
09 Gloria (U2)
10 God Part II (U2)
11 Desire (U2)
12 All Along the Watchtower (U2)
13 All I Want Is You (U2)
14 Bad (U2)
15 Van Diemen's Land (U2)
16 Bullet the Blue Sky (U2)
17 Running to Stand Still - Dirty Old Town (U2)
18 The Times They Are A-Changin' (U2)
19 New Year's Day (U2)
20 Pride [In the Name of Love] (U2)
21 Trash, Trampoline and the Party Girl (U2)
22 talk (U2)
23 Angel of Harlem (U2)
24 When Love Comes to Town (U2 & B.B. King)
25 talk (U2 & B.B. King)
26 Love Rescue Me (U2 & B.B. King)
27 '40' (U2)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/n1hDjHkv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/o1OzR78U6g9LyaD/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/eFsQX

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

U2 - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: Old Grey Whistle Test, Balmoral TV Studios, Belfast, Britain, 3-8-1987

I continue with more of U2 performing for the BBC. This is a short but interesting 1987 concert.

1987 was the year U2 went from being "mere" stars to being superstars, thanks to their blockbuster album "The Joshua Tree." This concert for the BBC TV Show "The Old Grey Whistle Test" took place the day before that album was released. In fact, after the show, at midnight, they went to a local record store and signed autographs for people waiting in line to buy the album as soon as it turned midnight. So this was the first public unveiling of two new songs, "Exit" and "In God's Country." ("Trip through Your Wires" had been performed just once prior to this.) Furthermore, they did two cover songs, "People Get Ready" and "Southern Man." They had done "Southern Man" a bunch of times in 1982, but this was the first time they ever played "People Get Ready" in public. Furthermore, this apparently was the only time they ever played "Pride (In the Name of Love)" in the same key as the album version.

The two last songs are unusual too, but I mention them separately because they're actually from a different show. The main show is rather short, only 22 minutes long. So I wanted to add a bit more. The last two songs (tracks 9 to 11) are from a brief appearance the band made on an Irish TV show just a week later. They did two covers. It was the first time they did "Springhill Mining Disaster," and it was the only time they ever did "Happy Xmas (Was Is Over)."

Everything here is unreleased, as far as I know. But the main show had some serious sound quality issues. There was a constant noise through the whole thing that was annoying. But I used some sound editing tricks to get rid of it. So I would imagine this sounds better than any other bootleg versions out there up to this point.

This album is 28 minutes long.

01 talk (U2)
02 People Get Ready (U2)
03 Southern Man (U2)
04 Trip through Your Wires (U2)
05 Exit (U2)
06 In God's Country (U2)
07 talk (U2)
08 Pride [In the Name of Love] (U2)
09 talk (U2)
10 Springhill Mining Disaster (U2)
11 Happy Xmas [Was Is Over] (U2)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16326160/UTOO1987BBSssonsVlum5OldGryWhstlTstBlmralTVStdosBlfstBrtin__3-8-1987_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from this exact performance. (Note the "Whistle Test" sign in the background.) Unfortunately, it's probably a screenshot from the video and the picture quality isn't that great.

U2 - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, Meadowlands Arena, East Rutherford, NJ, 4-15-1985

I continue to post more of U2 performing for the BBC. This album is another full concert.

In late 1984, U2 released the album "The Unforgettable Fire." They were still on tour to support it when this concert took place in early 1985. The previous album in this series was a concert before the release of the album "War" in 1983. So this concert is quite different, with lots of songs from "War" and "The Unforgettable Fire."

The sound quality is excellent overall, as you'd expect from the BBC. However, there were big problems with three songs. A big chunk was missing from the first song, last song, and the song "Trash, Trampoline and the Party Girl." But since there are lots of U2 bootlegs out there, I was able to find versions from other concerts and fill in the missing chunks. That's why "[Edit]" is in the titles for those three. 

It was particularly tricky to find the missing part for the last song, "'40,'" because the last two minutes or so were missing, when lead singer Bono was doing some ad-libbing, singing bits of different songs. In particular, the songs to raise money for the famine in Ethiopia had recently been released, "Do You Know It's Christmas" and "We Are the World," and he sang parts of the choruses from each. But I found a matching version that fit so perfectly that it may have come from the exact same concert, I'm not sure (the sourcing only said the year). Anyway, the transition between versions is so smooth that I'll bet you won't notice.

