The PopCult Music Review

The Who Live In Hyde Park
Eagle Rock/Universal Music Group

This is a review of the recent colored-vinyl reissue of a live concert by The Who from 2015. Originally issued on CD and Blu Ray as part of the band’s fiftieth anniversary year, this recording captures the band performing their greatest hits live in London’s Hyde Park in front of a crowd of over 50,000 fans.

The recording itself is a fascinating document of the current state of The Who, with founding members Keith Moon and John Entwistle no longer among the living, but Roger Daltry and Pete Townshend having managed to not die before they got old.

With Zak Starkey on drums and Nino Palladino (Nine Inch Nails) on bass, and augmented with several additional musicians (including Townshend’s brother, Simon), the band does a fine job of recreating the sound of the original records, albiet with some transpositional adjustments to account for the aging of Roger Daltry’s still-amazing voice.

The recording quality is outstanding for a live, outdoor venue. The vocals are not buried, and all the instruments can be heard clearly in a crisp and bright mix. The song selection runs from the early days of The Who, through highlights of “Tommy” and “Quadrophenia,” and even touches on their early 1980s hits before coming to a close with “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” from their “Who’s Next” album.

True die-hard Who fans may want to find a copy of the CD/Blu Ray release, because much of the band’s performance is visual, including several tributes to Moon and Entwistle, but for vinyl collectors, this delayed release is a real treat.

The Who Live In Hyde Park packs three colored vinyl LPs (white, red and blue) into a deluxe gatefold sleeve. The experience of cracking open a new LP from The Who and getting lost amid the packaging and rich-sounding virgin vinyl is an absolute joy.

This is not The Who at their peak. Daltry was 71 and Townshend 70 when this show was recorded, and it’s pretty much what you’d get if you saw the band in the last five years. It’s still a damned good time, and it’s interesting to hear the band with a different rhythm section.

If you are a collector of vinyl and a fan of The Who, you’ll want this special package. If you’re a real fan of the band, then chances are you already have the CD/Blu Ray version.

This should be available where ever you buy vinyl, or you might want to try Burning Shed, because even with the exchange rate and overseas shipping, it still costs a bit less than ordering in from Amazon.