Sure loads of us have been at shows that have been recorded for release as live albums.
Doesn’t seem to be any past thread re this so have at it!
Got to go and walk the dog so I’ll get back with mine later on.
Live albums you’ve been at the recording of
Live and Leeds John Martyn
Dvd of Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings at the Lowry, (to be glimpsed in the occasional audience shots)
Must be others.
Remembered the Albion Band at Cambridge Folk Festival and shouting out “I’m Spartacus” at the last dvd recording of ISIRTA at the Lowry.
Van “Too Late To Stop Now”
I’ve bored you before with my tale of going to the Lyceum to see Bob & The Wailers, too nervous what with all those rastas outside ( me, a wimp?) and walking away….
And, of course, Woodstock
When I say Woodstock Live I, of course, mean Shepherds Bush Odeon where we all took our clothes off, got stoned and applauded every song with “Yeah man, yeah!”
Don’t think I’ve been at a show recorded for a live album but I was at the gig where two songs from Rude Boy were filmed (Dunfermline Kinema 1978).
Radiohead – live at the Astoria (DVD). My Iron Lung on The Bends is taken from this gig (with vocal overdubs).
New Order – 5:11 (DVD). Recorded at the Reading Festival.
Boo Hewerdine – A Live One. A bit of a cheat, this one, as I made him play the gig solo, asked my pal to record it from the desk, mixed and mastered the recordings and held him in a headlock until he agreed to release it. It became, and remains, his highest-selling album.
One I was not at: Bjorn Again – Flashback/Live at the Astoria. The first of their gigs in over 6 months I wasn’t at – I’d flown home from a skiing holiday earlier that day, having got up at 3am, and decided on an early night. Probably my fave live album ever.
Think I did this before (maybe somewhere else)
Real Live – Bob Dylan (most of it) (Wembley)
Pet Sounds Live – Brian Wilson
Forever Changes Live – Arthur Lee and Love (both Royal Festival Hall)
Live Licks – Rolling Stones (some of it) (Amsterdam/Twickenham)
Live in Montreux – Steve Earle (er Montreux)
Live at O2 (EP) – Manic Street Preachers (London)
Few DVDs (some of above too):
Stones – Live at Twickenham
McCartney, Ringo and others – Change Begins Within (New York)
Also quite a few official full concert downloads:
Wilco/Jeff Tweedy (Chicago, North Adams)
Springsteen (Buffalo, Philadelphia)
The Who (London)
There are others I am sure that I can’t recall right now
Maybe also Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn, but the info has not been released (if it was indeed recorded with an audience there)
The show was recorded for potential DVD release over two nights, September 16/17th 2014. I was there on the first of those nights…but alas,. Kate is as Kate does, and we still haven’t seen the results.
I think at least one night was filmed without an audience also. I was there on the 24th.
I think that was the final rehearsal, performed to a small invited audience of family and friends. The set list was slightly different on this show for the one and only time of the run.
One track was included on the live album that (unfortunately) did not make the live set which didn’t change throughout the run (Never Be Mine).
I believe though that the filmed version without an audience partly came from a later special show after she had been doing it for a while.
I can understand why she might not have wanted to include that in the live show – it has to be one of her must challenging vocals.
I was thinking I hadn’t been at any but I’d forgotten about Real Live – I was there too. My first ever stadium gig.
Genesis Live. Partly recorded at the Manchester Free Trade Hall gig I was at.
Does a bootleg recording count? If so I have the Sex Pistols live at Leeds Poly.
BEANY!!!
I’m not sleeping I’m just resting my eyes.
How could I forget Stackridge- Pick Of The Crop. Live at Cropredy, I almost made the cover photo.
If they do, then I have Pixies Timeless Stars at Newcastle Poly – my 27th birthday (also broadcast on BBC) which I attended with my ex and her new man.
Don’t go to many gigs but I was there for the Waterboys at Glastonbury in 86 (the Live Adventures of the Waterboys) and at last year’s Bryan Ferry concert at the Royal Albert Hall just before lockdown struck. It came out as a live album a few months ago.
