On the 18th of September 1971, The Who took to the stage at The Oval cricket ground in South London to headline ‘Goodbye Summer: A Rock Concert in aid of Famine Relief for the People of Bangladesh’.
The show has gone down in band folklore as one of their most notable, playing in front of a lively crowd of 35,000 and with Keith Moon hitting his drums with a cricket bat during part of the performance, adding to its notoriety. As a result, the set became one of the most sought-after live recordings but had only been circulated as a poorly recorded bootleg until now.
To coincide with the band beginning their The Song Is Over farewell tour of North America, the legendary show finally receives an official release. The recording sees the band’s original lineup of Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, and Keith Moon blaze through a 15-track set just over a month after releasing their fifth studio album, Who’s Next. The recording captures the band at the peak of their powers as a live act, with the show being played just over a year after their release of, perhaps, the most-renowned live album of all time, Live at Leeds.
After being introduced as “a band from Shepherd’s Bush”, an opening ditty of “So Glad to See Ya” leads into the Eddie Cochran cover “Summertime Blues.” A staple of early Who shows, the song immediately showcases the driving power of Townshend’s chords and the forcefully melodic basslines of Entwistle. The first of five songs from the recently released Who’s Next comes in the form of “My Wife”, during which the brutally intense drumming of Keith Moon proves mesmerising.
After an energetic opening, the band seem to find a further gear through the classic “I Can’t Explain,” with the audibly excited crowd prominent during the first few chord strikes. The track showcases Daltrey’s raw but strongly compelling vocals, melodically backed by Townshend and Entwistle through the chorus. Another classic Who single follows as the band powers their way through “Substitute.”
Following “Substitute,” Daltrey finally addresses the crowd after six blistering songs, “Thank you very much” before introducing, “the next one written by Pete, a number called Bargain”. A frenetic rendition of the song signals the beginning of a three-song stint of Who’s Next tracks. The intricately done “Behind Blue Eyes” gives way to an excellent eight-minute performance of “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”
Daltrey again speaks to the crowd before “Baby Don’t You Do It,” telling them the song is one “we used to play at the Marquee Club about ten years ago, or something obscene” and that “we copied it from Marvin Gaye”. The boisterous mood of the event is then showcased as Townshend then says, “We want you all to enjoy yourselves, clap your hands!” even “if enjoying yourselves is screaming abuse at the group, throwing bottles at us, anything you want to do, come on, enjoy!”
A high-octane rendition of “My Generation” is introduced by Townshend as “Our Generation!” before one of the standout moments of the recording comes in the form of the classic Who live track “Naked Eye.” A freewheelingly deafening “Magic Bus” that veers into jam band territory closes the set, before a few audible bangs and crashes as Moon and Townshend smash their instruments. After the on-stage destruction, the event MC Rikki Farr announces, “As you can see, an encore isn’t possible, we have drums everywhere!”
Although the recording isn’t quite as clear and polished as the classic Live at Leeds, the rawness adds to the frenzied feel of the performance. Live at the Oval 1971 is an all-too-rare official recording that captures one of the great live bands at the peak of their powers, a worthy addition to The Who’s canon of live albums.
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