1963 – The Detours play at the Oldfield Hotel in Greenford
1964 – Jan and Dean’s LP “Dead Man’s Curve” hits the charts. It becomes a Keith favorite from which he will pull the duo’s arraignment of “Bucket T” for The Who to cover in 1966. You can listen to Jan and Dean’s version of “Bucket T” here and The Who’s version here
1965 – The Who pre-record an appearance on Thank Your Lucky Stars miming to “Anyway Anyhow Anywhere.” The show will be broadcast on the 29th of May. Before the show the step outside for some publicity photos
1966 – The Who play the Locarno Ballroom in Blackburn, Lancashire using the opening bands drummer in Keith’s absence.
1967 – “Pictures of Lily” enters Sweden’s Kvällstoppen charts and peaks at #11.
1967 – John’s broken finger was causing him a lot of pain and so a recording session at City of London Studios meant that The Who could only put down backing tracks to John’s composition ‘Someone’s Coming’. But they did manage to record a one-minute jingle for American radio endorsing General Foods’ instant milkshake called Great Shakes with Keith on lead vocals and John limited to trumpet. The jingle appeared as a hidden coda track on 2009’s deluxe edition of The Who Sell Out. You can listen to “Great Shakes” on YouTube here
1969 – Track Records releases the Tommy LP in Britain. Melody Maker picks it as “Pop LP of the Month” and Record Mirror calls it “one of the most incredible feats ever accomplished in music.” However, Richard Green in New Musical Express pans the record. “Pretentious is too strong a word; maybe over-ambitious is the right term, but sick certainly does apply.” Obviously few take his words to heart as the album goes to #2 in the U.K. charts
1969 – The Who play the first of two nights at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1970 – Track Records releases five LP’s at 99p each called Backtrack that feature a variety of old Who material mixed with other Track acts. Backtrack 3 will contain the first true stereo mixes of “Disguises”, “Run Run Run” and “I’m a Boy” released in the U.K
1970 – New Musical Express, which has a cover advertisement for Live At Leeds, carries a picture of Pete, Graham Nash and Tiny Tim singing together for the residents of a handicapped children’s home in Britain.
1970 – Live at Leeds is released in the United Kingdom. It reaches #3 in the British charts. It stays in the British Top Sixty for 21 weeks, the longest for any Who album.
1970 – Record Mirror has an interview with John where he discusses the current recordings.
If anyone has this issue I’d love to get a better scan/photo!
Transcript: (unverified)
HE ONLY STANDS STILL ON STAGE
JOHN ENTWISTLE TALKS TO LON GODDARD
FRUSTRATION against tradition is a battle so slight, yet so intense that neither side ever takes the edge. John Entwistle could be termed the brightest outside of the Who, yet on the outside he supports his paternal musical interests with age and warcoat of brass, education, Jah on red eyes, bass for the Who, but French horn, tuba, trombone, trumpet plus instruments like piano, guitar and drums for himself.
He writes and arranges many original numbers containing heavy brass lines, but there really isn’t room within the Who for such diversions.
“The group really doesn’t care about brass,” he sighed, “but then they isn’t a way to perform it anyway, since we couldn’t use it without [ ] one of the amplifiers I write were used there would be no way of performing them on stage and paying for the best thing about the track is its flavour. We have even equipment and means, but I really mean it theatrically, but I really mean it only a couple of tracks on the three of the ‘Tommy’ tracks.
“He wrote out a present arranging a new LP, but for release until they get back from their States visit in June. John has only tracks at present and there are three more to do. The LP has had them about it as Tommy [ ].
“They are all separate tracks this time. Tommy took two years because we couldn’t begin putting what without a rest. We want to work on changing the act, because although a lot of people want to hear Tommy yet, we don’t want to bore them by carrying on with it too long. The music will always be heavy, for now, a loud group. That another reason why I’d never consider putting an orchestra behind us at some intricate arrangements of the whole people behind, but I think some of the people and plays a lot of loud horns, and Keith just plays his own solo cymbals. It would drown out an orchestra.”
The Who have managed to endure a lot longer than many bands both sides and below this status. They show an example of how to stay together so the music is never affected by splits, replacements and argument.
