The Who - Amsterdam 1969: Restored from 2025 Tape Transfer [Prof Stoned 2025]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
01. 'British top group No. 1'
02. Heaven And Hell
03. I Can't Explain
04. 'Silly Keith'
05. Fortune Teller
06. Tattoo
07. 'You are the first'
08. Young Man Blues
09. 'What started the whole opera trip'
10. A Quick One, While He's Away
11. 'Old-fashioned skinheads'
12. Substitute
13. Happy Jack
14. I'm A Boy
15. 'I think it's time'
16. Overture
17. It's A Boy
18. 1921
19. Amazing Journey
20. Sparks
21. Eyesight To The Blind (The Hawker)
22. Christmas
23. The Acid Queen
24. Pinball Wizard
25. Do You Think It's Alright?
26. Fiddle About
27. Tommy Can You Hear Me?
28. There's A Doctor
29. Go To The Mirror
30. Smash The Mirror
31. Miracle Cure
32. Sally Simpson
33. I'm Free
34. Tommy's Holiday Camp
35. We're Not Gonna Take It
36. Summertime Blues
37. Shakin' All Over
38. 'Going-away present'
39. My Generation
40. 'Fantastic, unbelievable'
====================================================================================================
Total time: 2h02m25s
Recorded live in Stereo at Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands on September 29, 1969 by the NOS for radio broadcasting by the AVRO.
1st Airing: September 30, 1969 (part I) / October 1, 1969 (Part II)
Producer for AVRO: Karel van de Graaf
Sound Engineer: Bob Pridden
Hi-rez transfer from 2nd generation 7,5 I.P.S. tape by DTT, October 2025
Demix Rebalancing/Mastering: Prof Stoned
v1.0: 05:12-2025
====================================================================================================
Note:
This document remains the only complete, high-quality recording of a full 1969 Tommy show. No Who shows were captured on multitrack that year, except for the one-hour Woodstock set. Even though this is a semi-professional recording, it has its share of technical shortcomings. The balance is often less than optimal, with the drums sometimes low in the mix and the vocals often too loud. My educated guess is that Bob Pridden, the long-serving/suffering Who soundman, supplied the NOS with a stereo signal from his mixing desk, rather than a unique mix being made in the recording truck (as was the case with Pink Floyd at the same venue that year)~ .
The owner of the tape used here was a Who fanatic who, in 1974, was involved in making a two-part Who radio special in commemoration of the band's 10th anniversary. Being aware of the 1969 concert recording, it was suggested that fragments of it be played, which is what happened. The engineer then made him a high-quality copy of the whole concert from the master as thanks for his help. The tape was, of course, not meant to find its way to the public, but in the ’80s some copies were made for a few trusted fellow fans. This most likely led to the inevitable first bootleg in 1984, followed by many others*. When history repeated itself in the late ’90s, the tape owner decided to “liberate” a digital copy of the full recording as a free alternative to the 1999 Hiwatt bootleg. Yours truly took a shot at remastering it in 2005/06, and it became a well-circulated version^. I got in touch with the owner of the tape in 2006, and the idea of doing a new transfer was discussed. But this never materialized … until a few months ago, when I decided to contact him again after 16 years without speaking. And to his eternal credit, he trusted the tape with me. Sometimes good things take time, as they should.
This new remaster seeks to correct as many of the technical flaws heard in the original version as possible. It could be thought of as a remix of sorts, even though the stereo image is not radically different. The overall balance has been greatly improved, distracting noises have been concealed, and the clarity is far better than it has ever been before. This is partly due to the source tape being professionally transferred to high-resolution digital for the first time. All previous versions are, in fact, lossy, having been recorded to 1990s MiniDisc from the tape owner’s consumer reel-to-reel machine. Restoring this was a bit like a 2,000-piece jigsaw puzzle: you just have to start somewhere, and gradually a pattern begins to develop—but it certainly wasn’t going to solve itself in a few hours.
As for the concert, it probably stands as one of the finest moments in The Who’s career. The setlist that evening was the blueprint for what the band would be playing for the next twelve months, which naturally led to some (Tommy) fatigue. Yet the material was still fresh here, and the fact that this was their first prestigious opera house show undoubtedly added something special to the occasion. Was it perfect? No. This was four guys taking on the challenge of reproducing an ambitious studio record on stage with just drums, two guitars, and three voices. But they changed the world a little bit with it and helped move rock ’n’ roll a step closer to being a socially accepted art form. I wish The Who could simply be remembered for everything they gave us in their golden 1964–73 period. What a perfect legacy that would be.
P.S. 11-2025
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[~ The Amsterdam recording is mixed in the same style as the fall 1969 tapes and has similar flaws: the guitar and bass are panned left and right, all vocals are in the middle (including Binson echo), and the drums waver somewhere between left and right. Separate microphones can be seen on the drums and guitar amp in photos of this show. The vocal mics visible in the pictures are single ones, but this seems consistent with how Pridden created his recordings for the fall 1969 tour: by using the P.A. feed for the vocals and mixing the instruments in stereo around the mono feed. The occasional crowd noise was probably mixed in with the stereo signal at the NOS recording truck.
[* To my knowledge, the 1974 tape is the source for all bootlegs (found here: tinyurl.com/mrxhbxbx). The concert was rebroadcast once—in 2006, minus the opening track—but the FM quality and post-processing made it inferior to the pre-FM source.]
[^ It can be recognized by the first track being titled “House Announcement”. The Who used it on their official YouTube channel.]
====================================================================================================
A note about mastering with demix technology:
You may have heard some of my recent releases where I have used Demix Pro or SpectraLayers for spectral extraction. I believe this is the most revolutionary audio processing approach in ages. It enables us to break a mono signal down into dedicated elements, most notably: vocals, drums/percussion, bass guitar, electric guitar, and whatever remains after that. Depending on the source material, these extractions can be so precise that they allow for a realistic reconstruction of a mix.
Why is this useful? Well… the original mix may have flaws that affect the overall sound quality. By nature, the process of mastering is designed to improve such flaws by applying equalization and/or dynamic range processing. But what if one element within a recording needs more treble, while another element is already bright enough? At that point, EQ is no longer sufficient, because your choices will affect both. Of course, mastering does not begin and end with EQ; there are always other ways of emphasizing or hiding elements in a recording. But spectral extraction allows you to improve the sound of one element without “harming” the sound of the others, and also to rebalance those elements if necessary.
Being able to correct balancing mistakes, having the flexibility to mesh the bass guitar and kick drum together nicely, and placing the vocals precisely where they need to sit in the mix is a great luxury—especially when it doesn’t have to be achieved with bus EQ and/or compression.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have used the following digital studio gear and monitoring in the making of this:
- Spectralayers Pro 10
- Cubase 13
- Universal Audio UAD-2 Satellite Quad-Core (incl. various extra plugins I purchased over the years)
- Neumann KH150 & iLoud Micro monitors
- Adobe Audition
- Izotope RX9