This album is an hour and 35 minutes long.

01 11 O'Clock Tick Tock [Edit] (U2)
02 I Will Follow (U2)
03 Seconds (U2)
04 MLK (U2)
05 The Unforgettable Fire (U2)
06 talk (U2)
07 Wire (U2)
08 talk (U2)
09 Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2)
10 Cry - The Electric Co. - Amazing Grace - The Electric Co. (U2)
11 A Sort of Homecoming (U2)
12 talk (U2)
13 Bad (U2)
14 October - New Year's Day (U2)
15 talk (U2)
16 Pride [In the Name of Love] (U2)
17 Trash, Trampoline and the Party Girl [Edit] (U2)
18 Gloria (U2)
19 '40' [Edit] (U2) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/FyCWePsk

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/wCzQxhcXHHxX8Uk/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/aC2vf

The photo I used for the cover is the only decent photo I could find that definitely comes from this concert and not some other one. I would have preferred one with the whole band, but all I could find is this one with lead singer Bono.

U2 - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: In Concert, Hammersmith Palais, London, Britain, 12-6-1982

Here's U2 performing for the BBC again. This time, it's another concert. I believe it's entirely unreleased.

This concert took place after the release of the band's second album, "October," but two months before the release of their third album, "War." However, the band had just finished recording "War" in the studio. They started playing two classic songs from that album at the start of December 1982: "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "New Year's Day." So this concert was one of the first few times those songs were played in public. And since this was broadcast on the BBC, it must have been the first time those songs were heard by a large audience.

Six months after this, the band played the concert that resulted in the live album "Under a Blood Red Sky." However, that album relied much more on songs from "War," So this is still somewhat different from that one. It's also nice that this has a version of "A Celebration," an A-side release that the band only played live occasionally in 1982 and 1983.

The sound quality is excellent. The only problem was small gaps of silence between all the songs, but i got rid of those.

This album is an hour and two minutes long.

01 Surrender (U2)
02 I Threw a Brick through a Window (U2)
03 A Day without Me (U2)
04 talk (U2)
05 An Cat Dubh (U2)
06 Into the Heart (U2)
07 Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2)
08 The Cry - The Electric Co. (U2)
09 I Fall Down (U2)
10 October (U2)
11 talk (U2)
12 New Year's Day (U2)
13 Gloria (U2)
14 I Will Follow (U2)
15 talk (U2)
16 Fire (U2)
17 A Celebration (U2)
18 11 O'Clock Tick Tock - The Ocean (U2)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16246591/UTOO1982BBSessonsVlum3InCncrtHmmrsmthPlaisLndnBrtin__12-6-1982_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from 1982, but I don't know any details.

U2 - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Salford University, Salford, Britain, 10-3-1981

Here's a U2 BBC concert. This one is from way back in 1981, before U2 hit it big. It was recorded two weeks before the release of the band's second album, "October." 

Unfortunately, this is only a portion of the full concert. (According to setlist.fm, at least, which lists 17 songs.) It looks like the band was only given a half an hour time slot on the radio, so when that time ran out, the DJ faded out the song that was playing and started talking over it. That song happened to be "Rejoice." So I found another live version from 1981 and I used that to fill in the missing ending.

The song "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" also had issues. There were some spots where the volume suddenly dropped way down. I tried to fix that by bringing the volume up to the rest, but those bits still some somewhat muffled compared to the rest. Additionally, this song also got cut off near the end. So I did the exact same thing as "Rejoice" and filled in the end from a different 1981 concert. That's why those two songs have "[Edit]" in their titles.

This recording remains completely unreleased, as far as I know. However, the sound quality is about the same as that of a soundboard bootleg.

According to the full set list, the band played a bunch of songs from their second album, "October." But only two happened to make it here, "With a Shout" and "Rejoice."

This album is 32 minutes long. (It's a bit over half an hour due to the missing bits I filled in.)

