The Who Live At The Oval Reviewed: Legendary ’71 Show Out At Last

The Who - Live At The Oval

★★★★★

UME

SEPTEMBER 1971 wasn’t a happy time in Who world, even by their remarkably narky standards. Pete Townshend had lost the battle to turn his abandoned Lifehouse concept album into a movie, and a filmed band meeting to discuss where The Who should go next ended testily. Mercifully, relief suddenly arrived in the form of an invitation to headline a British version of the Concert For Bangladesh, George Harrison’s all-star fundraiser staged at Madison Square Garden the previous month. So the group stopped bickering, moved their new £20,000 PA system into a Wandsworth cinema, and began rehearsing for a September 18 show at the Oval cricket ground, also set to feature the Faces, Atomic Rooster, Mott The Hoople, Lindisfarne and more.

The ‘Goodbye Summer’ Oval appearance has gone down in history as one of The Who’s most memorable – a rowdy 35,000 crowd, Keith Moon hitting his drums with a cricket bat, the group parrying footballs kicked into the crowd by Rod Stewart – but until now only poor-quality bootlegs have circulated. The problem was that, though the whole concert was taped by Glyn Johns on the same Pye mobile studio that gave us 1970’s Live At Leeds, due to over-zealous security the crew were unable to re-position dislodged mikes and correct dodgy feeds. But modern technology has finally enabled the original recordings to be rescued: and, boy, what a delight they are.

That The Who were match-fit is without question: throughout August they’d toured the US with their new, super-loud sound system, performing a setlist heavy on songs from the just-released and unimpeachable Who’s Next (basically the best songs from Lifehouse). Which is why fans may feel this album has the edge even over the majestic Live At Leeds(and Hull) and certainly the chequered Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival 1970; for it’s the box-fresh Love Ain’t For Keeping, Bargain, Behind Blue Eyes, Won’t Get Fooled Again and John Entwistle’s My Wife that shine most brightly here.

Townshend has said that, having realised in the run-up to the Oval that Lifehouse was now a goner (for the time being), he felt freed from its deathly grip, re-channelling his energies into The Who’s live performances. The sheer aggression – and insouciant flair – of the group’s playing is indeed something to behold, even when newly tethered to the sequenced keyboard parts of Won’t Get Fooled Again. Something dark and powerful is unleashed in the wild attack of Pinball Wizard and the moody, seven-minute Naked Eye (then unreleased), while concise takes on I Can’t Explain, My Generation and Substitute underpin a set high on song-craft and low on flab. When compere Rikki Farr informs the crowd after a thunderous Magic Bus that there’ll be no encore – not least because Moon had demolished his kit – you can’t imagine where else The Who could have taken this performance anyway. They had, as cricketeers might say, already truly smashed it out of the ground.

The Who Live At The Oval is out August 22 on UME.

ORDER: Amazon | Rough Trade | HMV

Tracklisting:

1. So Glad To See Ya
2. Summertime Blues
3. My Wife
4. Love Ain’t For Keeping
5. I Can’t Explain
6. Substitute
7. Bargain
8. Behind Blue Eyes
9. Won’t Get Fooled Again
10. Baby Don’t You Do It
11. Pinball Wizard
12. See Me, Feel Me / Listening To You
13. My Generation
14. Naked Eye
15. Magic Bus

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