1965 – The Who mime to “Anyway Anyhow Anywhere” on Top of the Pops.
1967 – Disc and Music Echo discusses The Who’s injuries and their replacement drummers
1967 – The Who play the Palace Ballroom in Douglas, Isle of Man. Chris Townson is still on drums, his last show with The Who.
“It was a real anticlimax going back to John’s Children. I’d been earning £40 a night with The Who and spending twice that in the casinos when we played the Isle of Man. For the last show they decided I was going to go out with a bang – literally! While my back was turned, the roadies put a flash-powder under my stool. We got to ‘My Generation’ and suddenly BOOM! I didn’t know what hit me and there they all were pissing themselves laughing. I went to swing for Townshend but he blocked me with his guitar saying ‘Remember Germany?!’ when we (John’s Children) had been a right pain.” – Chris Townson
1967 – Kit Lambert tells Melody Maker, “We hope Keith should be able to do some light drumming in about a week’s time, but until then all recording sessions have been postponed.”
1967 – The U.S. Army radio show The In Sound plays a second spot from Pete and “Happy Jack” is played
1970 – The Who play the second of two nights in Denver at Mammoth Gardens. The Denver show features the first known performance of “I Don’t Even Know Myself” and the last live performance of “Sally Simpson” until 1989. Pete later says he is confronted backstage by White Panthers angry about his booting Abbie Hoffman from the Woodstock stage the year before. He also says that after the show a groupie tries to seduce him and, fighting off the temptation to cheat on his wife, goes back to his hotel room alone and writes a prayer for strength that begins, “If my fist clenches, crack it open before I use it and lose my cool…” The prayer is later incorporated into the song “Behind Blue Eyes.”
1972 – Disc & Music Echo report on the recent “Garden Party” which included two photos of Keith. They also report that Keith recently smashed his “hot rod”
1974 – The Who play the first of four nights at Madison Square Garden. The support band this night and the next is Golden Earring. The first night’s show is the only one where The Who performs a live rendition of Keith Moon’s “Waspman”. Otherwise the band counts it as a disaster with Roger later describing the show as “fucking horrible“. Pete will later claim that New York Who fans were yelling for him to “jump, jump, jump!” faking an enthusiasm he no longer felt although front-rowers at these concerts have said it was an unknown person behind them.
Backstage The Who get into a vicious screaming match arguing about the poor quality of the show. The Who’s former manager Kit Lambert, like most everyone else around except Roger quite drunk, starts demanding he be allowed to mix the live P.A. for the rest of the shows. The Who have him taken to his hotel. Pete meanwhile has to stay at the Hotel Pierre that night because Who fans have taken all the extra rooms at the Navarro where The Who are staying.
New York Times Review: https://www.nytimes.com/1974/06/12/archives/whos-basics-overpower-some-snags-something-special-magic-bus.html
On the standard of past Who performances, the first of the band’s four New York dates at Madison Square Garden Monday night was a little disappointing. There was no new material. The ensemble wasn’t as tight as it should have been. The sound systern was poorly balanced and prone to feedback. And the pace and tension of the group’s long, 100‐minute set tended to wander a bit toward the end.
But all of that is said in the service of reportorial objectivity. For some of us, the Who remains the best rock band in the world.
The notion of best, in this case, embraces several considerations. The Who’s music has always held true to rock basics—loud, rhythmic and ecstatic. Yet that music has been shaped with an increasing subtlety over the years by Peter Townshend, the group’s lead guitarist and chief composer.
Something Special
The band’s playing, too, has something special about it. Mr. Townshend confines his keyboard and synthesizer work to the studio, but at least it’s available in concert on tape, and his guitar playing has grown ever more pointed. John Entwistle is a solid, supportive bass player. Keith Moon is a wonderfully lively, vital drummer (even if his timing sounded slightly off Monday). And Roger Daltrey sings with a hoarse falsetto fervor that makes him instantly recognizable.
But rock has always transcended purely musical standards of reference, and the Who’s preeminence goes beyond the excellences of their compositions and performances. The band has identified during its more than 10‐year life with British working‐class adolescent rebels in particular and all rebels in general, in fact, one might half argue, Monday’s lack of preparation constituted its own kind of rebellion against rock’s own conventions. It is hard to think of a group with an equally strong assortment of clearly defined stage personalities, for all of Mr. Townshend’s special gifts.
The concert began with nine Who classics, mostly from the period that preceded the group’s two “rock operas.” Then came three selections from “Quadrophenia” and two from “Tommy,” spaced by the extraordinary “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” The latter provided the climactic point of the concert, at the end of the extended synthesizer solo when all the stage lights came up suddenly, catching Mr, Townshend in full, splayed leap and everybody crashed in simultaneously at full cry.
‘Magic Bus’ Offered
The evening ended with “Magic Bus” and an extended version of “My Generation.” There was no encore as such, and the crowd responded with claps, boos and thrown bottles — mostly good‐natured, even if several young people reportedly received minor injuries.
The performances are likely to tighten up as the week progresses. Even now, though, Who fans will derive enormous pleasure from what they see and hear. Certainly they did Monday, with youngsters silently emulating every one of Mr. Moon’s drum licks, flailing their arms like Mr. Daltrey and Mr. Townshend, and hugging one another and laughing and shouting with incoherent joy. Rock ‘n’ roll does that to people, and despite all, the Who did it Monday.
The concert opened with Golden Earring, a Dutch band that has enjoyed a British singles success with its “Radar Love” and which offered a reasonably promising mix of bass‐heavy rock basics and spacey meanderings.
1985 – The press reports that Pete has donated £1000 to the Greenwich Theatre Group so that they can mount a production of King Arthur.
2002 – The Who begin rehearsals for their 2002 North American tour, some of which are carried live on Pete’s website. Some fans remark on the fact that John remains seated throughout the webcast rehearsals.
2004 – The Who play the International Arena in Cardif, Glamorganshire, Wales
2006 – The short-lived video service thewholive.tv is launched by Pete. It will carry live video of The Who in performance during many dates on their European tour.
2010 – Roger attends the GBR: British Fashion Council NEWGEN Awards in London
2013 – The Who play the Odyssey Arena in Belfast
2018 – Roger performs the first of two nights at the Wolf Trap Filene Center in Vienna, Virginia with the Wolf Trap Orchestra