1982-10-10-The_Toronto_Star
68,000 Roar for The Who
'We'll be back' singer tells crowd at concert billed as rock group's grand finale
This wasn't just any rock show — it was The Who.
You know — pink and purple lights, lots of vibration and Roger Daltrey making it with his microphone all over the stage. They billed yesterday's extravaganza as their last great rock concert in Toronto — the grand finale of one of history's greatest bands.
But in the final hour, lead singer Daltrey assured 68,000 fans at Exhibition Stadium that it wouldn't be the last. "We'll be back," he said. "We love ya."
Crowd roared
And the crowd roared and resumed chanting, "WHO-WHO-WHO-WHO."
All those still sober enough to stand up, danced and clapped to songs such as My Generation, See Me Feel Me and Athena.
"Rock heaven," grinned 18-year-old Sharon Greenburg of Ottawa.
She wore a Who T-shirt and carried a Union Jack with "Happy Birthday John" carefully written over it in white (for bass player John Entwhistle's 38th birthday yesterday).
Along with about 2,000 others, she'd camped out overnight — one man waited outside four days — to get a choice spot at the front of the playing field.
Sure it was cold and windy and the sky was gray. But like most, she didn't mind that or the crush of the crowd near the stage or the water that security officials sprayed on them to cool them off.
'Few problems'
"The concert," was, as promoter Bob Roper put it, "a real good time with a very orderly crowd and very few problems." It was about 1,000 under a sellout, and not equal to the record-breaking 71,000 The Who drew two years ago.
St. John Ambulance staff treated 40 people, some for sprains and cuts, others for alcohol-related problems.
There were drunks, and people high on dope — enough so that Metro police arrested 29 on these charges. They also laid one assault charge.
One fan hurled a fully dressed hot dog at Joe Jackson 45 minutes into what was supposed to be a one-hour performance. The singer promptly swore and walked off stage, mopping his clothes.
"But you don't notice little things like that when it's one of the greatest experiences of your life," said Sharon's boyfriend, Greg Faistat, 19, a first-year student at Carleton University.
"These guys are real history, besides being great," said Mark Austin, 18, a first-year engineering student at the University of Toronto.
"It's one of the most powerful emotional experiences, one of the greatest highs you'll ever have," said Margaret Washer, 15, a Grade 10 student from Whitby.
Security supervisor Reggie Bouvard seized "thousands of wineskins and bottles and plastic jugs and every conceivable container filled with brew.
Ever since a Cincinnati concert three years ago in which 11 fans were asphyxiated and 10 injured, The Who has had a reputation for being a violence-prone band.
Yesterday, the promoters, Concert Productions International, had 150 security people wearing yellow baseball caps. They helped in the bottle search at the gates, prevented people from running across the field, and controlled the crush of people near the stage.
Metro police had 160 officers, some of them on horseback.
Exhibition Stadium security had 120 staff on duty and they’d hired another 35 from a private security company called Industrial Guard Services Ltd.
Final farewell: The Who said goodby to Toronto yesterday on their farewell North American Tour, but sources close to the band hinted they’d be back. The concert was typical Who — only older, louder and crustier, reviewer Peter Goddard says.
Forget the tears: It was a tough concert
It was the long, cold, goodby — rock 'n' roll style.
Forget the tears. There was little sentiment as The Who bowed out yesterday at Exhibition Stadium during their farewell North American tour.
Guitarist Pete Townshend let everyone in the massive crowd know "how much I love your city."
That was nice. Union Jacks were unfurled and a poster fluttered in the brisk, chilling wind off the lake saying, "Goodbye Roger (Daltrey) . . . we'll miss you." That was nice, too.
Better yet was the suggestion coming from two sources close to the band that they'd be returning "by mid-December, most likely," for the final North American concert here at Maple Leaf Gardens. They're also considering a televised concert from here, sources say.
Booze everywhere
Otherwise, it was an afternoon where everyone toughed it out. It started cool and grew colder. But the band, on stage more than two hours, strutted around in T-shirts. Booze was everywhere, especially warming the fans. The sound system was so powerful it cannonballed notes over to Toronto Island.
And it was trench warfare directly in front of the stage with its six-storey-high speakers, where the crowd was packed tightly together. Bouncers sprayed them with water, and a puff of steam floated up, so much body heat was being generated.
Joe Jackson, the opening act's singer, was hit with what was described as a "fully dressed hot dog." He was irate and cut short his segment of the show.
Tough.
As such, it was typically Who. They began with My Generation, and it became a signal for what the show was all about. Immediately, Daltrey, the singer, was winking his mike over his head like a lasso and Townshend rotated his arm, windmill-like, lashing down at his guitar. This was rock without apologies; this was The Who, without apologies — older, crustier, louder, brighter.
Their performance hit with a laser-like intensity. The pressure was constant from beginning to end.
Purest form
It was the process that mattered yesterday, the unrelenting hard bit of rock in its purest form that gave this show whatever class it had. To my tastes, the sound system and the stadium never did agree with each other. Kenney Jones' drumming often seemed out-of-synch with the rest, while John Entwistle's bass work sometimes could be heard cleanly, sometimes not.
And I missed, too, a sense of anticipation. While everything came cleaner, crisper and neater than the series of hits played during the last tour, this concert was not unlike those during the last tour's — or during those earlier on this very tour, for that matter, with material from Tommy, and the It's Hard LP. The band rushed out on stage 15 minutes early and I sense many pieces were rushed through.
But this is the sacrifice The Who make. They are, as they say, a rock 'n' roll band. They're not always subtle. They tough it out — even as they say goodbye.
