live albums

subvert47

I don't fight, I run away
JOY DIVISION - Ajanta Cinema, Derby 1980: Ajanta Cinema’s become this mythical entertainment complex in my mind. Apparently, it was very run-down and used to put on Bollywood and Eurosmut flicks whenever post-punk acts weren’t making a din on stage. I still have a fascination with those sorts of places. Audience recording, good atmospheric gig just a month before he ended the joke.

very possibly that's my recording :)
 

john eden

male pale and stale
In terms of live singles, Bob Marley and the Wailers “No Woman No Cry” live at the London Lyceum is the definitive version that gets radio play.

People love the crowd noise I think. And maybe hearing the artist doing asides to the crowd.

Vagina Dentata Organ’s most recent album is all crowd applause. And it’s very energising to listen to!
 

bun-u

Trumpet Police
Well, albums used to be about re-creating the live experience for the home but then became about re-creating an album as a live experience…so it’s all a bit confused.

My nomination is Jeff Mills at the liquid rooms in Japan - a DJ set but one where you get to hear all the beautifully imperfections
 

william_kent

Well-known member
Vagina Dentata Organ’s most recent album is all crowd applause. And it’s very energising to listen to!
I'm sure I've posted this before somewhere on this forum, but I'll do it again with the added explanation that although some people may say that KISS Alive! and its sequel, KISS Alive 2 are the greatest live albums ever, what actually makes them entertaining ( and bear in mind that it helps to be totally out of when listening) is Paul Stanley's script between the tunes..


45 minutes of Paul Stanley stage banter

Inexcusable in this day and age, he'd be fired WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT if he dared talk like that in the office where, hypothetically speaking, for the sake of argument, etc. I may or may not work - someone will send his personal belongings in the post, security won't let him even clear his desk, he will be ejected from the building right now.
 
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john eden

male pale and stale
Author Stewart Home used crowd noise off some stadium rock live LP on a CD of readings he did.

Sounded completely ridiculous, which was the idea.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
There was that YouTube clip of just between song chat by Fugazi too. Which I think someone turned into an opera?!
 

william_kent

Well-known member
KLF had to delete The White Room from their catalogue because it sampled, uncredited at the time, the crowd noise from U2's live album and The Doors Alive on the "stadium house" trilogy as far as I can recall?
 

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
I'm sure I've posted this before somewhere on this forum, but I'll do it again with the added explanation that although some people may say that KISS Alive! and its sequel, KISS Alive 2 are the greatest live albums ever, what actually makes them entertaining ( and bear in mind that it helps to be totally out of when listening) is Paul Stanley's script between the tunes..


45 minutes of Paul Stanley stage banter

Inexcusable in this day and age, he'd be fired WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT if he dared talk like that in the office where, hypothetically speaking, for the sake of argument, etc. I may or may not work - someone will send his personal belongings in the post, security won't let him even clear his desk, he will be ejected from the building right now.
Pre YouTube i used to work with a guy who had all that stage banter on a separate banter only cd
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
Fake live albums - Orgasm by John's Children

Apparently what they did in the studio was so poor that manager Simon Napier-Bell had the bright idea of transplanting audience screams from The Beatles movie A Hard Day's Night


 

blissblogger

Well-known member
AN UNFINISHED LIST, WITH CATEGORIES

Reputedly Great But When Would I Ever Ever Feel the Slightest Urge?


The Who - Live at Leeds
U2 - Under A Blood Red Sky: Live at Red Rocks

Not Actually a Great Live Band and Here's the Proof

The Smiths - Rank

Befuddlingly Extraneous to Requirements

Heaven 17 – How Live Is
Heaven 17 – Live At Scala, London 29 November 2005
Heaven 17 – Live From Metropolis Studios
Heaven 17 – Live At The Jazz Café 2015


I remembered being struck by the sheer superfluousness and rockist wrongness of the very concept of a Heaven 17 live album when I read about one of these at the time. But I had no idea they had been repeat offenders!

One of these is described by a fan as a "A well-chosen, and scorching hot set that puts their studio work very much in the shade! Against all odds, my favorite H17 album is now a live recording!! Who could have imagined this 30+ years ago?".

Who indeed? Back when they did their legendary work - Penthouse and Pavement - Heaven 17 used to pointedly do PAs in nightclubs around the U.K., either singing over backing tracks or maybe just miming altogether, I can't remember. But I do remember they would talk about having zero interest in touring or live performance, and wanting to deconstruct the whole idea of presence, community, etc as outmoded rockist claptrap. Indeed, when in The Human League, Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware developed a fully automated concert that was all set to stand in for them when they were the support group on a Talking Heads tour. The idea was that they wouldn't appear onstage but would be in the venue, mingling with the fans and chatting with them. But for reasons unknown - fear of being conceptually upstaged? - Talking Heads put the kybosh on the idea at the last minute and Human League were replaced by various other support groups like A Certain Ratio.
 
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