The Four Tops - BBC In Concert, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 2-24-1989

I've only come across one concert the Four Tops did for the BBC. Perhaps one or more will come along, and I'll be forced to rename this one. But for now, here it is.

I would prefer if this concert took place earlier in their career. But 1989 isn't a bad time, because they had hits right up until then. The band had some lean years in the late 1970s and much of the 1980s, many of them with no hits, or only minor hits. But they did occasionally have a bit hit, such as "When She Was My Girl" in 1981, which just missed the Top Ten in the U.S. and made it to Number Three in Britain. They also had a big hit with "Loco in Acapulco," which was co-written by Phil Collins and Lamont Dozier, of the great Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team for Motown Records. In 1988, that song missed the Top 100 entirely in the U.S., but it made the Top Ten in Britain. Another song from that same year, "Indestructible," did make the Top Forty in the U.S., as well as in Britain.

The year of 1989 is also a good time for a concert recording, because it was the effective end of the band as a creative entity. They only released one more album after this, in 1995, and it consisted of covers of Christmas songs. It's also great that the band still consisted of all four original members at this point. That would continue until one of the members died in 1997.

The music is unreleased. The sound quality is pretty good, though not great. One problem was that the vocals were low in the mix. So I fixed that by running all the songs through the UVR5 program, and adjusting the balance. 

This album is 31 minutes long.

01 Reach Out, I'll Be There [Instrumental Version] (Four Tops)
02 Loco in Acapulco (Four Tops)
03 7 Rooms of Gloom (Four Tops)
04 When She Was My Girl (Four Tops)
05 Bernadette (Four Tops)
06 Mean Green Mother from Outer Space - Bernadette [Reprise] (Four Tops)
07 Walk Away Renee (Four Tops)
08 Reach Out, I'll Be There - Standing in the Shadows of Love - I Can't Help Myself (Four Tops)
09 Indestructible (Four Tops) 

NOTE: When posting this link, I got a Firefox warning that bestfile isn't secure. So it wouldn't let me download this link. I think it's having an issue with any bestfile link. Please let me know if this is happening to you as well. I hope this is just a temporary glitch. This is another time I'm glad I'm posting two links.

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ugijmDC9

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/user/files/PI6NSVQgN7s1BFn/edit

The cover photo is from a TV show appearance in Hof, Germany on March 4, 1989.

Alan Price with Georgie Fame - BBC Sessions, Volume 8: Alan Price, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, Britain, 12-22-1980

Here's another album of Alan Price performing for the BBC. I found four episodes of a short T.V. series he did in 1980, simply called "Alan Price." This is the fourth and last of those. 

This one has a pretty prominent guest role for Georgie Fame, who was in a musical duo with Price in the early 1970s. The three songs they did together here was enough for me to credit this to "Alan Price with Georgie Fame." Linda Taylor also was a part of two duets. She featured in one of the earlier episodes, the one I turned into "Volume 6."

Each of the four episodes from this show had a musical theme. I'll bet you couldn't figure out this one, just from the song titles. Basically, the theme was "great songwriters." More specifically, Price said in his banter, "We're going to devote this program to some of the most significant composers of the last 15 to 20 years." 

That pretty much checks out. Here's the songwriters for each song:

01 Subterranean Homesick Blues - Bob Dylan
03 Get Away - Georgie Fame
05 Saturday Night Fish Fry - Louis Jordan & Ellis Walsh
07 Be My Baby - Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich & Phil Spector
09 Fire and Rain - James Taylor
10 American Pie - Don McLean
12 Reach Out, I'll Be There - Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier & Eddie Holland
14 You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' - Phil Spector, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil

Georgie Fame and Louis Jordan are a lot better known for covering songs by others, but that's a minor quibble, I suppose. Most of the others have been featured in my "Covered" series, or will be eventually (knock on wood).

The last song, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," isn't actually from the same show as the rest. It's from another BBC T.V. show, "Fundamental Frolics," aired in 1981. But the song choice fits the great songwriters theme perfectly. Even the guest vocalist on that one, Linda Taylor, appeared on this same episode.

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

This album is 32 minutes long. 

01 Subterranean Homesick Blues (Alan Price)
02 talk (Alan Price)
03 Get Away (Alan Price & Georgie Fame)
04 talk (Alan Price)
05 Saturday Night Fish Fry (Alan Price & Georgie Fame)
06 talk (Alan Price)
07 Be My Baby (Alan Price & Linda Taylor)
08 talk (Alan Price)
09 Fire and Rain (Alan Price & Georgie Fame)
10 American Pie (Alan Price)
11 talk (Alan Price)
12 Reach Out, I'll Be There (Alan Price)
13 talk (Alan Price)
14 You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' (Alan Price & Linda Taylor)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/HEd73RjJ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/4TdLLOA0KiphRqe/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert. Since Georgie Fame had a prominent role, I wanted to include him as well. He's the one in the light green jacket.

Alan Price - BBC Sessions, Volume 7: Alan Price, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, Britain, 12-15-1980

This is the third out of four episodes of a short BBC TV series just called "Alan Price," starring Alan Price.

As I mentioned in the write-ups for the first two episodes of this show, each episode had a special musical theme. The theme for this one was 1950s rock and roll. So none of the songs were written by Price. Also, each episode had special guests helping to sing lead vocals on some songs. This one has two, Bernie Stewart and Linda Taylor.

For the other albums of these episodes, I was able to find a song or two to add in as bonus tracks of sorts, since the episodes were only half an hour long. But I didn't find anything fitting for this one. So it's the shortest of the four. 

This album is 28 minutes long. 

01 Reelin' and Rockin' (Alan Price)
02 talk (Alan Price)
03 Johnny B. Goode (Alan Price)
04 talk (Alan Price)
05 Blueberry Hill (Alan Price & Bernie Stewart)
06 talk (Alan Price)
07 Great Balls of Fire (Alan Price)
08 talk (Alan Price)
09 Devoted to You - All I Have to Do Is Dream (Alan Price & Linda Taylor)
10 talk (Alan Price)
11 Let the Good Times Roll (Alan Price, Linda Taylor & Bernie Stewart)
12 talk (Alan Price)
13 One Night (Alan Price)
14 Not Fade Away (Alan Price)
15 talk (Alan Price)
16 Bony Maronie (Alan Price)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/muMh4CD5

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/LciSLOw7PVRGTNx/file 

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

Alan Price - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: Alan Price, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, Britain, 12-8-1980

As I mentioned in the write-up to the previous album in this series, I found a short series of four televised concerts Alan Price did for the BBC in 1980. Here's the second out of those four. 

