Category: Art Rock Live Albums

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.

What Are The FIVE Best Art Rock Live Albums? (Click on the links to go to the reviews)

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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

Electric Light Orchestra Live 2001

Electric Light Orchestra Live is a live album by the Electric Light Orchestra with Jeff Lynne.

It was recorded at CBS Television City in Los Angeles in 2001 at the first show of the Zoom tour.

Electric Light Orchestra Live

The album also includes two new, unreleased studio tracks – Out of Luck and Cold Feet. Personally I’d have preferred more of the live recordings as there are plenty of important songs that are missing.

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The Moody Blues Caught Live + 5 1969

Caught Live + 5 is a live album by The Moody Blues with five extra songs recorded in the studio.

The live songs were recorded at the Royal Albert Hall on December 12, 1969.

The Moody Blues Caught Live + 5

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Talking Heads The Boarding House San Francisco 1978 (TAJ)

The Boarding House, San Francisco is a live recording of a concert by Talking  Heads which was originally broadcast on the radio.

It was recorded on 16th September 1978.

From what I’ve seen so far, it is an mp3 only release and not available in the United States.

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Frank Zappa Sheik Yerbouti 1977 1978

Sheik Yerbouti is a live album by Frank Zappa.

Most of the album is pulled from two sets of concerts:

  • The Palladium, New York between October 28 and 31 in 1977.
  • Hammersmith Odeon, London from concerts between January 24 to 28 and February 24 to 28 1978.

Frank Zappa Sheik Yerbouti

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Electric Light Orchestra Part 2 Greatest Hits Live

Greatest Hits Live is a live album by the Electric Light Orchestra Part 2.

It was recorded in Birmingham and has The Moscow Symphony Orchestra playing with ELO Part 2.

This version of ELO doesn’t involve the main singer and songwriter, Jeff Lynne but was formed by ELO founder member Bev Bevan when Lynne didn’t want to record another album or tour. Lynne and Bevan were the owners of the Electric Light Orchestra brand name and they compromised that the new band could be called the Electric Light Orchestra Part 2.

The album seems to have been condensed in the USA to a 10 song version.

Electric Light Orchestra Part 2 Greatest Hits Live

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Live Art Rock Albums Played In 2015

I started to record the albums I was playing in February 2015 because I realised that there could well be a difference between those albums I think are excellent and those that I turn to play time after time.

The full listings of what I played are shown on these pages:

– February 2015 – March 2015 – April 2015 – May 2015 – June 2015 – July 2015 – August 2015 – September 2015 – October 2015 – November 2015 – December 2015

February 2015

March 2015

April 2015

May 2015

June 2015

July 2015

None

August 2015

None

September 2015

October 2015

November 2015

December 2015

What Are The Best Live Albums Of All Time?

Please help me find the best live albums by voting in the readers poll to find the best live art rock albums

What Are The FIVE Best Art Rock Live Albums? (Click on the links to go to the reviews)

View Results

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You can get these albums from Amazon.com – Amazon.co.uk.

You can see the complete list of readers polls at Live Album Polls

Frank Zappa You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 5 1966 to 1969 and 1982

You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 5 is a compilation of live recordings made by Frank Zappa and his bands. It collects together performances from the period 1966 to 1969 when he was with the Mothers Of Invention and from 1982.

Frank Zappa You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 5

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Frank Zappa You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 4 1969 to 1988

You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 4 is another compilation of live recordings featuring Frank Zappa and his various bands. This was mostly recorded in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Full recording details are available at Discogs

Frank Zappa You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 4

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