The Who
16th January 1970
Thetre des Champs-Elysees
Paris, France
Disc One:
01 – Heaven And Hell
02 – I Can’t Explain
03 – Fortune Teller
04 – Tattoo
05 – Young Man Blues
06 – A Quick One While He’s Away
07 – Overture
08 – It’s A Boy
09 – 1921
10 – Amazing Journey
11 – Sparks
12 – Eyesight To The Blind
13 – Christmas
14 – The Acid Queen
15 – Pinball Wizard
16 – Do You Think It’s Alright
17 – Fiddle About
18 – Tommy Can You Hear Me
19 – There’s A Doctor
20 – Go To The Mirror
21 – Smash The Mirror
Disc Two:
01 – Miracle Cure
02 – Sally Simpson
03 – I’m Free
04 – Tommy’s Holiday Camp
05 – We’re Not Gonna Take It
06 – Summertime Blues
07 – Shakin’ All Over
08 – My Generation
Source 1:
Lineage: No Fiddlesticks Silver CD -> EAC v0.95 beta 4 (Secure Mode) -> WAV
-> FLAC Frontend v1.1.2a (Level 5)
Silver: Shout To The Top STTP 193/194
Notes: Liberated by hntgzr. Many thanks to whitecity for supplying the original Silver
CD to rip and share! Kudos also to ooru, a definitive source of ‘oo knowledge during times
of uncertainty.
Stage banter transcription by Tom Pratt!
This is quite possibly a mixture of two AM Radio recordings. It has the same quality and feel
as many other 60’s AM radio shows. The recording is mono. It was the first of many early
1970’s Opera House concerts showcasing Tommy.
No amendments were made to the audio files after the rip. Some tape anomalies and cuts are
present.
Tattoo contains a tape anomaly at 1m 12s. Young Man Blues contains a dropout at 7m 04s during
Pete’s banter about A Quick One and again at 8m 32s. The dropouts are for milliseconds. There
is a noticable dip in sound quality during Overture at 55s – this is where the second tape
source possibly starts. Go To The Mirror has a slight cut at the end (no music is lost, just
crowd noise). The first few seconds of My Generation suffers from tape flutter.
According to Anyway Anyhow Anywhere, the show from the 17th was broadcast on Europa 1. The
actual date of this particular boot may well be from the 17th, however, the Concert File book
lists Pete’s stage banter as being from the 16th.
Artwork, Disc Scans, EAC Rip Logs, FLAC Fingerprints and MD5 Verification File all included.
Brought to you by: Long Live Rock
http://www.longliverock.org/downloads
FREE TRADE ONLY
NOT FOR SALE
Enjoy!
hntgzr
Source 2:
Lineage: unknown – FLAC files received in trade. Fits on 1 cd.
NOW, THIS ONE’S INTERESTING!
I received this recording claiming it was one of the famed gig in Paris on 9th December 1969. But it is not so.
That gig was always mythical and slightly doubted. On Baba O’Riley’s Bootleg Page (ROIO section), it appears under this date with a very similar track list, just short of My Generation encore. This was one of the strongest motifs for the belief that the show really happened.
However, Joe McMichael and Irish Jack Lyons postpone the date by one day in the Concert File stating:
“Wednesday, December 10, Venue unknown, Paris, France;
According to a Melody Maker news report, The Who were due to pay a three-day visit to Paris for television promotion and possible concerts. However, it’s probable the trip didn’t eventuate, considering the group played two Paris concerts the following month. A recording of a show in Paris has been attributed to this December 1969 date, although it may well be from January 16, 1970.
Pete commented that it was the first Who appearance in Paris for some years, and the first time ‘A Quick One (While He’s Away)’ had been played in the city, let alone Tommy. ‘Substitute’ as played at this show sounded particularly strong.”
Neill and Kent do not mention the stint at all in Anyway Anyhow Anywhere (which is about the most reliable Who chronicle that there is), but for the Paris visit in January next year, there is an important note:
“The show on the 17th was broadcast live at 9:00 p.m. on Europe 1 as a Musicorama special, and news footage was shown on ORTF.”
Therefore the bootlegged FM broadcast (No Fiddlesticks) stemmed from the show on 17th, and not from the 16th as the description of it often said. Another audience recording circulated very lately on Dime is identical with the FM recording (the same stage banter, song list and playing). So both the circulated recordings (AUD and FM) are from the same show and that was the 17th.
Recently, the aforementioned news footage appeared on YouTube, subtitled as a shot from 16th January (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w76H9Y3BDEE), providing the last missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle. The commentary in the shot says: “After Covent Garden,……., The Who appeared after four years in Paris at the Theatre of Champs ElysÈes.” (Alright they got it wrong, it was not Covent Garden but the Coliseum; nevertheless, this is evidently a shot taken AFTER their London opera house appearance.) And more importantly, Pete can clearly be heard say: “It’s nice to be back in Paris because last time we were here nobody really knew who we were…” And he would not have said this, had they been in Paris just one month ago!
And he continues, “We’d like to especially dedicate this next song, which is probably the biggest hit in our history, probably bigger than Tommy in its time…”
Listening to this audience recording, you will find exactly the same speech before My Generation! Therefore this is not the recording from 9th or 10th December 1969 because no such show ever happened!
It is a recording of their first Paris gig after 4 years, on 16th January 1970.
Mystery solved! Another Who myth busted! Enjoy!
themidnightcafe.org 
Pete Townshend’s concert recollection isn’t exactly definitive. We went to see The Who in 2006 at Harewood House in Leeds. He said it was their first time in Leeds since the ‘Live at Leeds’ gig in Feb 1970. They played the Uni again in Nov 1970. I was there!
I imagine the years and the hard living and the drugs do wonders with the memory!
Thank you for this Mat. So I was comparing the two sources to see which one was better and while listening to Can’t Explain I noticed that these can’t be from the same show. At least not that song. Listen to the beginning before the vocals, the repeating chords. On source 2 it’s the same chord pattern repeating 4 times before the vocals (like it should be) but on source 1 it repeats five times before the vocals come in. Just wanted to point this out. I know you love a good mystery lol
Oh boy. Have you listened closely to the other songs? I’ve not nearly a big enough The Who fan to figure any of this out. But I eagerly await your discoveries 😉
No I just listened to that one song Mat. Whenever you post shows with multiple sources I pick a song and compare them, just keeping the better sounding show. In this case source 2 is much inferior to the first so if it was the same show I would only keep source 1. If source two is a different show I wouldn’t keep it. Have plenty of Who stuff from this period in much better quality. But listen to the beginning of Can’t Explain real quick and you’ll hear the difference
Ok. No problem. I just listened to Pinball Wizard and source one has a longer instrumental intro before the lyrics begin than source two. Difficult to tell if they just didn’t play that part on Source 2 or if it was cut. I’ll let the hard core Who fans figure it out.
So no it looks like there are two songs that are different. I have to assume source 2 is a different show. Maybe it’s the 16th. According to the notes the radio show was the 17th even though the bootleg says it’s from the 16th and source 2 doesn’t sound like it was a radio show. At least what I heard didn’t sound like it. But as usual what do I know Mat? I can’t wait to hear the first one. What I heard sounds nice. Pretty good instrument separation.