1969-December-14 The Who At The Coliseum 1969 Coliseum London, England Disc 1 - 71.21 1 Introduction .41 2 Heaven And Hell 3.40 3 Can't Explain 2.46 4 Fortune Teller 2.41 5 Tattoo 3.29 6 Young Man Blues 5.57 7 Pete talks about A Quick One 5.01 8 A Quick One While He's Away 4.06 9 Happy Jack 2.13 10 I'm A Boy 2.52 11 There's A Doctor .24 12 Go To The Mirror! 3.24 13 I'm Free 2.24 14 Tommy's Holiday Camp .57 15 See Me, Feel Me 4.51 16 Summertime Blues 3.26 17 Shakin' All Over 4.51 18 Pete Talks 2.12 19 My Generation 14.23 20 Applause .54 Disc 2 - 69.45 1 Pete talks about A Quick One 5.18 2 A Quick One While He's Away 9.28 3 Pete talks about Tommy 2.18 4 Overture > 5.44 5 It's A Boy > .33 6 1921 > 2.33 7 Amazing Journey > 3.21 8 Sparks > 5.05 9 Eyesight To The Blind 1.57 10 Christmas > 2.22 11 Christmas (cont) > Acid Queen > 1.30 * 12 Acid Queen > 2.48 13 Pinball Wizard > 2.46 14 Do You Think It's Alright > .22 15 Fiddle About > 1.14 16 Tommy Can You Hear Me? > 1.19 17 Go To The Mirror > 3.23 18 Smash The Mirror > 1.15 19 Miracle Cure > .14 20 Sally Simpson > 4.02 21 I'm Free > 2.24 22 Tommy's Holiday Camp > 1.00 23 We're Not Gonna Take It 7.56 24 Applause .43 * from inferior source Notes about this recording from the dvdmg.com site: Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (November 12, 2008) In terms of extras, we get a second DVD with bonus live performances. The prime attraction comes from The Who: London Coliseum 1969, a 72.48 min piece shows much of a December 14, 1969 performance. Part of the band’s tour of opera houses to support Tommy, the program mixes tunes from that album with earlier songs. Both My Generation and 1966’s A Quick One supply their title songs, while 1967’s excellent The Who Sells Out contributes Tattoo. Early singles I Can’t Explain and I’m A Boy appear, and we find Entwistle’s Heaven and Hell, a tune that wouldn’t see a formal release until he put out his solo album Smash Your Head Against the Wall in 1971. We also get a few covers via Fortune Teller, Young Man Blues, Summertime Blues and Shakin’ All Over. The remaining tracks all come from Tommy: There’s A Doctor, Go To The Mirror, I’m Free, Tommy’s Holiday Camp and See Me, Feel Me. In terms of performance, Coliseum easily tops the Kilburn show. Yes, I defended that 1977 concert, but I never claimed it was great Who. Coliseum probably isn’t one of their all-time best performances either, but it’s very good, and it sure depicts a more sober, more relaxed, more unified Who. That doesn’t mean they’re subdued, of course, but they simply feel more like a cohesive unit and less like a warring faction. The best Who combines their strengths but maintains that inner tension; Kilburn just favors the latter too much, while Coliseum better balances the two sides. Technically, Kilburn blows away Coliseum. Visually, the Coliseum show is a mess. Shot on 16mm cameras - opposed to the fancy-pants 35mm of Kilburn - heavy grain dominates, and color reproduction stays in the range of bland yellow to yucky yellow much of the time. Sharpness looks poor in wide shots and only mediocre in closer elements. Some source specks and lines interfere, and lighting looks too thick; it’s often tough to discern the action. It’s a rather ugly presentation. The audio fares better but still disappoints. Like the main feature, the Coliseum show offers Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1, but the quality of the material doesn’t fly nearly as high. The presentation sounds like broad mono, to be honest; there’s some vague stereo imaging but the instrumental and vocal delineation never becomes particularly clear. The tunes don’t sound bad, as they’re reasonably clear, but they lack substantial dynamic range. All of this lands the Coliseum show firmly in the historical curiosity camp. Actually, that’s unfair, as it’s too good to be brushed off in that manner. Nonetheless, the poor quality of the footage will mean that it lacks great appeal for casual fans. The diehards will love it but others may be too turned off by the presentation to embrace. Nonetheless, I’m very happy it appears here, as it offers a fine snapshot of The Who at this crucial point in their existence. In addition to a trailer for Kilburn (which incorrectly claims that the 1977 show represents Moon’s last concert) we get Complete Performances of A Quick One While He’s Away and Tommy. This segment runs 70.33 min. During the prior Coliseum presentation, A Quick One ends after its Ivor The Engine Driver section. As for Tommy, the main show omits a slew of songs. The band played the entire Tommy album, so the other Coliseum program drops Overture, It’s A Boy, 1921, Amazing Journey, Eyesight To The Blind, Christmas, Acid Queen, Pinball Wizard, Do You Think It’s Alright?, Fiddle About, Tommy, Can You Hear Me?, Smash The Mirror, Miracle Cure, Sally Simpson and We’re Not Gonna Take It. While the DVD discusses the quality of the footage, it doesn’t make it particularly clear why it eliminates these segments from the full Coliseum presentation. It seems to be for technical reasons. For instance, during the portions of A Quick One absent from the main Coliseum piece, we hear the tune but see alternate shots of the band, and during Tommy, the audio goes downhill for a while during Christmas. The inclusion of these corrupted elements in the main program might’ve seemed awkward, but I’d prefer that to their exile to a different part of the DVD. After all, much of the Coliseum presentation suffers from its own problems, so I don’t think it would’ve been a serious negative to include these pieces. Oh well - at least the DVD provides the complete Tommy and A Quick One, so even if they’re not in the correct spots, I’m happy they’re here. Finally, the package provides a 16-page booklet. It presents Who biographer/longtime friend Richard Barnes, Who art director/designer Richard Evans, rock journalist Alan Light, and DVD producer Nigel Sinclair. These give us some good info about the band and the two concerts presented in this set. While I don’t count myself as a rabid Who fan, I’ve liked them for most of my life, and I value the previously unseen footage found on this disc. The Kilburn show has many ragged moments but still proves worthwhile. The DVD provides decent picture, good audio, and an abundance of ugly but nonetheless valuable 1969 concert material. All Who fans should grab this package ASAP. ******************************************************************* Notes about this recording from the Badlands site: This DVD includes The Who's powerhouse London Coliseum gig from 1969, a never-before-seen rarity and one of the band's personal favorites.