01 talk (U2)
02 11 O'Clock Tick Tock [Edit] (U2)
03 I Will Follow (U2)
04 An Cat Dubh - Into the Heart (U2)
05 With a Shout (U2)
06 Twilight (U2)
07 Out of Control (U2)
08 Rejoice [Edit] (U2)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16224162/UTOO1981_BBSessonsVlum2InCncrtSlfrdUnvrsitySlfrdBrtin__10-3-1981_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from Onkel Pos Carnegie Hall, Hamburg, Germany, in February 1981. (That explains the words on the back wall in the photo.) This only has a good view of two band members, lead singer Bono and bassist Adam Clayton.

U2 - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1980-1983

I've been focusing on posting BBC material at this blog for a few years now, what I think of as my big BBC project. But there's just so much to post. There are major artists I haven't even touched yet. U2 is one. I have a whole bunch of U2 BBC albums to post. This first one consists of BBC studio sessions.

I believe all the songs here are unreleased, except for three: "With a Shout," "I Threw a Brick through a Window," and "Scarlet." Those appeared on a deluxe edition of the band's 1981 album "October."

The first four songs come from a 1980 session. The next four (including the three released ones) come from a 1981. The next three after that are from a 1982 BBC TV show. That includes a version of "A Celebration," a good song that tends to get overlooked because it only appeared as the A-side of a single, and was rarely played in concert. Finally, the remaining three songs come from a 1983 session. However, this last session apparently was never actually broadcast. But since U2 is such a popular band, the recording somehow got bootlegged anyway.

The three songs from the 1982 TV show (tracks 9, 10, and 11) all have "[Edit]" in their names, because I had to do some editing for them. For one thing, an emcee talked over the starts and ends of some of the songs. I used the UVR5 program to get rid of that talking. I also had to fix some bits that got distorted by the talking.

This album is 53 minutes long.

01 I Will Follow (U2)
02 The Electric Co. (U2)
03 An Cat Dubh (U2)
04 Into the Heart (U2)
05 Boy-Girl (U2)
06 With a Shout (U2)
07 I Threw a Brick through a Window (U2)
08 Scarlet (U2)
09 Gloria [Edit] (U2)
10 A Celebration [Edit] (U2)
11 Rejoice [Edit] (U2)
12 Like a Song (U2)
13 Surrender (U2)
14 Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16227842/UTOO1980-1983_BBSssnsVlum1_atse.zip.html

All I know about the cover photo of the band is taken is that it was taken in March 1981.

Live Aid - Wembley Stadium, London, Britain, 7-13-1985, Part 3: Howard Jones, Bryan Ferry, Paul Young with Alison Moyet, and U2

This is the third out of five parts of the London portion of Live Aid. I've previously posted all of the Philadelphia portion.

The first act in this set is Howard Jones. Unfortunately for him, he was only allowed one song. The song he chose, "Hide and Seek," was a hit in Britain, but he had five bigger hits at the time that he didn't get to perform.

Bryan Ferry was next. He'd alternated between being lead singer for the band Roxy Music and doing his own projects since the early 1970s. But Roxy Music broke up in 1983. Ferry's solo album "Boys and Girls" hit Number One in the British charts the month before this concert. Note that the lead guitarist in his band for his entire set was David Gilmour, formerly of Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd also broke up in 1983, and the band members were too upset with each other to reunite for Live Aid. So presumably this was how Gilmour found a way to take part. Pink Floyd lead singer Roger Waters attended the concert back stage, but wasn't considered popular enough as a solo act to get a performance slot.

Singer Paul Young was next. Like some other acts, such as Howard Jones and Nik Kershaw, his popularity seemed to peak right around the time of Live Aid. He'd had two massive albums in Britain in 1983 and 1985, but his popularity would go into decline after that. Apparently, Alison Moyet wasn't famous enough to get her own time slot, but she did perform a duet with Young.

The final act in this part of the concert was U2. Their set was widely considered one of the highlights of Live Aid, along with Queen's set. Proof of this could be seen in the fact that all of their albums available at the time went back into the charts following the concert. They only played two songs. That's because they were given a fifteen minute time slot, and their second song, "Bad," went on for 13 minutes. They were supposed to finish with the song "Pride (In the Name of Love)," but they got the hook before they could play it. 

