Rock:

Andrew Hogg

The Who rock band seemed ready to tear their partnership to shreds on stage in London five weeks ago, but last night came storming back in style.

Ten thousand fans at Wembley Arena watched them deliver an aggressive coup de grace to suspicion that they were a spent force.

The egocentricity of singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist Peter Townshend, which has so often built up the static between them, was harnessed into a show remarkable for its cohesion and impact.

It was a different Who to the one that played the Rainbow last month, where they behaved like a bunch of punks clawing their way to the top with the tension on stage threatening to erupt at the drop of a note into a public row.

With dates up and down the country since then, they have recovered their pace and, more importantly, rediscovered their identity as a band.

Last night, Daltrey had shed his aura of a movie star who had come in from the cold. Townshend held the reins tightly on his abrasive stance which can so easily dominate, and even the stoic bass player, John Entwistle, came to the fore, taking lead vocals on a couple of songs.

Theirs was no safe run-through the old routine either. The first part of the show was devoted largely to material from their new album Face Dances, out in a fortnight.

It was a bold move to lay such a new act on an audience so high with expectation, but their determination not to rest on their laurels paid off.