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Daniel's Collection

The Who   12/03/1979

Riverfront Coliseum, Cincinnati, OH
Source JEMS Master

Taping Gear: Teac M-100 > Sony 153SD (mono, Dolby B on)
parts of 4 songs recorded with Uher Mic > Uher Cassette Recorder

Lineage: Master Cassettes > Nakamichi 670 azimuth-adjusted playback > Nakamichi outboard Dolby B decode > Wavelab 96/24 1-ch mono > FLAC front-end (downsampled to 16/44.1)

Taped and transferred by JEMS
Checksums 3e8a19dcb3af854cc007dac29ed846ca *01. Substitute.flac
0fc914d8f038bf234f915a9cd5eb8558 *02. I Can't Explain.flac
1723ee967defb5ce48bebbead1a6df69 *03. Baba O'Riley.flac
e025a33c1a4d1b0b25a1d1d9c66a8dee *04. The Punk And The Godfather.flac
a8af0ffcdbdd6bc486cf32f8af26f9ee *05. My Wife.flac
19552d599c63ad369c528d0fef58887b *06. Sister Disco.flac
6ec15be0d1ac29e38cf2e7b2b0520e35 *07. Behind Blue Eyes.flac
dc46a245318151c59be333c7ef1def2b *08. Music Must Change.flac
96d5982a226ec75025dde299d4748aa1 *09. Drowned.flac
028537cf4a698a5ddfbe3140d5d1f1de *10. Who Are You.flac
3a370ca733dda4034526087430f4aaf8 *11. 5 15.flac
e02d6e22e888f99a4b6e3771a71dfee0 *12. Pinball Wizard.flac
f824931ed3e2993acbc4ef22920b2282 *13. See Me Feel Me.flac
480e7a89a41657661f1258026345ebc4 *14. Long Live Rock.flac
5b65fc9498a065a7802a12450d1e09af *15. My Generation Bolero.flac
8948bbbaafb4d12fe2fe524ad21dfe0a *16. I Can See For Miles.flac
85dd626f571b7f79aa14aa0c1a9c2b01 *17. Sparks.flac
48c60e0b6297fe5bfb12b9e736410a2c *18. Won't Get Fooled Again.flac
706295995c007c1a21e48e4c432b9ef4 *19. Summertime Blues.flac
fce5c86e419a21ec4ecd466cbfd394b8 *20. The Real Me.flac
4bc6523b2cd7b27068a99af38e96cd67 *Cincinnati\Cincinnati Press clipping 01.jpg
a3a211cd42c2a9dbf79a14352176ef4e *Cincinnati\Cincinnati Press clipping 02.jpg
5cf0e1ee529b0d26c64cefc683e703b6 *Cincinnati\Cincinnati Press clipping 03.jpg
723bb95ec45c53447d9407435d836e37 *Cincinnati\Cincinnati Press clipping 04.jpg
557d3b1fb43c81812e9cd6f49bcfae88 *Cincinnati\Cincinnati Press clipping 05.jpeg.png
6e114c6142cfbe460e5d1d3e76eff066 *Cincinnati\Cincinnati Press clipping 06.jpg
f3dad6fde54e2771e5cfd9a94b3684a8 *Cincinnati\Cincinnati Press clipping 07.jpg
5f141d9939bfcd909512d276142e949a *Cincinnati\Cincinnati Press clipping 08.jpg
4f5c35b788607172badaf86e72f2d35a *Cincinnati\Cincinnati PT 01.jpg
d9298e4de8e3333b51657b6d3ea2cb7e *Cincinnati\Cincinnati PT 02.jpg
212310b29dee99968c701a182949aa38 *Cincinnati\Cincinnati Band 01.jpg
3ac0d7150ed2524ef66354e85916ed4f *Cincinnati\Cincinnati Band 02.jpg
e779f9588f0bc491567ca035c5c2c92d *Cincinnati\Cincinnati Band 03.jpg
ec1bf5b35566ac04bc4702f94c40cffa *Cincinnati\Cincinnati Band 04.jpg
8b6be7e619584cb2385aa7865f442df9 *Cincinnati\Cincinnati Band 05.jpg
a05b2fd2a6b109bcec21fe25dc2e08f4 *Cincinnati\Cincinnati Band 06.jpg
78dd45d683c09fba48666a1a30d3fab3 *Cincinnati\Cincinnati ox 01.jpg
da179bfa649da280cd198839298f9b8a *Cincinnati\Cincinnati ticket.jpg
63fc1523c38c01ef95be49db882e2e99 *sony 153 + teac mic.jpg
37219fcb43e09ad3af10cf0272a7e632 *The Who Cincinnati 12-03-1979 (16-44).txt
800e4d293c736e353420e0ef839fbcec *Wiki page text.txt
Media
Notes Perhaps the most tragic concert in the history of rock and roll.

The third night of The Who's Winter '79 tour is infamously known for the deaths of eleven fans outside the doors of the Riverfront Coliseum before the show. Wikipedia does a solid job of explaining the circumstances around what happened. They can be found here and we've included the text from that page in the torrent as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Who_concert_disaster

The Who themselves went on and played their set, blindly unaware of what had happened until after the show ended. As with the show the night before in Pittsburgh, there were several firecrackers going off in the crowd which was again addressed by Pete. Despite not knowing what had occurred before the show, Pete and Roger tried (unsuccessfully) several times to get the crowd on the main floor to stop pressing forward. It was an extremely volatile situation inside as it was out, which may explain why the show actually wasn't canceled on the spot for fear of what the crowd might do.

Despite the terrible circumstances, there's no getting around that the Who's performance this fateful night was great, building on and surpassing the previous two nights shows. In "My Generation," Pete played his bolero for the first time on this part of the tour. Earlier, when introducing the new/additional musicians on stage, PT referenced other horn-section rock bands Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears, then dubbing The Who "Blood, Sweat and Shit." Samples provided.

When the band left stage after the main set, they were told by their management to play a shorter encore; the first sign something was amiss. After the encore they were told what had happened before the show. These terrible circumstances, obviously, cast a shadow over the rest of the tour. We drove to Buffalo the next day, not entirely sure whether there would be a show or not. There was, and the band addressed what happened in Cincinnati from the stage. But that's the next installment of our Who '79 Revisited campaign. For now, you can listen to the bizarrely unaffected performance in Cincinnati by a band that had no idea what had happened to their fans before the lights went down.

Tapeboy for JEMS

___________________________

Additional comments by ademotte:

This is perhaps the most important show in The Who's career for all the wrong reasons. It was unfortunate that the poor crowd control efforts by the promoter tarnished the band's reputation for several years to come. The performance itself was quite good, and listening to it you can empathize with the band for doing their best to manage an out-of-control crowd.

In terms of sound quality, I feel as though I say this with every JEMS torrent I post, but the sound quality is exceptional given the era in which it was recorded. My guess is that J was crunched on the floor and doing his best in a very hostile setting. There are only minor moments of crowd interference that don't really distract one from the music; the overall sonic range is very good with good balance and a great live feel. This is the third version of this recording I've heard, and it's by far the most interference-free and best-sounding of the bunch.

Many thanks to the JEMS team for their efforts in digitizing this tour, and in particular sharing this historically significant document. More to come from this run shortly.

This 16/44.1 version can be directly burned to CD without conversion. Mp3 samples are included in the comments.
Trades Allowed Yes
Owned by Daniel · Last Updated Feb 10, 2026