THE WHO Vinilo y CD

Review: The Who's Live At Shea Stadium 1982 (not the Shea Stadium where lower league UK football team Halifax plays, but a venue in New York) captures one of the band's most electrifying performances. Despite being decades into their career, they deliver a dynamic show that is full of their usual enduring energy and musicianship. The setlist is a blend of classics and newer material, each song performed with raw intensity, with Roger Daltrey's vocals soaring, perfectly framed by Pete Townshend's blistering guitar work. The live atmosphere adds an extra layer of excitement, with the crowd's energy palpable throughout, making this a testament to The Who's status as one of rock's greatest live acts that is well worth copping.

Review: As part of their latest full-discography reissue via UMR, The Who re-release their second full-length rock opera, Quadrophenia. Newly to 180-gram black vinyl, this mammoth project is an early rock concept album by the band, credited for the revival and cementing of the Mod subculture at large in the seventies. The album is set between London and Brighton in 1965, and follows a young mod named Jimmy and his many tight-blazered, Moped-bound travails and heartaches. Responsible for producing the Mod as a full-blown, marketable, subcultural identity, Quadrophenia was the blueprint for a youth aeon, and went on to inspire the teen drug-addled, alley-way action of the later film of the same name, directed by Franc Roddam.

Review: New to the mammoth set of limited edition half-speed remasters of The Who's best and most well-known material, and by commission from founding member Pete Townshend, comes this fresh reissue of The Who By Numbers. The band's seventh studio album, this album is known for its more introspective, personal sound and lyrical content, compared to their earlier and better known projects. Mirroring the earlier disillusionments portrayed on the smash that was Quadrophenia, By Numbers portrays Townshend's own disillusionment with the music industry, from sombre alcoholic meltdowns like 'However Much I Booze' to ironic, stoned detachments such as 'Success Story'.

Review: .There's plenty to talk about with The Who's historic show at Fete De L'Humanite, a huge open-air event hosted by L'Humanite, the main newspaper of the French Communist Party. For starters, on the day - Saturday 9th September, 1972 - an estimated 400,000 people were in attendance, a crowd size that dwarves pretty much anything we can think of today, and remains the band's largest ever gig. Taking to the stage as evening set in, they set to with a typically ferocious set, and four of the most standout pieces for the show are immortalised here on record. Unsurprisingly, that timeless anthem of misspent youth, love, rebellion, and hope for change, 'Baba O'Riley', is a dominant factor, although epic finale 'Relay' is perhaps where the might of their rock 'n' roll juggernaut is most felt here.

Review: Who's Next is the Who's most popular album, and is widely hailed as one of the greatest commercial rock albums of all time. Coasting on the enduring international success it has received for just about five decades, the album's 50th Anniversary now sees to this humungous CD and Blu-Ray box set reissue, putting together an ultra high quality Blu-Ray audio version of the original album, as well as over 50 demo tracks and oddballs from around the time. There's also a deluge of recorded live shows on there.

Review: The Who's 50th Anniversary edition of Who's Next is being released in multiple formats and chief among them is this relatively short and succinct 4xLP version. Though four sides of vinyl isn't usually thought to be "short", this is a minimal incarnation of the reissued album, compared to the juggernaut CD and Blu-Ray box set which contains over 155 original audio tracks on it. This version is as comparatively minimal and monolithic as the 2001: A Space Odyssey monolith referenced on its front cover, though it's not still without its nice extra-album bonuses, 'Pinball Wizard' and 'Naked Eye' included.

Review: With all-time rock anthems like 'Won't Get Fooled Again' and 'Baba O'Riley', it's perhaps no wonder Who's Next is The Who's best selling album, but it's no commercial compromise. Songs like 'Behind Blue Eyes' are as raw and visceral as the foursome ever were, even compared to much of today's indie music. The 50th anniversary reissue package at large has dug up 89 unreleased demos and rarities for the completist collector, but this vinyl edition concentrates on the album itself and is all the more powerful a listen for it.

Review: Who's Next is probably the Who's biggest album, serving as a great introduction for new would-be fans. Suprisingly, though, it was their fifth, and was a whopping international seller despite its ambitious conception as a multimedia rock opera, first made under the working title Lighthouse. The blueprint for the next generation of stadium rock, the likes of 'Won't Get Fooled Again' and 'Baba O'Riley' are quintessentially epic songs, and have seamlessly translated into today's modern rock & pop cultural landscape. Now reissued 50 years later, it comes incredibly as the eighth edition of the album, featuring a humungous 155 audio tracks in total, 89 of them being unreleased demos and rarities.

Review: On 6th July 2019, The Who headlined a sell out show at Wembley Stadium in London for the first time in forty years. Performing many of their greatest hits, the show featured the band as they've never been seen before, accompanied by a 57-piece orchestra. Now after an official CD release of the show released earlier in April, comes this deluxe 3xLP pressing edition of the same release, packed with unseen bits, bonus features and even a Blu-Ray DVD.