If the 1970s was the decade of the live album, then there was some reluctance to issue them in the 1980s although numbers have been boosted by archive releases.
Live Albums From The 1980s By Year
1980 live albums
1981 live albums
1982 live albums
1983 live albums
1984 live albums
1985 live albums
1986 live albums
1987 live albums
1988 live albums
1989 live albums
Live Albums From The 1980s By Genre
1980s AOR
1980s Art Rock
1980s Blues
1980s Blues Rock
1980s classic rock
1980s country
1980s Country Rock
1980s folk
1980s funk
1980s hard rock
1980s Indie
1980s jazz
1980s prog
1980s Punk
1980s Singer Songwriters
1980s soul
Live Albums From The 1980s
Classic Live albums from the 1980s include:
Laurie Anderson United States Live 1983
Barclay James Harvest Berlin A Concert for the People 1980
Black Sabbath Live Evil 1982
Blackfoot Highway Song Live 1982
Blue Oyster Cult Extraterrestrial Live 1981
Otis Clay Soul Man Live In Japan 1983
The Clash Live From Here To Eternity
Albert Collins Frozen Alive 1981
Deaf School Second Coming 1988
Destruction Live Without Sense 1988
Dio At Donnington 1983 & 1987
Dire Straits Alchemy 1983
Fats Domino Sentimental
Journey Live At The University Of New Orleans 1987
Duran Duran Arena 1984
The Eagles Live 1980
Joe Ely Live Chicago 1987
Peter Gabriel Plays Live 1982
Genesis Three Sides Live 1981
Hanoi Rocks All Those Wasted Years 1983
Robyn Hitchcock Gotta Let This Hen Out 1985
Iron Maiden Live After Death 1985
The Jacksons Live 1981
Billy Joel Songs In The Attic 1980
Journey Live In Houston 1981 The Escape Tour
Joy Division Still 1980
The Kinks One For The Road 1980
Magazine Play
Marillion Real To Reel 1984
Maze Live In New Orleans 1980
Meat Loaf Live at Wembley 1987
Michael Schenker Group One Night At Budokan 1981
Gary Moore We Want Moore 1984
Van Morrison Live At The Grand Opera House Belfast 1983
Motorhead No Sleep Til Hammersmith 1981
Ozzy Osbourne Tribute 1981
Ozzy Osbourne Speak of the Devil 1982
Pink Floyd Is There Anybody Out There? 1980 & 1981
Pink Floyd Delicate Sound Of Thunder 1988
Queen Rock Montreal 1981
Queen Live At Wembley 1986
Rainbow Final Vinyl
Lou Reed Live In Italy 1983
Rufus And Chaka Khan Live Stompin’ At The Savoy 1982
Rush Exit Stage Left 1980 & 1981
Rush Grace Under Pressure Tour 1984
Rush A Show of Hands 1988
Scorpions World Wide Live 1984
Bob Seger Nine Tonight 1980
Simon And Garfunkel The Concert in Central Park 1981
Simple Minds Live In The City Of Light 1986
The Smiths Rank 1986
Bruce Springsteen Live 1975 – 85
Stiff Little Fingers Hanx 1980
Sting Bring On The Night 1985
Styx Caught in the Act 1983
Talking Heads Stop Making Sense 1983
Talking Heads The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads
Thin Lizzy Life 1983
Tina Turner Tina Live In Europe 1986
U2 Under A Blood Red Sky 1983
U2 Live From Paris 1987
Stevie Ray Vaughan Live At Carnegie Hall 1984
Stevie Ray Vaughan Live Alive 1985 1986
Whitesnake Live In The Heart Of The City 1978 & 1980
The Who Join Together 1989
Wishbone Ash Live Dates 2 1976 to 1980
XTC Live In Concert 1980
Warren Zevon Stand In The Fire 1980
ZZ Top Live In Germany 1980
Finding Your Way Around The Best Live Albums Website
Live albums by the decades – 1950s – 1960s – 1970s – 1980s – 1990s – 2000s – 2010s
Live Evil is a controversial Black Sabbath live album because it features Ronnie James Dio rather than the iconic Ozzy Osborne. It also has Carmen Appice rather than Bill Ward on drums.
I’m sceptical about this album and as I admitted in my review of Reunion, I’m not a huge Black Sabbath fan.
Exit Stage Left is the second live album by Rush after the success of their first, All The World’s A Stage.