Each of the concerts had an overall theme to the song selections. For this one, the theme was "social commentary." Most of the songs fit that theme, but a few are a stretch. How does "Bridge Over Trouble Water" belong, especially? In any case, this meant that most of the songs were covers. Only one from the show, "Jarrow Song," was an original.

However, there's a bonus song of sorts here, "The Trimdon Grange Explosion," that is also an original. But it's from a different BBC T.V. show, "Fundamental Frolics," aired in 1981. I figured that fits well here, since it also could be considered a social commentary song.

The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 32 minutes long. 

01 Power to the People (Alan Price)
02 talk (Alan Price)
03 Blowin' in the Wind (Alan Price)
04 talk (Alan Price)
05 Political Science (Alan Price)
06 talk (Alan Price)
07 Big Yellow Taxi (Alan Price & Linda Taylor)
08 talk (Alan Price)
09 Bridge Over Troubled Water (Alan Price)
10 talk (Alan Price)
11 Sunny Afternoon (Alan Price)
12 Imagine (Alan Price)
13 talk (Alan Price)
14 Jarrow Song (Alan Price)
15 The Trimdon Grange Explosion (Alan Price)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/3tdqTEUs 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/zxpvn7o4FOizYmr/file

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

Alan Price - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: Alan Price, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, Britain, 12-1-1980

Once upon a time, back in 2022, I started posting BBC albums for Alan Price. I had plans to post two such albums for him, which seemed about right for his level of popularity. Then I found two more, and posted those. And I found two more BBC albums with him and Georgie Fame as a duo, and posted them as well. I thought that was a lot, more than expected. But now, I've found FOUR more BBC volumes for him! Here's the first of those four.

The reason I found four more albums from him all at once is that it turns out he was the star of a four part T.V. series for the BBC in 1980, and good copies have survived until today. Each episode consisted of a half an hour-long concert and nothing else. Furthermore, each of the episodes had specific musical themes. So Price played songs that fit those themes instead of his own songs. I believe that, between the four episodes, he only sang one of his songs. I don't know when the episodes were filmed exactly (I'm using the broadcast dates, since that's all I know), but they were broadcast on consecutive weeks.

This first episode had the theme of "Black music." That's pretty damn broad and vague, but hey, I didn't come up with the themes. In any case, it gave Price an excuse to sing some of his favorite songs from various genres, so that's what he did here. And one feature of these episodes is that each one featured at least one other guest singer. Madeline Bell was the choice this time, singing prominently on two of the songs.

The last song, "The House of the Rising Sun," isn't actually from this concert. But I found a version of Price singing the song on another BBC T.V. show ("Jeremy Taylor"), earlier in 1980. I stuck it on this album, instead of some of the other episodes, because I have other bonus tracks for some of them, and it fits the theme... maybe. I say "maybe" because nobody knows who actually wrote "House of the Rising Sun" or where it came from. The earliest versions go back to the 1920s, but apparently those are based on still earlier versions from the 1800s. So we don't know if it was originally written by a Black person or not. But it fits into the general Black blues tradition, in any case. 

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

This album is 33 minutes long. 

01 Introduction [Instrumental] (Alan Price)
02 Sir Duke (Alan Price)
03 talk (Alan Price)
04 A Stranger's Lament (Alan Price)
05 talk (Alan Price)
06 Beat Out a Rhythm on a Drum (Alan Price & Madeline Bell)
07 talk (Alan Price)
08 Cherry Red (Alan Price)
09 talk (Alan Price)
10 Go Where I Send Thee (Alan Price & Madeline Bell)
11 talk (Alan Price)
12 What'd I Say (Alan Price)
13 Keep a-Knockin' (Alan Price)
14 The House of the Rising Sun (Alan Price)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/UfKvgz3Y

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/MzMWzLg9hJuATOT/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from this exact concert.

The Fixx - BBC Rock Hour, City University, London, Britain, 6-26-1983

Thanks to my focus on things like the Ebbets Field radio broadcast and the "Playboy After Dark" TV show, I've been posting a lot of stuff from the early 1970s lately (as I write this in May 2026). In occurred to me I haven't been posting as much from the 1980s and the BBC in particular. So here's something that checks both of those boxes. It's a BBC concert by the Fixx from 1983.

Since I've never posted anything by this band before, here's the intro to their Wikipedia entry, although it doesn't say that much: 

"The Fixx are a rock band from London, England, founded in 1979. The band's hits include 'One Thing Leads to Another,' 'Saved by Zero,' 'Are We Ourselves?,' and 'Secret Separation,' each of which charted in the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, as well as Mainstream Rock chart hits 'Red Skies,' 'Stand or Fall', "Driven Out,' and 'Deeper and Deeper,' which was featured on the soundtrack of the 1984 film Streets of Fire."

Here's the link to the full entry:

The Fixx - Wikipedia

I would add to that that their peak years of commercial success were 1983 and 1984, when they put out an album that reached Platinum status in the U.S. ("Reach the Beach") and another that reached Gold status ("Phantoms"). But they had occasional hits until the end of the 1980s. They are still together as I write this in 2026.

This was part of a radio show in the 1970s and 80s called the "BBC Rock Hour." There was a short introduction by a BBC DJ, but I removed it since it was clearly overdubbed at a later date. 

The music here is unreleased, and the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 50 minutes long. 

01 One Thing Leads to Another (Fixx)
02 Cameras in Paris (Fixx)
03 Stand or Fall (Fixx)
04 Privilege (Fixx)
05 Outside (Fixx)
06 Saved by Zero (Fixx)
07 The Fool (Fixx)
08 Reach the Beach (Fixx)
09 talk (Fixx)
10 Running (Fixx)
11 talk (Fixx)
12 Red Skies (Fixx)
13 I Found You (Fixx) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/nF3vFhWK

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/scEEbtxY4ZICLvO/file

The cover image shows Cy Curnin, lead singer of the Fixx, at Comiskey Park, Chicago, Illinois, on July 23, 1983.

Clint Black, Bill Anderson & Bob DiPiero - Songwriters' Circle, Bush Hall, London, Britain, 3-25-2012

I thought I was done with the "Songwriters' Circle" TV show. There were three episodes I couldn't find, but I'd looked everywhere and came up empty. But the other day, one more of them showed up via SoulseekQT. So here it is. This is a country-themed episode. It stars Clint Black, Bill Anderson, and Bob DiPiero.

I would guess that most people reading this have heard of Clint Black, but haven't heard of Bill Anderson and Bob DiPiero. That's because Black has been a big country star in recent decades, while Anderson and DiPiero have more worked behind the scenes as professional songwriters. 

Here's some information on each of them.

