A band whose name may not initially ring any bells, but certain key people involved do. The Tourists were a short-lived Punk/Post-Punk band featuring singer Annie Lennox and guitarist Dave Stewart. Together from 1977 until 1980 (just after this concert, by the way), The Tourists were moderately successful, but nowhere nearly as successful as The Eurythmics who emerged when the former band dissolved.

Here is one of their concerts, recorded by The BBC in 1980, and one of the last the band would perform together before splitting. The voice of Annie Lennox is unmistakable and it's interesting to hear in this early stage of her career.

The Tourists were a good band. Guided by the excellent and forward-thinking production of Conny Plank (whose work in the early 70's was closely associated with many of the ground-breaking German Progressive bands a the time), they were a cut above a lot of what was going on at the time and, in retrospect would be considered overlooked, had it not been for the remarkable success of Lennox and Stewart as the powerhouse Eurythmics in the early 1980's.

But that's another story. For now, it's The Tourists live in concert.

Dipping into some early 60's vintage Americana this weekend with the legendary Kingston Trio, recorded live at The Hollywood Bowl during the Summer of 1961. This was the first Hollywood Bowl appearance of the new Trio lineup, with John Stewart having joined after the exit of founding member Dave Guard in April of that year. It's interesting because I ran sometime back a Hollywood Bowl concert featuring Dave Guard's Whiskey Hill Singers, which was the Hollywood Bowl debut of that band also in 1961. I also ran the first part of this concert a few weeks ago as part of Newstalgia Downbeat as it featured opening acts The Dave Brubeck Quartet along with Keely Smith (also making her Hollywood Bowl solo debut).

This is solidly in that period of time when Folk music had taken on massive popular appeal and many groups made the crossover from strictly Folk music to a sort of Folk/Pop hybrid that would eventually morph into Folk/Rock some years later.

The popularity of the Folk genre would fade over time, particularly at the onset of The British Invasion in 1964. But elements were rescued when Folk/Rock emerged with a whole different set of practitioners. But just about every one of them took their nod from The Kingston Trio.

So here they are with the complete set as it was recorded - never available commercially or even thought to have existed. Rescued from the dumpster a couple of decades ago, and preserved to let you know what it actually sounded like.

It's 1961 all over again - at least for the next hour.

(The Style Council - sly political sendup)

Since we at Newstalgia take requests, I've had several over the past few weeks for some 80's bands. Needless to say, I ran across this concert from the BBC featuring 80's icons The Style Council and I didn't think twice.

A great band that didn't have the same appeal over here as they did in the UK, probably having more to do with the Thatcher Years and political statements germane to the UK than the U.S. - the whole concept behind The Style Council was taking the Punk/Mod ethos that was The Jam (Paul Weller's previous group) and weaving it into a highly conservative appearing setting, adapting that wonderful concept known as "taking the piss".

The result was wildly successful, but mostly misunderstood over here. Like I said, we didn't have Thatcher and our idea of class consciousness isn't the same. So it fell largely on perplexed ears.

But in 1984, Style Council were riding the crest of a wave and this concert captures them right there.

Enjoy.

(Georgie Fame and The Blue Flames - In 1964 riding the epitome of cool)

(The Rolling Stones - in 1964 - not fooling anybody with the squeaky clean act)

If I haven't already screamed the praises of BBC 6 Music on an almost daily basis, forgive me. Without them a lot of incredible and incredibly rare material would probably never see the light of day. Because of that, you really need to bookmark their site and refer to it every few hours or so and prepare to be amazed.

This weeks installment of the Backstage Weekend takes us back to 1964 and a recently discovered program that hasn't been heard since it first aired on the BBC World Service March 18, 1964. Called The Mike Raven Rhythm & Blues Show it featured, at the time, many of the up-and-comers from the British Invasion period. As far as I can gather, Mike Raven is actually a pseudonym for Alexis Korner who sings one song with the Blue Flames. The half hour show is pretty evenly split between Georgie Fame and The Rolling Stones. Georgie Fame is probably not as well known now as the co-billed band, but in 1964 he had a top ten hit in the U.S. (Yeah-Yeah) and a pretty good following in Europe. The Rolling Stones were slowly evolving. Still very much in the Chicago Blues mold and featuring co-founder Brian Jones on guitar, they played mostly covers of other songs and hadn't really hit yet in the U.S. (It's All Over Now, they're first big hit really didn't until around August, if I remember). So this is an interesting, and very historic glimpse of a band on the way up and what the scene was generally like in the U.K. on a typical March day in 1964.

And it's in stereo.

(Buffalo Springfield - 1967 - Back by popular demand - the whole set)

One of my first Backstage Weekend posts for Newstalgia was a Hollywood Bowl performance by The Buffalo Springfield from April 29, 1967. Significant in that it was the first public performance of "Mister Soul" (recorded a few days earlier) and one of the few recordings surviving from the period of the band during their prime. At the time I did the post all we had was You Tube and I was restricted to a 10 minute lump of that concert. And so only Mister Soul made it. But a few months later, when C&L got the new snappy embed player, I promised everyone who asked that I would make available the whole set, unedited.

Response to the first playing of the set was so overwhelming, even Neil Young included that recording of Mister Soul on his latest boxset. Needless to say, I was really happy to oblige.

