Happy Birthday Roger Daltrey: The Who Live At The 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival

Today is Roger Daltrey’s 76th birthday. The Who frontman is widely considered to have one of the finest voices in rock, not to mention a great stage presence — a necessity in a band full of shenanigans and antics like The Who.

Roger and The Who’s electrifying stage presence is on full display during their performance at the legendary 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival, taking place August 26 – 30. In its third year, Isle Of Wight had already gained a reputation as one of the world’s premier music events at the dawn of the festival era. In 1969, Isle Of Wight hosted Bob Dylan's first concert in three years while the festival’s inaugural outing in 1968 featured a headlining performance from Jefferson Airplane.

But the 1970 edition was the most famous (and infamous) event, seen as England’s answer to Woodstock, featuring a number of iconic performances including a headline from Jimi Hendrix as well as one of The Doors last shows with Jim Morrison. But The Who, performing at 2 a.m. on Saturday night/Sunday morning, gave perhaps the best rock set of the festival (and also saved the day by allowing the overwhelmed festival to augment its sound system with The Who’s PA.) Isle Of Wight 1970 is certainly considered one of The Who’s finest gigs and the band released their set as a double live album in 1996.

For the first part of the boisterous performance, the band plays newer material — like “I Don’t Even Know Myself” and “Naked Eye” — that was originally planned for a project called “Lifehouse” which was scrapped in favor of the iconic 1971 album Who’s Next. Daltrey is in rare form on staples like “Young Man Blues” and “My Generation” as well as the newly-penned (at the time) “Water.” The band also plays most of Tommy, with the first bit of the rock opera documented for this edition of Cinema Sunday celebrating Roger Daltrey’s birthday. Watch the video via Extazid below:

Video Setlist

• 0:00 – Heaven And Hell
• 6:33 – I Can’t Explain
• 9:18 – Young Man Blues
• 15:18 – I Don’t Even Know Myself
• 22:25 – Water
• 32:25 – Shakin’ All Over / Spoonful / Twist and Shout
• 37:01 – Summertime Blues
• 40:23 – My Generation
• 48:20 – Magic Bus
• 54:50 – Overture
• 57:52 – It’s a Boy
• 58:29 – Eyesight to the Blind (The Hawker)
• 59:06 – Christmas (Father)

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