Art Rock Live Albums
Art rock fits between pop rock and progressive rock.
The music has a cleverness about it – humour, complexity, different styles, rhythms or instruments – but it’s also commercial enough to be radio friendly and therefore its bands benefit from hit singles. In some ways it is a natural development of the work The Beatles were recording in their psychedelic phase with songs like Strawberry Fields Forever and I Am A Walrus.
Leading art rock bands include Roxy Music (before they went soft), David Bowie, Kate Bush, early Queen and the Electric Light Orchestra.
As Genesis moved from being a prog rock band to a pop rock band, there was a time around A Trick Of the Tail when they were art rock. Peter Gabriel has been in the category since he went solo.
To help you find the best live albums, there is a readers poll – the Best Art Rock albums recorded live.
Loading ...The advantage of live albums in the art rock category is that performing live stops the groups from trying to be too clever and too technical.
Live Albums On The Best Live Albums Website
Art rock live albums include:
Barclay James Harvest – Live Tapes 1977
Barclay James Harvest Berlin A Concert for the People 1980
Be Bop Deluxe – BBC In Concert 2nd October 1976
Be Bop Deluxe – Tremulous Antenna 1976 & 1978
Be Bop Deluxe – Live In The Air Age 1977
Be Bop Deluxe At The BBC 1974-1978
David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture 1973
David Bowie – David Live 1974
David Bowie – Live Nassau Coliseum 1976
David Bowie – Stage 1978
David Bowie – Glass Spider Live 1987
David Bowie – A Reality Tour 2003
Kate Bush Live at Hammersmith Odeon 1979
City Boy – BBC In Concert 1975 (radio recording)
City Boy – Live At My Father’s Place 1978 (radio recording)
Deaf School – Second Coming 1988
Electric Light Orchestra The Night The Light Went On 1974
Family Live 1971
Fripp & Eno Live in Paris 1975
Peter Gabriel Plays Live 1982
Peter Gabriel Secret World Live 1993
Peter Hammill Room Temperature 1990
Justin Hayward Spirits Live At The Buckhead Theater Atlanta 2013
King Crimson – The Night Watch 1973
King Crimson – Absent Lovers Live In Montreal 1984
Kraftwerk Minimum Maximum 2004
The Moody Blues A Night At Red Rocks With The Colorado Symphony Orchestra 1992
The Moody Blues Hall Of Fame 2000
Bill Nelson – Live In Concert At Metropolis Studio 2011
Procol Harum Live In Concert With The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra 1971
Procol Harum BBC Live In Concert 1974
Procol Harum In Concert With Danish National Concert Orchestra 2006
Queen – Live At The Hammersmith Odeon 1975 (TV broadcast)
Queen – Live Killers 1979
Roxy Music Viva 1973 to 1975
Roxy Music – Ladytron 1979
Roxy Music – Roxy Music Live 2001
Sparks – Two Hands One Mouth 2012
Supertramp Is Everybody Listening? 1975
Supertramp Paris 1979
Supertramp Live 1988
Supertramp It Was The Best of Times 1997
Talking Heads – The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads 1977 to 1981
Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense 1983
Television – The Blow Up 1978
Television – Live At The Old Waldorf 1978
10cc – 10cc In Concert 1975
10cc – Live And Let Live 1977
10cc – Live In Concert 1977
10cc – 10cc Live 1993
10cc – Alive In Japan 1993
The Margin is a live album by Peter Hammill and The K Group.
It was recorded in 1982 and 1983 with Guy Evans, Nic Potter (drums and bass for VDGG) and John Ellis on guitar (ex The Vibrators).
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BBC Radio Volume 1968 – 1969 is a compilation of Family performing live in the studio sessions recorded by the BBC.
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The Deluxe Edition of Breakfast In America by Supertramp has a second CD of live tracks from 1979.
Their live album Paris was recorded in 1979 but it excluded six songs from the concert which are included in this bonus CD together with other live recorded tracks from 1979. These six tracks are included on the CD/DVD combination Live In Paris ’79 but for those of us who have bought Paris, it is a great chance to get the missing songs.
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Baby Snakes is a soundtrack album from Frank Zappa’s film of the same name.
It was recorded at The Palladium in New York City between October 28 and 31 in 1977.
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Live Blood is a live album by Peter Gabriel.
It was recorded at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo, London on 23 and 24 March 2011.
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Live At Hammersmith Odeon 1975 is a bonus live recording by Supertramp available with the deluxe version of Crime Of The Century.
It was recorded in London in March 1975.
This live recording has previously been released as Is Everybody Listening although the venue and date is incorrectly described on that album.
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Live In Winterland ’76 is a live album by the Electric Light Orchestra.
It was recorded on the Face The Music tour while the band were playing in San Francisco.
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Live At The BBC 1967-1970 is a comprehensive collection of studio recordings of The Moody Blues made by the BBC.
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Saratoga Psycho is a live recording by Talking Heads.
It was recordedat the Saratoga Springs Performance Center in the Saratoga Spa State Park in New York State during the summer of 1983.
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The Spirit of Nokken is a live album by Procol Harum.
It was mainly recorded in St Petersburg in Russia on 14 October 2009 with three extra tracks from elsewhere in Northern Europe in 2009.
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