Friday, May 20th, 1966

The Who play the Corn Exchange in Newbury, Berkshire. John and Keith are late due to attending Ready Steady Go! Pete and Roger have been playing with the bassist and drummer from their opening act The Jimmy Brown Sound and are naturally furious at Keith. At the end of the show Keith, knocking over his drum set as usual, hits Pete in the leg with a falling cymbal. Pete turns and sends his guitar flying right into Keith's head. Keith and John storm off determined that they are finally finished with The Who. They head over to Kit Lambert's house to tell him they're out

 

The Reading Evening Post the following day had this to say about the night:

‘My Generation’ boys in stage scuffle

A SCUFFLE between member of the beat group The Who broke out as they were finishing their act in Newbury last night.

Four hundred teenager [??] and shouted as officials held drummer Keith Moon and guitarist Pete Townsend (sic) apart.

The dance ended a quarter of an hour early because of the [??]

The [??] happened at the Corn Exchange in Newbury — market place as The Who were finishing their hit number My Generation

For no apparent reason Moon dressed in yellow jeans and a white tee shirt kicked his two base drums over

Then guitarist Townsend (sic) wearing a brown suit threw his white guitar at Moon. He rushed over to him, at it was then officials jumped in and parted them.

Cut Short

The act was cut short and three of the group went upstairs to the dressing room

Suddenly Moon, brandishing his boots, ran down the stairs shouting “Where is Townsend (sic)”

He rushed to his drums and pushed his foot through one of them. He then walked off to the back of the stage.

The show, which was scheduled to finish at 11pm was stopped at 10:45. Officials shouted to the audience to applaud but the teenagers started booing. 

After the incident base guitarist John Entwhistle (sic) said “We have known each other since we were at school. It is just a way of blowing off steam and it could be said it is the best part of the act”

But 17 year old David Woodwards who was in the audience said “I have seen the act five times and this has never happened before. It was definatly a scuffle. We are all very annoyed because we don’t think we have had our moneys worth.