I hated The Who when I was young. This goes back to an incident in my youth (around 5 or 6) while sitting in a car in a parking lot with my parents, oblivious to what was on the radio, my Dad cranked "Won't Get Fooled Again" right at Roger's famous, glass-shattering scream. It scared me, my parents had a laugh, but I detested that song for years. Later when I learned who The Who were and what they were all about my entire perception changed. Sure enough my Dad had the original Leeds LP in his collection. I bought the expanded Special Edition CD which lacked Tommy sometime during high school. When the Deluxe Edition popped up I bought that too. Now this "Super-Deluxe Edition" (Really? We couldn't just call it the 40th Anniversary Edition?) is here and so, you guessed it, I bought this one as well!
I love books, memorabilia, photos, and reproduction vinyl's as much as the next guy, but for me Live at Hull was the real attraction here, as most fans will probably agree. Live at Leeds was always intended to be Live at Hull. The band preferred the Hull gig, the audio was said to be of better quality, but a recording snafu meant John's bass was missing. Lo and behold it was only missing from the first four songs. Those four songs do appear on the Live at Hull CD's with the bass tracks from the Leeds show digitally mixed into the Hull recordings. Listening to those four songs it's obvious that a lot of effort went into making this bass-substitution work. The Who never play a song exactly the same way twice, but at this point in their career they were at least playing similarly enough night-to-night for a stunt like this to work. I will note, however, that John's bass has a distinct lack of "punch" that the rest of the show has. John's bass work on "Amazing Journey" is of special note, I think, thanks to the different sound qualities of the two shows. The treble bite of his bass playing really comes through on this track and it's a sound you won't hear anywhere else.
While the Hull show is nearly identical in terms of set arrangement there are some obvious differences. The first and most easily recognizable difference is the distinct lack of banter in the Hull show. The Leeds show is downright funny at times, especially Pete's self-deprecating introductions to certain songs like "Substitute" "Happy Jack" and "I'm a Boy" as well as his delightfully long-winded introductions of "A Quick One." I missed that on the Hull show. You do get a balls-to-the-wall performance all the way through, but having listened to the Leeds show for years I was expecting those moments of breathing room and when they didn't come it ended up making the show seem like even more of a marathon than it already was. I don't know if it was a creative decision to edit out the banter or if there just wasn't that much that night, but it really made the Leeds show feel like a more immersive experience where Hull is definitely more along the lines of *WHAM!!* MUSIC!!!
Now, here's the fun part: I have been listening to the Leeds show for years, such to the point that I know it by heart and I expect certain cues, passages, and phrasing in any given song so when I listened to the Hull show and those things weren't there it was a bit jarring. I had to listen to it several times to really acquaint myself with this new performance. One thing to take special note of during the Hull show is that sometimes there is an audible buzz coming off one of the amps, probably Pete's, which always reminds me "This is a different show!!!" Songs like "Young Man Blues" stick out as being distinctly different night-to-night, but they are both played with the same intensity and abandon. "A Quick One" similarly is always phrased a little differently at each performance. Is one necessarily better than the other? That's sort of out of the scope of this review. However, Hull is most certainly not a weak show. It's just as intense as Leeds. The only really obvious shortcoming is the lack of "Magic Bus" on the Hull show which was a good bit of fun the night before.
However, here's something I'm not so sure about... I've detected what I feel are some dubious edits borrowing more than just bass from Leeds. For example, take Pete's extended guitar break directly following the "Overture." Listen to the Leeds version and the Hull version side-by-side and you'll notice they're almost note-for-note identical. This moment is of particular interest: 5:12 at Leeds and 3:55 at Hull... you can hear the *exact* same shout from an audience member. Sketchy. Plus, the moment Pete switches over to the "Captain Walker" riff is rather jarring on the Hull recording leading me even further to believe that it was borrowed from Leeds. If this is correct then I have to ask why? If the recording was of poor audio quality or was, for some reason missing entirely I can understand it, but if this was another overdub for the sake of it because the original wasn't "good enough" then I implore you to just LEAVE IT ALONE! The Who have never been about polish and precision, but POWER and EMOTION. Editing for sound quality is one thing, editing for performance quality is quite another.
Now for the purists: The audio quality of the Hull show, in my opinion, is better than that of the Leeds show. Leeds, ever since the Deluxe Edition has had issues with noise reduction and a good chunk of "Tommy" sounding like it was recorded in a shoebox. Hull by comparison is crisp and sound quality is even throughout and, as the band predicted, the acoustics of the Hull show were much better and offered a better recording environment.
