Ten absolutely stunning live albums from the 1970s

Wings - Wings Over America

Wow, a triple album of Paul McCartney and Wings live from the US during their Wings Over The World Tour. Released in December 1976 this is an extensive collection of Wings music from their albums, with a handful of Beatles and McCartney solo songs in there too. This was McCartney's first live tour in the US for ten years, so it's a pretty big event for him too.

Wings as a band sound very tight-knit on this. Some of the performances on the album sound even better than on the original Wings releases. I always loved Venus And Mars as an album and the tracks from there are lifted a notch further in performance terms when live.

Over the space of a triple album, you'd perhaps expect a couple of lower points and that's the case here too. Who chose “Solly” as a closer for example? But on the whole, the live show sounds immense on this album and reminds us how huge this tour was for McCartney and what a body of work he had post The Beatles. 

Deep Purple - Made In Japan

Classic UK rockers Deep Purple really hit the mark with this 1972 release. It has their top lineup, Ian Paice, Jon Lord, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, and Richie Blackmore, all in excellent form. The band hadn't been keen on releasing a live album fearing it wouldn't properly capture their onstage show. Their record company in Japan persuaded them otherwise and it was recorded on tour there.

There was a mixed response to the album, but that's just from the band! Blackmore apparently has never listened to it. Paice reckoned it's probably the best live rock n roll album ever made. Many fans would agree. It includes some of their best songs and the quality of the performances and the record is high.