This is the Wikipedia intro for Clint Black: "[He] is an American country music singer, songwriter, musician, actor, and record producer. Signed to RCA Nashville in 1989, Black's debut album 'Killin' Time' produced four straight number one singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. Although his momentum gradually slowed throughout the 1990s, Black consistently charted hit songs into the 2000s. He has had more than thirty singles on the U.S. Billboard country charts, thirteen of which have reached number one, in addition to having released twelve studio albums and several compilation albums."

Here's the link to the whole entry:

Clint Black - Wikipedia

Here's the entry for Bob DiPiero: "[He] is an American country music songwriter. He has written 15 U.S. number one hits and several Top 20 singles for Tim McGraw, The Oak Ridge Boys, Reba McEntire, Vince Gill, Faith Hill, Shenandoah, Neal McCoy, Highway 101, Restless Heart, Ricochet, John Anderson, Montgomery Gentry, Brooks & Dunn, George Strait, Pam Tillis, Martina McBride, Trace Adkins, Travis Tritt, Bryan White, Billy Currington, Etta James, Delbert McClinton, Van Zant, Tanya Tucker, Patty Loveless, and many others."

And here's the rest of the entry:

Bob DiPiero - Wikipedia

Finally, here's the entry for Bill Anderson. The intro for this one is much longer, so I selected some sentences from it: "[He] is an American country music singer, songwriter, and television host. His soft-spoken singing voice earned him the nickname 'Whispering Bill' from music critics and writers.[1] As a songwriter, his compositions have been covered by various music artists since the late 1950s. ... While in college, he wrote the song "City Lights", which became a major hit for Ray Price in 1958. His songwriting led to his first recording contract with Decca Records that year; shortly afterward, Anderson began to have major hits. In 1963, he released his most successful single, "Still". The song became a major country/pop crossover hit and was followed by a series of top-10 hits. ... His songs were being notably recorded by other artists. ... In the 1970s, Anderson continued having major hits as a recording artist, as well. ... He was dropped from his record label in the early 1980s and began a brief career in television, which included hosting the game shows 'The Better Sex' and 'Fandango.' Anderson began writing songs again in the early 1990s for the next generation of country performers. Collaborating with other writers, he wrote material that went on to become hits for Vince Gill, George Strait, Kenny Chesney, and Steve Wariner in the next two decades. ... In his career as both a writer and performer, he has received awards from the Academy of Country Music, Country Music Association, Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame."

He is considerably older than the other two stars of this episode. As I write this in 2026, he is 88 years old. Here's the rest of his Wikipedia entry:

Bill Anderson - Wikipedia 

Now, there are just two episodes that I'm still looking for. Both are from 1999. One stars Joan Baez, Matraca Berg and Gretchen Peters. The other one stars Paul Heaton and Dave Rotheray, Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, and John Martyn.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 Blue Clear Sky (Bob DiPiero)
02 talk (Bob DiPiero)
03 talk (Clint Black)
04 Killin' Time (Clint Black)
05 talk (Clint Black)
06 The Songwriters (Bill Anderson)
07 talk (Bob DiPiero)
08 The Church on Cumberland Road (Bob DiPiero)
09 talk (Clint Black)
10 Spend My Time (Clint Black)
11 talk (Bill Anderson)
12 Happiness (Bill Anderson)
13 talk (Bob DiPiero)
14 They're Playin' Our Song (Bob DiPiero)
15 talk (Clint Black)
16 Better and Worse (Clint Black)
17 talk (Bill Anderson)
18 Give It Away (Bill Anderson)
19 talk (Bill Anderson & Clint Black)
20 talk (Bob DiPiero)
21 Gone (Bob DiPiero)
22 talk (Clint Black)
23 Code of the West (Clint Black)
24 talk (Bill Anderson)
25 The Tips of My Fingers (Bill Anderson)
26 talk (Bob DiPiero)
27 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Bill Anderson, Clint Black & Bob DiPiero)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/g6t9i6G9 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/9dWf0CCmyFmKDXA/file

Here's an extra special bonus. Normally, I'm not interested in sharing videos. I like listening to music much more than watching it. I also don't want "mission creep" for this blog. But I think this is a great show that has been extremely hard to find. So here is a text file that contains links to the videos of all of the full episodes I could find. I found one from the 1999 season and all of the ones from the 2010 to 2012 seasons. So that leaves two 1999 episodes I don't have the videos for, and two more 1999 episodes I don't have anything for, at least not yet. These are just PixelDrain links. The files range in size from 500 MB to 1.2 GB.

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zqFGowKa

The cover photo is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert. From right to left: Bob DiPiero, Clint Black, and Bill Anderson. 

Lulu - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: 1973-1975

Here's the next volume of Lulu performing for the BBC. Only three songs here were on the previous Lulu BBC album I'd made dealing with this time period: tracks, 7, 9, and 10. Everything else is music I recently discovered.

The main reason I discovered a bunch of Lulu music is that I found the entire 1975 season of videos of Lulu's BBC TV show. (For that season, the show was renamed from "It's Lulu" to just "Lulu.") The sound quality was excellent, so I converted those to audio and cut out the mp3s of the songs featuring her. That 1975 material starts with track 11, and continues until the end of the album. It also makes up the bulk of the three additional BBC albums I'll be posting after this one.

That still leaves the rest of the album, tracks 1 through 10. As I mentioned, three of those songs are ones I posted on the old version of "BBC Sessions, Volume 4" (now completely replaced). After finding the 1975 season, I looked around and more still more videos I'd previously missed, mostly from YouTube. It helps that there's an active Lulu YouTube page, and it's posted a bunch of new stuff since I originally made some BBC albums for her. Tracks 1 through 9 come from the 1973 edition of her BBC TV show. (I couldn't find anything from 1974.) Only track 10 ("The Man Who Sold the World") is different, coming from a BBC radio show.

All the music here is unreleased. The sound quality is generally excellent, though it varies somewhat. I removed the applause as best I could from nearly all of these using the UVR5 audio editing program. But I couldn't get rid of all of it on all the songs. 

This album is 49 minutes long. 

01 Touch Me in the Morning (Lulu)
02 Killing Me Softly (Lulu with Sergio Mendes)
03 That's When the Music Takes Me (Lulu)
04 When You Smile (Lulu)
05 She (Lulu & David Clayton-Thomas)
06 For the Good Times (Lulu)
07 Blue Suede Shoes - Hound Dog - Heartbreak Hotel - Love Me Tender - Teddy Bear - Jailhouse Rock (Lulu)
08 Mr. Tambourine Man (Lulu)
09 Lean On Me (Bill Withers & Lulu)
10 The Man Who Sold the World (Lulu)
11 Never Can Say Goodbye (Lulu)
12 Goodness Gracious Me (Lulu & Michael Bates)
13 The Man with the Golden Gun (Lulu)
14 Smile, Darn You Smile (Lulu)
15 Baby Love (Lulu)
16 Let's Put It All Together (Lulu)
17 Stand by Your Man (Lulu)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/z563zgfb

alternate:

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

The cover photo is from an appearance on Lulu's TV show "It's Lulu" at some point in 1973.

