ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA - "Concert at Birmingham NEC 1986 - Heartbeat 86"
National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, England
March 15th, 1986
Excellent Audience Recording
Notes: this is basically the audio from the television braodcast, which only included these 6 tracks. After reforming ELO for this charity event, Jeff Lynne and the band played three more show in July, they were: July 5th in London, July 12th in Dortmund, Germany and July 13th in Stuttgart, Germany. This would effectively spell the end of ELO for 30 years until Jeff reunited with keyboardist Richard Tandy to reform ELO with a cast of supporting musicians.
For the big finale former Beatle George Harrison hits the stage for a chaotic version of "Johnny B Goode" for which George forgets most of the words! Classic!
Jeff Lynne - lead vocals & guitar
Richard Tandy - keyboards
Bev Bevan - drums
Mik Kaminski - violin
Martin Smith - bass guitar
Dave Morgan - guitar
01 Introduction by Jasper Carott
02 Telephone Line
03 Do Ya
04 Rockaria
05 Hold On Tight
06 Don't Bring Me Down
07 Johnny B Goode (with George Harrison)
Wiki-Notes:
Heart Beat 86 was a benefit concert staged at the National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham, England, on March 15th, 1986. It was organised by Bev Bevan to raise money for Birmingham Children's Hospital.
Tickets for the sold-out concert cost £15.50 each (£12.00 being a "voluntary" donation). The show started at 3pm, with musicians and bands mostly from Birmingham performing until late into the evening. The concert saw performances from Steve Gibbons, The Rockin' Berries, The Move, Ruby Turner, The Applejacks, and The Fortunes. Roy Wood performed his festive hit "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day". Denny Laine sang "Go Now" and performed "Mull of Kintyre", which he co wrote. Robert Plant performed with the group Big Town Playboys. UB40 played the song "Red Red Wine", The Moody Blues did "Nights in White Satin", and ELO added "Don't Bring Me Down". The finale featured George Harrison and all the artists on stage, jamming to the standard "Johnny B. Goode".
Compères for the show were local comedian Jasper Carrott and Peter Powell, with appearances by Noddy Holder and Jim Davidson.
In the concert programme there was a good will message from Live Aid founder Bob Geldof, which finished with him writing "I send you all very best of luck and hope that you achieve your aims".
ELO actually performed an entire set which was:
Twilight
Evil Woman
Livin' Thing
Telephone Line
Rock Medley: Ma-Ma-Ma Belle, Do Ya & Rockaria!
Pop Medley: Sweet Talkin' Woman & Confusion
Turn To Stone
Rock 'N' Roll Is King
Calling America
Mr. Blue Sky
Hold On Tight
Don't Bring Me Down
Roll Over Beethoven
Birmingham Mail:
IT was the biggest surprise in the history of Birminghams National Exhibition Centre.
The Moody Blues had just left the stage of the NEC Arena; the chanting and cheering of the fans had started to die down; some grabbed their coats ready to beat the car park chaos.
Hold on, Jasper Carrott announced in those distinctive Brummie tones. We have just one more surprise for you. Someone you might have heard of.
His name is ... its someone called GEORGE HARRISON!
The former Beatles one and only appearance at the NEC was such a surprise that not even the other bands on the bill knew it was going to happen. Some were dumbfounded.
It came at the end of Heart Beat 86, the Midlands answer to Live Aid. Fans had already enjoyed the music of the Moodies, chart-toppers ELO, Led Zeppelins Robert Plant and many more.
UB40 turned out, as did Roy Wood, Ruby Turner, Denny Laine, Slade frontman Noddy Holder, the Steve Gibbons Band, and 60s Brumbeat legends The Fortunes, The Rockin Berries and The Applejacks.
Twenty-five years after the event, organiser Bev Bevan shakes his head in amazement that it all went almost to plan.
It was seeing Live Aid in 1985 that sparked the idea, he says. I thought I could do something similar although not on the same scale, of course for a local charity here in Brum.
Birmingham Childrens Hospital was the obvious contender at the time. It was in a bit of a state and needed a lot of work doing on it.
