Tommy and Quadrophenia Live is a 3-disc
DVD box set that includes performances by
The Who from their
1989 (the Tommy portion) and
1996-1997 tours (the Quadrophenia portion). Whilst the Tommy part of the set had been already released on
VHS, material from the Quadrophenia Tour had not been commercially available previously.
Both sets present a heavily augmented backing band supporting
Roger Daltrey (vocals),
Pete Townshend (guitar, piano and vocals) and
John Entwistle (bass guitars and vocals). In 1989 the band featured
Steve 'Boltz' Bolton on guitar,
John Bundrick on piano and keyboards,
Simon Phillips on drums,
Jody Linscott on percussion, and Chyna,
Billy Nicholls and Cleveland Watkiss on backing vocals, along with the Kick Horns brass ensemble. The 1996-97 band swapped
Zak Starkey for Phillips on drums and Pete's brother
Simon Townshend for Steve Bolton on guitar. For both tours Townshend heavily relied on acoustic guitars for the main part of the show, only trading it in for his electric guitars on some of the older numbers.
A 90-minute show filmed in
Dayton,
Ohio on The Who's 1996
United States tour with special guest
Billy Idol and film sequences performed by Alex Langdon. Footage of
Gary Glitter from the Dayton show was replaced for this DVD with
PJ Proby performing the same material from the following year's tour.
Both the Tommy and Quadrophenia performances have visual commentaries that can be triggered from the DVD menu or in feature by pressing enter. These commentaries superimpose 2005 interviews of Townshend and Daltrey over the concert footage.
The Tommy disc also features a photo gallery of stills from the 1989 tour.
The Quadrophenia disc also includes a featurette, "The Quadrophenia Story."
The Live Hits disc also includes an interview featurette, "Billy Idol: From Cousin Kevin to the Ace Face."