However, they made the most of their time, especially with the song "Bad." Although it was just one song, it contained snippets of the classic songs "Satellite of Love," "Ruby Tuesday," "Sympathy for the Devil," and "Walk on the Wild Side." In addition, during the song, apparently lead singer Bono saw a girl in the crowd who was getting crushed by the people around her. He tried to motion for the security staff to help her, but nobody did. So he left the stage, grabbed the girl, and pulled her to the stage. He then danced with her a little while. She later credited him with saving her life. That may be an exaggeration, but it was a dramatic gesture just the same, and made a big impression on the audience.

This album is an hour and two minutes long.

051 talk (Andy Peebles)
052 talk (Howard Jones)
053 Hide and Seek (Howard Jones)
054 talk (Andy Peebles)
055 Sensation (Bryan Ferry)
056 Boys and Girls (Bryan Ferry)
057 Slave to Love (Bryan Ferry)
058 Jealous Guy (Bryan Ferry)
059 talk (Andy Peebles)
060 talk (Paul Young)
061 Do They Know It's Christmas (Paul Young)
062 Come Back and Stay (Paul Young)
063 talk (Paul Young)
064 That's the Way Love Is (Paul Young & Alison Moyet)
065 talk (Paul Young)
066 Everytime You Go Away (Paul Young)
067 talk (Tommy Vance)
068 Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2)
069 Bad (U2)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15748935/LveAidJFKStdiumLondnPA__7-13-1985_Part3.zip.html

As usual with this series, I divided the cover into four sections so I could feature four of the musical acts. That's Howard Jones on the top left, Bryan Ferry on the top right, Alison Moyet and Paul Young on the bottom left, and Bono of U2 on the bottom right.

A Conspiracy of Hope, Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ, 6-15-1986, Part 5 - Joni Mitchell, U2, & the Police

Finally, this is the last of five parts of the last concert from the 1986 "A Conspiracy of Hope" tour. The biggest name artists were saved for last.

Originally, Pete Townshend of the Who had been announced as one of the final acts for this concert. He hadn't played any of the other dates on the short tour. However, I saw the first one, in San Francisco, and I recall that a video of him performing "Won't Get Fooled Again" in solo acoustic mode was shown to the audience, to great applause. Unfortunately, he had to cancel at the last minute because his father, Cliff Townshend, became gravely ill (and in fact died later that month).

Townshend was replaced by Joni Mitchell. Although she'd had much critical and commercial success in the 1960s and 70s, the 1980s hadn't been good for her. Her talent was still undeniable, but her attempts to modernize her sound with synths and drum machines didn't work at all, and her sales plummeted. For this concert, she only played three songs, and she played them in solo acoustic style. Unfortunately, she avoided playing her classics and instead chose three musically complicated songs that very few people in the audience was familiar with. This did not go over well at all. She was booed and even pelted with objects. Rolling Stone Magazine at the time even called it the worst concert performance of the year.

However, in retrospect, there's nothing at all bad about her performance. In fact, these versions of her recent songs "The Three Great Stimulants" (from her 1985 album "Dog Eat Dog") and "Number One" (then unreleased, from her 1988 album "Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm") are drastically different from the album versions, and sound way better in solo acoustic format, in my opinion. It's just unfortunate that she didn't pander to the crowd's desire for better known songs. Plus, she only played three songs that lasted 15 minutes.

U2 hadn't done much musically since their 1984 album "The Unforgettable Fire." Their blockbuster album "The Joshua Tree" wouldn't be released until a year after this concert. However, their reputation had continued to steadily rise anyway. For instance, their performance in the 1985 Live Aid concert was widely considered one of the highlights. For this concert, they played a surprising number of covers, doing "Maggie's Farm" by Bob Dylan, "Cold Turkey" by John Lennon, "Help!" by the Beatles, and then finishing with "Sun City," helped by Little Steven (who wrote it), Lou Reed, Ruben Blades and Nona Hendrix. Their set was 28 minutes long.

But without a doubt, the most anticipated act of the whole concert was the Police. The Police were one of the biggest musical acts of the early 1980s, but they broke up in 1983, at the peak of their success. They attempted a reunion in 1986, but it didn't go far. Sting played the first three concerts on this tour as a solo act. Then, for the last three, including this one, he reunited with the Police instead. This particular concert would be the last time the Police performed together until 2003, when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (They would have a reunion tour a few years after that.) One month after these concerts, they tried to record another album in the studio, but they couldn't get along. All they managed was a revised version of their hit "Don't Stand So Close to Me." Their set was 31 minutes long.

