Rock fans in tribute to the band who still look pretty good

by Jackie Bailey

The raw youngsters who took the rock world by storm singing about "My Generation" 17 years ago have vanished — but The Who can still send fans into ecstasy…

The foursome who took the stage on Saturday before 11,000 fans at the NEC have swapped the long locks and beards for neat-short, and in John Entwhistle’s case, greying haircuts.

Still spring in the step John Entwhistle displays the energy which became a hallmark of the band.

They no longer smash up their equipment on-stage, and long tours will be out in future, because the band who sang I hope I die before I get old, just cannot keep up the pace anymore.

Yet Pete Townshend was leaping as high as ever, and Roger Daltrey swung his microphone just as wildly at the band's two weekend shows.

Many of the wildly cheering fans were too young to remember the 60s, when The Who with The Beatles and The Stones made some of rock's classics.

The shows attracted schoolboys who were toddlers when the band had their first hits — but now they idolise them just as much as their parents did.

One of the younger fans was 22-year-old Viscount Linley, who watched Saturday's show from the wings with singer Ruth Burnett on his arm — the fiancée of his friend Mark Macauley.

Ruth, aged 23, is known as Kermit, and counts Victor Lownes and Hollywood stars James Garner and Robin Williams among her former boyfriends.

Although rumours have been rife that the NEC shows would be band's last in Britain, Pete Townshend promised fans from the stage that there will be another short tour in this country next year.

Roger Daltrey, lead singer extraordinaire, puts that old gusto into another number.

The fans respond to the band in a way that hasn't altered since they first crashed onto the music scene.