The Smiths, “Rank” recorded October 1986 at The National Ballroom in Kilburn. Think it might have been broadcast on radio some time before, so it must have been taped by thousands of Smiths fans, which makes it a bit of an odd one to choose to put out. Great gig though. The Smiths in their twin guitar rock phase with Craig Gannon backing up Johnny Marr.
Joy Division – Still
Cool. Not the greatest live album, but historic.
It was the sixth time I saw them and was, by far, their worst performance.
Probably because Ian Curtis was extremely unwell?
Mainly because the synthesisers weren’t working properly and were hopelessly out of tune. Curtis was always a strange sight on stage. Mesmerising, detached, weird, intense. He did seem, erm, less committed, maybe tired, that night. It was their last after a long period of hard work touring, recording Closer and planning on taking on America.
TMTCH: Alive Alive O (Town and Country, Kentish Town, 8th February 1991), a live album and a video (The Shooting), with slightly different track listings. I didn’t make it on stage myself. Actually, some of the vocals are a bit below par but it was a great night which was supposed to be the last ever gig before they split before they added another a couple of weeks later at Subterrania.
Hmmm only one I can recall is Coldplay at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney for a DVD. It undermined the performance – they tried too hard.
Nick Lowe – Untouched Takeaway, tracks 11 to 17 recorded live at Gino’s, Stockholm.
XTC – two tracks on the live double single of “Towers of London”, namely “Set Myself on Fire” and “Battery Brides”, recorded live at the Rainbow, 17 September 1979.
Ooh – I’ve just thought of another one!
I was at one of the two David Bowie shows at Earl’s Court that were recorded for the “Welcome to the Blackout” live album (1 July 1978).
Suede, Sheffield Leadmill 1993. Now available on brown vinyl. Much like the floor of the Leadmill itself.
You went out and attended a gig? My flabber is ghasted.
I was 19. I didn’t know any better.
I have to say I found their toe-tapping melodies rather agreeable, particularly when the chap with the floppy hair sang “HAVE YOU EVER TRIED IT THAT WAY” about seven hundred times.
Have you?
Well, if you listen carefully you can hear me saying “Yes!” after each time Brett sings the line, to the general mirth and merriment of my apple-cheeked chums!
Nocturne : siouxie and the banshees, rah, 1983.
Various zappa at Hammersmith and Brighton recordings (on the YCDTOSA series)
Sure there are others.
Zappa might have to be excluded from this thread because he recorded virtually all of his gigs from 1968 onwards, thankfully.
Cream Farewell Royal Albert Hall 1968.
King Crimson / Rolling Stones Hyde Park 1969.
Fela Kuti Glastonbury 1984.
I think we have a winner…
Offhand, I can think of a few but none that anyone would think significant:
Duke Special & The Ulaid ‘- A Note Let Go’, a vinyl album recorded live in 2017 with a small audience at a converted barn / analogue studio in the wilds of NI. (By coincidence, I bumped into the Duke at a grocery store only this morning.)
‘Alive in Belfast: The Warehouse Sessions’ (1995) and ‘Live at the Belfast Empire’ (1996) – two multi-act live albums
Wishbone Ash – ‘Live in Paris’ DVD
Pete Townshend – a Shepherd’s Bush Empire ‘solo band’ gig that was used at least in part on his LIfehouse / Lifehouse Elements releases.
Jan Akkerman – ‘Live at the Priory’ (1998) – a limited edition live album recorded solo at a church on Merseyside (I shouted a request and he played it)
Bert Jansch & Anne Briggs – two songs (1992) filmed/recorded live at the old Howff Folk Club premises for the documentary ‘Acoustic Routes’. Bar the crew, I was the audience. Magical.
I’ll probably think of a few more later…
Not a live album, but a live track on the 1992 Consolidated album “Play More Music”: in fact I can be heard talking to the band on it, which was mortifying when I first heard it, but as no one else did and they are forgotten does not matter now.
@Pessoa
No one ever gets entirely forgotten about on the Afterword!
Not even Consolidated!
I still have that one! You’re not the lad who broke the microphone, are you?
No! Nor am I the racist or the Dutch guy who shouts ‘Play more music!”
