The Who

…at Birmingham Town Hall

The Who talked to more than 1,000 of their generation at The Mayfair Suite in Birmingham last night.

Everybody was a little older, a little more aware, perhaps outwardly even a little cooler, but the bends were still there.

From "My Generation," through "Tommy" to "Behind Blue Eyes" — the new single released today. The Who played as they always have played.

Roger Daltrey still flung the microphone, Pete Townshend still jumped high and came down hard on the chords, and Keith Moon, well, was still Keith Moon.

The Who, it seems, have gone through and beyond any point at which they might have stagnated.

In an atmosphere of 100 degrees pure body sweat the "Now" generation, whom John Lennon dismissed as having all grown up and got jobs, recaptured listening to the last of the great groups, a part of their own emotional history.