The Who Live at the Oval 1971

In 1971 The Who were at their peak both in the studio and live in concert. In September of that year they headlined an all-day concert at the Oval, the home ground of the Surrey County Cricket Club in south London. The concert was a benefit in aid of famine relief for the people of Bangladesh. Also on the bill that day were Rod Stewart and the Faces, Mott the Hoople, Lindisfarne, Quintessence and the Greaseband and the show was compered by Jeff Dexter. The Who’s performance in front of an audience of 35,000 was recorded by Glyn Johns on the Pye Mobile, the same set up that had recorded The Who live at Leeds earlier that year.

In 2024 the tapes from The Who’s performance were restored, remixed and mastered for the first time and released in August 2025 to the great delight of scores of Who fans worldwide.

For the album package I commissioned Josh Townshend, the son of Simon Townshend and nephew of Pete, to illustrate the front and back cover to a concept that I’d come up with based around a photograph that I’d seen of a hippie girl and her friend taken at the concert by press photographer Colin Lourie. She was to be my central figure set into an ovoid shape in the centre of the sleeve. In the corners of the sleeve I set the four members of the band illustrated from reference photographs of them onstage that day. Note Keith Moon playing drums with a cricket bat. Yes, he really did do that! Centred at the bottom of the cover is the famous gas-holder which dominates the skyline over the hallowed cricket ground to this day. The Who lettering at the top was taken from Keith’s drum skin art from that period. Josh did a fantastic job on the illustration and it was great working with him on this project.

Colin Lourie’s photo of the hippie girl appears in the accompanying 16-page booklet (see below) with her long blonde hair and headband. We borrowed her friend’s round granny glasses as I thought they looked better on her for the front cover art.