Update: We're solidly at 2/3 of our goal tonight. We're getting really close. I am so knocked out and humbled by all the support that's come in the last 24 hours, I can't tell you how great it is to know the Archive stands a good chance of being saved and Newstalgia stands a good chance of being here for you. But please don't stop just yet - we're still a ways off. Even with 1/3 left to go it can still not happen. If we can keep this going a little long, and if you can donate whatever you can, whatever amount you feel comfortable with. I'm not asking for millions, I'm just asking to take the lien off and keep the site on. We can do this - we're doing this - you're doing this. I am beyond grateful.

Diving into the 70's tonight for a concert featuring 70's icons Mott The Hoople, recorded at The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on April 12, 1973.

I remember this concert really well. I was sitting somewhere near the front. Ian Hunter had a cold and his voice was a little shot. But Mott The Hoople were one amazing band and this was at a time they were just hitting mass popularity. With such classics as All The Way To Memphis and All The Young Dudes (which are included here) just recently released, they were riding the crest of a very big wave.

This is the whole set - all 90 minutes worth. Crank it up and enjoy.

Pretend it's 1974.

I admit that, in all the time Newstalgia has been up and alive, I haven't included any Led Zeppelin material in my posts. Why? Honestly, I overdosed on them around the time this concert was recorded. Led Zeppelin were probably one of the most visible, most hyped bands of the early 1970's. Their albums were played back to back non-stop on most FM stations in the country. Every Rock magazine had at least some kind of story regarding them in every issue. They toured almost constantly and, frankly I heard enough of them to last me a lifetime.

Not that they weren't a good band or anything, and not that I didn't like them. I just hit critical mass hearing about them and hearing Stairway To Heaven for the 2,000th time. That's all.

But my experience is probably not your experience - so when I ran across this concert I was looking at it as a historic document and not out of personal preference. So I decided to run it.

I am sure this concert has made the bootleg circles many times over, as practically everything they've ever done has, in one form or another. What's interesting about this particular concert, recorded at the BBC's Paris Theater in London in 1971, is how sedate the audience is. Evidence Led Zeppelin were much more popular in the States than they were in their native UK. A Led Zeppelin concert in the U.S. during their heyday was a stoner's paradise with massive quantities of drugs and alcohol ingested over the course of the concert to epidemic proportions. Attesting to that was the fact that, at one Zeppelin concert in Los Angeles, I was thrown up on not once, but twice in one night. Wretched excess is what they call it.

At any rate, in case you missed them the first time around, or never quite got into them in the first place, here is a taste of them live relatively early on.

Enjoy. I promise to grab something new and unknown next week.

One of the classic cases in point when assessments are made of bands in the 60's and the argument invariably comes around to "you really had to see them live in concert".

Spooky Tooth were one of those bands. Coming in at the fringes of Psychedelia and ushering in the era of Hard Rock, Spooky Tooth were one of those bands you really had to see live in order to appreciate. And the reason was simple - technology. You just couldn't get what they really sounded like live and put it in a studio environment; it just didn't work. Bands were getting heavy and their sound was getting dirty and dirt didn't translate well against state-of-the-art recording equipment. They weren't the only ones suffering that problem. Going back to the early Grateful Dead albums, the biggest complaint among fans (and the press) was; they just couldn't translate what they did live in a studio environment - you couldn't put it in the grooves. Which was probably why MC5's first album was live and not recorded as an "official studio project". Their popularity may have taken longer to acquire had they gone the other way around. The ability to faithfully capture ear-splitting heaviness and turbo-charged energy would take a few years to happen as recording techniques and equipment improved.

This is a very rare example of Spooky Tooth, just at their peak, performing live in Essen, Germany on October 9, 1969. Fortunately, it was broadcast over German Radio and luckily a tape survives.

The sound isn't great but it's also not terrible, and you get a very clear picture of just how great this underrated band were in the early days. And you also get an idea of how influential a guitarist like Luther (Ariel Bender) Grosvenor was for guitarists coming after him.

History is seldom dull - and that goes for old music too.

One of the legendary bands of the 70's, performing live at what was a high point in their career. Queen had just released "A Night At The Opera" and it was well on its way to immortality as one of the great rock albums of all time throughout the world. Here they are, recorded by the BBC in 1975, playing to a capacity audience at Hammersmith Odeon in London.

An hours worth of Queen at their most high-energy. I would definitely try to get the walls to shake with this one.
Crank it up - it's the weekend.

(In 1978 radio was changing)

KROQ was one of those radio stations that, in the 1970s, had numerous brushes with disaster before coming up with a formula that worked. Resurrected from the ashes of free-form KPPC, KROQ sought to become a serious top-40 FM station and quickly went bankrupt in the process. By the time it hit on its mixture of Punk, New Wave and Hard Rock, disc jockies were forced to bring in their own records and dig up their own ads (a bit like the free-form days of the mid-1960s). Because the station was too broke to make demands, the DJ's had pretty much free reign and an audience was born. Typical of the on-air talent at KROQ during the period of the late 1970s was Frazer Smith, whose gleeful insanity captured a huge radio audience and helped established KROQ as an off-the-wall cutting edge station with an adventuresome playlist.

