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The Who - Sheffield 07-03-1971 (1971)

Track listing:
  1. Love Ain't For Keeping 2:25
  2. Pure And Easy 8:48
  3. Time Is Passing 3:42
  4. Behind Blue Eyes 4:07
  5. Getting In Tune 8:00
  6. Too Much Of Anything 5:08
  7. Don't Even Know Myself 6:01
  8. Baby Don't You Do 8:11
  9. Pinball Wizard 3:02
  10. See Me, Feel Me 5:50
  11. Water 9:25
  12. My Generation 5:44
  13. Naked Eye 8:26
  14. Magic Bus 7:58
  15. Won't Get Fooled Again 7:16

Notes

07-03-1971
City (Oval) Hall
Sheffield
England

The performance is excellent. Daltrey is in fine form throughout, although he makes an early entry mistake during Entwhistle's first bass run of "My Generation" that is similar to that heard on "Live At Leeds" (but edited out of the "Deluxe" release) - you would have thought he would have known this song by then! "Time is Passing" and "Too Much Of Anything" were the most subdued part of the show, but were still played pretty well, as was a long "Getting In Tune". All three were getting to the end of their live performances at this point. There were 4 more dates on this tour (which finished in Watford a couple of weeks later), but no recordings from them have surfaced. So this show is the last time TIP and TMOA were recorded live; GIT made a comeback almost 30 years later. "Pure and Easy" is one of the longest versions ever recorded of this song. The new songs are described by Daltrey and Townshend as being from a new album that was about to be released, while Townshend says they were thinking of releasing a double album--presumably, the abandoned "Lifehouse" album. Townshend introduces "Baby Don't You Do It" as a song recently revived from the 1965 Marquee shows; it's a great performance. The older songs in the second half--particularly "Naked Eye"--are characteristically strong, and the show finishes with a good performance of Won't Get Fooled Again, despite some synchronization problems with the backing tapes.

The concert was on a Saturday night, and unlike other shows at the City Hall there were no seat allocations, you just got there early and rushed to get the best seat you could. Prices on this tour were low, even for 1971. "The Who Concert File" says that prices were all 50p for this tour, but I had the 75p ticket stub for years. Presumably they decided to up the prices for the second part of this tour. The "Concert File" also says that the dates we're only advertised in day in advance, but this show certainly had more publicity than that in Sheffield and we bought tickets a few weeks ahead of time.

The band had a tremendous lighting system--much more impressive than others that came through Sheffield at that time. The first few rows of the stalls had been removed for the extra lights, and there were stadium lights behind the band to virtually blind the audience at the end of Won't Get Fooled Again, which to me was literally breathtaking. Moon caused great amusement at the beginning of 'Water' as he did his fountain impersonation with a glass of water, and then put water on his drumkit so that he was really splashing around as the tune started (you can hear the audience laugh at this). All in all, a great gig.

The Who played in Leicester the night after this, and the photographs used on the cover of Who's Next were taken just off the M1 near Chesterfield, as they drove down from Sheffield.