If you missed Coachella this year, I think it's safe to say it kicked off what will be a very interesting and exciting Summer Festival season. And this weekend's post will be starting up with concerts going on, hopefully until the end of Summer.

First up is Arctic Monkeys from the first weekend (April 13th) and one of their typically high-voltage sets.

Here's what you'll be hearing:

1. Brianstorm
2.This House Is a Circus
3.Still Take You Home
4. Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair
5.The View From the Afternoon
6.I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
7.Pretty Visitors
8.Evil Twin
9.Brick by Brick
10.Teddy Picker
11.Crying Lightning
12.Fluorescent Adolescent
13.R U Mine?

Turn it up, kick back and relax. Try and hit a festival this year if you can, there's a lot of them. Nothing beats live music anywhere, anyhow. But since you can't be everywhere, we'll fill you in on what you're missing.

Fair 'nuff?

In case you missed the fundraiser earlier and still want to contribute to keep the archive and Newstalgia up and running. Anything is appreciated and its gratefully received.

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.

We hit the 25% mark just about an hour ago. I can't begin to thank all of you for the kindness and support you've given to help keep Newstalgia up and posting, and helping keep the archive alive to bring it all back to you. Keep it going. Give what you can - any amount is gratefully received and my appreciation to you is beyond words. If you haven't donated yet, please consider it, whatever you can. We've got some ways to go, but we're a lot farther along than we were when we started. You're making it happen!

As I promised a few days ago when I first heard the sad news of the passing of Levon Helm, one of the true greats of music, here is concert by The Band, during their reunion tour of 1983. Recorded live in Chicago on July 1, 1983.

The Band always stood out - they were different - they were special. They came to symbolize the true essence of Rock and Roots music, without all the pretense and fakery. They were the real deal. And their music was memorable and continues to leave its impression on countless musicians coming up in the ranks.

They were one of a kind, and founder and linchpin Levon Helm made it all happen. He will be sorely missed, but his contribution to the world will be around until they stop playing music. Which, with any luck, will be never.

Thank you for all those days and all those years.

And here's a reminder.

Another one of those bands I first discovered early on in their career via the old My Space (when it was relevant), when they hadn't been signed to a label yet, still gigging around and were just getting their act together.

And now, some four years later, they have become huge. It thrills me no end when good people make it, and I have always had this gut-level feeling Mumford & Sons were destined for big stuff. Clearly, they are in that direction.

I love hunches, especially when they pay off - which I can't say all the time.

This weekend it's Mumford Sons, live at the Haldern Pop Festival in Germany, recorded on August 13, 2010 and featuring an enthusiastic crowd going along for the ride.

Enjoy the weekend - it's just getting started.

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.

It occurred to me that, in all the time I've had Newstalgia and featured the Backstage Weekend, I haven't put up any Patti Smith either in the studio or in concert. There's an incredible amount to choose from - and all of it one form of milestone or another. But this tape jumped out at me, so I thought starting as close to the early days as possible was probably a good idea.

So this weekend's concert comes from The Cellar Door in Washington D.C. and was recorded in January 1976. The setting seems intimate and the audience doesn't sound overflowing - that would change shortly.

So as a reminder of just what all the excitement was about, here is that set from the Cellar Door.

Enjoy.

Since I ran a Blur concert the other week, and made mention of the fact that there was an intense popularity battle between them and Oasis (mostly press generated, one imagines), it was only natural I follow up with an Oasis concert to balance things out. Oasis were something of a huge worldwide phenomenon lasting a good ten years before dissolving into sibling bickering and fist fights between the Gallagher Brothers, who founded the band in the early 90's and eventually ended by not speaking to each other since 2009. While they were in their heyday they did manage to crank out a large amount of completely memorable (if not somewhat derivative of another huge worldwide phenomenon of another generation, The Beatles) songs and sellout venues in just about every corner of the globe.

In the odd event you missed them the first time around, or were otherwise preoccupied, here is a concert from that heyday period, given at Earl's Court in London on November 5, 1995.

The concert is complete and runs over 90 minutes. So, as is my custom to do with the Newstalgia Mid-Week Concerts on Wednesdays, I am splitting this one in half as well. With the first hour (give or take) on the top player, and the last 30-45 minutes on the bottom player.

The sound is absolutely wonderful and the band are in obvious fine form. You can't go wrong with that.

Enjoy.

The problems associated with early live recordings of bands, particularly Rock bands, of the 60's, had mostly to do with the limitations of technology brought on by PA systems just not being able to handle the level of sound. It was very rare for an engineer at the time to actually record a band performance because, again, the limitations of technology and portable equipment were in their infancy. So a lot of early performance recordings were done by people in the audience, using battery powered reel-to-reel machines that were small enough to carry around on your shoulder, a microphone stuck in front of a stage speaker and hoping for the best because you couldn't hear anything once the band got started. And that's how the Bootleg industry was born.

Or, the local radio outlet would send a recording team and a truck loaded with equipment parked outside the venue and sometimes their own Sound system, and a decent recording was made and everybody was happy. Sometimes the band would release that live performance as an album and then the record company was happy. As time went on the technology evolved and companies such as the forward thinking Tychobrahe pioneered concert sound and the world was happy.

This weekend's Backstage is a performance that was recorded by one of those radio outlets. Sveriges Radio, the network in Sweden, sent a team to record the newly formed Traffic, who were performing in Stockholm in September of 1967.

Here is what you'll be hearing:

Traffic - Stockholm - Sept 12, 1967
Sveriges Radio

1. Giving To You
2. Smiling Phases
3. Coloured Rain
4. Hole In My Shoe
5. Feelin' Alright
6. Paper Sun
7. Dear Mr. Fantasy

Line up: Steve Winwood Dave Mason Chris Wood Jim Capaldi

Traffic during their exciting, formative period. Around the time their first album was released.

The sound is surprisingly good but a little quiet in places (particularly during announcements). But for a historic document, a wonderful glimpse into a band that went on to become a legend in Rock, whose music is still enjoyed and discovered by new fans, this is quite amazing.

Enjoy.

Something of a rarity this weekend; Marvin Gaye, live at Budokan Hall in Tokyo. Recorded by NHK-Japan and broadcast November 13, 1979.

Time to take a Soul break and get back to basics.

I don't have to tell you about Marvin Gaye - you know. And if you don't - you need to check this concert out. One of the true legends of Soul and one of the world's most gifted songwriters.

'Nuff said.

Taking a break from Festivals the week for an appreciation of one of the world's great Soul/Funk geniuses. Curtis Mayfield, live in Concert from Nottingham, England and recorded by The BBC on February 18, 1984.

Mayfield is probably best known for his soundtrack to SuperFly, but his legend goes back way further than that. As a member of the R&B Vocal group, The Impressions, he was responsible for such 60's anthems as Amen, People Get Ready and a string of other hits.

As an artist, writer and producer, he pioneered that combination of Soul, Funk and Consciousness raising that was such am integral part of the '70's and '80's in music.

Here is a rundown of this week's concert:

Curtis Mayfield - 1984-02-18 Nottingham,England
Venue: Marcus Garvey Centre

Setlist:
1. Mighty Mighty, Spade and Whitey (5:58)
2. Gypsy Woman (3:34)
3. All Night Long (6:00)
4. People Get Ready (2:39)
5. Superfly (3:45)
6. Freddy's Dead (4:54)
7. Move On Up (7:05)
8. We Gotta Have Peace (5:27)

Enjoy the long weekend and don't get crazy out there.