Customer Reviews

The Who & Special Guests - Live At The Royal Albert Hall 2000 (2DVD)

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is one of the best Live DVD's that I have ever seen! The sound, and video editing is very good it truley is the best WHO LIVE Dvd's out there. Must have in your WHO collection!!!
The package comes with 2 DVD's. The 1st DVD is the whole concert EXCELLANT, and the 2nd DVD is just extras which I find was a little boring. The extras were made up of interviews and studio clips that lasted minutes. Not worth watching a second time, but the 1st DVD (THE WHOLE CONCERT) is 5 Stars*****!!!!!!!
Worth every penny!

The Who Fan

Why did I wait so long to get this fabulous concert? Highlights for me are Entwistle's incredible bass solo, Zak's energetic drumming, Daltrey's ease of great singing, Pete's accoustic guitar palying, a crowd that really loved it, a real fun version of "Magic Bus", and overall a band that really played a concert and gave it all. Thanks.

On November 27, 2000, the Who closed their tour with a concert at the Royal Albert Hall. In my opinion they've never played a better concert. The looseness of the group makes for a relaxed atmosphere and some really great rock and roll. There is a lot of improvisational jamming in between songs. The band acts very free onstage. For instance, when Roger sings the line, "Can I buy your magic bus" Pete screams out "No!" All in all a wonderful performance and a great DVD.

During the playing of John's song, "My Wife", the cameras capture a sequence that literally, says it all. The band has just entered an instrumental break. Pete is introduces the line, John tosses his pick to the wind and grabs up great handfuls of bass strings. From there, it's a race. At their best the Who were always like that. They played as if they were trying to run away from the each other but kept landing in the same place. They were evenly matched and "read" each other so well it usually worked. Mistakes happened, but hell, those only showed how many chances they were willing to take. Crowds loved that and it literally, cemented their reputation as the greatest live band ever. When Keith died they were still an excellent band but his part of that chemistry was lost. John (Rabbit) Bundrick was (and still is) fine with it, but Kenney Jones wasn't. It was that simple.

Then Zak Starkey came along. When (yet) another tour was announced for the spring of 2000 critics were quick to label it to end up as another zip-less grab for money. Little did they know. Zak had been with the band for a few years and largely restored the vitality Keith had injected. More important, he gave Entwistle and Townshend someone they could "run" with again. When they stripped the band back down again the old fire came back. In the spring, summer and fall of 2000 they hit north America with a roar that hadn't been seen from anyone from any genre in decades. New material or no, the most explosive live band in rock was back!

Live at the RAH more than illustrates this. That it's a "greatest hits" set (with an "all-star" guest list to boot) put me off for a while. Don't make the same mistake. The catalogue the Who have to offer is a great one. When it's performed this amount of passion by a band like this it never gets old. Roger can't quite hit all the high notes any longer, Pete doesn't jump a often, or as high and John's singing voice, never great, by this time was close to shot. All of this matters little. Roger has enough passion for ten singers. As well, he brings a level of intelligence and understanding to the material that's rare in the industry. And don't forget, he never takes any nights "off". What Pete lost in leaping ability he's gained in musical finesse. This man is playing the guitar the way he did thirty years ago but with all the skill that time and practice have added. Nobody plays like him. Nobody! John was a fabulous player. Ultimately this band may end up missing him even more than they missed Keith. His ability to pick up Townshend's threads and add immediately add to them was the glue which held them together.

The importance of John (Rabbit) Bundrick can't be overstated. He's played with the Who since the late 1970's and it shows. It's hard to imagine keyboard player better suited to working with this outfit. He's literally all over everything Pete and John do as fast as Keith ever was. The guest stars, for the most fit in well. Eddie Vedder is a long time friend of Townshend and a fan. To watch him up there you could swear he knows their music as well as they do. Brian Adams looks a little nervous (for about ten seconds) but then cuts loose. His rendition of "Behind Blue Eyes" is classic. Nigel Kennedy comes in and plays the violin part from "Baba". He and Townshend have so much fun it has to be illegal (somehow anyway). Noel Gallagher doesn't leave the impact on "Won't Get Fooled Again" that Eddie Vedder leaves on "I'm One" but he doesn't hurt anything either. The only guest stars who fall a little short are Paul Weller and Kelly Jones. Weller and Townshend just don't mesh all that well. Kelly Jones, unfortunately, leaves you wanting Roger back on the mike to remind everyone what "Substitute" is "supposed" to sound like. The only other problem lies with the neck mounted camera used to spotlight John's bass solo. This was just a bad idea. It was supposed to give a close look. All it does is give wide angle close-ups that make Entwistle seem disembodied from the rest of the concert. It's too bad. The solo was a good one. Thankfully that camera was only used on the one segment.

This is nit picking though. The performance is a great one. The camera work is superb and the sound quality is fabulous. Buy it, turn it up and enjoy a great rock band doing their thing.

This dvd rocks and they sound great. zack starkey the son of ringo star,is great but is no keith moon. the acoustic section with Peat Townsed is awsome he does one song from quad and one for lifehouse. the late john entwistle "the ox" is one of the best bass players. Bryan Adams does Behind blue eys with them and he sounds awsome he can really sing that song. so if you like the who you will like the dvd

The Who were reborn in 2000. I went to their 1st gig in North America in Chicago thinking it would be "The Who on Ice" like the lame 1989 tour was. Quite the contrary. Ripping into the 1st chords of I Can't Explain, Townshend regained his fire, fury, and determination on stage. The Who reclaimed its title as the greatest live band in the world (in my opinion, the adjective "live" has never been necessary).

