Note: The Lambton Cineplex ran a special showing of this film on Wednesday February 18, 2009. This review was done a few years ago but all of the points made the first time around still apply. A few things that I’ve noted since then have been added as have comments about how the theatre handled the production and how it was seeing it on the big screen.
The Who: Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 (2ND Edition)
by Brian Hay
The sound and picture are in much better shape than on the first release. On the first edition four of the first five songs ("Can't Explain", "Young Man Blues", "I Don't Even Know Myself" and "Water") were largely untouched. Heaven and Hell had some of its footage sped up slightly but otherwise was just as electrifying as the other four numbers. From there the film became a slice and dice of patchwork concert footage that looked a like a badly pieced together jigsaw puzzle.
The bad news is that the editing is still a hatchet job. The concert is still out of order. "Tommy" was played in the middle of the show not at the end. Much of the material is cut. The Shakin' All Over/Twist and Shout" medley has at least a third of its content missing as does "Magic Bus". "Substitute" and "Naked Eye" are missing completely. In the case of the "Naked Eye" footage that may be a case of copyright blocking presentation. The footage does exist and can be seen on the "Message to Love" DVD. The content from "Tommy" is a mess. The "Overture", "It's a Boy", "Eyesight to the Blind", "Go to the Mirror", "I'm Free" and "We're Not Gonna Take It" are all presented as fragments edited into song form. "1921", "Amazing Journey/Sparks", "Tommy Can You Hear Me", "There's a Doctor", "Smash the Mirror" and "Tommy's Holiday Camp" were omitted the first time around and haven't been inserted. Most of the editing is smooth enough but the gaps are still glaring.
Some of this may have been due to problems encountered during the filming. It’s possible that some of the filmed segments weren’t good enough to use. That’s happened before. The bootleg of the Charelton show provides a good example of this. There’s a sequence where somebody decided to pan the camera around the audience. What they ended up with was a silhouette of a dark field. That happened during a fabulous rendition of ‘Behind Blue Eyes’. There are also segments where the sound of the guitar isn’t as bright as it should be. I’m guessing but, at times, it seems as if the entire string sound is mixed from the track that recorded the bass. It’s not impossible that parts of the guitar weren’t caught properly during the original shoot. Something like that happened during the recording of the alternate show that was recorded for the ‘Live at Leeds’ album.
The saving graces for this film (and especially this release) are the parts of it that have been done right. The interview with Townshend is enlightening and enjoyable (though allowances have to be made for his sense of drama). The picture is much clearer than before. The sound is vastly improved. It's noticeable everywhere but particularly outstanding on the bass and drum tracks. Keith Moon's drums sound the way they should. It's amazing how much of what couldn't be heard before can be heard clearly now. The same can be said of John Entwistle's bass lines. Anyone wanting to understand and appreciate his contribution to the group should be watching this issue. The re-master places his contribution where it should be rather than burying much of it as happened with the first release. And then there's footage that has been left intact. This is some of the most electrifying concert footage ever captured on film, period. The Who were a blistering band that made playing rock sound and feel like a matter of life and death. If nothing else this film captures that. As such it's an invaluable historic record for anyone wanting to know what makes rock and roll tick.
But, this film is still not what it could have been.
The handling the Lambton Cineplex gave the event wasn’t what it could have been either. In fact, it was pretty crappy. To begin with it didn’t look to be HD (high definition) as was advertised. Worse still not all of the material was presented in its proper aspect ratios. The version that was shown was formatted for 1.33: 1 widescreen. The interview with Townshend however, was filmed for 4: 3, or standard television. Whoever was handling the projection work (DVD player) didn’t bother to adjust the equipment for the different features. The result was about forty minutes or so of short, wide Townshend. The feature film itself was set up properly, but for $12.50 (CDN) a head all of the features should be presented properly. They didn’t bother to play the bonus material. It would have been nice to finally see the footage of ‘Substitute’ and ‘Naked Eye’.
The event also didn’t appear to be promoted well. There was an ad for it on the main Cineplex site but the Lambton Cineplex site had nothing about it. Not surprisingly, the attendance was poor. It's a shame. The few who did come out really seemed to enjoy it, as they would. For all the shortcomings this film captures one hell of a band at their best. They were impressive enough viewed on a television set. On a large screen this rocked!
That may not make the shortcomings invisible but it came really close.
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Pete Townshend
… On Fire for that Show …
The Who:
Official Site