Smokey Robinson - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: Live in Hyde Park Festival, Hyde Park, London, Britain, 9-8-2013

Here's the second BBC concert Smokey Robinson did for the BBC. If there are others, I'm not aware of them.

The first one I posted was from a few years earlier, 2009. This one is somewhat shorter. It seems he jettisoned the relatively recent songs from the set list, and focused more on classic hits. (Either that, or the BBC edited the concert down that way.) Virtually all the songs are big hits he had in the 1960s as part of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. The exceptions are two big hits he had as a solo artist: "Just to See Her" and "Cruisin'." 

There's a lot of overlap in the set lists between these two concerts, but there are differences too. For instance, "Volume 1" contains "Being with You" but not "Cruisin'," and this one contains "Cruisin'" but not "Being with You." Those are his two biggest solo hits.

The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 58 minutes long. 

01 Going to a Go-Go (Smokey Robinson)
02 I Second That Emotion (Smokey Robinson)
03 talk (Smokey Robinson)
04 You've Really Got a Hold on Me (Smokey Robinson)
05 Ooh Baby Baby (Smokey Robinson)
06 talk (Smokey Robinson)
07 The Tears of a Clown (Smokey Robinson)
08 talk (Smokey Robinson)
09 Motown Boogie - The Way You Do the Things You Do (Smokey Robinson)
10 Get Ready (Smokey Robinson)
11 My Girl (Smokey Robinson)
12 talk (Smokey Robinson)
13 Just to See Her (Smokey Robinson)
14 The Tracks of My Tears (Smokey Robinson)
15 Cruisin' (Smokey Robinson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/deF5o7GQ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/xWNsyFcPOtqnbE1/file

The cover image is from this exact concert.

Smokey Robinson - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: Electric Proms, The Roundhouse, London, Britain, 10-24-2009

Smokey Robinson is a true soul music legend. He was the leader of the Motown band Smokey Robinson and the Miracles in the 1960s, and had a successful solo career after that. I found two concerts he did for the BBC. Both of them are well past his commercial prime, but he could still his songs very well. Here's the first of the two, from 2009.

In 2009, Robinson put out a new studio album, "Time Flies When You're Having Fun." In this concert, he performed three songs from the album: "Don't Know Why," "Girlfriend," and "Time Flies." The first one is a cover, and was a major hit for Norah Jones in 2002. The other two were written by Robinson. Other than that, the concert mostly leans on hits he did with the Miracles in the 1960s, with a couple of solo hits near the end, plus another cover, "Fly Me to the Moon."

A couple of songs have "[Edit]" in their titles. I fixed this album a while back, so I don't remember the problem with those. But given they are the first and last songs, I'll bet there were BBC DJs talking over the music. 

The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 Going to a Go-Go [Edit] (Smokey Robinson)
02 I Second that Emotion (Smokey Robinson)
03 talk (Smokey Robinson)
04 You've Really Got a Hold on Me (Smokey Robinson)
05 Ooh Baby Baby (Smokey Robinson)
06 talk (Smokey Robinson)
07 The Way You Do the Things You Do (Smokey Robinson)
08 Get Ready (Smokey Robinson)
09 My Girl (Smokey Robinson)
10 talk (Smokey Robinson)
11 My Girl [Reprise] (Smokey Robinson)
12 talk (Smokey Robinson)
13 Don't Know Why (Smokey Robinson)
14 talk (Smokey Robinson)
15 Fly Me to the Moon (Smokey Robinson)
16 talk (Smokey Robinson)
17 The Tears of a Clown (Smokey Robinson)
18 Girlfriend (Smokey Robinson)
19 Being with You (Smokey Robinson)
20 Time Flies (Smokey Robinson)
21 Just to See Her (Smokey Robinson)
22 The Tracks of My Tears [Edit] (Smokey Robinson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CZnhNBsp

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/e5oitpiTHD5Y4rK/file

The cover image is from this exact concert.

The Gregg Allman Band - BBC Rock Hour, Uncle Sam's, Hull, MA, 11-12-1982

Here's an interesting BBC concert starring Gregg Allman, one of the main singer-songwriters for the Allman Brothers Band. I just stumbled upon this the other day, and I'm posting it straight away because it's very hard to find.

This concert came at a difficult time in Allman's musical career. The Allman Brothers Band reunited in the late 1970s after a couple of years apart, and put out three studio albums. But their music was out of sync with the musical trends of the time, and they broke up again in early 1982. This break up would last until 1988. Allman was forced to focus on his solo career. But he was even less of a draw as a solo act than as part of his old band. For several years, he was reduced to mostly performing in small clubs, if he could get paid to perform at all.

Given that context, it's rather surprising that 1982 seems to be the one and only time the BBC recorded and broadcast a Gregg Allman concert. Kudos to them. Also, kudos to Allman to sticking to his musical style instead of trying to chase the latest musical trends, a strategy that rarely works. This was his first tour after the Allman Brothers Band broke up for the second time earlier in 1982. He would keep touring through the 1980s. He finally would get a break when his next album, "I'm No Angel," was a surprise hit in 1987. It helped that, by that time, the mass public was getting around to appreciating his style of music again.

Already, Allman's band largely consisted of the same people he'd find success with in 1987. Most importantly, he stuck with two brothers, Dan Toler on lead guitar and David Toler on drums. Both of them were members of the Allman Brothers Band from 1979 to 1982.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. Most of the songs were originally done by the Allman Brothers Band, or were on 1970s Gregg Allman solo albums.

This album is 51 minutes long. 

01 talk (Gregg Allman)
02 Dreams (Gregg Allman)
03 talk (Gregg Allman)
04 Sweet Feelin' (Gregg Allman)
05 talk (Gregg Allman)
06 Matthew's Arrival [Instrumental] (Gregg Allman)
07 talk (Gregg Allman)
08 Trouble No More (Gregg Allman)
09 Queen of Hearts (Gregg Allman)
10 talk (Gregg Allman)
11 Midnight Rider (Gregg Allman)
12 talk (Gregg Allman)
13 Stand Back (Gregg Allman)
14 One Way Out (Gregg Allman)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/LaoQUfXc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/hcLgiq4ky6Yxcsu/file

The cover photo was taken at the Keystone Palo Alto, in Palo Alto, California, on September 26, 1985.

