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.

Georgie Fame - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: BBC Four Sessions, LSO St. Luke's, London, Britain, 4-24-2005

Here's another BBC album by British singer Georgie Fame. This is the sixth such album. It's a concert.

Fame, like Price, had his commercial heyday in the 1960s. But he was much more successful than Price, including having three Number One singles in Britain. So he remained popular enough in the 2000s for the BBC to broadcast one of his concerts. He boosted his appeal by including some other 1960s stars as guests: Geno Washington, Zoot Money, and Madeline Bell. Each of them got song to sing lead vocals. Then Money and Bell came back to help with the last song.

This concert is unreleased. It's from a BBC TV series called "BBC Four Sessions." I converted the video to audio then broke it into mp3s.

By the way, the date in the title is almost certainly the broadcast date, not the actual date of recording, which I always prefer to use when it's known.

This album is 58 minutes long.

UPDATE: On November 12, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is exactly the same. But I found an earlier volume in this series that I'd missed, so the volume number changed. That meant the title, cover art, and mp3 tags changed too. 

01 Lawdy Miss Clawdy (Georgie Fame)
02 talk (Georgie Fame)
03 Get on the Right Track (Georgie Fame)
04 talk (Georgie Fame)
05 Zulu (Georgie Fame)
06 talk (Georgie Fame)
07 Humpty Dumpty (Georgie Fame & Geno Washington)
08 Yeh Yeh (Georgie Fame)
09 talk (Georgie Fame)
10 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Georgie Fame & Zoot Money)
11 talk (Georgie Fame)
12 Point of No Return (Georgie Fame)
13 talk (Georgie Fame)
14 The Blues and Me (Georgie Fame & Madeline Bell)
15 talk (Georgie Fame)
16 Get Away (Georgie Fame)
17 talk (Georgie Fame)
18 Flamingo Allnighter (Georgie Fame with Madeline Bell & Zoot Money)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uYQ59GvH

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/mM69bsW1kFJwm0q/file

The cover photo is from a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London, on March 15, 2004.

Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1966-1969

Have you ever heard of Geno Washington? I had, but almost entirely because I knew he was the subject of the Dexys Midnight Runners song "Geno," which was a Number One hit in Britain in 1980. He was an American black man who was a soul singer in Britain in the 1960s. He had quite a few BBC sessions, enough for this album here, though I believe all these performances remain unreleased.

Washington had a pretty interesting history. In the mid-1960s, Britain felt in love with American soul music, but there almost no American soul singers living in Britain. Washington was serving in the US Air Force, and happened to be stationed in England. He started as a stand-in for various local bands when their regular singers didn't show up. He did so well that he was invited to join a band, which became the Ram Jam Band. Sensing opportunity, he decided to stay in England when his time in the military ended. 

To be honest, his music wasn't really great, as it mostly consisted of covers of big soul hits that didn't differ much from their originals. But he became a huge concert draw. A live album, "Hand Clappin, Foot Stompin, Funky-Butt... Live!" was released in 1966. It turned out to be one of the best selling albums in Britain for several years. It only got to Number Five in the album charts, but it was a very steady seller, staying in the Top Ten for three months. A very similar live album was released a year later, and also did very well. In addition, there were about four minor hit singles.

However, musical trends were changing quickly at the time. Soul music fell out of favor starting in 1967, replaced by psychedelic music, then other trends, like hard rock, prog rock, and blues. The Ram Jam Band broke up in 1969, and Washington returned to the U.S. He quit the music business altogether and instead studied hypnotism and meditation. He resumed a music career in the mid-1970s, and continues performing all the way until today (as I write this in 2024). Apparently, his concerts now combine a hypnotism show, followed by a set of music.

Here's his Wikipedia entry, if you want to know more:

Geno Washington - Wikipedia 

The sound quality of all the songs here is excellent. However, you'll notice over half have "[Edit]" in their titles. That's due to the usual problem of BBC DJs (especially Brian Matthew) talking over the music. I did my usual thing of using the audio editing program UVR5 to wipe out the talking while keeping the underlying music.

I also didn't include three songs: "I Can't Turn You Loose," "Don't Fight It," and "Hi-Heel Sneakers," That's because he did two versions of those that were nearly identical, so I only kept one. But I did keep two versions of "Land of a Thousand Dances" because they were done very differently. The first version here is done the same as the hit version made famous by Wilson Pickett, but the second one is a more interesting slow version.

This album is 57 minutes long.

UPDATE: On February 20, 2026, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is exactly the same. However, I renamed the album to "Volume 1" after finding a concert to post as "Volume 2." That meant changing the cover art and the mp3 tags too.

01 Don't Fight It (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
02 Hi Hi Hazel (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
03 Water [Edit] (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
04 Land of a Thousand Dances (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
05 Que Sera Sera [Whatever Will Be, Will Be] (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
06 You Don't Know like I Know (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
07 Knock on Wood (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
08 I Can't Turn You Loose (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
09 In the Midnight Hour (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
10 Michael [The Lover] [Edit] (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
11 You've Got Me Hummin' [Edit] (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
12 She Shot a Hole in My Soul (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
13 Raise Your Hand [Edit] (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
14 Tell It Like It Is (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
15 Jumpin' Jack Flash [Edit] (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
16 I Can't Quit Her [Edit] (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
17 Baby Come Back [Edit] (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
18 I Got You Babe [Edit] (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
19 Bring It to Me Baby [Edit] (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
20 Hi-Heel Sneakers [Edit] (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
21 Roadie's Blues [Edit] (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)
22 Land of a Thousand Dances [Slow Version] [Edit] (Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/wpX8wczN

alternate:

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

I saw very few color photos of Geno Washington in his 1960s heyday. Luckily I found just one good one, which is what I used here. I don't know the details except it was taken in 1966.