World Party - Park West, Chicago, IL, 8-22-2006

For all intents and purposes, the British band World Party was Karl Wallinger. Not only did he write all the band's songs and sing lead on all of them, he often produced the albums and played most of the other instruments on some of them. Sadly, he died earlier this month, on March 11, 2024, at the age of 66, due to a stroke. 

I didn't hear the news at first, but then I noticed a surge in World Party bootlegs at bootleg sharing sites, and I figured it out. A couple of years ago, I had a hard time finding even a single World Party bootleg. But in the wake of his death, a bunch were posted. I wanted to post something new to mark Wallinger's passing, so I looked at all the concerts I hadn't posted yet, and decided this was the best one. It came after most of his albums were released, so it serves as a de facto best of. He was backed by an excellent band, and gave a solid importance. But probably the most important factor of all is sound quality, and this is a fantastic soundboard. If you were to get just one live World Party recording, this would probably be the best one to choose.

Because this is a excellent soundboard boot, I didn't have to do much tinkering at all. But I did boost the volume of the vocals for the banter between songs, and sometimes I boosted the cheering after the songs.

This album is an hour and 28 minutes long.

01 talk (World Party)
02 Put the Message in the Box (World Party)
03 talk (World Party)
04 Is It like Today (World Party)
05 What Does It Mean Now (World Party)
06 talk (World Party)
07 When the Rainbow Comes (World Party)
08 talk (World Party)
09 Best Place I've Ever Been (World Party)
10 I Thought You Were a Spy (World Party)
11 talk (World Party)
12 She's the One (World Party)
13 Love Street (World Party)
14 talk (World Party)
15 Who Are You (World Party)
16 Here Comes the Future (World Party)
17 talk (World Party)
18 Vanity Fair (World Party)
19 Thank You World (World Party)
20 talk (World Party)
21 Sweet Soul Dream (World Party)
22 Is It Too Late (World Party)
23 talk (World Party)
24 Way Down Now (World Party)
25 It Is Time (World Party)
26 talk (World Party)
27 Ship of Fools (World Party)
28 talk (World Party)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16435667/WORLDPRTY2006PrkWstChcgoIL__8-22-2006_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is of Wallinger at the Bonnaroo Festival in Memphis, Tennessee, in June 2006.

World Party - World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, PA, 5-30-2014

I had been keeping an eye out for good live recordings from the British band World Party. Until recently, they'd been very few and far between. But a few months ago (as I write this in November 2022) my musical associate Lil Panda posted this soundboard recording. So now I want to share it here too. It's a drum-free acoustic performance, although lead singer and songwriter Kurt Wallinger is backed by a couple other musicians on guitar and keyboards.

World Party has had a strange history. They proceeded on the normal band path from 1986 to 2000, regularly putting out albums and having some hit singles. But in 2001, Wallinger had a brain aneurysm which resulted in serious medical trouble. He had to suspend all musical activity for the next five years, derailing his musical career. Since then, World Party hasn't released any new studio albums. However, in 2012, the five disc box set "Arkeology" was released, containing lots of new and old songs. The band toured some until 2015, but everything seems to have stopped since then.

A 2013 concert was recorded and released as the live album "World Party - Live." However, it must be exceedingly rare, because I've never come across it. However, I have seen the track list, and it's almost exactly the same as this show.

The sound quality is excellent. But I did make a couple of tweaks to the bootleg. For one, the vocals were often quiet during the banter between songs, so I frequently boosted those. The other is that I trimmed some dead air between songs, such as the tuning of guitars. 

There's been some controversy about when this concert took place. When Lil Panda posted this on the Internet a few months ago, he listed three different dates in different parts of his post. It is known World Party played at this location on May 30, 2014, so I'm going with that date unless information that contradicts that emerges.

This album is an hour and 34 minutes long.

01 talk (World Party)
02 Waiting Such a Long Time (World Party)
03 Message in a box (World Party)
04 talk (World Party)
05 Is It Like Today (World Party)
06 talk (World Party)
07 Everybody's Falling in Love (World Party)
08 talk (World Party)
09 What Does It Mean Now (World Party)
10 When the Rainbow Comes (World Party)
11 talk (World Party)
12 She's the One (World Party)
13 Love Street (World Party)
14 What is Love About (World Party)
15 God on My Side (World Party)
16 talk (World Party)
17 Call Me Up (World Party)
18 talk (World Party)
19 Sweet Soul Dream (World Party)
20 talk (World Party)
21 Vanity Fair (World Party)
22 talk (World Party)
23 Who R You (World Party)
24 talk (World Party)
25 Ship of Fools (World Party)
26 talk (World Party)
27 Is It Too Late (World Party)
28 talk (World Party)
29 Mystery Girl (World Party)
30 Way Down Now (World Party)
31 talk (World Party)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/8TXiWngE

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/cUnwVncPhjGtxb1/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/kBKP9

I couldn't find any good photos of World Party and/or Wallinger from around 2014. The closest I could get was the photo used on the cover here, which is from a concert at SXSW in Austin, Texas, in 2006.

World Party - Beatles Covers (1986-2006)

Karl Wallinger, the main force behind the band World Party, is a huge Beatles fan. He's done a lot of Beatles covers over the years, so many that there's enough to make an album of them. So that's exactly what I've done here. A couple of the songs are from the solo careers of John Lennon and Paul McCartney ("No. 9 Dream" and "Man We Was Lonely" respectively), and there's one Lennon-McCartney song the Beatles never recorded ("A World without Love"). But I figure that's close enough for horseshoes.

One must say that these Beatles covers are often very close to the Beatles versions. Occasionally, takes a very different approach, such as with "The Long and Winding Road," which has a different rhythmic structure. But that's rare. But that's okay. Wallinger obviously had a lot of fun recreating the records he loves.

Most of these songs are officially released, but rare. Three are B-sides. Three more are from the archival box set "Arkeology." A few are from various artists compilations. Two are actual album tracks. But three are unreleased. For two of those, the last two songs on the album, I don't even know what year they're from. All I know is that they were posted on a now defunct official World Party website. I estimated they were released around 2006, but I'm not sure. If anyone knows, please let me know.

I wouldn't have made this if my musical associate Lil' Panda didn't come up with the idea and drop nearly all of the songs in my lap. So thanks for that.

The album is 40 minutes long.

01 Nowhere Man (World Party)
02 Dear Prudence (World Party)
03 Happiness Is a Warm Gun (World Party)
04 Cry Baby Cry (World Party)
05 A World without Love (World Party)
06 I'm So Tired (World Party)
07 Fixing a Hole (World Party)
08 Martha My Dear (World Party)
09 No. 9 Dream (World Party)
10 Penny Lane (World Party)
11 Man We Was Lonely (World Party)
12 The Long and Winding Road (World Party)
13 All You Need Is Love (World Party) 

https://www.upload.ee/files/16376844/WORLDPRTY1986-2006BetlsCovrs_atse.zip.html

I have no idea where or when the cover art photo was taken. But I liked it, and I didn't see many other good ones to choose from. Judging from his appearance, I'm guessing it's from the early 2000s.