LAL

["Gary M. Gillman" <garyg@inforamp.net>]

I`ve liked all the comments that have come in so far, especially  those of
Shane Matheson who made many interesting points, one of which I`d like to
address here, namely the one about the size and shape of the Leeds venue
(probably it`s no coincidence that Shane appears to study engineering!).
I`ve long suspected that the acoustics of the Leeds` University hall - I
believe it was a "ballroom", not a gym - combined with the particular sound
and amp set up the Who used at the time, together helped produce the
particular magic that is LAL, but had no evidence to support this notion.
However this theory of mine received a fillip last year when I was having a
drink with an English friend who was attending the same professional
conference I was, in Vancouver, B.C.. We had been joined at day`s end in the
hotel bar by a nephew of mine who lives in Vancouver. I started to show my
nephew the then newly released expanded version of LAL, which I`d bought in
Vancouver. My English friend (lawyer Keith Hearn, of Leeds, England) asked
me what the CD was. I said it was the famous Who record LAL, "recorded
coincidentally in your home city of Leeds". At which point, Keith turned to
me with a gleam in his eye and said (I wish I could convey his accent),"
Gaaary, I saw that show!!" He was a student at Leeds University at the time,
liked rock and decided to take  the show in. Wherupon my nephew and I
grilled Keith with all manner of questions, which he answered as best as he
could (the show being 25 years ago, of course). But Keith remembered
distinctly that it was a fabulous concert, and recalled an unusual feature
of the venue, in that speakers were, he said, arrayed right around the
circumfrance of the U-shaped hall, i.e., behind and around the audience: he
said there were speakers between each arch support and remembered thinking
at the time how far out that was. At that point, I opened the CD case and we
looked at the booklet. There is a picture of the hall in the booklet, and it
appears to support Keith`s recollection about the unusual speaker set up.
Ever since then, I`ve been convinced that the size of the hall and the
apparent ring of speakers may explain why LAL sounds so rich and pure.  It
may also explain the echo-like effects you hear, eg., on the jam portion of
Generation, where PT appears to be playing off his own riffs, but which may
have been the echo bouncing around this curved phalanx of speakers facing
the band..... Well, maybe!......Gary M.