Pop stars 'hit' act

PROTEST AS SHOW IS CUT

By Ken Hillman

A pop star smashed footlights, spotlights and his guitar when the final curtain came down in mid-act at the Coventry Theatre and "God Save The Queen" was played.

He was 22-year-old Pete Townshend, of the bill-topping group, the Who. He and lead singer Roger Daltrey were left standing in front of the curtain when it was lowered.

Townshend shouted for the curtain to be raised, threw his guitar on the stage and kicked angrily at the footlights. Then he picked up a footlight and used it to hammer the floats. Finally, he swung at the lights with a microphone stand.

He told me afterwards: "If I did any damage I'll have to pay for it. But I still feel I was justified.

"Our act was cut to two numbers in Sheffield the night before, and bringing the curtain down on us tonight was just too much. The show was over-running, but we wanted to give the kids their money's worth."

The curtain was lowered on the instructions of the touring show's manager when the show — delayed by much amplifier trouble — overran by 20 minutes and there were only 10 minutes to go before the second house was due to start.

Thrilling

It was a violent climax to a star-studded two-hours. According to the teenage girl assaulting my left ear-drum it was the most scream-worthy show to hit Coventry for a long time.

She screamed for the Marmalade, leapt out of her seat for the Herd, went wild for Traffic and threatened serious damage to her tonsils for the Tremeloes. Then, somehow, she pulled out some extra decibels for the Who.

Despite being cut short, The Who played most of their hits and threw in some exciting revivals of rock 'n' roll numbers like "Summertime Blues" — though the late Eddie Cochran would hardly have recognised it. It was thrilling, violent music even without the light-smashing episode.

The musically Tremeloes vied with them for audience reaction

But the highlight for me were Traffic, four first-rate musicians who, having disposed of their hit "Hole In My Shoe," launched into a superb 15-minute pop/jazz/blues number of changing moods.

The chartbusting Herd acquitted themselves well, as did the up-and-coming Marmalade, whose smoking amplifier turned out to be not another psychedelic effect but an electrical fault.

The bill-topping pop group, The Who, whose act was curtailed at the Coventry Theatre. Left to right: John Entwistle, Keith Moon, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend.