World Party - All You Need is LIVE (comp)

The Best of the Live Versions

1990-2014

soundboard & FM recordings (quality:  VG+ to Ex)

SAMPLE: "Who Are You?" (live, posted 2015) - watch Karl & Co kick ass even after his aneurysm

ROB SEZ:  There I was, poking around in my archives. I was on the hunt for World Party studio rarities to share with you, and I kept finding fabulous live versions of WP songs. "OK," I eventually told myself, "these will become another comp." I used my usual criteria to keep or discard tracks: "Does this get me going?

"Does it raise my temperature or at least pique my interest? Is it a well-performed, but rarely-played, song?" If the answer to at least 2 of these was Yes, it was a keeper. (A few of these were released as B-sides, but they're now out of print and unavailable via official channels. About half of these come from lossy sources like webstreams.) Karl posted several of the tracks online and made others available to fans as authorized bootlegs back in the 1990s via his own website. After I settled on these 13 tracks, then came the fun part: sequencing. I ordered them strictly by intuition and how they flowed when I listened back. This is probably version 14 or so. 

HAPPY LISTENING

FLAC some lossy-sourced material

MP3@320

     

World Party - Give It All Away (rarities comp)

The Best of the Studio Rarities

soundboard recordings (quality: VG+ to EX)

SAMPLE TRACK 14 (1990s era studio demo)

TURN IT UP — and stay with it.

You really should own this one

Notes:

01 You're a Hurricane, I'm a Caravan (demo, undated) - just Karl at the piano

02 Ship of Fools (demo, partial 1984) - first time Karl ever recorded the song

03 Holy Water (vinyl-only B side) - inexplicably left off any album or comp

04 The Little Man Within (demo 1985) - "Gets Him mixed up with him"

05 All the Young Dudes (edit)+ - a soundtrack cut worth keeping

06 Penny Lane* - how does one guy DO all this?

07 Martha My Dear* - simply great

08 These Are the Days - this is a "leftover"?? (Dumbing Up DVD audio)

09 Little Bit of Perfection (outtake - Dumbing Up) - on the original LP, then cut

10 Nowhere Man* - early recording & rather simple, but it does the job

11 All You Need Is Love* - ditto my comment for Track 06

12 The Long & Winding Road* - if 1980s-era Prince covered the Fabs?

13 A World Without Love - written by 16 year-old Paul McCartney

14 Your Freedom - Rainy Days (demo 1990s) - worthy of a good listen; wow

15 Sunset - a studio jam, with guitars turned up to 11

All songs by Karl Wallinger, except: +David Bowie (by way of Mott the Hoople), *Lennon-McCartney

ROB SEZ:  The sprawling 5-CD Arkeology is a great thing, and every self-respecting World Party fan needs to have it, at least digitally. That said, I was uncomfortably aware that it left out a lot of strong material. So I did what I typically do: I hauled out my archive and looked for Karl's gems that didn't make it to the box set or the streaming services of Apple Music, Spotify, etc. So what you have here is about a disc's worth of RARE FINDS — and not the throwaway kind. Half are sourced from my own CD singles and vinyl, and the others are lossless captures of lossy webstreams of one sort or another. I doubt that even the most fervent fan has heard ALL of these. Track 14, for instance, is something I found recently when I was on my treasure hunt. A quick sidetrack: did Karl have a serious Beatles fetish or what? Answer: obviously! Yet I challenge you to name another artist who consistently pulled off Lennon-McCartney cover versions of such high quality and right feel — even when he radically revamped the music, as he did on track 12. There's plenty more out there that didn't make it into Arkeology. But I am convinced this is the rarest and best of the lot.

FLAC some lossy-sourced material

MP3@320

Stay tuned for a few more World Party shares.

My musical cupboards are emptying, but they're not bare yet.

 

   

World Party - Australasia to N. America (Live Sessions 1993)

Triple J Live at the Wireless 

Melbourne, Australia

April 1993

 

    and

 

World Cafe Live

Philadelphia, PA

June 1993

ROB SEZ:  I snagged these many years ago from Karl Wallinger's "The Joint" at one of his websites, either worldparty.net or karlwallinger.net. The overall sound quality range is VG- to VG. The exact date of each session is not known. The first set contains a true rarity: a live version of the beautiful B-side "No More Crying." The files came in the Apple-friendly M4A format, in high enough bitrate to be considered lossless. Upon checking the wave forms, however, it appears these are from lossy sources. Please note: I am posting them in FLAC, but only to prevent further sonic degradation from making lossy copies of lossy-sourced files.

FLAC lossless captures of lossy sources

 

MP3@320

World Party - 1993-09-29 Hamburg, GR (FM)

Grosse Freiheit 36

Hamburg, Germany

Sept. 29, 1993

  

FM recording (sound quality: VG+)

  

01 Private Revolution

02 Is It Like Today?

03 Put the Message in the Box 

04 Sooner or Later

05 Is It Too Late?

06 Radio Days

07 Mystery Girl

08 Thank You World

09 Sunshine

10 Love Street

11 All I Gave

12 Take It Up

13 Way Down Now

14 And God Said... > Give It All Away

15 Sweet Soul Dream

16 Ship of Fools

APPETIZER, ANYONE? "All I Gave"

ROB SEZ:  I picked up this bootleg CD at a lovely little music shop in Western Massachusetts a few years ago. I always thought the performance sounded strong, but the mix and/or mastering was iffy. Pulled it out the other day and tried a digital revision, which I think turned out well — so I'm sharing it with you.

The original source sounds like an FM recording or (less likely) the audio from a TV broadcast. I used compression and a bit of eq to enhance clarity and improve instrumental separation.

The setlist is noteworthy for the not-often-played nugget "All I Gave" and a sweet segue from a semi-acoustic version of "Thank You World" straight into "Sunshine."

PLEASE ENJOY.

Thanks yous are always welcome, y'all.

FLAC

MP3@320

    

World Party - 1997-07-24 New York, N.Y. (sbd)

“Sessions at West 54th” live recording 

Sony Music Studios 
New York, N.Y.
1997-07-24

 

soundboard recording (EX quality)

I sourced this one many years ago from a Karl Wallinger-maintained website via downloaded FLAC files. The lineage of the source files is unknown, but presumed to be from a digital copy very close to the soundboard master. This performance was recorded for what became Episode 15 in Season 1 of “Sessions at West 54th," the American public television series. It first aired Oct. 11, 1997. Sinead O’Connor was the other featured artist in the episode. Setlist FM says the taping happened on July 24th, 1997, in the midst of a World Party tour of U.S. east coast cities.

HAVE a LISTEN

SETLIST:

01 It Is Time

02 Beautiful Dream

03 Is It Like Today?

04 Vanity Fair

05 She's the One

06 Call Me Up

07 Put the Message in the Box

08 Way Down Now

09 (Tuning)

10 Vanity Fair (Take 2)

11 Put the Message in the Box

(Take 2)

12 (Talking)

13 (Talking)

14 (Talking)

15 Ship of Fools

ROB SEZ:  I downloaded this from either worldparty.net or karlwallinger.net, back when Karl was alive and well and prone to uploading goodies like this for fans like me to snag. You hear it as I received it: all I did was re-track, tag the files, and raise the levels on the talking in certain places to make it easier to hear what Karl is saying. I forgot just how smashingly good this recording is, sound and performance wise. There are too many highlights to list, but I especially like the killer set-closing Ship of Fools and the tight rhythm section and guitar-forward mix on Way Down Now. There's even a horn section on a few songs. If Karl had lived longer and looked for archival material to officially release, this would’ve been an easy contender. Karl and the band sound swaggeringly confident, they’re playing in a state-of-the-art NYC music studio, and the rather polite attendees sound more & more enthused as the performance rolls along. Now that we’re approaching the 29th anniversary (!) of the recording, the time seems right to get it out to anyone who remembers just how damn good Karl was. I like to think he’s hanging with Sly, John Lennon, and Prince somewhere very groovy right now.

FLAC

 

MP3@320

World Party - Arkeology Leftovers (more rarities)

(stuff that didn't make it onto the box set)

 

various dates & sources (most all from studio or demo sessions)

 

sound quality: VG+ to Ex
    

Karl Wallinger: the genius behind World Party
 photo by artolog via Flickr

NOTE: This set includes 3 previously unreleased Beatles covers. Sources for the tracks are too numerous to detail here. In general, some are from a previous incarnation of worldparty.net, the old karlwallinger.net, as well as the bonus DVD that came with the Seaview edition of Dumbing Up. Be prepared, though, since they’re all over the map re: sound quality, volume levels, bit rates, audio imperfections, etc. None is previously released, as far as official/commercial releases go.

ROB SEZ: Karl freaking Wallinger!! There was no other musician making rock and pop music in the 1980s and 90s more talented or under-appreciated than K.W. I can’t think of a single person I’d put above 'Mr. World Party'' with the possible exception of Prince. Abundant evidence for my claim can be found in this here post. These ‘leftovers’ (left off the reent 5-disc Arkeology box set — which is all rarities) would be the envy of many better-known artists. The Mrs. and I caught a WP live show in 2014, and Karl still had it. It's a huge loss that he's gone.

(Check the sample and get a 4-minute master class re: how to take a classic tune and make it one's own.)    
  

Karl & Co. play Chicago, IL in 2006
photo by Barry Brecheisen

01 Leave You to Find You

02 Don't B Late 4 2morrow

03 You're a Hurricane, 
     I'm a Caravan (demo)

04 Picture This (unfinished demo)

05 These Are the Days

06 Yeah Yeah Yeah

07 Nowhere Man

08 The Long & Winding Road

09 All You Need Is Love

10 Everybody Dance Now

11 Show Me to the Top (diff. mix)

12 Hollywood (groovy remix)

13 Strange Groove (live)

14 Photograph ('failed version')

15 Backwards for Your Love

16 (mystery track)

TT: 1:11:53

Special thanks to Scott for sharing tracks 1, 3, 4, 7-9

MP3 (variable bit rates)

World Party is Karl Wallinger ... and whomever he collaborates with. Just about everything you hear in this set is played, sung & produced by KW.

World Party’s most recent release is Arkeology, 

a 5-disc archival treasure trove 

(I own this, and I LOVE it. Read Bill Kopp's review 

of Arkeology at his Musoscribe blog HERE). 

Learn more about the music of Karl Wallinger and World Party at the official site and/or AllMusic

 
    

World Party - Amsterdam 1990 (FM)

Two FM broadcasts

The Roxy, Amsterdam, May 29, 1990 (tracks 1-11)

   &

The Paradiso, Amsterdam, Nov. 6, 1990 (tracks 12-16)

Karl & Co.: World Party, in their heyday. Karl’s still making music today.

FM captures (sound quality: VG+; transferred from master tapes)

EXTRA THANKS to frankvink for sharing.

    

Karl W, 1990s rock god on tour

01 Private Revolution

02 When the Rainbow Comes

03 All Come True

04 Put the Message In the Box

05 Is It Too Late?

06 God On Our Side

07 Way Down Now

08 Thank You World

09 Ballad of the Little Man (abbrev.)

10 Take It Up

11 Ship of Fools

   

12 All Come True

13 Put the Message In the Box

14 Sweet Soul Dream

15 Ain't Gonna Come 'Til I'm Ready

16 World Party

TT: 1:27:15

MP3@320

World Party:
Karl Wallinger - vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion 
Guy Chambers - keyboards
David Catlin Birch - bass, vocals 
Jeff Trott - lead guitar, vocals 
Chris Sharrock- drums, vocals 

       

WORLD PARTY - San Francisco 1990 & London 1994

The Warfield

San Francisco, CA

Sept. 10, 1990

       +

BBC Radio One

London, England
1994 (FM broadcast)

FM recordings (sound quality Ex-; both recordings sound like excellent FM captures or even better; judge for yourself — I think you’ll like what you hear)   
 

Highlights: great performances by a post-modern master of funky pop. Pick any track, have a listen, and start to feel a little more groovy… 

NOTE: 2 separate shows; 2 separate downloads

The Warfield, San Francisco, CA 1990-09-10

01 Private Revolution

02 All Come True

03 When The Rainbow Comes

04 Put The Message In The Box

05 Is It Too Late?

06 Love Street

07 World Party

08 Way Down Now

09 Thank You World

10 Take It Up

11 Ship Of Fools

MP3@224 kbps

World Party:

Karl Wallinger - vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion 
David Catlin Birch - guitar, vocals 
Jeff Trott - guitar, vocals 
Chris Sharrock- drums, vocals 
John Turnbull - bass, vocals

 

BBC Radio 1 broadcast, London, England 1994-XX-XX

01 Is It Like Today?

02 Put the Message In the Box

03 Sooner or Later

04 Is It Too Late?

05 Radio Days

06 Sweet Soul Dream

07 Love Street

08 Private Revolution

09 Take It Up

10 Way Down Now

11 And God Said...

12 Give It All Away (part 1)

13 Give It All Away (part 2)
 

MP3@256 kbps

World Party founder and frontman Karl Wallinger is making music again after a life- threatening illness. In recent years, he’s played live in North America and elsewhere. He’s reportedly been working on a new album, which we might get to hear later this year or in 2014. World Party’s Arkeology, a 5-disc archival treasure trove, is a huge gift to music fans (read Bill Kopp's review of Arkeology at his Musoscribe blog HERE). 

 

Learn more about the music of Karl Wallinger and World Party at the official site and/or AllMusic