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The Who - 1982-10-25 - Alameda County Coliseum Arena, Oakland, CA AUD video 2xDVD-5
The Who
October 25, 1982 (1982-10-25)
Oakland Coliseum Arena (AKA Alameda County Coliseum Arena)
Oakland, California
Audience Shot
Lineage: Panasonic(?) portable VHS camera and recorder > 1st gen. copy.
Transfer (Mike Ziegler): JVC HR-S9911U > Canopus ADVC-300 > IEEE 1394 > Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 > AVI file
Audio Lineage for this rework: Nakamichi CM300 microphones > SONY TC-D5M > Dolby B encoded TDK MA90 master recorded by NH
Audio transfer: Nakamichi Dragon (Dolby B decoded) > A/D Apogee Mini Me (Firewire) (transferred @ 44.1/16) > Peak (editing) > xACT (FLAC, meta tagging).
Original video transfer attributes:
Codec: MPEG-2
Bitrate: 9000 kbps
Resolution: 720x480
Frame rate: NTSC (29.97 fps)
Aspect ratio: 4:3
2013 DVD edition: (grner1 - January 2013): .AVI video file > VisualHub (lossless transcode to .dv file) - Audio sources synched in Pro Tools with slight speed correction. > Final Cut Pro (minor "nip and tuck" edits, filter to replace bottom of screen "head switch jitter" with black and chaptering) > Compressor > DVD Studio Pro (menu and authoring) > VIDEO_TS file set.
New DVD Video Attributes: NTSC 720x480, VBR 7.7 Mbps peak, 6.2 Mbps average data rate, 2-pass.
DVD Audio Attributes: Choice of: AC3/Dolby Digital 2/0 (L,R), 48 kHz sample rate, 256 kbps data rate or Linear PCM (2 channel 44.1 kHz 16 bit).
DVD 1
xx:xx:xx My Generation (missing)
xx:xx:xx I Can't Explain (missing)
00:00:00 Dangerous
00:03:46 Sister Disco
00:09:29 Quiet One
00:14:35 It's Hard
00:19:39 Eminence Front
00:25:36 Behind Blue Eyes
00:29:25 Baba O'Reilly
00:35:04 Tattoo
00:38:53 Drowned
00:48:58 Man Is A Man
00:53:18 Cry If You Want
DVD 2
00:00:00 (cuts in) Who Are You?
00:06:25 Pinball Wizard
00:09:20 See Me Feel Me
00:13:59 Substitute
00:17:03 5:15
00:24:08 Love Reign O'er Me
00:29:16 Long Live Rock
00:34:03 Won't Get Fooled Again
00:44:11 encore break
00:46:31 Athena
00:50:55 Young Man Blues
00:57:01 Twist and Shout
01:00:23 Naked Eye
01:07:24 Summertime Blues
01:11:31 Goodbye
01:13:20 end
Roger Daltrey - harmonica, guitar, vocals
John Entwistle - vocals, bass
Kenney Jones - drums
Pete Townshend - vocals, guitar
Tim Gorman - piano, keyboards, backing vocals
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Show review excerpt (by Slipkid68 for JEMS): This was the third and final title in JEMS' 30th Anniversary series featuring upgraded audio from NH's master audience. This is a well-shot-for-the-era, first-generation audience video with better-sounding cassette master audio substituted for the VHS audio. The first 2 songs are missing and there's a bit where the camera is blocked by people standing in the way, but mostly it's all there and enjoyable throughout. We hope you agree. The first two songs ("My Generation" and "I Can't Explain") weren't captured, but the rest of the show, from "Dangerous" to "Summertime Blues," appears in surprisingly good quality: most of the time the picture is steady and only in a few instances does the viewer experience a "down-in-front" moment. The bonus here is the picture stays with the action and that's with Pete Townshend. Sure, we see the rest of the band (mostly Roger Daltrey; wider shots show John and Kenney, too) but if it's the T-Cam you seek, look no further.
Such camera framing is particularly fortunate on this night, as Townshend graced the Bay Area with a memorable performance, one that fanzine Who's News ranked as the best of the 40 shows on the tour (well, tied with the 10/13 Shea Stadium concert, but I'm giving the nod here to Oakland). Townshend is fired up and completely engaged in his performance. You'll see terrific versions of "Drowned" and "Naked Eye," but songs from It's Hard, the LP the Who had released the previous month, earn their place, too. Six tracks make the set here, including a searing "Cry if You Want." "A Man is a Man" and the rare "Athena" (the single from the album) are also performed, both for the last time.
