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Re: Live Aid and WGFA



On Mon, 8 May 1995 trg1@ukc.ac.uk wrote:

My "Live Aid" recollections are only that I was at a reherasal of a
play I was directing, so I didn't see any of it; however, I asked a
friend to audio-tape it for me.  She, not being a Who fan, did her
best, but I wound up with lots of non-Who stuff, including a flawless
recording of David Bowie's and The Pretender's sets, but The Who's
set, AS USUAL, ran out of tape during WGFA.  Have other people had
problems with this or do I have the undisputed claim to most boots of
WGFA which hit the tape end?  Even f**king "Live at Swansea" vinyl
fades away during the synth break, and I had nothing to do with that
recording at all except buying it.  It's not that *I* run out of tape,
it's that I keep getting in situations where I have to ask someone
else to tape it for me, and they, you know...

> What happens in the middle of WGFA ? I know that Roger sings "I move myself"..
> too early, but then the guitar cuts out !?!?   John's bass sound carries
> the breakdown though.

Funny that you should mention this, because I've never heard it
discussed before.  What happens is that Roger comes in too early,
possibly fooled (heh) by Kenney doing a big drum roll like could very
well signal the chord change to B (Kenney himself could have gotten
lost I suppose, but it sounds like more of an accent than the big
chord change drum setup, to me).  Pete, caught short by Roger singing
too early, comes in for the last couple of words of his backing vocal
"family inside", then is lost and misses the chord change, continuing
to play in A after the backing tape, John, and Rabbit change to B.
For a few agonizing seconds the band is playing in two different keys
(Pete in A, everyone else in B), then Pete drops out entirely and John
plays the entire break solo himself (magnificently) until everyone is
synched back up for the power chords leading into "There's nothing in
the street."

I've always thought of this as the most chilling moment I know in the
Who recorded history.  I liken it to being a pilot landing a 747 and
just before the wheels touch the runway, losing the controls and
having the whole plane yaw sideways.  The vast flying machine that is
The Who at full throttle suddenly lost its lift and went into freefall
until control could be reestablished.  Brrr! indeed.

I'm suspect that the rest of the song, Pete's kick, etc. were colored
by anger at the screwup.

>  What is it that Pete Yells ?  I always thought that
> it sounded like "Kenney, I'm lost" !!!!!!!!!!

I've never heard this!  I still can't find it on my audiotape.

Alan

"When I'm onstage...it's not like bein' possessed, it's just -- 
*I* *do* *my* *job*."  -- Pete Townshend