Man Maximum Darkness (well the live bits from the Roundhouse in May 75 – same weekend as Zep at Earls Court, not the infamous studio overdubs)
Steve Hillage Live Herald (the one track at the Marquee from August(?) 78
Warren Zevon Learning to Flinch (London tracks from the Town and Country Club in the early 90s)
CSNY 1974 – Wembley Stadium tracks from 14/09/74 – line up also featured The Band and Joni M
Neil Young Archives 2 – Was at the Tues or Weds – not sure which – night at Hammersmith Odeon in Mar/Aor 76. If the former, then one track on disc 9. If the latter, then half the Odeon/Buddokan disc 10
Joy Division Factory Club Manchester April 1980 – the band’s last show in Manchester about three weeks before IC’s suicide – show was used as a bonus disc on, I think, Still a couple of years back
Elton John Wembley Stadium Midsummer’s Day 1975 – EJ’s poorly received decision to play the whole of his then just or just about to be released album Cast Fantastic to a capacity crowd at Wembley. Poor old Elt got blown off stage by The Beach Boys in one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. EJ bit eventually came out as a live bonus disc on a reissued of Captain Fantastic a few years back
Sure there are a few more which I will add if the memory loosens its grip. Also quite a few bootlegs which I won’t bother to list here
“Cast Fantastic”? Was that a tribute to the 90s John Power led indie band?
That’s our Elton for you, always several years ahead of his time!
Nirvana Live at Reading 1992 – DVD as well as album!
Can’t believe I’m the only one round here.
I was there, but thought they were rubbish and left early.
They were really good in ’91, though, on in the afternoon between Silverfish and Chapterhouse.
Ah you see we have the complete opposite view. 92 was awesome. On the afternoon in 91 we were (perhaps hung over in the sunshine) of the view of ‘what is this racket’.
I can remember saying to my pal “they’re a cross between the Police and the Pixies”.
Highlight of the weekend for me, and the other 10 people in the audience, were The Fat Lady Sings on Saturday lunchtime.
left Nirvana early too. Pissing with rain and tired and wasnt that exciting but was definitely there,
I was there in 91, but not 92. I checked the poster not so long ago, and realised that I missed Guy Clark & Townes Van Zandt in favour of Pop Will Eat Itself. The 19 year old me thought that was an eminently wise decision, the 49 year old version not so much.
I have looked back at the comedy line up from ’91 and I am genuinely gutted at some of the talent I missed by going to watch Thousand Yard Stare instead. Such is life.
@fentonsteve funnily enough me and my mate came back from mid-afternoon Nirvana and also thought they sounded a bit like the Police. Glad we weren’t alone in that assessment.
I’ve never seen so many people in so small an area as Frank Sidebottom’s set in the comedy tent. I think he said 20,000 on the Being Frank DVD.
You know he did, he really did.
No. But I’ve been to THREE gigs where the artist did two dates at the venue and I was there the night that *wasn’t* recorded for sale
U2 at Slane
Oasis at Wembley
Stones at Twickenham in 2003
I was at one of the five REM live rehearsals in Dublin so *could* be on the 39 songs album, and i was in the Point Depot (as it was) for what was released as REM Live
Thin Lizzy – Live & Dangerous (Hammersmith Odeon 1976)
Jeffy Healey – See The Light Live in London (Town & Country Club 2004)
Robert Rental “Live At West Runton” (1979-ish?). Just before going we found some ancient tabs of Strawberry Fields acid. More speed left than lysergic but suddenly it was Monday morning.
Respect! That’s an amazing (short) record.
Fairport Convention – What We Did on our Saturday 2017
Muse – HARP Wembley
Led Zeppelin – Celebration Day (O2 2007)
Show of Hands Live DVD 2020
CSNY Wembley
Cream Farewell Concert 1968….sort of…went to the early show.
Everly Brothers Reunion Concert 1983
Bob Dylan Isle of Wight 1969
Possibly more, but those are the ones that come to mind!
The Ramones – It’s Alive!
Various Fairport Cropredy releases, the Union Chapel tracks on the most recent Unthanks … that might be it.