Neil Finn, Roddy Frame, & Graham Gouldman - Songwriters' Circle, Subterania Club, London, Britain, 7-2-1999

Here's another episode of the BBC TV show "Songwriters' Circle." This show ran for only five episodes in 1999. Then it had a longer life about ten years later, with over a dozen episodes from 2010 to 2012. This is one of those 1999 episodes. It stars Neil Finn from Crowded House, Roddy Frame from Aztec Camera, and Graham Gouldman from 10cc. (Both Neil Finn returned for second appearances in 2011.)

As usual, the show had the format of each singer-songwriter taking turns performing their own songs. This episode, however, had more collaboration between them, especially in the second half of the show. That's one of the reasons I think this is one of the best shows in this series.

Unfortunately, this is the last episode I've been able to find. There are three others that were broadcast that remain elusive for me. There are two more 1999 episodes. One of them starred Joan Baez, Matraca Berg, and Gretchen Peters. The other one starred two duos, Paul Heaton and Dave Rotheray, and then Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, plus John Martyn. I'm also missing a 2012 episode starring Bill Anderson, Clint Black, and Bob DiPiero. If anyone has them and wants to share, I'd love to post them here as well. 

On a different note, I'm back from my week-long trip to Seattle. Now that I'm back, I fixed the cover of County JoeMcDonald's "BBC Sessions, Volume 3," so you might want to redownload that one. I also hope to finally respond to some comments I still haven't gotten to during my Peru trip, plus the ones from the last week. 

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

This album is an hour and four minutes long. 

01 talk (Neil Finn)
02 Distant Sun (Neil Finn)
03 talk (Roddy Frame)
04 Bigger Brighter Better (Roddy Frame)
05 talk (Graham Gouldman)
06 Bus Stop (Graham Gouldman)
07 talk (Neil Finn)
08 Don't Dream It's Over (Neil Finn)
09 talk (Roddy Frame)
10 Hymn to Grace (Roddy Frame)
11 talk (Graham Gouldman)
12 Heart Full of Soul (Graham Gouldman)
13 talk (Neil Finn)
14 Throw Your Arms Around Me (Neil Finn)
15 talk (Roddy Frame)
16 Killermont Street (Roddy Frame)
17 talk (Graham Gouldman)
18 For Your Love (Graham Gouldman)
19 talk (Neil Finn, Roddy Frame & Graham Gouldman)
20 Fall at Your Feet (Neil Finn with Roddy Frame & Graham Gouldman)
21 talk (Roddy Frame)
22 Oblivious (Roddy Frame with Neil Finn & Graham Gouldman)
23 talk (Graham Gouldman)
24 I'm Not in Love (Graham Gouldman)
25 talk (Neil Finn)
26 Weather with You (Neil Finn with Roddy Frame & Graham Gouldman)
27 talk (Neil Finn)
28 Ten Guitars (Neil Finn with Roddy Frame & Graham Gouldman)
29 talk (Neil Finn, Roddy Frame & Graham Gouldman)
30 Somewhere in My Heart (Roddy Frame with Neil Finn & Graham Gouldman)
31 talk (Graham Gouldman)
32 Dreadlock Holiday (Graham Gouldman with Neil Finn & Roddy Frame)
33 talk (Neil Finn)
34 Better Be Home Soon (Neil Finn with Roddy Frame & Graham Gouldman)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/FbfQAr71

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/1iGektzPTgUvLaX/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert. From right to left: Neil Finn, Roddy Frame, and Graham Gouldman.

Country Joe McDonald with Barry Melton - BBC Sessions, Volume 4, In Concert, Paris Theatre, London, Britain, 1-28-1975

Here is the fourth, and last, album of Country Joe MacDonald performing for the BBC. This is a concert from 1975.

This album is a bit different from the others in the series and that it prominently features Barry Melton as well as McDonald. McDonald and Melton were the co-leaders of Country Joe and the Fish, with both of them, writing songs. Melton was generally known as "the Fish." Their band broke up in 1970, after band members lost enthusiasm for touring and recording. But both McDonald and Melton continued with their own solo careers. They remain friendly with each other, and sometimes performed together, such as in this concert. In this case, each of them perform songs solo near the beginning, but mostly did songs together.

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

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 Karma (Barry Melton)
02 talk (Barry Melton)
03 Marshmallow Road (Barry Melton)
04 talk (Country Joe McDonald & Barry Melton)
05 The Man from Athabaska (Country Joe McDonald & Barry Melton)
06 talk (Country Joe McDonald)
07 Holy Roller (Country Joe McDonald)
08 talk (Country Joe McDonald)
09 Living in the Future in a Plastic Dome (Country Joe McDonald)
10 Fly So High (Country Joe McDonald)
11 On the Road Again (Country Joe McDonald)
12 talk (Country Joe McDonald & Barry Melton)
13 Entertainment Is My Business (Country Joe McDonald & Barry Melton)
14 I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag (Country Joe McDonald & Barry Melton)
15 talk (Country Joe McDonald & Barry Melton)
16 The Hot Dog and Hamburger (Country Joe McDonald & Barry Melton)
17 talk (Country Joe McDonald & Barry Melton)
18 Happiness Is a Porpoise Mouth (Country Joe McDonald & Barry Melton)
19 Here I Go Again (Country Joe McDonald & Barry Melton)
20 Sing Sing Sing (Country Joe McDonald & Barry Melton)
21 It's Finally Over (Country Joe McDonald & Barry Melton)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ywihexA5

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/fIOFXZZEO0RaRDz/file

The cover photo is from an appearance on the Old Grey Whistle Test BBC TV show in 1976. 

Neil Sedaka - BBC In Concert, Neil Sedaka, London, Britain, 4-26-1975

A couple of weeks ago (writing this in March 2026), a posted a couple of albums made up of performance of Neil Sedaka on the "Midnight Special" TV show. In the course of putting those together, I stumbled across this BBC concert Sedaka did at the same time. I'm not that big of a Sedaka fan, but I'm kind of fanatic about posting these old BBC concerts, so I figured what the heck and I'm posting it. 

By the way, I also found evidence that Sedaka did other BBC concerts, usually decades later. For instance, he did one in 2010. But I haven't been able to find any of those. If you have them and want to share them, I'll post those as well.

This concert was broadcast on BBC TV. It was relatively early in his mid-1970s comeback. But it includes the song "Laughter in the Rain," which was the key song that made him popular again. It also starts with "Love Will Keep Us Together," which he wrote. That was a huge Number One hit for Captain and Tennille. I looked it up, and that single was released in April 1975, the same month as this concert. But this is probably the broadcast date, not the recording date. So I think it's highly likely he recorded this before he knew that song would be such a big hit.

