RE: The Who Mailing List Digest V8 #336

["Nigel Morton" <nigel@adastey.demon.co.uk>]

I see that the feelings of some regarding Jon Astley remain the same:

"Is this before or after they burn an effigy of Jon Astley?"

I wonder how much experience that the writer / poster has of producing
bands.  As I've said before I'm bloody grateful that someone is actually
working on remastering / rediscovering tracks by the greatest rock n roll
band that's ever existed.  Personally I'm of the opinion that if Pete had
been left to his own devices regarding the remastering of catalogue releases
AND the finding and selecting of bonus tracks we could still be waiting for
things to actually see the light of day!  I'm not saying this in a
detremental fashion, more with a sigh as I believe he'd have lost interest /
found another project to occupy him, no matter how good his intentions may
have been.  By having someone like Astley to do a lot of the donkey work -
finding tracks, working through technical problems and glitches, setting up
mixes  etc, etc I believe that Townshend has someone he truly trusts
assisting him.  The end result for us (if we're not anti-Astley) are some
fantastic tracks, many of which that haven't been heard by the vast majority
of "casual" Who fans or for that matter many serious Who fans as well!

If, as rumour has it, there's an album (or two) of magical and majestic
unreleased LIVE WHO  material lying around somewhere in the basement of
Trinifold management / Eel Pie Studios / Townshend's personal space(s) I'd
much rather that it finally see's the light of day regardless of who mixes
it  than it staying hidden away because we, the fans, have been moaning and
groaning about the abilities of who Townshend / The Who nominate to mix it!
It's been stated in these columns that there's a belief this rumoured live
album was scheduled to come out after their brilliant Isle Of Wight
performance was released but poor sales of IOW meant it's been shelved.  If
this is the case then we, those that have spent thousands of pounds
(dollars) and many, many hours following the greatest band in the world,
have the responsibility to petition and pressure them to get it released,
regardless of our personal feelings / likings towards Astley's production or
remixing skills.  For me the re-released and re-mastered version of WHO's
NEXT really adds weight to the argument that this is probably their finest
hour and that it should be seen as such within the general context of rock
history!!

See y'all at The RAH on February 8th.............drinks anyone?