The Who were one of the few big acts to play both the 1969 and 1970 versions of the Isle of Wight Festival, so this is an opportune time to explain a bit about the history of the festival.
The first Isle of Wight Festival was in 1968, and started out relatively small. Only about 10,000 people attended. Some of the acts that played were Jefferson Airplane, Arthur Brown, the Move, T. Rex, Fairport Convention, and the Pretty Things, but as far as I know, no known audio recordings exist.
The 1969 festival was a much bigger deal, with about 150,000 people attending. The main draw was Bob Dylan, who played with the Band. It was Dylan's first full length concert since he'd been sidelined due to a motorcycle accident in 1966. Others who performed included the Band (by themselves), the Nice, the Pretty Things, the Who, Free, Pentangle, the Moody Blues, and Joe Cocker. As far as I know, there are no known recordings of any of these performances, with the notable exception of the Bob Dylan set, which eventually got officially released decades later.
By the way, the 1970 festival would be the last one until 2002. It became an annual festival after that. The 1970 one was so very large that it upset the people who lived nearby. The backlash was so severe that local officials made sure to foil any further festivals there. There was even an attempt to ban this time to festival nationwide, but it didn't pass because it proved impossible to make legislation that banned only festivals of music that establishment types didn't like.
Anyway, as mentioned above, the Who played both the 1969 and 1970 festivals. It turned out their set lists were very similar, because both featured full performances of the "Tommy" rock opera. At one point in this concert, lead guitarist Pete Townshend even commented on how similar their act was to one at the previous festival. The problem was the Who was taking a long time getting their next album ready. It wouldn't come out until 1971, the classic "Who's Next" album. Furthermore, in May 1970, the live album "Live at Leeds" was released, and most of the songs that they played that weren't a part of "Tommy" were included on that album.
They only played one song, "I Don't Even Know Myself," which they said was from their next album, though in the end it wasn't included on it. "Water" was another new song played here that ultimately didn't make it to that album.
But despite the fact the Who was treading water in terms of new material (in an era when acts usually released one album a year - Creedence Clearwater Revival released THREE in 1969!), they delivered an impressive, long performance. Murray Lerner, director of the "Message to Love" documentary about the festival, later commented, "The Who’s performance was really fantastic. A great, theatrical presentation, with huge spotlights behind them that dazzled you. The ending of Tommy was really incredible. And Naked Eye was great. And of course, [drummer] Keith Moon was fantastic – playing around and having fun."
This album is an hour and 52 minutes long.
095 talk (Who)
096 Heaven and Hell (Who)
097 talk (Who)
098 I Can't Explain (Who)
099 talk (Who)
100 Young Man Blues (Who)
101 talk (Who)
102 I Don't Even Know Myself (Who)
103 talk (Who)
104 Water (Who)
105 talk (Who)
106 Overture [Instrumental] (Who)
107 It's A Boy (Who)
108 1921 (Who)
109 Amazing Journey (Who)
110 Sparks [Instrumental] (Who)
111 Eyesight to the Blind [The Hawker] (Who)
112 Christmas (Who)
113 The Acid Queen (Who)
114 Pinball Wizard (Who)
115 Do You Think It's Alright (Who)
116 Fiddle About (Who)
117 Tommy Can You Hear Me (Who)
118 There's a Doctor (Who)
119 Go to the Mirror (Who)
120 Smash the Mirror (Who)
121 Miracle Cure (Who)
122 I'm Free (Who)
123 Tommy's Holiday Camp (Who)
124 We're Not Gonna Take It - See Me, Feel Me (Who)
125 Summertime Blues (Who)
126 Shakin' All Over (Who)
127 Spoonful (Who)
128 Twist and Shout (Who)
129 Substitute (Who)
130 My Generation (Who)
131 Naked Eye (Who)
132 Magic Bus (Who)
https://www.imagenetz.de/awMth
The cover photo comes from this exact concert.
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