It was recorded at two concerts – June 10-11, 1980 at The Apollo, Glasgow, Scotland on the Permanent Waves tour and March 27, 1981 at The Forum, Montreal on the Moving Pictures tour.
This represents the peak time for the group as they changed their sound from the progressive heavy metal of All The World’s A Stage to a more classic rock style. They even started having hit singles with songs like Spirit Of the Radio and Tom Sawyer.
Join Together is a recording of The Who performing live in 1989.
It was the first time a live version of Tommy was released although this has also subsequently appeared on an extended The Who Live At Leeds Live At Hull and Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival.
Tommy was played on this tour because the group were celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of the original studio album. Personally I’ve never thought the songs – and especially the studio album – live up to the good reputation it has.
Prepare yourself. Join Together is a very different listening experience to the other live albums by The Who because it features brass.
I’ve heard it called “The Who Las Vegas style” but I like it. You do need an open mind and it comes as quite a shock if you’ve loved Live At Leeds and you want a similar roar in the live recordings of the later songs.
Three Sides Live is the third Genesis live album, mainly recorded on the 1981 Abacab tour. This is partway on the move from prog-rock to pop-rock.
It’s a confusing background with different versions of the album released in the UK and the USA.
The American version of the album had three sides live and one side of an LP with studio recordings.The British version had extra live songs from earlier, more progressive concerts.
In 1994 the British version of the album was remastered and released throughout the world.
Some of the songs were recorded at the NEC, Birmingham on 23rd December 1981 and I think I was at that gig. I certainly saw Genesis several times at the NEC in the early eighties.
Continue reading Genesis Three Sides Live 1981Live From Paris is a live album recorded by U2 from a concert in Paris in 1987 promoting The Joshua Tree album.
It was originally released as a bonus DVD with the remastered The Joshua Tree album in 2007 and then a music only version was made available through iTunes in 2008. It’s also available from Amazon.co.uk but not from Amazon.com (at the time of writing).
Continue reading U2 Live From Paris 1987Is There Anybody Out There? is the Pink Floyd live recording of The Wall concerts from 1980 and 1981 at Earls Court London.
I wasn’t lucky enough to be at these gigs but I had a flatmate who raved about how good The Wall concerts were.
This album was first issued in 2000 and is really the first prime time Pink Floyd live album when the group had conquered the world. (Ummagumma was too early and Delicate Sound Of Thunder and Pulse were a controversial version of the Floyd without the main songwriter, Roger Waters.)
Whether this album has a role to play in your album collection depends on two things:
Continue reading Pink Floyd Is There Anybody Out There? 1980 & 1981
The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads is a live compilation album from Talking Heads spanning the years from 1977 to 1981.
This represents the time when Talking Heads were at their most innovative, coming out of the punk movement at the CBGBs club but sounding nothing like punk. In my classification system I’m treating talking Heads as both a new wave band and an art rock band.
This album represents Talking Heads at their brilliant, quirky best and in my opinion is even more exciting than Stop Making Sense.
If you’re wondering about the title, the group were often incorrectly called The Talking Heads. David Byrne would often introduce songs with the phrase “The name of this song …”
My Rating – 29 out of 30 – an outstanding live album
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Continue reading Talking Heads The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads 1977 to 1981
Frozen Alive is a live recording of an Albert Collins gig from 1981.
According to Wikipedia he was quite a character live:
“…he would frequently come down from the stage, attached to his amplifier with a very long cord, and mingle with the audience whilst still playing.He was known to leave clubs while still playing, and continue to play outside on the sidewalk, even boarding a city bus in Chicago while playing, outside of a club called Biddy Mulligan’s (the bus driver stayed at the bus stop until Collins got off).
He sounds quite a character.
If you like your blues live, you should hear it.
Continue reading Albert Collins Frozen Alive 1981Under A Blood Red Sky is the first live album by U2, recorded at concerts in 1983 when they were promoting the War studio album.
Continue reading U2 Under A Blood Red Sky 1983Stop Making Sense is a live album recorded by Talking Heads on the tour to promote the studio album Speaking In Tongues in 1983.
It is also the soundtrack for the concert film of the same name.
This live album is very highly regarded by critics but I have to admit to being puzzled because I don’t believe it is a match for The Name Of The Band Is Talking Heads, a live album from earlier in their career.
My Rating – 26 out of 30 – highly recommended but the DVD is even better
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