Live albums recorded in 1981 include:
Albion Band Vintage Albion Band On The Road
Atlanta Rhythm Section Live At The Savoy
Bauhaus This Is For When
Bauhaus Press the Eject And Give Me The Tape
The Birthday Party Live 1981 – 82
Black Sabbath – Live At Hammersmith Odeon
Black Uhuru – Tear It Up Live
Blue Oyster Cult – Extraterrestrial Live
Blue Oyster Cult Live in America
Captain Beefheart An Ashtray Heart
Joe Cocker Standing Here
Albert Collins – Frozen Alive
The Damned Ballroom Blitz Live At The Lyceum
Devo New Traditionalists Live 1981 Seattle
Dexy’s Midnight Runners The Projected Passion Revue
Dexys Midnight Runners The Radio 1 Sessions
Donovan Rising / Atlantis / The Classics Live / 25 Years In Concert
Gang Of Four The Peel Sessions Album
Genesis – Three Sides Live
Gillan Double Trouble
Gillan Live Triple Trouble
Grobschnitt The Grobschnitt Story Vol 4 Illegal Tour
Arlo Guthrie Pete Seeger Precious Friend
The Jacksons The Jacksons Live
The Jam At The BBC
The Jam Fire & Skill The Jam Live
Etta James Live From San Francisco
Journey – Live In Houston 1981: The Escape Tour
Journey Greatest Hits Live
Greg Lake London ’81
John Martyn BBC Live In Concert
Mink DeVille Live At Rockpalast
Motorhead – No Sleep Til Hammersmith
Muddy Waters & The Rolling Stones Live at the Checkerboard Lounge Chicago
Nazareth Snaz
Ozzy Osbourne – Tribute
Ozzy Osbourne Ozzy Live
Parliament Funkadelic Live 1976-1993
Pink Floyd – Is There Anybody Out There?
The Plimsouls One Night In America
The Plimsouls Live Beg Borrow & Steal October 31 1981
The Pretenders Live At The Santa Monica Civic
Queen – Rock Montreal
The John Renbourn Group Live In America
The Rolling Stones – Still Life
The Rolling Stones Hampton Coliseum
Rush – Exit Stage Left
Saxon – The Eagle Has Landed Live
Michael Schenker Group – One Night At Budokan
Simon And Garfunkel – The Concert in Central Park
Siouxsie & The Banshees At The BBC
Sir Douglas Quintet Live From Austin Texas
Slade On Stage
Al Stewart Live Indian Summer
Talking Heads – The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads
Joe Walsh All Night Long
You can get these albums from Amazon.com – Amazon.co.uk
Extraterrestrial Live is the third live album released by hard rock group Blue Oyster Cult and is from the Fire of Unknown Origin tour in 1981.
Their first live album, On Your Feet Or On Your Knees is a must-have classic if you’re a fan of hard rock and heavy metal. The second is a big seller but I prefer this one album to Some Enchanted Evening, even in its extended format.
Blue Oyster Cult Extraterrestrial Live
Continue reading Blue Oyster Cult Extraterrestrial Live 1981
Still Life is a live album by the Rolling Stones. It was recorded at concerts in North America in November and December 1981 to promote the Tattoo You studio album and released in 1982.
Live In Houston is a live album and DVD by AOR group Journey, recorded on November 6th, 1981 on the Escape tour.
This catches Journey at the peak of their commercial success although it only come a year after their first live album, Captured.
Continue reading Journey Live In Houston 1981 The Escape Tour
No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith is the first live album by hard rock group Motorhead and follows up on the success of the Ace Of Spades single and album. It was recorded at concerts in Leeds and Newcastle in England in March 1981.
This was one of the first albums and groups to make me feel too old. It’s too hard, too heavy, too fast and too raucous for my tastes but there is no denying the impact it has on the development of rock in the eighties as it inspired thrash metal and hardcore.
The leader of Motorhead, Lemmy used to be the bass player in Hawkwind (their live album Space Ritual is work hearing).
Soul Alive is a highly regarded live album by soul singer Solomon Burke.
It was recorded at the Phoenix 1 Club in Washington DC in 1981 and Burke is backed by by the Realtones.
Like Bobby Womack, he is another artist who should have received more attention as the world focused on Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye.
Black Sabbath Live At Hammersmith Odeon is a recording of concerts of the Ronnie James Dio version of the group from gigs on December 31st 1981 to January 2nd 1982.
If you’re a fan of the Ozzy Osbourne version of Black Sabbath, you should check out the Reunion album from 1997.
This album is similar to the easier to find Live Evil album also featuring Dio from the same tour.
Continue reading Black Sabbath Live At Hammersmith Odeon 1981 & 1982The Official Bootleg Box Set is a compilation of seven UFO concerts from 1975 to 1985. It covers both the Michael Schenker and Paul Chapman years.
If Strangers In the Night isn’t enough live UFO for you, then this is a great place to turn.
Early versions of the box set went from 1975 to 1982 but it has been extended.
Continue reading UFO The Official Bootleg Box Set 1975 to 1985
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.
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 1981Is 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
