Vol.95 Who 1980-06-20 Forum - Los Angeles
The Who
The Forum
Inglewood, CA
June 20, 1980
Mike Millard Master Tapes via JEMS
The Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone Tapes Volume 95
1644 Edition
Recording Gear: AKG 451E Microphones (CK-1 cardioid capsules) > Nakamichi 550 Cassette Recorder
JEMS 2021 Transfer: Mike Millard Master Cassettes > Nakamichi CR-7A (azimuth adjustment; Dolby On) > Sound Devices USBPre 2 > Audacity 2.0 capture > iZotope RX8 > iZotope Ozone 8 > Peak Pro (post production) > 16/44 > Audacity > TLH > FLAC
01 Behind Blue Eyes
02 Dreaming From The Waist
03 Drowned
04 Who Are You
05 5:15
06 Pinball Wizard
07 My Generation
08 I Can See For Miles
09 Sparks
10 See Me, Feel Me
11 Won't Get Fooled Again
12 Young Man Blues
13 Dancing In The Street
14 Dance It Away > Another Tricky Day (a few verses only)
15 The Real Me
Known Faults: The show is joined in progress, missing the start of the show which was "Substitute," "I Can't Explain," "Baba O'Riley," "My Wife" and "Sister Disco."
The Who, The Forum, Inglewood, CA, June 20, 1980
The year is 1980 and The Who, resurrected with the addition of Kenney Jones on drums, returns to Los Angeles to perform seven concerts. That's an impressive number of tickets to sell in a single market and shows the demand for the band at the time.
Mike The Mic took The Who's return seriously, recording five of those seven shows including this, opening night of the run at The Forum, the first of two gigs there before moving to the Sports Arena for the final five, one of which, the June 23 show, was released as Vol. 24 in our series.
As was occasionally the case, Mike and Jim R arrived late, missing the start of the set for reasons Jim explains below. After the standard '80 tour opening five songs, Mike gets rolling at the start of "Behind Blue Eyes" and does an excellent job the rest of the way. Despite being incomplete, there are still plenty of highlights to be found here, including an extended, jammy "My Generation" flowing right into a horn-driven "I Can See For Miles." That's followed by the brilliant Tommy instrumental, "Sparks."
The end of the show features a punky take of "Young Man Blues," followed by a cover of Martha and the Vandellas' "Dancing in the Street" that expands into a jam on the future Pete Townshend solo song "Dance It Away," with Roger Daltrey and Townshend both taking vocal turns. It's one of the best "Dance It Away" jams I've heard, a showcase for the unique improvisation The Who was doing circa 1979-80. Before "Dance It Away" ends, Townshend sings a few lines of "Another Tricky Day," which would eventually be released on the band's Face Dances album a year later. The show wraps with a long version of the Quadrophenia classic, "The Real Me."
Mike's riser seats put him in a great taping position and his work here sounds close and full. Samples provided.
Here's what Jim R recalled about The Who, opening night at The Forum 1980:
Mike and I went together to The Who concert at The Forum on June 20, 1980. Instead of our sweet spot on the floor, we were in the primo loge risers close to the stage.
This was opening night, just a couple days before a five-night stand at the LA Sports Arena. Ticket demand was higher for The Forum than the Sports Arena, as it was a more desired and prestigious venue. They didn't call it the Fabulous Forum for nothing: The Lakers won the NBA Championship just a month before and The Forum was their home court. Much of the ticket demand was driven by the music industry, making the Forum a tougher ticket than the Sports Arena despite having larger capacity.
As riser seats go, these were excellent: Section 26, Row FF on the inside aisle. Row BB is two inches above the floor, so ours in FF were four rows above the floor and approximately 10-15 rows back from the stage. Definitely a PA tape. The mics in Mike's hat had direct line of sight to the speaker columns.
The recording is joined in progress. My assumption/fuzzy memory as to why is we were waiting on Graham to get us in the side door where his paid-off security guard was lurking. This was 1980 and security had grown pretty tight. We had to find Graham in the parking lot or across the street from The Forum where he was unloading unsold tickets. Finding Graham often proved rather difficult. It's a pretty big parking lot. In addition, Graham also had our tickets. Loge riser seats were the most prized by brokers, as their high-end clientele wanted to sit above the fray on the floor. Mike liked to call Graham the scalper's scalper: He always had access to the best seats.
Due to increased security at The Forum, I left my camera bag at home. We had to stay under the radar. I included a couple pictures from the LA Sports Arena not used in Vol 24.
The Who were their typical tight-knit selves. High energy. Explosive. All four band members were in fine form and they played most of their big hits. All in all a great night.
I hope you enjoy this one as much as Mike and I did.
Cheers to my buddy Mike.