The "BBC In Concert" concert is only half an hour long. Since that's pretty short, I did a search to see if he did anything else for the BBC around that time. I did find a couple of things. Tracks 12 through 15 are from an appearance on the BBC TV show "Old Grey Whistle Test" in 1974. That was even earlier in his comeback. But he did have one minor hit in Britain in 1972, "That's When the Music Takes Me." The last song is from a 1975 episode of the BBC TV show "Lulu," starring the British singer Lulu. The song, "Laughter in the Rain," is the only repeat here, luckily enough. But this is a duet version sung by Lulu, so I figured that's different enough to justify including both.

Everything here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 42 minutes long. Just the "In Concert" portion is 30 minutes long.

01 Love Will Keep Us Together (Neil Sedaka)
02 talk (Neil Sedaka)
03 Laughter in the Rain (Neil Sedaka)
04 When You Were Lovin' Me (Neil Sedaka)
05 talk (Neil Sedaka)
06 Stephen (Neil Sedaka)
07 talk (Neil Sedaka)
08 The Queen of 1964 (Neil Sedaka)
09 New York City Blues (Neil Sedaka)
10 talk (Neil Sedaka)
11 Breaking Up Is Hard to Do (Neil Sedaka)
12 Betty Grable (Neil Sedaka)
13 A Little Lovin' (Neil Sedaka)
14 talk (Neil Sedaka)
15 Solitaire (Neil Sedaka)
16 Laughter in the Rain (Neil Sedaka & Lulu)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/S63g5A1b 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/YxjeaydmC3VxZCN/file

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

Country Joe McDonald - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, London, Britain, 5-4-1972

Just yesterday, I posted "BBC Sessions, Volume 1" by Country Joe McDonald. But I already made a drastic change to it. After posting it, a commenter named SamApplePie sent me a bunch of BBC material by McDonald. I had most of it, but there was some studio session material from 1977 that I didn't have yet. So I split that album in two. I've just reposted "Volume 1," and it's a lot shorter than before. Don't worry, the rest of that material, and then some, will appear in a later volume. So if you downloaded that one already, I highly recommend you re-download it.

By the way, thanks to SamApplePie for that material. 

Now, let's get to this album. This is a short acoustic concert recorded for the BBC radio show "In Concert." It was an hour-long show, and McDonald shared the show with the band Brinsley Schwarz. I edited the first track, because the BBC DJ Alan Black mixed comments about McDonald with comments about Brinsley Schwarz. I just kept the McDonald bits. I also removed some audience noise in the background. So that's what that one track has "[Edit]" in its title.

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

This album is 35 minutes long. 

01 talk by Alan Black [Edit] (Country Joe McDonald)
02 The Limit (Country Joe McDonald)
03 talk (Country Joe McDonald)
04 Memories (Country Joe McDonald)
05 talk (Country Joe McDonald)
06 Colorado Town (Country Joe McDonald)
07 talk (Country Joe McDonald)
08 The Man from Athabasca (Country Joe McDonald)
09 I'll Survive (Country Joe McDonald)
10 I'm on the Road Again (Country Joe McDonald)
11 Only Love Is Worth This Pain (Country Joe McDonald)
12 Here I Go Again (Country Joe McDonald)
13 talk by Alan Black (Country Joe McDonald)
14 I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag (Country Joe McDonald)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/hqUMHqKQ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/IwNbicSVRt8DcID/file

The cover photo is from an appearance on the "Old Grey Whistle Test" BBC TV show in 1972.

Allen Toussaint, James Dean Bradfield & John Grant - Songwriters' Circle, Bush Hall, London, Britain, 9-30-2011

Here's another episode of the great "Songwriters' Circle" BBC TV show. This one stars Allen Toussaint, James Dean Bradfield, and John Grant.

I don't think Allen Toussaint needs much introduction at this music blog. That's because I've already posted three albums of cover versions of his songs in my "Covered" series. Here's a link to the first one, in case you want to go back to that:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2019/10/various-artists-covered-allen-toussaint.html

But just in case you need a little reminding, here's a paragraph from his Wikipedia entry: "He was an influential figure in New Orleans rhythm and blues from the 1950s to the end of the century, described as 'one of popular music's great backroom figures.'" And here's the link to the whole entry:

Allen Toussaint - Wikipedia

James Dean Bradfield is best known as the lead singer and guitarist for the Manic Street Preachers. Nearly all of his music career has been with that band, from 1986 until the current day (writing this in 2026). At the time of this concert, he'd only released on solo album, in 2006. And he's released one more since, in 2020. So solo appearances like this have been rare for him. The Manic Street Preachers have been quite popular, selling 10 million albums worldwide. They've been especially popular in Britain, where they had 34 Top Forty singles in a row, from 1991 to 2010. 

Here the Wikipedia link to that band:

Manic Street Preachers - Wikipedia

And here's the one just from Bradfield:

James Dean Bradfield - Wikipedia

Finally, there's John Grant. He was the lead singer and main songwriter for the band the Czars. That band put out six albums from 1994 to 2006 before splitting up. Then Grant started a solo career, which has been very successful. His debut album "Queen of Denmark" was named the album of the year by Mojo Magazine. His third solo album, "Grey Tickles, Black Pressure," made it all the way to Number Five in the British album chart.

Here's the Wikipedia entry for him:

John Grant (musician) - Wikipedia 

As is the style for this show, each musical artist took turns performing their own songs. Then, at the end, they all did a song together. That song, "Yes We Can Can," is a Allen Toussaint classic from the early 1970s. I don't know if there's much musical connection between these three, but they're all talented songwriters, so the episode is a good one. 

So far, I believe I've posted twelve episodes of this show. After this one, I have one more to post. There are a few more, but I haven't been able to find them. 

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 A Certain Girl (Allen Toussaint)
02 talk (James Dean Bradfield)
03 If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (James Dean Bradfield)
04 talk (John Grant)
05 Sigourney Weaver (John Grant)
06 talk (Allen Toussaint)
07 Get Out of My Life, Woman (Allen Toussaint)
08 talk (James Dean Bradfield)
09 Your Love Is Not Enough (James Dean Bradfield)
10 Where Dreams Go to Die (John Grant)
11 It's Raining (Allen Toussaint)
12 talk (James Dean Bradfield)
13 Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky (James Dean Bradfield)
14 Chicken Bones (John Grant)
15 Working in the Coal Mine (Allen Toussaint)
16 talk (Allen Toussaint)
17 This Is Yesterday (James Dean Bradfield)
18 Caramel (John Grant)
19 Southern Nights (Allen Toussaint)
20 A Design for Life (James Dean Bradfield)
21 Drug (John Grant)
22 Yes We Can Can (Allen Toussaint, James Dean Bradfield & John Grant)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/bpRoThJa 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/z1ZgmnnOWV5XUT4/file

I didn't post this album for a while, because coming up with a good photo was a challenge. I wanted an image with all three of the stars in it, from this exact concert. However, they were spread far around the stage. So I took a screenshot with Toussaint and Bradfield in it, and another one of Grant. Then I put Grant into the picture with the other two.