The Saturday shows of Bill Bailey’s upcoming run at the Royal Opera House will be filmed, and we have tickets for the matinee. Then again, we went to one of Eddie Izzard’s farewell shows which were recorded at the Top Secret Comedy Club but the recordings never saw the light of day, possibly because it was pretty poor.
Only one I own is (I think) Iron Maiden Live At Donnington 1992
I’ve seen many bands on the same tour that begat a live album, but never the actual night.
The Quireboys recorded 2 tracks at the Town and Country club in London for their Live Around The World album.
Not sure which 2 tracks, or which of the 2 nights they chose though.
I might be on that one
Nils Lofgren – Night After Night
Bits of Graham Parker also I think
Hats off for Night after Night. I had to go ‘off piste’ to get a digital copy as the cd is not readily available and my vinyl copy is in storage.
The Space Ritual and I was in the crowd at Donnington when the race scenes were shot for Silver Dream Racer. Rock on.
Probably others.
1979 for the SDR then. The year before I first went.
The h band live at Dingwalls. Second night.
4 of the early Thunder Rock City Christmas shows.
New Model Army at Rock City Feb 89. (Radio broadcast later released)
Saxon live in Nottingham 1983 DVD.
Ian Gillan live at the Central TV studios in the early 90s I think. (Video and later album). A co-attendee has been a close colleague at work for the last 20 years, I’ve since found out.
Oh, and I was in the chippy in Donington when AC/DC were on stage making their DVD.
I’ll think of another as soon as I hit “Post”…
It’s Still Living by The Birthday Party
recorded at the Astor Theatre Melbourne.
It’s a strange record that was released without the band’s knowledge or permission, supposedly to finance a movie of the occasion that the band said at the time would never eventuate, and it never did.
Madness Finsbury Park 1992
Bowie at Glastonbury 2000
We’ve Got a Live One Here/Commander Cody& his Lost Planet Airmen was recorded at the Hammy Odeon in early 1976.
The Cropredy Box/Fairport 1997
Bootlegs: Blackbushe 1978 and Elvis Costello at Glasto in 1994.
Oh, and that recent Lynyrd Skynyrd at Knebworth, 1976.
Did the LS show at Knebworth get released?
I was there, too.
There was a thread about it a couple of months back
I read umpteen reviews suggesting so. DVD maybe, rather than CD. So worth pouring over every audience shot in slo-mo.
I’m the very, very handsome one in the middle of something like the 67th row back from the stage
Shit, I could have sworn that was me!
I’m not sure anyone (except me) will be impressed at me being at the gig where the live version of Rat Trap added to the CD releases of the second Boomtown Rats album was recorded.
Rush – Exit Stage Left. Closer to the Heart recorded at the mighty Glasgow Apollo.
And I guess the bits of Led Zeppelin at Knebworth that were released on that DVD set.
Not an album, but I was at the Elvis Costello gig at Liverpool Philharmonic in 2015, on the Detour tour, which was released as a live DVD
Led Zeppelin – Celebration Day (02 Arena 2007)
Nirvana – Live Reading 1992
The Stranglers – Friday the 13th Royal Albert Hall
Iron Maiden – Raising Hell (1993) Pinewood Studios, not sure it was a live album but was released on VHS.
I was at the Charlatans’ Brixton Academy gig that was released on DVD. I was also at a Jesse Malin gig at the Electric Ballroom that he said was being filmed for a DVD release, but I’ve never seen any evidence of its release. I was on the guest list at Knebworth when Oasis played. It was filmed and recorded, but apart from a live radio broadcast, some bootlegs and the odd bits and pieces I’ve seen on TV I’m not sure whether it’s been officially released or shown on TV or anything. Some tracks from Paul McCartney’s show at King’s Dock, Liverpool in 1990 have snuck out on single b-sides. I was at that show, going into town and buying a ticket on the day of the gig, which sounds crazy in these days of shows selling out in 20 minutes.
And I’ve been to several Stephen Duffy/Lilac Time shows that I have unofficial CDs and DVDs of.
Apparently the Oasis at Knebworth show is coming out soon. Short cinema run then Sky Arts I think.
I hope they captured me and my mate, cos he couldn’t get anyone to swap shifts with him, so he chucked a sickie. Every time a camera came anywhere near him he’d turn away/fasten a shoelace/etc.
