Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Who, The
Label: Eagle Records
Released: 2017
Rating: 4/5
The legendary The Who staged a one-of-a-kind show in April 2017 at London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall, where for the first time in their long and colorful career they played the whole rock opera »Tommy« ‘live’. In earlier attempts to revive the complete »Tommy« masterpiece on stage, they always skipped two or three songs, but this time they were determined to play it from start to finish, no compositions left out. Maybe the main motivation was that it was a charity gig, with the proceeds going to an organization that looks after teenagers with cancer.
After wrapping up the whole »Tommy« saga, The Who treated the crowd in the second half to some of their best-loved evergreens, though, surprisingly, »My Generation« wasn’t among them this time. Despite that unusual ‘shortfall’, it’s exactly this closing part that delivered the highlights of the night, in the form of immortal The Who classics led by »I Can See For Miles«, »Love, Reign O’er Me«, »Baba O’Riley« and »Won’t Get Fooled Again«. The Who, or what’s left of them in the form of those two ‘indestructible’ old foxes Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend, backed by guitarist Simon Townshend, drummer Zak Starkey and bassist Jon Button, were in great shape for this historic show, even if Daltrey’s voice is of course no longer what it was back in his younger days.
Roger can still sing some of the songs just like in the ‘good old days’, while elsewhere he understandably struggles more, but he still holds his own better than plenty of his fellow singers of the same vintage. His charisma, meanwhile, remains unshakable, and it came through in his chats with the crowd too, where he mentioned that he now experiences the whole »Tommy« concept in a completely different way than he did almost fifty years ago, since the story of Tommy took on a much more personal stamp for him after he publicly spoke out about the childhood abuse he’d kept quiet about for many years. That’s also why he admitted that the songs from this album are much harder for him to sing than they were back then, when he’d somehow pushed it all down into his subconscious. On the instrumental side, there’s nothing to fault in this concert document; Pete Townshend is still a chapter of his own on guitar, though his younger brother Simon outgrew the ‘diligent student’ status long ago, while Starkey and Button do their best to fill in for their sadly long-departed predecessors, Keith Moon and John Entwistle. The whole band, by the way, stuck strictly to following the original versions as closely as possible, so there wasn’t a single extended instrumental jam in between, the kind that tended to happen in the seventies.
Almost fifty years after its original release, The Who have finally managed to play the entire »Tommy« rock opera without a single track skipped, and spiced the whole thing up with a closing medley of their best stuff. Roger and Pete have thus finally made their long-held wish come true, while the proceeds from the show went to the people who need every bit of financial help they can get. The Who were once famed as one of the best live bands around. With »Live at the Royal Albert Hall« – which no longtime fan of their life and work can of course do without – they proved they can still lay claim to that flattering title, and also that it’s no crime if they occasionally don’t play »My Generation«.
Line-up
Roger Daltrey – vocals, harmonica, guitar, percussion
Pete Townshend – guitar, backing vocals, keyboards
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Zak Starkey – drums, percussion
Simon Townshend – guitar, backing vocals
Jon Button – bass guitar
John Corey – keyboards, backing vocals
Loren Gold – keyboards, backing vocals
Frank Simes – keyboards, backing vocals
Production
Emer Patten
Track list
CD1:
1.) Introduction
2.) Overture
3.) It’s A Boy
4.) 1921
5.) Amazing Journey
6.) Sparks
7.) Eyesight To The Blind (The Hawker)
8.) Christmas
9.) Cousin Kevin
10.) The Acid Queen
11.) Do You Think It’s Alright?
12.) Fiddle About
13.) Pinball Wizard
14.) There’s A Doctor
15.) Go To The Mirror!
16.) Tommy Can You Hear Me?
17.) Smash The Mirror
18.) Underture
19.) I’m Free
20.) Miracle Cure
21.) Sensation
22.) Sally Simpson
23.) Welcome
24.) Tommy’s Holiday Camp
25.) We’re Not Gonna Take It
CD2:
1.) I Can’t Explain
2.) Join Together
3.) I Can See For Miles
4.) Who Are You
5.) Love, Reign O’er Me
6.) Baba O’Reilly
7.) Won’t Get Fooled Again