“We used to have a lot of arguments. They’d always get moved off the original subject and we’d start doing with each other in team against the rest. In the early days when we didn’t think we’d ever make it in the States, we were considering breaking up each time that happened, we’d allow ourselves another year or so. Then another year or so. Then another year and so on. Now it’s much more relaxed and in other ways. We don’t see each other socially, so everything is refreshed when we arrive at rehearsal, a practice or a gig. A lot of groups suffer during their first year together, especially on trips to America. If they are thrown together, stuck in hotel rooms together, crowded vans and cars, they begin to irritate each other and quite often they break up without even having a chance to survive. Luckily, we had been together about three years before going, so we were able to cope 2 times better, when I got to the States, just to try not [ ].
“I saw the bad side coming off from all the high pressure. I’ve become rather good at cutting myself off from bad elements. I go out to clubs three times, but it takes some doing to get into a frame of mind for that.”
Outside the Who, John continues in the sphere of music that is his personal pet. In a nine foot square room, fully sound-proofed, he has myriad records, microphones, amplifiers, gadgets and a complete wardrobe of instruments from French horn down. He has spent most of all orchestrated songs he’s written and recorded by doing each instrument part over the last. He’s preparing for the future. Although he cannot foresee the end of the Who, he wants a record career good and LP’s possibly based his own solo and LP’s away and is set to such a [ ] but I lay idle in one bucket. If you’ve played in two orchestras, know all those instruments and been writing music since you were seven, you don’t stand still except on stage, where John is fixed rigid while Pete, Keith and Roger go professionally berserk.
1971 – The Who play Caird Hall in Dundee, Angus, Scotland
You can read more about this show here
1974 – The “Tommy’s Holiday Camp” sequence with Keith Moon riding the organ is filmed at Fort Purbrook, Portsmouth
You can watch the scene on YouTube here
1975 – The album Flash Fearless Versus The Zorg Women Parts 5 & 6 is released. The Rocky Horror Show-inspired musical by Dave Pierce and Steve Hammond has John Entwistle on bass throughout. In addition, John sings one of the songs, “To the Chop” and he drags Keith Moon in to do a couple of seconds of his Robert Newton impression on the otherwise Alice Cooper-sung “Space Pirates”. Future Who member Kenney Jones drums on four of the tracks. The commercial failure of the album stalls plans to produce the musical onstage until a short run in 1981
1975 – Keith’s one solo album Two Sides of The Moon gets its release in the U.K. It gets a favorable review in Melody Maker, but is blasted by Roy Carr in New Musical Express. The album does not appear in the U.K. charts. Keith, meanwhile, spends the day jetting to Cannes where Tommy: The Movie is shown as the closing film of the festival
1975 – Roger is finally free from the filming of Ken Russell’s insane biopic Lisztomania and returns to London to record the vocals for the new Who album. “Blue Red and Grey,” a Pete demo with horns added by John, is finished as well as “Dreaming from the Waist” and “Success Story”
1981 – Germany’s Polydor releases Phases, the first box set retrospective of The Who consisting of My Generation, A Quick One, The Who Sell Out, Tommy, Live At Leeds, Who’s Next, Quadrophenia, The Who By Numbers and Who Are You. The records have the original album sleeves and insert materials (except for the psychedelic poster for The Who Sell Out) and generally feature high-quality sound
2000 – Redline Entertainment releases the CD Lifehouse Elements at Best Buy stores. The CD is a condensed version of Pete’s recent 6-CD Lifehouse Chronicles set with one addition, Pete’s demo for “New Song”
2000 – Sherie Rene Scott releases her CD Men I’ve Had featuring covers of “Squeeze Box”, “Let My Love Open The Door”, and “Bargain”.
Listen to “Squeeze Box” here
Listen to “Let My Love Open The Door” here
Listen to “Bargain” here
2000 – The Dropkick Murphy’s Mob Mentality is released with a cover of “The Kids Are Alright”. Listen to it on YouTube here
2005 – The 1982 television version of The Beggar’s Opera starring Roger as MacHeath, is released on DVD in the U.K.
2005 – The Buff Medways release their single “Medway Wheelers” with a cover of the finale of “A Quick One While He’s Away” on the flipside. You can listen to it on YouTube here
2006 – The Who: Live From Toronto DVD from the December 17, 1982 concert is released in the U.S
2007 – The Who play the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, South Yorkshire
2012 – Roger attends the star-packed Celebration of Arts event at the Royal Academy of Arts. The Queen is there along with leading lights in Britain’s musical, acting and fashion fields.
2019 – The Who play the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in St. Louis, Missouri
2019 – The Who play the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in St. Louis, Missouri
2022 – The Who play the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
You can read a review here