The Who Live at Leeds

Rushed out in 1970 as a way to bide time as the Who toiled away on their follow-up to Tommy, Live at Leeds wasn't intended to be the definitive Who live album, and many collectors maintain that the band had better shows available on bootlegs. But those shows weren't easily available whereas Live at Leeds was, and even if this show may not have been the absolute best, it's so damn close to it that it would be impossible for anybody but aficionados to argue. Here, the Who sound vicious - as heavy as Led Zeppelin but twice as volatile - as they careen through early classics with the confidence of a band that had finally achieved acclaim but had yet to become preoccupied with making art. In that regard, this recording - in its many different forms - may have been perfectly timed in terms of capturing the band at a pivotal moment in its history…

Following on the heels of the success of the rock opera Tommy and the band’s grandstand appearance at the Woodstock Festival, when released in 1970, Live At Leeds unwittingly documented the Who at the peak of their powers, their shows now stretching up to two and a half hours without a break and containing Tommy as their centrepiece.
Except it should have been very different. The original intention was to release the recording from the Hull City Hall performance the following night after Leeds as the live album.

This double CD is pretty similar in sound and content to the expanded Live at Leeds album, except there's much more from Tommy, and a few semi-obscure numbers like "I Don't Even Know Myself," "Water," and "Naked Eye." Hardcore Who fanatics seem to prefer Live at Leeds, which was recorded only a few months before this material. That viewpoint is understandable: the performances are sharper on Leeds, and if you're not a big-league fan, that single-disc set is a more economical survey of the band in concert during this era. If you do like the Who a lot, though, Isle of Wight is worth having. The sound and performances are decent, although be aware that the band's on-stage version of Tommy omits some decent songs from the opera, such as "Sensation" and "Underture."

One imagines that this collection was aimed at the total neophyte listener - taken in any other context, this is an odd collection of single sides by one of the premiere singles bands of the 1960s and early '70s. Does it start at the beginning, with either "I'm the Face" or "I Can't Explain"? No. Does it encompass many of the freestanding singles issued by this band through 1972? No. Does it even offer any of the less well-known single sides from that period? No - apart from the three-and-a-half-minute single edit of "Won't Get Fooled Again," which was hardly a sterling example of the format or the genre. Instead, listeners get all of the most familiar hits, albeit in their original mono mixes where relevant: "Substitute," "I'm a Boy," "Pictures of Lily," "I Can See for Miles," "Pinball Wizard," "Squeeze Box," etc.

Although this nugget clocks in at only a hair over half-an-hour, it reveals the Groundhogs at what was arguably the crest of the Brit blues power trio's creative peak. The band featured the strong sonic personalities of Tony T.S. McPhee (guitar/vocals), Peter Cruickshank (bass) and Ken Pustelnik. Their straight-ahead heavy rock was more than a simple extension of 12-bar blues as their penchant for incendiary improvisation and strong original material rate among their assets. Live at Leeds '71 was recorded on April 13, 1971 as they opened up a series of U.K. concerts for the Rolling Stones. According to urban legend, this live set was documented and pressed in a very limited edition at the behest of Mick Jagger, and as a professional courtesy of sorts…

On April 20 Universal Music are releasing a 3-LP / 2-CD set of The Who’s stunning 1968 live performance at Bill Graham’s Fillmore East theatre in New York.

This rock documentary includes the complete concert performance of The Who at the third and final Isle of Wight music festival. Playing to 600,000 ravenous fans on August 30, 1970, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, and Keith Moon outdid themselves with a towering set. They even went so far as to play the rock opera TOMMY in its entirety, giving audiences yet another reason to shout…