The Who’s October 13th, 1982 concert at Shea Stadium, the now-demolished, long time home of the New York Mets, was released on DVD and standard-definition Blu-ray back in 2015. Now, Mercury Studios is returning to that thunderous gig – the band’s second of two shows there – for an audio release on 2 CDs or 3 LPs.
‘Live at Shea Stadium 1982’ captures The Who’s second of two shows at the Flushing, Queens, New York ballpark on a rainy night in October 1982.
The evening of Wednesday, October 13th, 1982 was chilly and rainy in the New York City metro area, certainly not optimum weather for a large-scale outdoor rock concert. That night, The Who performed their second of two sold-out shows at Shea Stadium . The stadium, which at the time was home to MLB’s New York Mets and the NFL’s New York Jets, had very famously hosted concerts by The Beatles in 1965 and 1966. The support acts for The Who at the Shea Stadium concerts were former New York Dolls vocalist David Johansen and The Clash.
On March 1st, “Live at Shea Stadium 1982” will arrive preserving The Who’s tour stop in support of “It’s Hard”. In front of an enrapt New York audience in Flushing Meadows, Queens, founding members Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, and John Entwistle joined with drummer Kenney Jones to perform both new songs and old favorites. The 1982 North American tour was ultimately the last one to feature Jones in the drummer’s seat, and The Who’s final such trek until 1989. (Jones replaced the late Keith Moon for two studio albums, 1981’s “Face Dances” and 1982’s “It’s Hard“.
The Who, on what was being billed as their “Farewell Tour,” had announced that the band would break up once they had completed the tour for their then-current album “It’s Hard”. Pete Townshend initiated the split and was quoted by music critic Robert Palmer of The New York Times as stating, “It’s time for us to step aside, time for the new people to come in.” The tour was sponsored by the now-defunct American beer company Schlitz under the banner “Schlitz Rocks America.”
The Clash were promoting their “Combat Rock” album on the tour. Drummer Nicky “Topper” Headon had been fired by the band earlier in the year. The band were performing with their original drummer Terry Chimes on the tour. Despite the soggy weather, The Clash performed a storming and quite memorable set. The music videos for “Career Opportunities” and “Should I Stay or Should I Go” were filmed that night. An audio recording of The Clash’s full set from that show was released in 2008 as the album “Live at Shea Stadium”.
The Who’s 1982 tour, which was all in North America apart from two warm-up dates at the Birmingham NEC in England, was their last to feature Kenney Jones on drums and they wouldn’t tour again until 1989. The tour promoted the recent “It’s Hard” album, which had been released in June 1982, and the set list included a number of tracks from that album, some of which the band would only play live on this tour. This release features the show from the second of their two nights at New York’s Shea Stadium and was recorded on October 13th 1982. Although a couple of tracks have appeared on compilations, this is the first official release the full show on 3LP.
Opening the set with the 1966 non-album single “Substitute,” The Who had the crowd on their side from the word go. The strong performance of “Substitute” featured powerful lead vocals by Daltrey, great drumming by Jones, solid bass from Entwistle and a rock-steady guitar break by Townshend. That was followed by another oldie but goodie, the 1965 non-album single “I Can’t Explain,” which was The Who’s recording debut under The Who name. The performance of “I Can’t Explain” at the concert started with a terrific guitar intro by Townshend and included strong vocals by Daltrey, tight work by the rhythm section of Entwistle and Jones and effective backing vocals by Townshend and Entwistle.
The Who then segued into a selection of five newer songs. The first of these was Entwistle’s “Dangerous” from that year’s “It’s Hard” album. Gorman provided some nice keyboard work. Entwistle’s bass provided a great foundation for the song augmented by Jones’s tight drumming. Townshend contributed impressive slash-and-burn guitar work. Gorman’s keyboards in the performance of 1978’s “Sister Disco” are not prominent enough in the mix on this recording. And that makes the version of the song on this album weaker than the outstanding recording of it on the 1981 album The Concerts for the People of Kampuchea. That aside, it’s still a decent performance. Daltrey delivered powerful lead vocals and Townshend added a good vocal bit in the song’s midsection. , Townshend played some nice bluesy guitar at the end as he and Daltrey sang together. The heavy version of Entwistle’s song “The Quiet One” from 1981’s “Face Dances” album was one of the standout performances of the show. Entwistle sang lead on the song as well as providing some outstanding bass playing. Townshend added some blistering guitar work. And Jones delivered yet another strong performance on drums. Daltrey sang some bits of the song along with Entwistle. The section of the show concluded with two songs from “It’s Hard”: the title track and “Eminence Front.” On the former, Daltrey played rhythm guitar for the first time in the evening as well as delivering assertive lead vocals. Townshend contributed some nice guitar in the intro as well as good backing vocals. The latter was the highlight of the newer songs performed at the concert. Gorman’s keyboard intro was impressive. Townshend sang lead on the song and also played impressive guitar throughout. Entwistle’s funky basslines provided the song’s foundation.
Four songs from It’s Hard were performed during the Shea setlists, including the album’s title track, “Eminence Front,” “Cry If You Want,” and “Dangerous.” Those were joined by classics from the ’60s (“Substitute,” “I Can’t Explain,” “Pinball Wizard”) and ’70s (“Behind Blue Eyes,” “Baba O’Riley,” “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “Who Are You,” “Sister Disco”) as well as “The Quiet One” from “Face Dances“. Choice covers – “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Twist and Shout,” “Young Man Blues,” and “Summertime Blues” – rounded out the setlist. (The latter two songs were featured on the original, six-song “Live at Leeds” album in 1970.)
Daltrey introduced “Tattoo” from 1967’s The Who Sell Out album as a song that The Who had not performed live in a while. The tight version of the song featured Daltrey on lead vocals with Townshend contributing some vocals as well. Next up was an extended version of the rocker “Cry If You Want” from the “It’s Hard” album.
A pair of songs from 1969’s “Tommy” album were up next. Townshend’s guitar was all over “Pinball Wizard,’ which also featured very strong vocals by Daltrey, That went right into a stellar performance of “See Me, Feel Me” that was highlighted by Daltrey’s commanding lead vocals and Townshend’s outstanding guitar playing. “Love Reign O’er Me” from 1973’s “Quadrophenia” is one of the highlights of the album.
“Long Live Rock,” which first appeared on the 1974 collection “Odds and Sods”, had Daltrey and Townshend trading off on lead vocals, a cool guitar intro by Townshend, and impressive keyboards by Gorman.
In front of an enrapt New York audience in Flushing Meadows, Queens, founding members Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, and John Entwistle joined with drummer Kenney Jones to perform both new songs and old favourites. The 1982 North American tour was ultimately the last one to feature Jones in the drummer’s seat, and The Who’s final such trek until 1989. (Jones had replaced the late Keith Moon for two studio albums, 1981’s “Face Dances” and 1982’s “It’s Hard”.
The performances of “Love Reign O’er Me” and “Behind Blue Eyes” are currently streaming on Mercury Studios’ YouTube channel. Though the original DVD and Blu-ray releases are now out-of-print, they remain available from second hand sellers. Look for “Live at Shea Stadium 1982” on March 1st
There are rumours that The Who are now closing in on the end of their performing career. Daltrey turns 80 on March 1st, the release date of this album. And Townshend will be 79 in May. Daltrey and Townshend will be performing with The Who backed by an orchestra at two shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Monday, March 18th and Wednesday, March 20th for the benefit of Teenage Cancer Trust, a U.K. charity that raises funds to build dedicated cancer wards for teenagers in hospitals throughout the U.K. Daltrey serves as patron for the charity.
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