Here is a one-hour excerpt of his show from December 1, 1978.

Yes, radio was different - even in the 70's.

Update: Still inching along slowly, with your help and your donations. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it and all the kind words that have gone with it. You're making a difference and it's huge. And that's why we can't stop now, a little less than halfway to our goal. It's crucial that every penny counts in chipping away at the potential disaster. Without your help, this whole site could go away and the archive could be lost. I don't want either of those things to happen and that's why I'm making this appeal. Any amount you're willing to donate will be deeply appreciated. We can do this, and we can make it happen. Just a little more way to go. Please help keep Newstalgia from disaster; consider any amount - but please consider an amount. We need you!

Staying with some of the "bad boys" of The British Invasion. Wildly popular and influential in their native UK, The Pretty Things were relegated to the more-or-less/ also-ran category. And it stuck with them for the better part of their careers - which was a shame because it wasn't true. The Pretty Things were true originals and, as legend has it, The Pretty Things and The Rolling Stones were very much in competition with each other even to the point of members crossing over briefly into each others bands.

With all that in mind - here is the rundown of what's up on the player tonight.

The Pretty Things - BBC Saturday Club - Jan. 8, 1966

1. Sitting All Alone
2. Midnight To Six Man
3. Buzz The Jerk
4. L.S.D.

The end of the week is coming. Play this one loud and get ready for Friday Night.

Coming along at the pinnacle of the Glam-Rock movement, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band cut a rather unique figure in the annals of 70's rock n' roll. Like many bands of the period, you really had to see them live in order to appreciate them.

Led by former Blues singer Alex Harvey, who already had a career in the early 1960's as a solo artist and later, as a member of Simon Dupree Big Sound, Harvey added a dose of the lunatic fringe to his stage persona and acquired a large a loyal following as the result.

Tonight it's a track off his 1973 album Next. The Faith Healer is a timeless bit of writing, just as apropos now as it was when it first came out.

And if you've never heard The Sensational Alex Harvey Band before tonight, I would take a little time and check them out if I were you. You might be missing something.

Hopefully, our servers are up and working and are in the mood for some 70's Headbanging in the form of Scottish rockers Nazareth.

This is from a series of sessions the band did at The BBC in 1973 and comes around the time their first A&M (U.S.) album, Razamanaz came out. Nazareth had been together since 1968 and really didn't get to the top of their game (audience-wise) until Hair Of The Dog was released in 1975. With Hard Rock gaining a huge popularity in the States, Nazareth were in a perpetual state of criss-crossing the U.S. - and the hard work paid off. At last report they're still together (with several personnel changes over the years, naturally) and still touring.

But for tonight it's the band during their upward climb phase. Here's what they play:

1. Broken Down Angel
2. Vigilante Man
3. Shapes Of Things

Shapes of Things is their take on the Yardbirds classic. They would go on to score huge interpreting other bands song, most notably Love Hurts, which was their breakthrough International hit.

As a precursor to Heavy Metal, Nazareth typified the 70's evolution of Hard Rock and more than justified the inducement to "play loud".

And of course, that wouldn't hurt with tonight's tracks.

Headbangers this weekend. Nazareth were one of the "sweat bands" of the early 1970's. Hard Rock in the Led Zeppelin vein. Nazareth actually got started in the late 60's, the outgrowth from one of the many Beat Groups around at the time. But like their brethren Status Quo, switched from Beat/Psych/Pop to Hard Rock and paved the way for an eventual wave of Heavy Metal. But that's another era and another story.

Here is Nazareth just around the time they released Hair Of The Dog (an apt title for the amount of drinking going on). It was during this period of time they gained their biggest popularity in the U.S. and scored with several singles (most notably Love Hurts), but mostly their audience was FM Hard Rock and high voltage. This concert was recorded by the BBC in 1975 at the Paris Theater in London.

You can turn this up - but you probably don't need to be asked.

(Fishbone - exploded on the scene would be a good description)

Luckily for everyone Fishbone is still around and still playing. Although the personnel have changed a lot over the years, the concept of hardcore funk/punk/ska/ is still intact. A sort of Ska version of Parliament/Funkadelic would more or less begin to describe them. They were completely unique when they first landed on the scene in 1977. By the time they secured their first label deal (Sony) and their first single (Party At Ground Zero) they had a huge following and Party At Ground Zero has been a favorite song (even being touted as one of the 500 greatest rock tracks of all time) with a lot of people.

So I may be preaching to the choir tonight - but it's Friday (rapidly becoming Saturday) and it's the weekend and it's time to increase the voltage.

Play loud. Very loud.