From left to right: Allen Toussaint, James Dean Bradfield & John Grant.

Various Artists - BBC In Concert, Giants of Motown, NEC, Birmingham, Britain, 4-6-1992

Here's a pretty interesting BBC concert. It's from a Motown package tour in 1992. It features many of the big Motown names who were touring in 1992, though certainly not all. The first part stars Edwin Starr, the Marvelettes, the Supremes, and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. Then the second half features the Temptations and the Four Tops, performing separately and also doing some songs together.

Note that some key members were missing. A key missing person was Diana Ross, who sang the lead vocals on nearly all Supremes songs. So some other former members of the Supremes had to bill themselves as the "Former Ladies of the Supremes" for legal reasons. They were Jean Terrell, Scherrie Payne, and Lynda Laurence. Terrell was the lead singer who replaced Ross in 1970. The other two also were only members of that group after Ross left. 

So the Supremes were more like the 1970s version, which was practically a different group with the same name. They did have some big hits though, including "Up the Ladder to the Roof" and "Stoned Love," both of which were performed here, and were originally sung by Terrell.

 

However, most of the other groups fared better. There was personnel turnover, but key lead singers remained. For instance, Gladys Horton was the lead singer on all the Marvelettes records, and Martha Reeves was the lead singer for all the Vandellas records. The Four Tops were amazingly consistent, keeping the same four members from 1953 until 1997. 

The situation with the Temptations was more complicated, since that band had a lot of personnel turnover even during their most popular eras, including quite a few different lead singers. At the time of this concert, the band consisted of Ali-Ollie Woodson (lead tenor), Otis Williams (baritone), Ron Tyson (tenor), Richard Street (second tenor) and Melvin Franklin (bass). Williams and Franklin were original members.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think this Giants of Motown "tour" may have just done these two concerts, in London and Birmingham. I can't find any references to any other concerts. So it's a lucky thing one of them was recorded by the BBC.

The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. I do have "[Edit]" in the titles of a couple of songs, but it's been so long since I edited this that I forget why.  

This album is an hour and 56 minutes long.

01 25 Miles (Edwin Starr)
02 S.O.S. [Stop Her on Sight] (Edwin Starr)
03 War - I Heard It through the Grapevine (Edwin Starr)
04 H.A.P.P.Y. Radio (Edwin Starr)
05 Too Many Fish in the Sea (Gladys Horton & the Marvelettes)
06 talk (Gladys Horton & the Marvelettes)
07 When You're Young and in Love (Gladys Horton & the Marvelettes)
08 Please Mr. Postman [Edit] (Gladys Horton & the Marvelettes)
09 You Keep Me Hangin' On (Former Ladies of the Supremes)
10 Band Intros (Former Ladies of the Supremes)
11 Reflections (Former Ladies of the Supremes)
12 Where Did Our Love Go - Baby Love - My World Is Empty without You (Former Ladies of the Supremes)
13 Up the Ladder to the Roof (Former Ladies of the Supremes)
14 Stoned Love (Former Ladies of the Supremes)
15 talk (emcee)
16 [Love Is like A] Heat Wave - Nowhere to Run (Martha Reeves & the Vandellas)
17 Jimmy Mack (Martha Reeves & the Vandellas)
18 talk (Martha Reeves & the Vandellas)
19 Third Finger, Left Hand (Martha Reeves & the Vandellas)
20 talk (Martha Reeves & the Vandellas)
21 Dancing in the Street (Martha Reeves & the Vandellas)
22 Superstar [Remember How You Got Where You Are] (Temptations & the Four Tops)
23 Something about You (Temptations & the Four Tops)
24 Papa Was a Rolling Stone - Baby, I Need Your Loving (Temptations & the Four Tops)
25 talk (Temptations & the Four Tops)
26 7 Rooms of Gloom (Temptations & the Four Tops)
27 Girl [Why You Wanna Make Me Blue] (Temptations)
28 The Way You Do the Things You Do (Temptations)
29 Ain't Too Proud to Beg (Temptations)
30 Ball of Confusion [That's What the World Is Today] (Temptations)
31 Just My Imagination (Temptations)
32 Papa Was a Rolling Stone (Temptations)
33 Get Ready (Temptations)
34 Treat Her like a Lady (Temptations)
35 My Girl (Temptations)
36 I Can't Get Next to You (Temptations)
37 Baby, I Need Your Loving (Four Tops)
38 When She Was My Girl (Four Tops)
39 Bernadette (Four Tops)
40 It's the Same Old Song (Four Tops)
41 Walk Away Renee (Four Tops)
42 Reach Out, I'll Be There - Standing in the Shadows of Love (Four Tops)
43 I Can't Help Myself [Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch] [Edit] (Four Tops)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/NJBgHJ2c

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/amUebhRMAqADjoo/file

The cover photo is a promotional poster for this concert. It actually was meant to promote two concerts: this one, and one in Wembley Arena, in London, one day earlier. So I put a photo from this concert in the square that had the details about the London concert. The photo was very low-res, so it wouldn't have made a good cover on its own. This poster was pretty low res as well, but I was able to clean it up with the use of Photoshop and Krea AI.

Various Artists - BBC Proms: Northern Soul, Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain, 7-15-2023

Here's something I randomly discovered due to it appearing on my YouTube suggestions. At first, it didn't look too appealing, because I wasn't familiar with any of the singers or other musicians. It turns out that's because they're not well known. But this is a BBC celebration of the musical genre "Northern Soul," and I really like Northern Soul. I gave it a listen, and I enjoy it very much. So here it is. If you're into Northern Soul, or soul music in general, you should give this a try.

For those who don't know, what is Northern Soul? As far as musical genres one, it's very strange, because it was mostly defined by the geography and tastes of people who came to love a certain kind of music. 

Being an American that lives far away from where all this happened, I only have a limited understanding. But from what I gather, in the mid-1960s, the British public basically discovered Motown and other soul music after many years where that music hadn't been available. Some people really fell in love with it. And when musical tastes changed around 1967 with psychedelic music and other musical trends, they still couldn't get enough of the danceable Motown-ish sound of soul music circa 1966. So, mostly in the midlands and northern parts of England, people kept listening to that sort of music, and dancing to it in clubs. Thus the name "Northern Soul," for Northern England. 

