Customer Rating:  
Summary: Not Very Good!
Comment: I was so excited about getting this dvd but so disapointed when I got it.
The adverts and the info on the box are misleading! Yes this was shot, and shot very well actualy, so they had some concert footage of Baba.. and Won't get fooled.. to include in the "Kids are Alright" film.
But the footage here that they filmed for it wasn't used in the TKAA, because the Who didn't play well. You can see that here, some of the old numbers come across ok but quite sloppy by Who standards. Join together and Who are You are simply awfull it's as if they don't know the songs at all! Pete and John do their best to keep it together but you can see they're just very rusty and under practiced. They know it too!
I hate to admit it but Moon is completely out of shape and has lost his sharpness. He actualy spoils a few bits in the songs by trying to do what he once did so effortlesly but failing to pull it off. It's sad, technically he should be in his prime like the rest of the band at this point in their career.
So, they did it all again a few months later, I believe, and used that footage in TKAA. Which makes me wonder why they didn't release that concert instead of this, if this is so bad and that one better. Certainly Baba.. and Won't Get Fooled in TKAA are more enthusiastic and convincing than what we have here. I would love to see the rest of that, which is what I thought this was by the way. Surely that is the "Holy Grail" among Who fans that the box for this is saying and not this. Then they'd be able to say that "this is Keith Moon's last concert" rather than penultimate. That would be even more dramatic. I suspect Moon had got it together a bit more by then, I think he'd moved back to London from the temptations and distractions of L.A and was making another serious effort to lay off the pop. The band would of practiced and been more familiar with each other by then. Where's that film? Probably in production for a release at the back end of next year I'd say.
None of the Photos on the back of the box are from this gig. I think they're from their '75 '76 tour.
By the way I realy enjoyed the bonus Coliseum gig. The stage lighting doesn't transfer to film very well and it's not proffesionaly shot but it's a good performance and good to see them at this important point in their career.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Pure and Easy
Comment: The Who - At Kilburn 1977 + Live at the Coliseum (NTSC)
At last, here it is : the long-awaited DVD collection of the greatest rock band there will ever be that allows you to compare them at two different epochs of their history. Let's start with the best, namely the second disc. It shows the band at their absolute peak in the late 60s, with a ferociously energising and stunningly electrifying performance shortly after their international breakthrough "Tommy" had immortalised them. Never mind the sometimes poor quality of the filming - the most striking element of this 1969 gig at the London Coliseum lies in the raw, yet vital energy this band were able to communicate to their audience. The extra of this second disc, i.e. the first filmed live performance of their rock opera "Tommy", is to me the illustration of why The Who, even if badly recorded, convey a strength that no other band is able to get across with such power and honesty. A song like "Amazing Journey" for example illustrates that this is possible thanks to the ability to harmonise four individual creative geniuses into a fiercely sensual whole. It is in such moments that their music is truly uplifting and unequalled in terms of Life Force. The difference with Murray Lerner's filming of their 1970 Isle of Wight gig lies in the fact that because of the rather primitive and static way of filming the London gig, we can concentrate much better on the music. The only regret is that unfortunately, there are no existing pictures of a "Lifehouse" gig, f.ex. the one on the second CD of the Deluxe edition of "Who's Next" - in my eyes still the best ever recorded live performance of the band, even better than "Live At Leeds".
The first disc shows us the band at a later stage of their creative cursus, shortly before the tragic demise of Keith Moon. It is true that the late 70s had proven incapable of matching the high standards the band had set in the early 70s. However, this is not to say that the Kilburn gig is bad or boring, as some commentators on official websites have claimed. This performance was filmed as a key element to the documentary "The Kids Are Alright", on which only one or two songs feature. Three things are interesting about the Kilburn live act. a) We are able to see it in full length for the first time; b) it contains an outstandingly fantastic performance of John Entwistle, particularly on his own song "My Wife" and on "Dreaming from the Waist"; and c) it was one of Keith Moon's very last performances, proving to the fans that he was in great shape again and still the engine responsible for holding a lot of the songs together. The gig is filmed with great skill and fully renders the atmosphere that must have been felt by the audience that night. The sound is amazing and helps to turn the Kilburn gig into a highly enjoyable rock concert.
"The Who At Kilburn" is not only a must for dedicated wholigans. It constitutes an important piece of rock history that gives us only a short glimpse of what it must have been like to be a privileged spectator of the Moon era. The dvd is therefore above all to be considered as a very valuable Rock Time Machine.
Long live The Who !
Customer Rating:
Summary: Who Heaven
Comment: A real Rock and Roll warts an' all performance. Alternative highlights being Daltrey forgetting his words in 'Dreaming from the Waist' and Townshend taking a rock star tantrum with his guitar tech during 'My Wife'.
Moon, although podgy, looks delighted to be there and despite horror stories regarding his condition and playing during this concert he is still driving the band. Entwistle's bass sounds fantastic. The amazing thing is, this was the Who on an off day, under rehearsed, edgy and dangerous but absolutely vital! Townshend is hypnotic! Buy this.
Customer Rating:
Summary: coliseum '69 is a must!!!!
Comment: Just watch 'heaven and hell' from the 2nd disc - surely this is some of the most stunning live performances ever filmed, thanks in particular to the one and only Keith Moon. Seriously, for any rock fan reading this you must buy this dvd! (then re-evaluate why current bands can't match this stuff for intensity). With Rog doing his mic lead twirl, pete with his windmills and john on bass it really does make all the bands of today seem like clueless tubes, compared to the mighty 'OO at their peak!!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another one for the collection
Comment: I've always considered the version of Won't Get Fooled Again on The Kids Are Alright as the most exciting and definitive version, and now we can see the whole concert where it was recorded. It's a good show, not one of their best, but pretty good. Sure Roger forgets his words and Pete has a rant at the audience, but that just underlines the fact that these are four west-London lads doing their stuff. Looking back, considering this was Moonie's last but one performance, it is quite poignant and almost prophetic when he says between tracks that he is going to the dressing room to overdose.
The other concert, at the Coliseum, is pure late 60's Who at their finest. The quality of the film isn't great, but it's almost forty years old - what do you expect? However, this doesn't diminish the power of the performance. Oh, how I wish I'd been there....
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