Saturday, April 19th, 1969

Kit Lambert is interviewed in Disc and Music Echo

If anyone has a more legible version of this issue, please share!

Partial Transcript:

 

YOU-KNOW-WHO

Or DO you? David Hughes talks to their manager Kit Lambert about the men behind the music.

......

Roger Daltrey —yobbo gentleman.

“Despite his new tranquil surroundings, he's still not the sort of person I would like to brush up against in a boozer just before closing time. I suppose it’s his piercing blue eyes that make him appear so tough, but he can and always could handle himself. At a not very inspired guess I'd say he was almost certainly in a gang in the early days of the group . . . and if he wasn't in a gang he certainly should have been! He’s much calmer now than he was— mainly because of the realisation by the rest of the group of an ability people did not normally associate with him. His voice is capable of incredible technical feats like jumping into an impossible key. He always knew he had a good voice—he’s very conscious of his own vocal strength—and he was tough if you ever disagreed with him. Roger is now a gent and a yobbo combined. Although he now lives in a country half-timbered house he could still tell you to get knotted seconds after the butler has announced tea! His move into the country is by no means ‘Traffick-y’—he’s not there to contemplate or anything. He had a tough upbringing in a working-class part of London and has now got it together and lives far away from London for satisfaction.”

John Entwistle —strong and silent.

“Of all four John Is the one I’m most frightened of. Pete loses his temper about every half-hour; Keith every week and Roger every three months. But John only loses his once every five years, and when he does, his rages really frighten me. Although he seems to look onstage as if he couldn’t care less, he does enter into the spirit of things including the excitement. On one unique occasion he was known to break up his guitar. Despite his quietness, he is still a very strong member of the group. His strong quality is simply being himself, which IS the strong and silent type. He’s rather like Pop-Eye; you don't think he's strong, but if you hit him, you’ll bruise your knuckles.”

Keith Moon —mad? Never.

“The first thing that hit me about Keith was his immense vitality, and this is still true today. He didn’t seem to be a comedian, particularly in the early days, yet he had an enormously sophisticated sense of humour. He knows a lot of people think he’s mad, and he certainly suffers from megalomania. But he has enough sense of humour to realise this and laugh about it. Like the others he represented the ‘mod’ form of aggression (although I maintain none of the Who were actual mods—they didn’t look right. Mods were supposed to be pretty in a rough way, and the Who certainly weren't that), which was aggression with no target. Their idea was similar to that of the French student uprising—don't talk, just seize power. Don’t worry that you haven’t any concrete ideas of change, they will come in time. Keith still plays every concert and show as if it were his last—and I don't know where his energy comes from either!”

Pete Townshend —vastly intelligent.

“A vastly intelligent person with a racing brain that occasionally comes unstuck. In five years, I’ve still not got him sussed, for in a rapid process of intellectual evolution it’s very difficult to pigeon-hole someone. Contrary to what many think, Pete is not irrational; in fact, he’s super rational in his reasoning processes. From a management angle he's the toughest member of the group. He’s very ruthless, but then most clever people have to be. That doesn't make him nasty, however. He’s certainly unsentimental, but at the same time very capable of love, which is quite different. He talks a lot to his audiences now and is capable of great generosity. On the contrary, he has an occasional hardness which might almost go to the point of cruelty, but this is always unpremeditated. He’ll also listen intently to the youngest and most inarticulate fan of the group if he or she has something sincere to say and is making some kind of sense—and he'll take notice of what they say. In fact, the whole group is intelligent. This idea that still persists among some people that pop groups are unintelligent Is totally obsolete. As a musician, Pete is only now beginning to explore his true talent . . . there is no precedent for him.”