Here are some news reports on the tour taken from Australian newspapers.

(photos and additional articles to be added real soon now...typos and mispellings are as they appeared.)

The Who Here

(Brisbane Courier Mail - Sat 20/1/1968)

About 150 teenagers quietly welcomed the long-haired pop group.
The crowd, including one young man in bright orange hair and a matching knitted shirt, nine policeman and a policewoman, stood largely mute as The Who, The Small Faces, and singer Paul Jones walked into the air terminal.
During one of the airport's craziest press conferences the two groups clowned and improvised songs and drank Queensland beer.
Paul Jones, one-time student at Jesus College, Oxford, sat on the floor and quietly discussed the world's problems with reporters.
One outlandishly dressed member of one of the groups complimented Festival Hall manager, Mr. Bert Potts, on his outfit... a blue suit with bright blue shoes and a broad tie composed of mauve, purple and brilliant orange stripes.
Mr. Potts is known as owning Brisbane's biggest and brightest tie collection.


The Who

INVASION OF POP SINGERS

(The Melbourne Age - Thu 25/1/1968)

Text still to come...

Photo caption: The WHO are, from left to right, Pete Townsend, Roger Daltry (black hat). Keith Moon, John Entwhistle.


Plane

Pilot radios for police

(The Melbourne Age - Mon 29/1/1968)

Nineteen pop singers were escorted by police from an Ansett-ANA aircraft after it landed at Essendon from Adelaide yesterday afternoon.
The pilot of the plane made a radio call 127 miles from Melbourne reporting a series of incidents involving the pop singers.
He requested that police meet the aircraft.
The singers are members of the English groups, The Who and The Small Faces, an Australian group, The Questions, plus Paul Jones.
In his radio message the pilot, Captain Doug Way, said the entertainers had brought beer on to the plane, were moving around, and using "very bad language."
The message also reported that two of the plane's four hostesses had broken down and were in tears.
When the singers arrived in Melbourne they were scheduled to board another plane for Sydney which connected with a flight to New Zealand at 6.15 p.m.

Refusal

After talking with Captain Way, the pilot of the Sydney plane, Captain R. Stanton, refused to allow the entertainers on board.
The 19 singers finally left in an Ansett-ANA plane at 4.15 p.m. after giving assurances there would be no misbehaviour.
They were escorted to the plane by four DCA security men. Two of the security officers remained on board for the flight to Sydney.
Earlier, on arrival at Melbourne, the singers had been escorted by police to the VIP lounge.
They denied causing any trouble and said they were unaware that beer could not be taken on board aircraft in Australia.
Paul Jones said the only rudeness had been on the part of the hostesses.
"The hostesses were inching their way towards us with coffee and served the people in front of us and behind us." Jones said.

"No reply"

"When I asked why there was no coffee for us they just looked helpless and made no reply."
A spokesman for Ansett-ANA said the hostesses had not served the singers coffee because they were drinking beer.
"That was just the culmination of the other incidents." he said.
A passenger on the plane, Mr. Brian Sandford, said yesterday was the first time he had felt frightened on a flight.
"I suggested to several passengers that we should try to quell the disturbance, but they agreed any disruption might make it worse." Mr. Sandford said.
In Sydney last week 5000 teenagers booed The Small Faces at Festival Hall after the lead singer had threatened members of the audience.
Singer Steve Marriott threatened to step off the stage and "clip some bleedin' ears if it don't stop."
Photo caption: Chastened members of the Who and the Small Faces board their plane for Sydney under stern eye of an airport policeman.

Pop singers were escorted off jet

(Brisbane Courier Mail - Mon 29/1/1968)

Melbourne - Nineteen members of visiting English pop-singing groups "The Who, and The Small Faces" were off-loaded from a jet at Essendon Airport yesterday after the plane's captain refused to let them stay aboard.
The pilot of the Ansett-ANA 727 jet (Captain Douglas Way) had radioed a report to Essendon officials.
He said members of the group were causing his crew trouble as the plane was 127 miles from Melbourne on a flight from Adelaide.
He asked that the plane be met by police and the English pop groups were escorted from the plane immediately it landed.
The garishly dressed singers and musicians waited in a reception lounge with Commonwealth Police and Civil Aviation Department security men until arrangements had been made for them to fly to Sydney on a 4.15pm flight.
The trouble began after the musicians took a bottle of beer onto the plane in Adelaide and began passing it among themselves during the flight.
An official of Ansett-ANA (Mr. H. Bull) said that some members of the groups had used bad language to hostesses, reducing two of them to tears.
When a pilot who was travelling as a passenger in the plane tried to restore order he was told: "Go to hell."
Captain L. Jacobs was asked by the senior flight hostess, Lexie Hobson, 24 if he could help her restore order among the musicians but he was not successful when he appealed to them to behave.

Refused

The members of the two singing groups and English singer Paul Jones were delayed more than three hours at Essendon.
The captain of the connecting flight to Sydney from Essendon (Captain R. Stanton) also refused to allow the musicians aboard his flight.
Mr. Bull said: "We were told by the crew that the language used was, at times, filthy."
"It is also against the law to take liquor into the passenger compartment of any plane in Australia."
Paul Jones said later: "The trouble began when the hostess serving coffee served the passengers sitting in front of and behind us but missed us out completely."

'Scruffy'

Jones said a hostess had called him a "scruffy little man."
"We didn't know there were rules forbidding liquor." he said. "All the girl had to do was to ask us to stop drinking the beer but she didn't."
Asked whether there had been any bad language, Jones saod: "Only the same bad language as you'll find in practically any conversation."
The musicians were granted permission to fly on to Sydney at 4.15pm and were escorted onto their plane by four security men, two of whom remained aboard for the flight.
On arrival in Sydney, the group was taken by bus from the step of the Ansett-ANA plane to board a flight to New Zealand.

The Who in Australia | Feedback (note new address in anti-spam format) to: australia AT thewho DOT net | Last updated 2 April 2004