page_title: Tommy (The Who album)
section_title: Live performances
hierarchical_section_title: Tommy (The Who album) / Live performances
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Die Metropolitan Opera im Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (Manhattan, New York City).
context_page_description: Tommy is the fourth studio album by the English rock band The Who, a double album first released in 23 May 1969. The album was mostly composed by guitarist Pete Townshend, and is a rock opera that tells the story of Tommy Walker, a "deaf, dumb and blind" boy, including his experiences with life and his relationship with his family.
  Townshend came up with the concept of Tommy after being introduced to the work of Meher Baba, and attempted to translate Baba's teachings into music. Recording on the album began in September 1968, but took six months to complete as material needed to be arranged and re-recorded in the studio. Tommy was acclaimed upon its release by critics, who hailed it as the Who's breakthrough. Its critical standing diminished slightly in later years; nonetheless, several writers view it as an important and influential album in the history of rock music. The Who promoted the album's release with an extensive tour, including a live version of Tommy, which lasted throughout 1969 and 1970. Key gigs from the tour included appearances at Woodstock, the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival, the University of Leeds, the Metropolitan Opera House, and the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival.
context_section_description: The Who had planned to perform Tommy live since starting the project. The group spent April 1969 rehearsing a live version of the show at the Hanwell Community Centre in Ealing including a final run down of the entire stage piece on 23 April. The running order was changed, and four songs ("Cousin Kevin", "Underture", "Sensation" and "Welcome") were dropped entirely. Townshend later said the group "did the whole thing from start to finish and that was when we first realized we had something cohesive and playable." Roger Daltrey's voice had improved substantially since the group's early tours, and they realised their new live act could completely change their career.
  After a few warm up gigs towards the end of April, the group gave a preview concert to the press at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, London on 1 May. Realising the opera's narrative was difficult to understand, Townshend explained a synopsis of the story, before the Who played Tommy all the way through at full stage volume. The next day, the group flew out to New York to start the US tour, with the first gig on 9 May at the Grande Ballroom, Detroit. At the end of May, the group played four nights at the Kinetic Playground, Chicago, and they noticed the audience would all stand up at the same time, and stay standing. This indicated that live performances of Tommy had a significant positive response.
  The group continued to play large halls in the US, organised by tour promoter Frank Barsalona, and generally avoided festivals, but made an important exception with the Woodstock festival on 16 August. After spending all night arguing with Barsalona, the band agreed to perform at Woodstock for $12,500. The festival ran late and the Who did not take to the stage until the early morning of 17 August. During "Pinball Wizard", Abbie Hoffman took to the stage to protest about the imprisonment of John Sinclair before being kicked offstage by Townshend, while during "See Me, Feel Me", the sun rose, almost as if on cue. Two weeks later, the group played the second Isle of Wight Festival, using one of the largest live PAs available. Though media attention was on Bob Dylan playing his first major live concert since 1966, the Who stole the show. Townshend later said, "We know that the stage act we had, with Tommy in it, would work under any circumstances, because it had worked many times on tour."
  Tommy remained in the Who's live set through the rest of the year and into 1970. In October 1969, the Who played six shows at the Fillmore East, where Leonard Bernstein praised them for their new music. The group's show on 14 December at the London Coliseum was filmed for a possible future Tommy feature. Lambert was keen for Tommy to be taken seriously and wanted the Who to perform at opera houses. In June 1970, the group performed two shows at the Metropolitan Opera House, which was the first time Townshend announced the show as being the "last Tommy ever". The group made a second trip to the Isle of Wight, appearing at the 1970 festival on 29 August, before an audience of 600,000. The last live performance for 1970 was at The Roundhouse, London on 20 December. Townshend said "This is the very last time we'll play Tommy on stage", to which Keith Moon promptly cried, "Thank Christ for that!"
  Public reaction to the Who's concerts that included Tommy was overwhelmingly positive. The touring helped keep the album in the public eye, and cleared the band's debts. Several live recordings of Tommy from the Who's 1969–70 tours have been released. A complete performance is available on the 2002 Deluxe Edition of the live album Live at Leeds, recorded on 14 February 1970. The second Isle of Wight performance is available on Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970, released in 1996. The Coliseum Theatre gig is available on the 2007 video release At Kilburn 1977 + Live at the Coliseum. Portions of the Woodstock performance of Tommy were released on the documentaries Woodstock and The Kids Are Alright. The complete show was recorded, but has never been officially released.
  The Who continued to play a sm
caption: By 1970, Tommy had achieved sufficient critical acclaim to be performed live in the Metropolitan Opera House.
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