The Police were joined by Bono, lead singer of U2, for their last song, "Invisible Sun." When the song ended, they handed over their instruments to U2 for the finale, a cover of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released," with everyone singing on stage. Bono put a lot of symbolic importance into the handing over of instruments, since the Police were considered the biggest band in the world at the time, and U2 would be considered the biggest band after their "Joshua Tree" album was released. Bono later said, "It was a very big moment, like passing a torch."

This album is an hour and 22 minutes long.

088 The Three Great Stimulants (Joni Mitchell)
089 Number One (Joni Mitchell)
090 Hejira (Joni Mitchell)
091 MLK - Pride [In the Name of Love] (U2)
092 Bad (U2)
093 Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2)
094 Maggie's Farm - Cold Turkey (U2)
095 Help (U2)
096 Sun City (U2 with Little Steven, Lou Reed, Ruben Blades & Nona Hendrix)
097 Message in a Bottle (Police)
098 King of Pain (Police)
099 Driven to Tears (Police)
100 Every Breath You Take (Police)
101 Roxanne (Police)
102 Invisible Sun (Police with Bono)
103 I Shall Be Released (Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/iUvuykJF

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/VzAgTjpT2wCGk1R/file 

The cover photo, of Bono and Sting singing "Invisible Sun" together, comes from this exact concert.

U2 - Levitate - Non-Album Tracks (1998-2000)

In my opinion, U2 was an excellent band for all of the 1980s and 1990s, but they've been on a slow decline ever since. That is the common trend for musical acts. For instance, I saw a chart once that showed the average time between album releases. Artists tend to release an album a year at first, then an album once every two years, then once every three years, and so on. Often it gets to a point like the Rolling Stones these days (as I write this in 2023) where a new album comes once every five to ten years. So the creative fires don't burn as brightly as they used to.

Due to all that, it's difficult for me to keep going with stray tracks albums for U2, since more of those extra songs aren't that good. However, U2 was still playing at a high level at the time of this album. Their 2000 album "All That You Can't Leave Behind" was seen as a return to form.

All but two of the songs here were officially released. Of those two, there is an officially released version of "North and South of the River," which first came out as a B-side in 1997. However, I prefer the live version from the one time it was played in concert, so I used that. 

"Jump Start My Heart" is a studio outtake. It's a nice song, so I don't know why it hasn't been released in any form. However, it is rather short, at just under two minutes long. So I edited it to repeat some bits, making it nearly three minutes long. That's why I have "[Edit]" in the title.

Many of the songs here are related to the soundtrack to the 2000 movie called "The Million Dollar Hotel." U2 singer Bono was the executive producer for that soundtrack. It included some U2 songs, as well as some songs "Bone and the Million Dollar Hotel Band," which was U2 plus a bunch of other musicians, including Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. I didn't include everything by this group, because there were some unremarkable instrumentals typical of movie soundtracks.

"Sweetest Thing" is a remake of a U2 song from the 1980s. The remake isn't that different, but I included it for completeness's sake, especially since the remake was a hit. "Slide Away" is from the only solo album by Michael Hutchence, the lead singer of the band INXS. Three more songs are from B-sides, and one is from the collection "Unreleased and Rare."

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 Sweetest Thing [1998 Version] (U2)
02 North and South of the River (U2)
03 Slide Away (Michael Hutchence & Bono)
04 Always (U2)
05 Summer Rain (U2)
06 Big Girls Are Best (U2)
07 Levitate (U2)
08 Falling at Your Feet (Bono & Daniel Lanois)
09 Jump Start My Heart [Edit] (Bono & the Million Dollar Hotel Band)
10 Stateless (U2)
11 Never Let Me Go (Bono & the Million Dollar Hotel Band)
12 The Ground Beneath Her Feet (U2)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701178/UTWO1998-2000_Levitte_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from 2000, but I don't know any other details. Bono, at the bottom, was even lower. But I used Photoshop to raise him up relative to the others.

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 second 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.