THE WHO
Quadrophenia and Tommy Live with special guests
****
Warner Music Vision 034970500-2
Concert versions of definitive rock operas

From Record Collector, January 2006

During the visual commentary for Tommy, Pete Townshend admits that the Who reformed in 1989 for money: very big money. He had hearing difficulties; Keith Moon had died, and he and Roger Daltrey were not the best of mates, but a $75m payoff spurred them on. The Who had never reached such heights before, which came from the huge stadium tours available to major rock bands together with the profits from sponsorship and merchandising.

The Who performed their 20-year-old album, Tommy, in concert at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles with Elton John recreating his film role for Pinball Wizard, Phil Collins as the paedophiliac Uncle Ernie, Billy Idol as the brutal Cousin Kevin, Steve Winwood as the Preacher (from Blind Faith to blind faith, as it happens) and, in a performance as outlandish as Tina Turner’s, Patti LaBelle as the Acid Queen. (Elton doesn’t perform in those enormous platform shoes which somehow ended up in the possession of Grimms as I remember Zoot Money and Neil Innes sitting on them to perform a song in Liverpool!)

With a plot as dramatic as any classical opera, Tommy is an extraordinary work, packed with memorable songs that both depict Tommy’s nightmare world and show him real compassion. As well as Tommy, the Who performed a one hour concert of their hits including Substitute and Won’t Get Fooled Again. Rough Boys should have been a Who single and other songs include Face The Face, John Entwistle’s Boris The Spider and, from Quadrophenia, Love Reign O’er Me. From the same year comes a three song encore from the Giants Stadium including Pete Townshend singing The Acid Queen.

Following the success of Tommy, the Who delivered Quadrophenia in 1973. At the time it was regarded as a poor relation to Tommy (“First Tommy and now Tommy rot” said one critic) and the concert version in which Pete and Roger Daltrey put the songs into context was not what fans wanted. To some degree, the score was rehabilitated with a very good film version with Phil Daniels and Sting.

Quadrophenia is a difficult work, lacking both the plot and the anthems of Tommy, and designed to show the confusion in a young mod’s mind. The mod declares that schizophrenics are lucky as they only have two personalities: he has four. There are no Happy Jacks here but the music is very good and many of the songs are first-rate. It occurs to me that unlike most songwriters, Townshend is uncomfortable writing love songs but totally at home recreating childhood and adolescent life whether it be masturbation fantasies (Pictures Of Lily) or being raised as a girl (I’m A Boy).

Maybe even bigger bucks were on offer around the time of the new concert version of Quadrophenia in 1997. A “making of” documentary with the director, Aubrey Powell, explains how the live music was being integrated with documentary footage of the Who and the mods and rockers conflicts in the 60s, with scenes from the Quadrophenia film, and with linking material from the young actor Alex Langdon.

The Who perform the scores with additional musicians and two guest vocalists – Billy Idol returns for the Ace Face and P.J. Proby plays an ageing rocker. Considering the immensity of the project, I would love to know how the mercurial Proby was selected and of the contingency plans if he had walked out before a performance. Everything worked out fine but I do wonder about his casting as his diction is wayward. On the other hand, no matter how raucous Roger Daltrey becomes, you can always make out the words.

Pete Townshend plays an acoustic guitar during Quadrophenia and he retains it for the encore which includes a stripped-down Won’t Get Fooled Again. It is great to see the 50-somethings Daltrey and Townshend sharing a mike for this song of youthful rebellion. Daltrey tempts Townshend to smash his guitar and when he refuses, Daltrey says, “We can’t afford to do it now.”

I am well used to commentaries by critics and participants but the 3 DVD set includes something that I haven’t seen before. When you activate the commentary, Daltrey and Townshend pop up on the screen over the action and start talking. I found it rather irritating and would have preferred an audio commentary with no additional visuals, or separate interviews as DVD extras. Even better would be buttons that would enable you to have the commentary in any form you wished.

All in all, I found the total playing time to be around ten hours, plus a selection of still photographs from Tommy. The package includes an ad for the next project a DVD history, Who’s Still Who, in autumn 2006. The circus never ends.

Spencer Leigh