There is no shortage of video from the 1982 tour: The band did press in Washington and Los Angeles, shot a live video for "Eminence Front," and sat for an MTV special. The last show, December 17 in Toronto, was simulcast and released on home video. There's fine pro-shot footage of the show in Seattle (10/20) and mash-ups of the two nights at Shea (10/12-13). Even the band's official website got in on the action posting several songs from the Dallas '82 concert a several months ago. And of course JEMS has circulated audience-shot video from Boulder and Seattle.
What makes Oakland special? For one, it was the longest show of the tour, held indoors within the relatively cozy confines of the Oakland Coliseum Arena on what was otherwise a predominantly stadium tour. The band had played two days earlier (on the 23rd) at the Coliseum stadium next door. That was a typical Saturday afternoon, Day-on-the-Green event, and it was a fine show (though Who's News noted that it was hard to really get behind a set where Roger Daltrey sat out part of "See Me, Feel Me" on the drum riser). Oakland outdoors had a tick-the-box vibe, where the masses - drawn to the ballpark to see the mighty Who one last time (or so they thought) on their Farewell Tour - came, saw and left. Regardless, the Who put on a good show, representative of the generally solid performances 1982 brought, but not outstanding.
The indoor October 25th show on the other hand felt like a gift from the band to long-time fans in the Bay Area (possibly at the behest of promoter Bill Graham). It was a stunning show on a host of levels. Townshend danced and leapt his way through the set and extended many of the songs. His guitar playing was excellent, and yes, Pete does dispatch with a guitar late in the show - it's interesting to see how that comes about and how it fit seamlessly into the performance. Even by 2013 standards, these DVDs are an impressive document of a superb Who show. Thanks to all who made it happen.
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30th anniversary notes excerpt (by Tapeboy for JEMS): Back in 1982, The Who embarked on their first "Farewell Tour." It was originally THE "Farewell Tour," but once they got going, they were playing well and having a good time, and left the door open to more touring down the road. At one point Pete was even talking of another concept album to follow It's Hard. In due time, Kenney left and the Who didn't formally restart again until 1989 and the resurrection of Tommy.
When the '82 tour was announced, I was "under" employed, so I decided to take in the entire tour, attend every single show, which I did, minus the two warm-up shows in England. I put 10,000 miles on my Ford Fairmont during the course of the tour, and I had many guests join for a run of shows, which helped with traveling expenses. One such fellow who tagged along on the western swing of the tour had a portable video recorder set up, which we packed and brought along. We only broke it out for three shows: Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado on October 17, 1982, The Kingdome in Seattle on October 20 and the second Oakland show on October 25.
The Boulder show ("rain, snow or shine" it said on the ticket) and the Seattle show (which also circulates as a pro-shot video) were both solid stadium performances. The Oakland show (in the Arena following a Stadium show across the parking lot two days earlier) was one of the best shows of the tour.
All three had set list variations which made this tour fairly unique for The Who but Oakland was the longest show, with a little more spark than much of the rest on the tour (the second night at Shea Stadium was the only other set to match it). Plus, Pete smashed a guitar during "Won't Get Fooled Again." (As a side note, it wasn't a big, end-of-the-show smashing, more of a pissed-off about something, quick take-down in the middle of the song. He quickly got a new guitar and carried on.)
We walked into the shows with a camera, a tripod, a portable VHS recorder, blank VHS tapes and batteries, as well as JEMS' usual cassette audio recording set-up, all of which probably weighed a collective 25+ pounds and took up several cubic feet of space. By contrast, I just purchased a new recorder (the Olympus LS-7) which is so small it can fit into a shirt pocket with room to spare! Times have changed. I think back to those days and I wonder how we were able to get these recordings done.
A note on these tapes: In a digital age, these recordings, which I remember as being nice quality, pale in comparison to what we can do now. These are 1st generation copies off the video masters (which for all intents and purposes don't exist any more and are lost to history).
Look at the screen grabs to get a sense of the quality. If you can put yourself back into a 1982 mindset, all three are highly watchable, mostly steady and generally free of obstructions. And if you were in attendance, they are miraculous souvenirs. Boulder and Seattle, being stadiums, are more distant but the shot is still only as wide as the band is on stage. Not bad at all. And Oakland, as it was an arena show indoors, is even closer and better.
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