This video captures The Who at their finest, except that, as noted by another, the editor has ADD, and we can't get an extended, focused look at anyone in the band. There are times when we catch a glimpse of Townshend attacking his guitar in a brilliant solo, yet the camera inexplicably shifts to Rabbit Bundrick twiddling his fingers.

It is quite humorous to watch Townshend et al. rehearse with Bryan Adams and try to coach him on the lyrics of Behind Blue Eyes, which he can't seem to get right (but my dreams they AREN'T as empty) and then watch Pete roll his eyes and begrudgingly acknowledge Adams the idiot on stage at Royal Albert Hall.

Great Video - but the video director needs a shot of ritalin.

There was a time when rock was rock.Bands had a heavy bluesy feel instead of the grind it out pop that seems so important today. In those music oriented days of the 70's no band worked harder or louder than The Who. Problem was the 80's came along and it all fell apart. Apart from from inroads into punk and what was then called alternative rock was dead.

The Who tried to resurrect the spirit of the music with their return in 2000. The band was fresh, new younger guests were added to help preserve Roger Daltry's weakened vocal cords and a new generation was introduced to their music. Abruptly all this ended with John Entwistle's death less than a year later.

The Who capped their North American and English tour with a performance for the Teenage Cancer Trust. This performance is the subject of this video.

Close your eyes, turn it up and you'll almost be back in the magic years of the Who's greatest music. The concert is 2.5 hours of pure rock and roll adrealin. From its beginning with I can't Explain to the last Chords of See Me, Feel Me this is the real deal. All members were playing their best. The song list featured 23 hits and there is something here for just about everyone. Dick Cruthers shot the concert from the point of view of a fan. There are many quick cuts to allow you to essentially look everywhere at once.

Do yourself a favor check out the DVD and relive the magic of rock and roll.

The Who were the greatest live band ever between 1969-1976? or they still are? Well, The Who here seems like it.
This is truly amazing stuff. The selection of the songs is great too, since includes some rare songs hard to get on video, like "Relay" or "Bargain", and the versions here are awesome.
Keith Moon will be so proud of Zak Starkey (as his dad is for sure). He just has the "Keith Moon" spirit, and that's why The Who are like in the old days in this concert.
John Entwistle as always, superb!!.
Daltrey's in great shape, with a stronger or deeper voice than in the 80s concerts like "Rocks America" or "Tommy Live - 20 anniversary".
Pete Townshend is very inspired and wild. His acoustic performance for a couple of songs in the middle of the show, is superb too.
John "Rabbit" Bundrick is excellent as always and adding the right keyboards for the songs that originally didn't include them.

The only thing I don't like about this concert is the guest singers. I would prefer to listen to Roger singing "Substitute", for example. The only one I enjoy here is Noel Gallagher in "Won't Get Fooled Again", seems he limits to play the guitar (which adds a lot of power to this particular song) and adds backing vocals to the chorus.
Buy this DVD or VHS. The Who were back and this was their testimony. Unfortunally John Entwistle passed away :-(

All that has to be said about this disk: This performance shows true legends at work, showing what it takes to get to get to such an icon status as they undeniably have achieved. Do yourself a huge favor and buy it, you won't be disappointed. Given that, I think I need to try to make a small point: (and I refuse to go into a huge rant cause this isn't the forum such a thing but - ) To all audiophiles who trash the audio quality of invaluable dvd's such as this: If sound reproduction of such a high caliber is what is needed to enjoy a performance as priceless as this.... man I feel so sorry for someone like that. Just enjoy the music! Can't you remember a very long time ago the first time you heard The Who tune on a little piece-of-junk AM radio or from a horribly warped & worn vinyl record that constantly snapped and popped through your first Sears hi-fi? That's all it takes to get most people hooked. The DVD is truly awesome. Buy it.

The first thing I noticed about this DVD was the production value. I kind of expected it to be half hearted (as I can't imagine that any Who DVD at this point would be a huge seller) - I was wrong, the production is top notch. The picture and sound is flawless.

The song selction is great. It has most of the FM Who standards + some rarely played songs (Relay, So Sad About Us, etc.) that the die hard fans hope for.

There are guest appearances that are actually appealing (I would tend to dislike this addition to any show). Highlight of the appearances is Paul Weller (formerly of The Jam) doing an acoustic duet with Pete Townshend.

Overall, it is a much more inspired performance compared to the 1982 Toronto show, or the Isle of Wight DVD.

Check out John Entwistle's bass solo on 5:15 with the "bass cam" giving you a view down the frets. That is a great example of the care that was taken in the production of this release. The Stones recently added this to a few songs in their recent HBO special (think I know where the inspiration for that one came from). Another highlight is Townshend's acoustic version of Drowned.

The special features are pretty good. This is the only DVD I own that has a multi angle feature (finally I was able to get use out of that button on my remote). There is some cool rehearsal footage that you don't want to miss.

I have watched this DVD several times. Think anybody that buys it will be doing the same, especially if they have a surround sound system.