As one of the greatest live bands of all time, The Who will take to the Great Oak Stage in London’s iconic Hyde Park on Friday 26 June for Barclaycard Presents British Summertime with very special guests Paul Weller, Kaiser Chiefs and Johnny Marr plus others to be announced. The all-day bill will feature many more brilliant acts that owe an artistic debt to one of the most influential of all British bands. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. It’s a Boy”, “‘21”, “Amazing Journey”, “Eyesight to the Blind (The Hawker)”, “Christmas”, “Cousin Kevin”, “The Acid Queen”, “Do You Think It’s Alright?”, “Fiddle About”, “Pinball Wizard”, Go to the Mirror!”, “Tommy Can You Hear Me?”, “Smash the Mirror”, “Sensation”, “Sally Simpson”, “I’m Free”, “Welcome”, Tommy’s Holiday Camp”, and “We’re Not Gonna Take It” As beautifully done and artistically excellent as this album is, this is still nothing more than pornography, yet another exploration into the “Story Of O,” where the truly helpless come out on the other side pleased that the lessons they have learned at the hands of others have valued their lives and made them the successes they are. Unfortunate that’s just not true, and the life of Pete Townshend proves that ultimately with a great deal of sadness. One of the most interesting things about the album is the perspective. It’s all about Tommy, clearly, but it seems to be from the point of view of other people in his life. We see a lot from cousin Kevin, uncle Ernie, his mother, and even a whole section about perspective of some random girl named Sally Simpson. With these themes of reflection, it might be very well that all these people in Tommy’s life see themselves in Tommy and by telling his story from their perspective, they’re relating their experiences to his and in some situations, like Kevin’s bullying and Ernie’s diddling, their negative actions towards Tommy might just be a reflection of their own insecurities and problems, that they choose to take out on him because he’s easy to manipulate and take advantage of.

Rather then the music, I am speaking to the concept of the album here, where for me, the notion of the story of Tommy is akin to the notion of a rape fantasy, where the girl has been awakened to her sexuality, even though by rape, and has now blossomed into a raving beauty, strong and secure, perhaps even glad that she had been deflowered in such a violent manner ... no longer young, deaf, dumb or blind. But this work is far more insidious and dark, and perhaps true on a subconscious level for Mr. Townshend. Within the bold concept, were a batch of fabulous and diverse songs. ‘I Can See for Miles’, a top ten hit at the time, is a Who classic. ‘Rael’, a Townshend ‘mini-opera’ with musical motifs that reappeared in Tommy and the psychedelic blast of ‘Armenia City In The Sky’ and ‘Relax’ are among the very best material anyone wrote during the 1960s. The Who Sell Out is a bold depiction of the period in which it was made, the tail-end of the ‘swinging 60s’ meets Pop art mixed with psychedelia and straight-ahead pop. It’s a glorious blend of classic powerful Who instrumentation, melodic harmonies, satirical lyrical imagery crystallised for what was only the group’s third album. The album’s ambition and scope is unrivalled by The Who, or any other act from that period.Decca USA vinyl 45 single of ‘Magic Bus’ (US/UK mono) b/w ‘Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde’ (original US Decca single mix) The title says it all: "The Who Sell Out", with the band shown as spokesmen for some suspiciously familiar products. This is the band's best album yet and one of their more commercial (replete with commercials). The homage to Pop art is evident in both the advertising jingles and the iconic sleeve design created by David King, then art director at the Sunday Times, and Roger Law who later created the Spitting Image TV show. The sleeve features four advertising images, taken by renowned photographer David Montgomery of each band member: Odorono deodorant (Pete Townshend), Medac spot cream (Keith Moon), Charles Atlas (John Entwistle) and Roger Daltrey, Heinz Baked Beans. The story goes that Roger Daltrey caught pneumonia from sitting in the bath of cold beans for too long.

The ground-breaking original plan for The Who Sell Out was to sell advertising space on the album but instead the band opted for writing their own jingles, paying tribute to pirate radio stations and to parody an increasingly consumerist society.

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CD 3 Studio out-takes, ‘fly-on-the-wall’ versions of early takes of songs from the album sessions, ‘studio chat’ etc. The story follows Tommy who is a blind, deaf, and mute boy who lost his senses after traumatically seeing his father murdered by his wife’s lover. Throughout his story, we see the struggles of being a disabled youth, which includes bullying, rape, and an early introduction to sex and drugs, and how one’s story can be exploited into a national, beloved freak show. As with most demagogues, there tends to be a falling off point where they reach a level of fame and recognition but some thing, whether financial or political, ruins their character and many people lose their following. As a taster for the set, an EP of Pete Townshend’s previously unreleased demos has today been released on all streaming services including ‘Pictures Of Lily’ (new remix, previously unreleased), ‘Kids! Do You Want Kids?’ (aka ‘Do You Want Kids, Kids?’) (previously unreleased), and ‘Odorono’ (previously unreleased).

One of the most extraordinary albums of any era, The Who Sell Out is The Who’s last ‘pop’ album. Two years later came Tommy – a double concept album about a deaf, dumb and blind kid. THE WHO SELL OUT SUPER DELUXE EDITIONAnother great element about this album is the singability. Every song is so catchy and easy to sing along to and it makes it more enjoyable to listen to. On April 6 the first in a series of 7” singles box sets is released covering their first seven singles as The Who as well as their one-and-only 7” as The High Numbers. Today, 7 July, sees the release of the third and fourth in a series of half-speed mastered studio albums from The Who: The Who Sell Out and Tommy.

Released in 1967, The Who Sell Out was the third album released by the band and is revered for being one of the first concept albums, celebrating the short-lived pirate radio stations of the late 60s with its groundbreaking use of fake adverts and jingles between songs. Another common theme throughout the album is glass and mirrors, which is representative of reflections of identity and the concept of smashing and releasing. The song “I’m Free” is extremely cathartic and wonderful feeling as Tommy can finally sense and a lot of this symbolism goes along with smashing a mirror. This is all about destroying what people expect of you and why you’re supposed to see. It’s a liberation. Some words about the music: to me, this album is a minor miracle. It presents a proper Who album, with a consistently contemporary sound that does not sacrifice what's left of the band's character (it reflects the current band's sound very well, making allowances for the fact that it will never have the special dimensionality that Moon and Entwistle gave the original band). Townshend seems to have found his 21st century groove as a songwriter, and Daltrey delivers what might be the most full-throated song performances by a 75 year old ever, helped out by some autotune if I have to believe some listeners. But rest assured, while autotune helps out with getting the right pitch, the timbre, tonation choices, and screams are all his. LP Deluxe (stereo) vinyl edition featuring the original album and extras highlights from the box set.D2C 2LP Deluxe (mono) vinyl version featuring the original album and extras highlights from the box set pressed on coloured vinyl; LP1 Odorono Red / LP2 Baked Beans Orange. I own most versions of this album, and this is my favorite one. It sounds warmer than the CD versions, even the SHM, and beats its vinyl counterparts like the European pressing and the 45RPM audiophile one. The latter may have a more detailed sound, but it does not add much and doesn't warrant getting up two more times to flip or change the discs.