This makes it the first No.1 album in the US for The Who in all their 59-year career. Their 1971 album Who’s Next topped the UK charts that year. The Who With Orchestra Live at Wembley was recorded live at Wembley Stadium, London on 6 July 2019. The band were accompanied by the Isobel Griffiths Orchestra conducted by Keith Levenson.
Listen to the live audio of The Who’s 2019 show at Wembley Stadium, with the Isobel Griffiths Orchestra, available on a number of formats from The Who’s official store including vinyl, CD & Blu-ray and on all streaming platforms. Get your copy and listen to the album here TheWho.lnk.to/LiveAtWembley.
Roger Daltrey says: “When I listened to the live recordings of it, I thought this would just be great to get it down on record,” he says of the newly-released, multi-format The Who With Orchestra: Live At Wembley. “It was an historical event for us, 40 years being away from Wembley, the old one, and playing it again at this stage of our career, to a full audience."
The Who have recently announced a short UK tour this spring/summer. And it looks like there might be another surprise for fans this fall to mark Quadrophenia's 50th anniversary on October 26 which will see the band performing with a full orchestra, among a historic outdoor concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, for this coming August Bank Holiday weekend.
Taking place at the Royal Sandringham Estate in Norfolk on Monday 28th August, the concert is the finale of The Who with Orchestra 2023 UK tour. It’s also part of the first extensive live music events to be held at the Royal Sandringham Estate, presented by Heritage Live.
The Who will be donating part of their fee for the show to charity. Richard Ashcroft and The Lightning Seeds are the special guests at the concert.
THE WHO’S DOUBLE ALBUM, “QUADROPHENIA” RECEIVED GOLD RECORD STATUS. IT STAYED ON THE US CHARTS FOR 40 WEEKS AND ON BRITAIN’S CHARTS FOR 12 WEEKS.
Quadrophenia reached #2 on the U.S. Billboard album chart (kept from #1 by then-labelmate Elton John with his Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album) and was the highest position of any Who album in the US as they would not ever hit #1 on the US album charts.
Charts
Album
Year Chart Position
1973 Billboard Pop Albums 2
1973 UK Chart Album 2
Singles
Year Single Chart Position
1973 “Love, Reign O’er Me” Billboard Pop Singles 76
1974 “The Real Me” Billboard Pop Singles 92
1973 “5:15″ UK Singles Chart 20
1979 “5:15″ Billboard Pop Singles 45
Certifications
Organization Level Date
RIAA – U.S. Gold 29 October 1973
BPI – UK Gold 1 December 1973
RIAA – U.S. Platinum 2 February 1993
Yet about Quadrophenia, on November 28, 2022 A video re-emerges on YouTube: the complete Quadrophenia from the 1973 American tour- watch below.
The video was taken at the Cow Palace gig opening night of the Quadrophenia Tour where Keith collapsed.
Although there are some short clips from when Keith collapses, and they are subsequent to the execution of Quadrophenia, this is the full video of the entire execution of the work.
On the first night of the U.S. leg at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California, drummer Keith Moon collapsed onstage. Scott Halpin, an audience member, was brought on to finish the show.Pete Townshend now looks back on the album with great praise. “The music is the best music that I’ve ever written, I think and it’s the best album that I will ever write.”
Most rock drummers, even very good and inventive ones, are timekeepers. There is a space for a fill or a roll at the end of a musical phrase, but the beat has primacy over the curlicues. In a regular 4/4 bar.
Keith Moon ripped all this up. There is no time-out in his drumming, because there is no time-in. It is all fun stuff. The first principle of Moon’s drumming was that drummers do not exist to keep the beat. He did keep the beat, and very well, but he did it by every method except the traditional one. Drumming is repetition, as is rock music generally, and Moon clearly found repetition dull. So he played the drums like no one else—and not even like himself. No two bars of Moon’s playing ever sound the same; he is in revolt against consistences.
Critical reaction and impact
In 2000 Q magazine placed Quadrophenia at number 56 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2001, the TV network VH1 named it the 86th greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 266 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. IGN placed Quadrophenia at number 1 in their list of the greatest classic rock albums of all time.
Musical structure
Each of Jimmy’s four personalities is supposed to be associated with one of the four musicians in The Who. The liner notes illustrate this concept as follows (names added):
* A tough guy, a helpless dancer. (Roger Daltrey)
* A romantic, is it me for a moment? (John Entwistle)
* A bloody lunatic, I’ll even carry your bags. (Keith Moon)
* A beggar, a hypocrite, love reign o’er me. (Pete Townshend)
In addition to describing a personality/band member, the four descriptions refer to four musical themes that portray Jimmy’s personalities in the opera: “Helpless Dancer”, “Is It Me?”, “Bell Boy”, and “Love Reign O’er Me”. The four themes (or “leitmotifs” as described by Townshend) are mixed together in both the title track (bridging “The Real Me” and “Cut My Hair”), and the penultimate track, “The Rock” (bridging “Doctor Jimmy” and “Love, Reign O’er Me”).
