Under Review: Bonnie Tyler’s Live Albums
Bonnie Tyler has an exciting new release on the horizon: In Berlin, set to debut in April via earMUSIC. This anticipated album comprises seventeen electrifying tracks captured during Bonnie’s sold-out Between the Earth and the Stars Live Tour performance at Berlin’s Admiralspalast on May 8, 2019. Notably, this marks the first comprehensive live album to feature Bonnie’s full-time touring band.
Live albums offer a unique opportunity to immortalize a singular moment in time. They have the power to reimagine familiar songs, presenting them in a fresh context. However, achieving the perfect balance can be challenging. Stray too close to the original recordings, and listeners may feel it adds little value. Conversely, deviate too far with extended riffs and solos, and you risk losing their interest. Yet, it is precisely these imperfections and spontaneous moments that lend live albums their authentic charm.
With the anticipation surrounding In Berlin, let’s take a moment to revisit Bonnie’s previous live recordings: Bonnie Tyler Live and Live in Germany 1993. Each of these albums offers a unique glimpse into Bonnie’s unparalleled stage presence and vocal power.
When Bonnie released her pop-rock album Wings in 2005, she brought the session musicians on tour across Europe. One of their earliest gigs together was at La Cigale in Paris, where Bonnie celebrated her 54th birthday on stage. The set list included numerous tracks from Wings and her previous album, Simply Believe. Kareen Antonn joined Bonnie on stage to perform their no. 1 hit “Si demain… (Turn Around)”, which had dominated the French charts in the previous year. Around two thirds of the concert made it onto Bonnie’s first ever live album, released in July 2006.
Her live album, and accompanying DVD, Bonnie on Tour, also showcased snippets from Bonnie’s headline performance at the Fiestas del Pilar, an annual festival held in Zaragoza, Spain. Recorded on October 10, 2005, this free event, hosted by the Spanish branch of M80 Radio, drew a crowd of over 10,000 enthusiastic fans. Bonnie’s magnetic stage presence and the crowd’s palpable energy led to an extended set list, with the band improvising encore after encore, even revisiting some of Bonnie’s biggest hits like “Holding Out for a Hero” and “It’s a Heartache” multiple times! The night concluded with a heartfelt acapella rendition of Joe Cocker’s classic “You Are So Beautiful,” leaving the audience spellbound.
Three standout performances – “If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man),” “Simply Believe,” and “Here She Comes” – found their way onto both the DVD and live album. Bonnie herself expressed a preference for the footage from the Spanish concert over the Parisian one, attributing it to the standing-room-only atmosphere, which fostered a deeper connection with the audience.
AllMusic hails Bonnie Tyler Live as a definitive highlight in Bonnie’s illustrious career, lauding it as an “excellent concert album” that offers fans a glimpse into the mesmerizing experience of a Bonnie Tyler concert.
In 2011, ZYX Music, a German label, unveiled Live in Germany 1993, a CD/DVD compilation capturing performances from the renowned TV show Live aus dem Schlachthof (“Live from the Slaughterhouse”). Filmed in Frankfurt and broadcasted by hr-fernsehen and Bayerischer Rundfunk, the show featured a lineup of notable 90s bands, including The Verve, Crowded House, and New Model Army.
Bonnie’s setlist for the occasion included favourites like “To Love Somebody” and “Hide Your Heart,” alongside newer tracks such as “Race to the Fire” and the fan-favourite “Where Were You.” Due to programming constraints and varying broadcast standards across different TV channels, some of Bonnie’s performances during the Live aus dem Schlachthof event may have been truncated or omitted entirely. Consequently, tracks like “Bitterblue” and “God Gave Love to You” were absent from the officially licensed CD/DVD release by ZYX Music. However, fans can still access these missing clips on YouTube, sourced from alternative TV channel broadcasts. It’s likely that ZYX Music licensed an edited version of the concert rather than the full performance.
Mastering old television footage for commercial distribution presents numerous challenges, often leading to compromised audio quality. Consequently, the album has a largely compressed sound and lacks dynamic range. It’s important to acknowledge that the footage was originally intended for television broadcast and may not have been optimized for commercial release on CD and DVD almost two decades later. Nonetheless, despite these limitations, the album remains a valuable artifact of Bonnie’s live performance history, providing insights into her touring activities in the early 90s.
Details about Bonnie’s upcoming live album will be shared soon.
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