Power Pop Live Albums
Power Pop is a name for music that comes in and out of fashion.
It fits within the gap created between The Beatles and The Who as a singles band.
The sound is melodic and features vocal harmonies but the guitars are amplified. Similar to AOR in some ways but without the pretensions.
Pete Townshend is credited with inventing the phrase when he said in 1967 “Power pop is what we play—what the Small Faces used to play, and the kind of pop The Beach Boys played in the days of ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ which I preferred.”
The early bands described as power pop included Badfinger, Big Star and the Rasberries in the early 1970s.
The power pop phrase disappeared for a few years and came back in the late 1970s with the Rich Kids (a great formed by Glen Matlock after he left The Sex Pistols and also featured Midge Ure before Ultravox.) Music by Nick Lowe and the first studio album by Elvis Costello, My Aim is True fit uncomfortably under the new wave and punk banner.
The phrase reappeared again in the early 1990s when Teenage Fanclub had modest success sounding like a more amplified version of Big Star.
To help you to find the best live power pop albums I have created a readers poll.
Loading ...Sadly few of these bands achieved lasting success so there aren’t many live albums to choose from.
Power pop live albums include:
10cc In Concert 1975 (King Biscuit Flower Hour)
Big Star – Big Star Live 1974
Big Star – Columbia Live at Missouri University 1993
Blondie Live in Philadelphia 1978 & Dallas 1980
Cheap Trick At Budokan 1978
Dodgy So Far On Three Wheels Dodgy On The Radio 1996
The Kinks One For The Road 1980
The Knack Live From The Rock ‘n’ Roll Fun House
Raspberries – Live On Sunset Strip 2005
Squeeze A Round And A Bout 1990
Wings – Wings Over America 1976
XTC Live In Concert 1980
A Round and a Bout is a live album by British new wave group Squeeze, recorded in January 1990while the group was promoting their album called Frank.
Squeeze came to prominence with the punk/new wave movement in the late seventies and had success with both singles and albums. The band broke up in 1982 but came back together in 1985 but never recovered their prominence.
XTC Live In Concert is a BBC1 Radio recording of the group performing in December 1980 while they were promoting the Black Sea studio album.
I remember XTC well as a quirky new wave group that rode the wave of interest in new bands created by punk rock. I also remember an intense performance on the Old Grey Whistle Test TV show.
Unfortunately they stopped touring in 1982 when promoting their next album, English Settlement. Singer and guitarist Andy Partridge suffered severely from stage fright and suffered a mental breakdown at a gig in Paris in March 1982.It seems that he had become addicted to valium and his wife through out his supply without any discussion or consideration of the effects of withdrawal.
Their live performances stopped and they developed into a more sophisticated studio band.
Live Jam is a live compilation album by new wave group The Jam. It was recorded between 1979 and 1982.
Shortly after The Jam’s first live album, Dig The New Breed came their second with a much wider collection of songs.
Unfortunately it is again compiled from different gigs in different times of the band’s evolution. This is frustrating as I feel I am still deprived of the proper experience of The Jam live.
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Dig The New Breed is a live compilation album from The Jam featuring songs recorded at concerts between 1977 and 1982.
I remember the heady days back in 1977 and The Jam were caught up in the punk/new wave scene. It was a bit strange because their image and music was a long way from the Sex Pistols.
The developed into a very successful singles band with a series of number ones in the UK and created excellent albums including All Mod Cons and Setting Sons.
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Wings Over America was a triple album by Paul McCartney and Wings from his North American tour in 1976. In fact Macca wanted to be part of a group again and had dropped the Paul McCartney name from the billing.
The group were promoting the Wings At The Speed Of Sound album with the hit singles Silly Love Songs and Let Em In.
After a dodgy start when he first left The Beatles, Paul McCartney was on a solid roll from Band On The Run through Venus & Mars and to this album.
Live On Sunset Strip is a live album by power pop group The Raspberries recorded in 2005.
It comes in two versions:
What are the greatest and best power pop live albums ever recorded?
It sounds a simple question but first..
Power pop sits between melodic pop songs and hard rock.
Continue reading Best Power Pop Live Albums
BBC Live In Concert is a live album by power pop group Badfinger featuring concerts in June 1972 and August 1973.
10cc In Concert is the UK version of the King Biscuit Flower Hour recording of all the original members of 10cc performing live from the Original Soundtrack tour in November 1975 in Santa Monica.
Strangely, the performance didn’t include any of the tracks from thealbum they were recording.
At least this is the proper 10cc, unlike Live and Let Live and 10cc Live.
Continue reading 10cc In Concert 1975 (King Biscuit Flower Hour)
