Concerts for the People of Kampuchea | |
---|---|
Live album by Various Artists | |
Released | 30 March 1981 |
Recorded | 26–29 December 1979 |
Venue | Hammersmith Odeon, London |
Genre | Rock |
Length | 79:30 |
Label | Atlantic |
Producer | Chris Thomas |
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Robert Christgau | B+ [2] |
Concerts for the People of Kampuchea is a double album credited to Various Artists and released in March 1981. [3] It contains live performances by Wings, the Who, Queen, Elvis Costello, Pretenders, the Clash, the Specials and other artists from the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea, held at London's Hammersmith Odeon in December 1979 to raise money for the victims of war-torn Cambodia. The event was organised by Paul McCartney and Kurt Waldheim.
The album starts with four songs from the Who (culled from a 3-hour set list) and finishes with three songs from Wings and three from the all-star line-up called Rockestra. A selection of the best performances from the concerts was compiled and released as a film, Concert for Kampuchea .
Rockestra was a Paul McCartney-led supergroup of at least thirty English rockers. The credited list appears at the bottom of the back cover of the LP. The name was first given to an assemblage of famous rock stars that were brought together by McCartney for the final Wings album, 1979's Back to the Egg . The supergroup – which consisted of Wings, John Paul Jones and John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, David Gilmour from Pink Floyd, Ronnie Lane of the Faces, Kenney Jones and Pete Townshend of the Who, and Hank Marvin of the Shadows – recorded two McCartney compositions, the instrumental "Rockestra Theme" and "So Glad to See You Here".
Then, McCartney and Kurt Waldheim re-assembled Rockestra for a series of benefit concerts for the people of Cambodia (also known as Kampuchea), suffering from the reign of Pol Pot. This time, Rockestra consisted of, among others, Wings, John Paul Jones, Bonham, Robert Plant, Rockpile, James Honeyman-Scott and Townshend. Hank Marvin was not available and Gilmour for tax reasons had to decline, as he was with the rest of Pink Floyd in Los Angeles, California, where they were in the midst of rehearsing for an upcoming concert tour for the just released Pink Floyd album The Wall .
Despite the all-star lineup and charting within the Top 40, it remains one of McCartney's few projects to never receive a remaster or a CD release.
Album
Chart (1981) | Position |
---|---|
US Billboard 200 [4] | 36 |
Album track
Year | Title | Chart | Position |
---|---|---|---|
1981 | Little Sister | US Billboard Top Tracks | 8 |
The Pretenders are a British-American rock band formed in March 1978. The original band consisted of founder and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde, James Honeyman-Scott, Pete Farndon and Martin Chambers. Following the deaths of Honeyman-Scott in 1982 and Farndon in 1983, the band experienced numerous personnel changes; Hynde has been the band's only continuous member.
Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend is an English musician. He is the co-founder, guitarist, second lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s. His aggressive playing style and poetic songwriting techniques, with the Who and in other projects, have earned him critical acclaim.
Back to the Egg is the seventh and final studio album by the British-American rock band Wings, released in June 1979 on Parlophone in the UK and Columbia Records in North America. Co-produced by Chris Thomas, the album reflects band leader Paul McCartney's embracing of contemporary musical trends such as new wave and punk, and marked the arrival of new Wings members Laurence Juber and Steve Holley. Back to the Egg adopts a loose conceptual theme around the idea of a working band, and its creation coincided with a period of considerable activity for the group, which included making a return to touring and work on several television and film projects.
James McCulloch was a Scottish musician best known for playing lead guitar and bass as a member of Paul McCartney's band Wings from 1974 to 1977. McCulloch was a member of the Glasgow psychedelic band One in a Million, Thunderclap Newman, and Stone the Crows.
Spike is the 12th studio album by English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, released in 1989 by Warner Bros. Records. It was his first album for the label and first release since My Aim Is True with no appearance by the Attractions. It peaked at No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart and also reached the Billboard 200 at No. 32, thanks to the single and his most notable American hit, "Veronica", which reached No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the US Modern Rock chart. In The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll for the year's best albums, Spike finished at No. 7.