The Leeds show itself is identical to what was already presented on the Deluxe Edition albeit with a slightly different mix. This also means it contains Roger's vocal "corrections" that he performed for the Deluxe Edition release and were overdubbed onto the existing tracks. A lot of first-time listeners probably wouldn't notice this, but for someone who has been following The Who for decades it's a rather obvious (and some argue unnecessary) change. You can hear the edits most clearly on "Eyesight to the Blind" and the "Listening to You" coda of "Tommy." Like I said, it's not something a first-time listener would notice because the overdubs are blended extremely well to the original material, but it's worthy of mention. Also, and this is purely a matter of personal preference, both the Leeds and Hull shows split the performance and put "Tommy" on its own separate disc when in fact it would have fallen between "A Quick One" and "Summertime Blues" when it was actually performed.
This whole 40th Anniversary Set is pretty awesome in its own right, but it's most definitely aimed at hardcore fans and historians considering the content. I enjoyed the package, but I was disappointed that one chapter of the Live at Leeds story is underrepresented: The Who's 2006 show performed at the same venue after the Refectory was presented with its "blue plaque" commemorating its status as a legendary concert venue. The concert was not released as part of the 2006 Encore Series of live shows. Leeds was obviously too small for The Who's usual stadium camera/screen rig, but I assume the audio portion could have at least been recorded. If it was, it would have been really nice to see that appear as another part of the set. Who knows, maybe it's being saved for the 50th Anniversary Super-Super-Deluxe Edition. Knowing me, I'll probably buy that too...
As being a long time Who fan and loved the Live at Leeds Album, The new live at Hull versions just like everyone stated is a better sounding recording than Leeds. It just sounds so much clearer, I don't know if it had something to do with the acoustics of the venue or what. The band is really tight with one another and it is just a great sounding who show.
Amazon has it listed as 6 disc it is 4 compact disc,A 12 inch vinyl record and A 78 (I think) record. The 64 page book is very nice all the original leeds and new Hull information in a hard bound book. The book and CD/Record folder are both housed in a thick open ended box. The poster is the standard Maximum R&B Townshend poster. Too bad it had to be folded.
I know Leeds has been released many times on cd(I have them all). They've got me again. Both show are timeless. The Leeds show is programmed into mybrain. But the Hull show has superior sound. Its clearer and louder. If youare a fan of The Who this is a must have. Now I want Quadrophenia in SACD!
I remember when the original album was released and being excited to hear The Who as they intended to be heard, as a live act. I was amazed at the power of the group and the exceptional jams on My Generation and Magic Bus. The next version of the Deluxe Edition with the full set of Tommy and the rest of the set was at an entirely new level. Now this version with the Live at Hull confirms that The Who cannot be outdone by any band of the time. I saw the band in 1971 and 1975 with Keith Moon, then several times since. These CDs confirm the greatness of The Who.
It's great when the music industry gets it right. So much to say, where do I even begin...
The sound quality on both the Leeds and Hull shows is incredible. Even when compared to the 2001 Leeds "Deluxe" edition, this one is so superior in so many ways. You can actually hear not only stronger impact than ever before, but the timbre of each of Moonie's different drums. It's just not thuds with different fundamental notes - you can now hear the overtones and the actual wood of the drums. On earlier releases, the wonderful din of Pete's guitar and John's bass tended to be one electric blast. Now, both instruments are clearly audible, and with Pete clearly on stage left and The Ox clearly on stage right as God intended.
If Live at the Isle of Wight is The Who at their live peak in terms of raw energy and bombast, and Leeds is their peak in terms of artistry, then Hull is perhaps the band during the same era having a bit of fun on stage. The extra between-song patter and yes, the mistakes, are clear evidence of this. And in spite of the mistakes, the Hull show is also faster in tempo in many sections and may well indeed be the band at their technical best.
For the price, you get an awful lot of good stuff and value:
The book is deluxe enough to be a stand-alone product. Luxurious, thick paper and great memorabilia samples (yes, I know some of them have been seen before).
The double CD set of either show is enough to be a stand-alone product. Others have grumbled that they should have just released Hull as a separate product without "making" us buy Leeds again. Sorry, but I think the remaster here justifies replacing the 10-year-old, prior "Deluxe" Leeds. I'm fortunate enough to have an audio system at home and in the car that makes the differences obvious, so YMMV depending on how/where you're listening.
The heavy vinyl LP is enough to be a stand-alone product. I may even go out and replace the turntable I never should have gotten rid of.
Here's hoping that Who's Next , Tommy, and Quadrophenia get the same treatment.
Edit 11/19/12 - Holy Crap - I should have bought a few of these to archive. They're already selling for 4x what I paid.
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