Only one album that I know of, side 4 of Thin Lizzy – Live/Life at the Hammersmith Odeon.
The Church – Future Past Perfect DVD at the Enmore Theatre.
I wasn’t on U2’s Zoo TV: Live from Sydney (on the Zoomerang leg of the tour) at Sydney Football Stadium. I went to the other night, the one where Adam Clayton couldn’t play because he was too hungover leaving his guitar tech to fill in. I must say it did take me a bit longer than it should have to realise it wasn’t him.
Cream – Farewell, Albert Hall 1968
Emmylou Harris – New Victoria Theatre, 1975 (bootleg)
Dylan at the Albert Hall, 1966 (I was disappointed when the original bootleg turned out to be Manchester, but they’ve fixed that now)
Dylan 66? That’s the winner. Arguably the most legendary rock concerts EVER!
Tell us more about your thoughts on it at the time, please @mikethep
er … Les Barker. Daydream Retriever.
Bromyard Folk Festival 2014
But you can hear the women four rows back from me almost asphyxiating with laughter.
Bloody hell, laughing at a Les Barker? There’s a warning for you.
Just say no, kids, just say no.
When this song, from the DVD Live in Amsterdam, starts you can hear two “Whoo”-s. What total moron shouts Whoo through the bleakest song of Townes van Zandt?
Reader, it was I. Sorry for that.
Also: REM in Utrecht, bonusalbum of Document.
Chas and Dave Live At Abbey Road 1981
Came out afterwards to find the driver’s side of my metallic brown Hillman Avenger had been ripped open by someone who drove off without leaving their details. Could never bring myself to buy the album because of that (probably couldn’t afford to either as car was only on 3rd party, fire and theft).
The Jess Rodeo Band recorded a live album, Blowin’, that was half recorded in Leicester and half in Birmingham.
I was at the Birmingham gig, which I have since discovered was their last ever gig.
This thread just proves that you get to see one helluva lot more bands up your way than down here. Most of this list never even toured here.
Mind you there is that COVID thing to balance the ledger but I think I’d rather take a jab and the bands.
@Junior-Wells
Getting my second AZ jab on Sunday.
Sadly, can’t see the bands coming back any time soon.
In the case of older artists, very much doubt whether
They will come back at all.
I have tickets for Diana Ross for last year, which will be valid if she does tour. I expect her to. She’s releasing a new album. She loves performing. She’s been sitting at home long enough. I bet she can’t wait to get out and tour. She won’t be the only one.
Yep, there’s a lot of pent-up demand in both audience and performers (well, the ones I know).
The Cambridge Junction has loads – a year’s worth – of gigs booked for October and November. I might have to break my self-imposed embargo (I don’t much like the venue’s PA system) and go. The last gig I saw there was The Fall.
Wish I shared your optimism as have TX for re-re-re arranged club gigs for Sparks, the DBTs and Grant Lee Philips.
While have just (re)bought TX for Nick Mason and S of S’s cancelled (april 2020) and now rescheduled (April 2022) Dublin gig, I’ll be pleasantly surprised if it actually goes ahead.
Went to my first gig of 2021 on the 15th. Hip Harp Collective play Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane, at The Jazz Café in Camden.
Socially-distanced mask-wearing tube journey into town and socially-distanced table seating (with table service) in the venue. It was aces.
Next foray into the world of live music performance is Nu Civilisation Orchestra playing Joe Harriott at King’s Place on July 4th.
Two more on the horizon are the annual free garden party at The Farmer’s Boy in St. Albans with Stanley Dee, followed by the return of Chandos Arms Jazz featuring singer Esther Bennett, at the Chandos Arms in Colindale on the 25th.
Can’t really afford to go to any expensive gigs for a while, having just forked out £1230 on getting my car through it’s MOT test, plus a full service and a couple of long-standing faults corrected. Annual car tax due next week as well.
I have seen quite a few jazz gigs as the seated at table club format is amenable to the restrictions. Coming up are Ed Kuepper and The Church- also seated at tables. But sticky carpet gigs- nada. International gigs double nada.