Just be aware, if you haven't heard this yet - there are some bad technical glitches, which explains why it has never been issued. Not only is the Hollywood Bowl sound system crude by todays standards with lots of distortion, there's a nice high-pitched squeal which goes through the whole show, which I found out later was an ungrounded radio mike.

But with all the technical problems, one thing stands out - and that's a historic performance by a legendary band during a pivotal time in our music culture.

And that, I think is worth putting up with some distortion, squeals and bad mixes - don't you?

Enjoy and Happy New Year everyone!

(Duke Ellington - aka: National Treasure)

A repost from 2009, but you may have missed it the first time around. A previously unheard and unknown, recently discovered performance by Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra, along with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic live at Hollywood Bowl from August 25, 1966.

Get comfortable and have a listen.

(Newstalgia Goes Country . . . .well, for twenty minutes anyway)

A big departure from previous Backstage Weekend entries. I admit to not being much of a Country-Western fan, outside of the Willie Nelson/Waylon Jennings/Johnny Cash/Merle Haggard school and almost didn't put it up this weekend. But the Haggard set changed my mind.

This tape came as a complete surprise - sitting in the vault with only a date(September 9, 1967) and "Reel One" written on its spine, I was pretty clueless as to the contents.

Turns out, it's a concert featuring all acts on Capitol Records Country-Western roster (along with Buck Owens, Tex Ritter and several others) performing at The Hollywood Bowl.

The Glen Campbell set is interesting in that he was still pretty much straddling Pop as well as Country music, doing his rendition of Roy Orbison's "Crying" and his, at the time, latest single "Gentle On My Mind".

Merle Haggard has an abbreviated set. Abbreviated because the tape ran out in the middle of a song featuring Bonnie Owens. Presumably there is more on "reel 2", and as soon as I find it, I will put it on.

But for now here is the Glen Campbell and most of the Merle Haggard sets from the concert of September 9, 1967.

(Merle Haggard in 1967 - well on his way to achieving Legend status)

(Never standing still long enough to be pigeon-holed)

(This is a repost from last year - but since the handy-dandy Newstalgia House Computer is dead, we have to put these up until it gets back to normal. Bear with us. Gordon)

Something of a change of pace this week. Several years ago I got a collection of tapes in via KSAN-FM in San Francisco. A group of recordings featuring a wide sampling of bands playing live in the Bay Area at various local venues from the mid-late 1960's. Most all of these recordings have been reissued in one way or another either via legit labels or the underground tape circuit.

This particular set, the Byrds from The Avalon Ballroom in November of 1968 is from one of three nights they performed there. From what I have seen, there is a recording available from November 2nd, but I haven't heard it and can't say for sure if this is the same or not (Byrds experts - set me straight).

The Byrds have always been one of my favorite local L.A. bands, having been a fan of theirs since the early days as Americas answer to the British invasion. Unlike a lot of bands from the period, The Byrds were always evolving - going from one area of musical influence to another. It was sometimes frustrating but never boring, and the people coming and going from The Byrds was a virtual who's who in music. But the one constant was Roger McGuinn, whose voice and 12-string guitar were unique and indelible.

So here is a set consisting of "Jesus Is Just Alright" "So You Want To Be A Rock n' Roll Star", "Goin' Back" and "This Wheel's On Fire"

Two concerts this week as they both run a bit short, but they are both great and both from 1974.

First up - before he just went as Peter Frampton, Frampton's Camel had just come on the scene. A veteran of many bands, including The Herd and Humble Pie, Peter Frampton had established himself as one of the most respected guitarists of the early 1970's. Having just come back from the U.S. on a tour promoting their first album, the band performs here in London's Paris Theater in 1974 and just before the release of their second album. It's interesting to consider that, a little less than a year later, Peter Frampton would achieve Mega-Pop star status with his Frampton Comes Alive double album and his fortunes would change dramatically. Here he is just at the edge of that success playing to an appreciative crowd at what sounds like a relaxed radio-only gig from the BBC.

Our second concert is a rather short one. Clocking in at a little less than 15 minutes, it's too short to be a full concert and too long to be one of the nightly Roundtable picks. But The Groundhogs were one of the truly great power trios to emerge from the late 1960's and achieve critical success throughout the early 1970's. This set also comes from 1974 right around the time between "Thank Christ For The Bomb" and "Who Will Save The World?"

The Groundhogs had a reputation all through the 60's as one of the great heavy blues bands. By the time of this concert, they had become a three-piece, almost Power Trio but their bottom line was still heavy blues. They've often been mistaken for early Heavy Metal but, aside from the 3-piece lineup they don't have much in common with the Heavy Metal bands we've come to know over the years.

Here they are, also from The Paris Theater and also for a radio-only audience at The BBC in 1974.

My suggestion is to play both very loud and invite the neighbors.

Some Reggae tonight by way of Third World and a concert recorded by the BBC at the Hammersmith Odeon in London in 1982.

Certainly as popular in the States as they are in the UK and of course their native Jamaica, Third World have had string of hits going back to the early 1970's.

They're still going strong today. But I managed to grab this concert from 1982 to get you up to speed in case you missed any of the earlier stuff.

Never too late to make a discovery if you haven't already this week.