However, they soon got tired of the really big, well-known classics, and there was very little new music of this type being created. The solution was they dug deeper into obscurities, finding many worthy gems. Well into the 1970s (until disco in the late 1970s), there was a thriving music scene where many clubs played obscure American soul songs every weekend, allowing people to dance and party to that music late into the night. The music scene continued into the 1980s and beyond, though at a lesser level, with periodic revivals.  

Here's Wikipedia's article, which explains it better, and in more length, than I can:

Northern soul - Wikipedia

Anyway, so while Northern Soul isn't that different from the big soul hits of 1966 or thereabouts, there are hundreds of songs that are big in the Northern Soul scene but totally obscure everywhere else. For this concert, six upcoming and relatively unknown British singers were chosen to perform a kind of "best of Northern Soul" song list. Each of them took turns singing lead vocals, while the remaining five would sing backing vocals. And they were backed by a large BBC orchestra. 

The popularity of this genre shows in how the Royal Albert Hall was sold out, despite all the decades passing since Northern Soul's heyday. And I'm writing this in February 2026. I understand there is going to be another BBC Northern Soul concert this summer, and then a short tour, with most or all of the same singers.

I looked up these six singers at Wikipedia and/or rateyourmusic.com. All of them are pretty obscure, with some of them not even having entries. But they were selected for their soulful vocals, and all of them did very well, in my opinion. So if you just want one album to show you the best of Northern Soul, this is a good one. Unless you're into the genre already, chances are you won't be familiar with the vast majority of the songs, with a few exceptions, like "Tainted Love." So if you're listening to this type of music for the first time, chances are you'll discover some excellent obscurities.

I took the video I found on YouTube, converted it to audio, and broke it into mp3s. According to the BBC website, about six more songs were performed in the actual concert. If anyone has any of those extra songs, please let me know. 

This album is an hour and 16 minutes long. 

01 talk (Stuart Maconie)
01 Turnin' My Heartbeat Up (Brendan Reilly)
03 talk (Brendan Reilly)
04 Out on the Floor (Brendan Reilly)
05 I Need You (Nick Shirm)
06 Gone with the Wind Is My Love (Frida Mariama Touray)
07 The Night (Darrell Smith)
08 Landslide (Brendan Reilly)
09 Hold Back the Night (Brendan Reilly)
10 The Drifter (Darrell Smith)
11 You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies (Natalie Palmer)
12 No One Could Love You More (Vula Malinga)
13 You're Gonna Love My Baby (Frida Mariama Touray)
14 You're Gonna Make Me Love You (Frida Mariama Touray)
15 If That's What You Wanted (Darrell Smith)
16 Temptation Is Calling My Name (Darrell Smith)
17 What (Natalie Palmer)
18 I Got to Find Me Somebody (Natalie Palmer)
19 Better Use Your Head (Frida Mariama Touray)
20 You Didn't Say a Word (Vula Malinga)
21 There's a Ghost in My House (Darrell Smith)
22 talk (Stuart Maconie)
23 I'm on My Way (Nick Shirm)
24 Long After Tonight Is All Over (Nick Shirm)
25 Time Will Pass You By (Vula Malinga)
26 talk (Vula Malinga)
27 Tainted Love (Vula Malinga & Everyone)
28 talk (Vula Malinga)
29 Do I Love You [Indeed I Do] (Everyone)
30 talk (Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/D5r9rf1X

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/sWHXwQGFdHp2SpX/file

I wanted a cover image showing all six of the singers. But I couldn't find an instance in the video when they were all standing together. So instead I went with three of them, more or less randomly chosen. At least that's better than showing just one. From right to left: Frida Mariama Touray, Nick Shirm, and Vula Malinga. You can see part of the BBC orchestra in the background.

Geno Washington - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Cambridge Folk Festival, Cherry Hinton Hall Grounds, Cambridge, Britain, 7-28-1990

Back in 2024, I posted an album of 1960s BBC studio sessions by soul singer Geno Washington. I thought that was all I'd ever post from him. However, I got this BBC concert from musical associate Progsprog. I'm pretty sure it has been publicly unavailable until now, because an Internet search doesn't even come up with a hint of such a recording. So, a big thanks again to Progsprog for sharing. 

Washington was an American who was stationed in Britain as a U.S. soldier in the mid-1960s. He began singing in clubs during his free time, and discovered there was a big demand for soul singers in that country. He had some minor hit singles. But more importantly, two of his live albums were huge sellers. What he did wasn't that original, especially since most of his songs were covers. He was very much in the mold of upbeat singers like Wilson Pickett, James Brown, and Sam and Dave. But he performed that style very well. Those live albums were big sellers because they contained fun music you could dance to.

Washington's career petered out in the 1970s, as styles changed. He quit music entirely for a time, and became a professional hypnotist! Then, in 1980, Dexys Midnight Runners had a Number One hit with a song they wrote about him, "Geno." That revived interest in him, and he resumed performing in clubs in Britain. He put out some new albums in the 1980s. But his bread and butter has been performing the same material he did in the 1960s.

I find it odd that this concert took place at the annual Cambridge Folk Festival, because this is upbeat soul. If this is "folk music," then any music is folk music. But never mind about that. It's a rocking good time.

By the way, I couldn't find any song list for this concert, or even for other concerts he did around this time. So I had to come up with the song titles myself, as I split a single mp3 file into pieces. I had to guess on some of the songs. If anyone has more accurate titles, please let me know. 

Oh, one last thing. Now that I have this "Volume 2," I renamed that 1960s BBC studio sessions collection I mentioned above "Volume 1." Here's the link to that:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2024/08/geno-washington-ram-jam-band-bbc.html 

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

This album is one hour long. 

01 Push It [Instrumental Version] (Geno Washington)
02 Hi-Heel Sneakers - Can I Get a Witness (Geno Washington)
03 talk (Geno Washington)
04 Gimme One More Piece of that Good Thing (Geno Washington)
05 talk (Geno Washington)
06 In the Midnight Hour (Geno Washington)
07 talk (Geno Washington)
08 Bony Moronie (Geno Washington)
09 talk (Geno Washington)
10 If I Wasn't for My Bad Luck (Geno Washington)
11 talk (Geno Washington)
12 Hoochie Coochie Man Blues (Geno Washington)
13 talk (Geno Washington)
14 House (Geno Washington)
15 talk (Geno Washington)
16 I Wish It Would Rain (Geno Washington)
17 talk (Geno Washington)
18 Respect (Geno Washington)
19 talk (Geno Washington)
20 Knock on Wood (Geno Washington)
21 I Can't Turn You Loose (Geno Washington)
22 talk (Geno Washington)
23 Push It (Geno Washington)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/xZtuQ3AK

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/S4M36ujNBV1r3sY/file

Considering how obscure this recording has been, I was very pleasantly surprised to find a photo from this exact concert. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program.

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.