Raymond Cooper is an English musician who has worked as a session and road-tour percussionist. During his career, Cooper has worked and toured with numerous musically diverse bands and artists including Elton John, Harry Nilsson, Billy Joel, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, David Gilmour, Roger Waters and Art Garfunkel. Cooper absorbed the influence of rock drummers from the 1960s and 1970s such as Ginger Baker, Carmine Appice and John Bonham.
Jon Carin is an American musician, singer, songwriter and producer. He has collaborated with acts including Pink Floyd, the Who, Eddie Vedder, Kate Bush and Richard Butler.
Flowers in the Dirt is the eighth solo studio album by Paul McCartney. The album was released on 5 June 1989 on Parlophone, as he was embarking on his first world tour since the Wings Over the World tour in 1975–76. It earned McCartney some of his best reviews for an album of original songs since Tug of War (1982). The album made number one in the United Kingdom and Norway and produced several hit singles. The album artwork was a collaboration between artist Brian Clarke, who painted the canvas and arranged the flowers, and Linda McCartney, who produced the cover photography.
James Honeyman-Scott was an English rock guitarist, songwriter and founder member of the band the Pretenders.
Christopher P. Thomas is an English record producer who has worked extensively with the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Procol Harum, Roxy Music, Badfinger, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, Pulp and the Pretenders. He has also produced breakthrough albums for the Sex Pistols, the Climax Blues Band, the Pretenders and INXS.
The Concert for Kampuchea is a musical film from the best of the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea. The film was directed by Keith McMillan and was 4 nights of concerts in Hammersmith Odeon to raise money for Cambodia. The event was organized by Paul McCartney and Kurt Waldheim, and it involved well-established artists such as McCartney, The Who and Queen as well as younger punk and new wave acts like The Clash and The Pretenders. The film finishes with the presentation of Wings' Rockestra. Filmed in 1979, Concert for Kampuchea did not receive American theatrical distribution until it was picked up by Miramax in 1988.
On 23 November 1979, Paul McCartney's band Wings began a 19-date concert tour of the United Kingdom to promote their recent album, Back to the Egg.
"Rockestra Theme" is the fourth and final single on Wings' final studio album Back to the Egg.
"Lucille" is a 1957 rock and roll song originally recorded by American musician Little Richard. Released on Specialty Records in February 1957, the single reached number 1 on the Billboard R&B chart, 21 on the US pop chart, and number 10 on the UK chart. It was composed by Albert Collins and Little Richard. First pressings of Specialty 78rpm credit Collins as the sole writer. Little Richard bought half of the song's rights while Collins was in Louisiana State Penitentiary.
"Window in the Skies" is a song by Irish rock band U2 and is one of two new songs featured on their 2006 compilation album U218 Singles. It was released on 1 January 2007 as the album's second single. It was recorded in September 2006 at Abbey Road Studios in London and produced by Rick Rubin. The song was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.
Concerts for the People of Kampuchea was a series of concerts featuring Wings, Queen, the Clash, the Pretenders, the Who, Elvis Costello, and many more artists which took place at the Hammersmith Odeon in London during December 1979 to raise money for the victims of war-torn Cambodia. The event was organised by Paul McCartney and Kurt Waldheim, and it involved artists such as McCartney and the Who as well as punk acts like the Clash and the Pretenders. The last of the concerts was the last concert of Wings. An album and EP were released in 1981, and the best of the concerts were released as a film, Concert for Kampuchea.
Jody Linscott is an American session musician and percussionist who resides in England and maintains an extended discography. She has two daughters Kachina Dechert and Coco Linscott and has written two children's books which were published by Doubleday, both edited by Jackie Onassis. Linscott has written several songs to accompany the books.
Live Stiffs Live is a live album released in 1978 by Stiff Records. It compiles concert performances by several of the record label's artists recorded during the "Live Stiffs Tour", which ran from 3 October to 5 November 1977.
The Concert for Linda was a benefit tribute to Linda McCartney, wife of Paul McCartney. It was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 10 April 1999. Linda McCartney died after a long battle with cancer nearly a year earlier, when she was 56. They were married for 29 years.