A Sneak Peek...
On February 14, 1970, a historic performance was held at the University of Leeds in England.
This show was recorded and released on 23/5/1970 as part of the album "The Who - Live At Leeds".
This album is considered as one of the greatest live albums of all time, both in the eyes of audiences and critics. It is the first and only live album of The Who's classic lineup, to be released in real-time.
This show amazingly conveys the added value that this band had in live performances. The energetic, heavy and powerful sound, which was fundamentally different from the sound of the masterpiece album "Tommy", was released a year earlier.
The recordings underwent an extremely minimalist edit that included reducing of the crowd noises and adding a "delay" effect to some of the tracks, so what we hear today on this album is almost identical to what the audience experienced on that historic day.
It is interesting to note that the band made several attempts to record performances in the US, before that mythological performance, but the results were unsatisfactory and all the recordings were destroyed to prevent the creation of "bootlegs", especially in light of the fact that until then there was no recorded official performance of the band.
The album cover was specially designed to look like a "bootleg" and it definitely illustrates what's going on inside. Spontaneous, rough, powerful, and wild performance.
This album is so important that the Leeds University campus where the show was recorded, has been declared a UK national site and is immortalized on a blue plaque, used in England to mark historic heritage sites.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music