There was a walkway along which kids were transported on stretchers and in wheelchairs for operations but it was open to the elements.
Theyd be taken across there in the rain with the nurses holding umbrellas to get them into theatre. It was awful. Archaic even.
Barry Cleverdon was heading up the NEC at the time. Hed also been watching Live Aid and thought what a fantastic idea it would be to do something similar at the NEC.
When I phoned him, he was shocked. Wed both thought of the same thing at the same time. He was incredibly supportive and we got Terry Golding, the chief executive, on board.
They offered us the NEC and all the staffing, security and car parking for free. We were given a couple of dates because the NEC was very busy. But one of them was a Saturday night, and that was just the ticket.
Drummer Bev now had a venue. He had a date: Saturday March 15, 1986. But he had no acts to go on the bill, although his close pal Jasper Carrott immediately agreed to compere the show.
Pop supergroup ELO, with whom he had conquered the world, was on hold at the time.
I called Jeff Lynne and asked him to reform ELO for the occasion, recalls Bev. That was crucial. Once he agreed to do that, everything suddenly became fairly easy. The last time we had played the NEC wed sold out four nights.
I went through my address book with the same spiel: Were doing a show with ELO at the NEC. Would you like to be part of it? But youll have to play for free because its for the Childrens Hospital.
Amazingly, everybody said yes!
My first call was to my old mate Woody, then I rang the Moody Blues. The Applejacks agreed to reunite for the first time in 20 years to play for us. That was brilliant.
Roy was happy to play his own set, and we also planned a Move reunion. Wed got myself and Roy and Rick Price, but Carl Wayne couldnt do it because he had another commitment on the night.
That was the only bit of the show that didnt happen. But we made up for it with lots of unannounced acts. Ali Campbell did I Got You Babe with Ruby Turner, and other members of UB40 appeared, too.
Noddy Holder popped up as a presenter. He wouldnt sing he never does these days but he did join in the singalong at the end and yelled Happy Christmas Everybody. Dave Edmunds was another nice surprise.
There were other unexpected musical match-ups. Robert Plant teamed up with jump-jive band Big Town Playboys and brought the roof down with rabble-rousing rockabilly, rhythm and blues.
Were old pals, and fellow Wolves fans, says Bev. Robert organised the Big Town Playboys. Id never heard of them before the night of the show and they were brilliant.
Robert didnt want to do the old Zeppelin stuff. He still doesnt really. He could have made £50 million from a Led Zeppelin reunion tour the other year but he chose to go out on the road with a country band instead.
ELO played a barnstorming set including Telephone Line, Do Ya, Calling America, Hold On Tight, and furious finalé Dont Bring Me Down, a tough act for The Moody Blues to follow.
It was at the close that Harrison made his entrance, leading an all-star singalong of rock and roll standards such as Chuck Berrys Johnny B Goode and Barrett Strongs Money, which hed immortalised with The Beatles.
That was down to Jeff Lynne, says Bev. George and Jeff were pals. There hadnt been any whispers beforehand so it was a complete surprise for the audience.
And for the musicians, too. Even we didnt know he was going to be there. Jeff had said that was a slight possibility he might be able to get George to appear but thats all it ever was.
George didnt arrive until late so nobody saw him. He turned up at about 9pm while the show was in full swing. He hadnt done any soundcheck or rehearsal. It was that last minute!
The stage was packed not only with the bands but also the backroom team. They all wanted to be onstage with George Harrison. It was a thrill to see him singing with Robert and the rest. I was on a massive adrenalin rush, bouncing round the place.
The show was followed by a year-long charity campaign as the whole community got involved with everything from fun runs to coffee mornings. Local businesses donated prizes, even cars. Rock stars went round the shops rattling collection tins; the Heart Beat 86 logo a baby with a guitar drawn by Roy Wood appeared everywhere.
In the end we raised our target of £1 million, says Bev. That was a tidy sum back then. Would I do it again?
Yes, why not? But only if there was a good enough reason to do it.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/n59415...gham%20NEC.rar
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