Music

Live at the Isle of Wight 2004 Festival


Reviews (1)


Record collector

468 (2017 July)

By

By

Kris Needs

468 (2017 July)

"Those watching The Who these days can be divided between those old enough to have witnessed the classic line-up of Daltrey, Townshend, Entwistle and Moon at their incendiary peak, and those who are too young to have had the chance to see them at full strength, but are desperate to witness rock's legends performing their hits while they still can.As someone who sits proudly in the first category, it's hard to muster much enthusiasm for a Who that - though fronted by the man who sang the songs and guitarist who wrote them - still boasts half the firepower of the band that slaughtered 1970's Isle Of Wight festival.Most of the huge crowd at this first British show without Entwistle slot into the second category, going politely apeshit as, for over two hours, Daltrey and Townshend mike-twirl and windmill enthusiastically through their hits, classic album highlights and sneaked-in later tracks, solidly supported by drummer Zak Starkey, bassist Pino Palladino, Townshend'sguitaristbrother Simon and long-serving keyboardist John `Rabbit' Bundrick.Nothing can take away from those songs' innate magic but Palladino's limp solo in My Generation shows the vast chasm between the original band's malevolent avalanche and this almost homely repainting by numbers".