Christmas Wholigans
DATE: December 23rd, 1973
VENUE: Edmonton Sundown
LOCATION: London, UK
SOURCE: AUD ? (I thought for sure this was an audience recording but some say maybe not ...?)
QUALITY: B+
ARTWORK: Included
DISC 1
1. I Can't Explain
2. Summertime Blues
3. My Wife (cut)
4. I Am The Sea/ The Real Me
5. The Punk And The Godfather
6. I'm One
7. 5:15
8. Sea & Sand
9. Drowned
10. Bell Boy
11. Dr. Jimmy
12. Love Reign O'er Me
DISC 2
1. Won't Get Fooled Again
2. Pinball Wizard
3. See Me, Feel Me
4. Substitute
5. Naked eye
6. Magic Bus
7. Magic Bus *
8. Naked Eye *
9. Spoonful *
* London, Edmonton Sundown, December 22, 1973.
TOTAL RUNTIME: 2hr 25mins 20secs
LINEAGE: Master reels or cassettes>DAT>EAC>FLAC (level 8)>Dime>YouWHOooo!>WAV>Cool Edit Pro v2.1>FLAC 8
EDITING NOTES: Here we have a fine recording of The Who during their famed run at the Edmonton Sundown during later December 1973. Most Who collectors are familiar with the somewhat disappointing recording from the "Merry Xmas Mr. Who" commercial boot that has been available since 1990. This is an upgrade to that source and has been taken from the master tape, with only a DAT source lineage between original master and the uploaded recording. I was given permission by the uploader of this particular recording to share the remastered version here that I created for myself. As per my usual efforts, no compression/limiting or noise reduction has been used. Most editing consisted of adjustments to the frequency spectrum using a very specific 30-band equalizer in order to reduce the effects of the resonating frequencies causing low end boom and the considerable overall muddiness of the recording. There were also sections, mostly early on in the first disc, that were severely damaged and/or unbalanced, which have subsequently been repaired as adequately as possible. There are also several points throughout the recording where the taper either changes tapes, moves about through the audience (given this is an audience recording) or adjusts the recording settings and as a result, the sound quality changes somewhat throughout. I have attempted to match these sections for overall tonal quality and frequency range.
Even though this recording is marred by several faults and is hardly the best recording available of the original Who performing live, I think it's still very enjoyable and considering the scarcity of decent quality live recordings from this period (1971-74), may even be a gem in the rough. Enjoy!
uploaded by: theface07
OU: This used to be my most listened-to „Quadrophenia“ show up until Wolfgang Vault's „release“ of King Biscuit's 4/12/1973 Philly show (along with the other -though subpar - Biscuit-taped 6/12 Largo show).
The three Edmonton Sundown shows at the tail end of their 1973 tour (on December 18, 22, and 23), and in particular this show here, are generally and quite rightly regarded by many fans and the band themselves (or Townshend, for that matter) as the best of the entire tour to back "Quardophenia". It seems by that time the band obviously had got used to the complexity of the tracks, the pre-recorded backing tapes seem to have worked OK at last, and they had dropped those new numbers they obviously hadn't felt too comfortable with.
IMHO, this show here fortunately really does "Quadrophenia" and the band justice and demonstrates that – if the set and band clockwork really clicked - their shows could still be on par with the standard they had set the previous three years.
Most Who fans on and off Dime sure have the old mid-90's "Merry Christmas Mr Who" silver or clone off it in their collections. However, as nice and essential that is to any Whonatic's collection, it has a few flaws that can all be remedied with this version: the boot is clearly from the same source as this torrent yet a few generations up the analog copy line, it has the song sequence out of order, and it lacks one half of a song (MY WIFEY) which is on the original recording.
So how come the boot starts off with the "Quadrophenia" portion instead of the usual "introduction block" of oldies which oddly appears at very the end of the bootleg?
Easy. The taper did record the show from the very start (with the usual CAN'T EXPLAIN as the opener). Virtually from the start however, the tape or reel didn't run properly. One can quite clearly hear the sound quality constantly deteroriating throughout the first few numbers. The problem got bad and worse up to the point where midway through MY WIFE either the tape machine (or reel recorder) cut out automatically, or the taper noticed the tape getting damaged by the recorder and stopped the machine to change the tape (or reel).
This obviously took him a while so we unfortunately are deprived of the rest of MY WIFE and the short, non-jam version of MY GENERATION. The taper then resumed recording with the opening of the "Quadrophenia" section. Phew, just in time, I'd say.
Thankfully, the new tape ran OK (though I imagine to still hear some roughness in the recording but this could as well be caused by the mike trying to handle the Who's volume).
Later at home, Mr. Mystery Taper decided to tack on the three tracks from his first tape/reel at the end of the secord tape/reel, instead of dubbing both portions on a new tape in the correct sequence. Though he kicked the show into circulation with the mixed-up sequence, he as well spared us of one analog copy generation. And these days it was of course easy for me to remedy that minor fault the digital way. The „Merry Christmas“-bootleggers apparently and understandably regarded MY WIFE as so poor (and cut anyway) that they decided to omit it from their silvers altogether.
As a bonus, I added the end-of-show medley from the previous night. That show unfortunately comes in lesser quality but its medley is a lot longer.
I was told an Italian collector claims this to be a mixing desk recording but I can't detect any features that would justify assumption, especially as this copy is straight off the master and therefore simply can't be a deteroriated soundboard recording. This is a pretty-much-OK-for-its-time audience recording.
You would do me a great favour if you just enjoyed this show as much as I have done since received it in one of my first DAT trades/swaps in 1998.
Who ahoy! Th:-)mas
rar files packed with a (winrar) recovery record -
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