1964 – The Who play the White Hart Hotel in Southall
1965 – The Who play the Floral Hall in Morecambe
1965 – Roger is interviewed in New Musical Express under the headline “The Who Use Force to Get Sound They Want.” He declares “I never want to grow old. I want to stay young forever,” but then declares if he were no longer in a group, “I think I’d do myself in.”
Transcript:
THE WHO USE FORCE TO GET SOUND THEY WANT!!
The WHO (l. to r.): ROGER DALTREY, JOHN BROWNE, KEITH MOON and PETER TOWNSHEND.
HE sat tensed against a hard-backed chair, dressed in a Carnaby Street blue jacket and with a blond, Mod hairstyle that showed dark at the back. And he spoke slowly and uncertainly.
“I never want to grow old,” he said. “I want to stay young for ever.”
This was my introduction—via vocalist Roger Daltrey—to the weird and way-out group called the Who who are climbing the NME Chart with their current disc, “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere.”
There’s a strangeness, a sort of vicious strangeness, about these four beatsters from Shepherds Bush. And they admit it.
They talk quite happily about the way lead guitarist Pete Townshend handles his guitar, smashing it hard against an amplifier when the mood takes him. Pete says it produces an unusual sound; and I can well believe him.
They’ve already had a taste of chart success with “I Can’t Explain,” but the Who weren’t particularly happy about that record.
Says Roger: “We just did it to get known. As time goes by we’ll do the kind of thing we really like, really way-out.
“Arguments? Sure, we have ‘em all the time. That’s why we get on so well. It kind of sharpens us up. We’ve all got kind of—well, explosive temperaments—and it’s like waitin’ for a bomb to go off.
“If it wasn’t like this we’d be nothin’. I mean it. If we were always friendly and matey … well, we’d all be a bit soft. We’re not mates at all. When we’ve finished a show and we’ve got time off, that’s it. We go our own ways.
“We’ve done all kinds of stuff since we started. Skiffle, trad, blue beat, pop. We got sick of pop and we went over to r-and-b and long hair, then the Stones came along, so we changed.
“With the Stones around, people were beginning to say we were copying them. But we don’t copy anyone. We play the way we feel.”
The James Brown style is going to be the next big thing, according to the Who. They’ve been playing his material for some time and they think it will catch on quicker than people think.
Mind you, it wasn’t so long ago that it looked as if they might have to give up the beat scene altogether. Times were hard, and they weren’t made any easier by the Who’s liking for the very best guitars and equipment.
“We’d be having a lean time,” says Roger, “but we’d go out and get ourselves up to the neck in hire purchase debts because we wanted a new amp. We spent 2,000 quid that way. But our stuff is the best in the world!”
That “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere,” hit disc was composed at 3 am, he adds, when he and Pete were locked in a room to make them concentrate on songwriting. The recording session was due the day after.
For once, Pete forgot his other interests (“he’s very political, a right Bob Dylan”) and the job was finished as dawn broke over Shepherds Bush.
As Roger Daltrey was leaving he turned and said, quite seriously: “If I wasn’t with a group I don’t know what I’d do. It means everything to me. I think I’d do myself in.”
ALAN SMITH.
1966 – The Who play in Carlisle at The Market Hall.
1966 – Disc and Music Echo report that The Who will be performing at the Richmond Jazz Festival and that their recent Stockholm drew 11,000
1966 – Jackie magazine features Roger on the back cover
1966 – Record Mirror reports on a double bill of The Who and The Merseys at Shea Stadium for July 9th. The Who won’t actually make it to Shea for another 16 years.
1967 – The Who perform at The Monterey International Pop Festival in Monterey, California. Pete confronts Jimi Hendrix before the show and demands The Who hit the stage before he does since Hendrix will also smash his guitar. If they follow him the crowd will think The Who are stealing Hendrix’s act even though they were the ones who originated it. Hendrix plays his guitar and coolly ignores Pete. John Phillips of The Mamas and The Papas finally decides it with a coin toss.
The Who will play first but despite this, The Who face another disadvantage Hendrix does not. Their penny-pinching managers have sent them to the festival with rented equipment and amplifiers incapable of conveying the power of their act. Their performance is spotty but no one forgets the ending of “My Generation” with Pete and Keith engaging in a riotous instrument bust-up captured by D.A. Pennebaker’s cameras and later featured in the movies Monterey Popand The Kids Are Alright
After the show The Who hang out with Mama Cass who ply them with the best of the Bay Area’s hallucinogens. Hendrix sets his guitar on fire and smashes it leading Cass to tell Pete, “He’s stealing your act!” Pete replies, “No, he’s not stealing my act, he’s doing my act.”
1969 – The Who play the Fillmore West in San Francisco
1970 – The Who reportedly play the Austin Memorial Auditorium in Houston, Texas. This show is listed on many sites, including thewhothismonth.com and http://www.thewholive.net, although the latter does indicate it’s “An unsure date”. It is not listed in AAA. A thorough search of the internet fails to turn up a venue in Houston, Texas called “Austin Memorial Auditorium” or “Houston Memorial Auditorium”, nor any record of The Who playing in Houston on this date. A search of Austin Memorial Auditorium does indicate that “Hogg Auditorium” on the University of Texas, Austin campus, was a venue that could have been called “Austin Memorial Auditorium” around this time, but there does not appear to be ANY record of a show by The Who on this date. If anyone has any information about this date or venue – please let us know!
1971 – The Who record “Song Is Over” and another take of “Bargain” at Olympic Studios in Barnes
1979 – Pete, John and Kenney are interviewed by Robert Klein at RCA Studios in New York for his syndicated radio show The Robert Klein Hour. They are later interviewed for the Drake/Chenault syndicated radio show. You can listen to some of the broadcast on youtube here
1980 – The Who play in San Diego at the Sports Arena. Pete punches a wall and breaks several bones in his right hand. He has to wear a cast for the rest of the tour.
1991 – Keith Moon receives a plaque on the Rock Walk in Hollywood.
1995 – Ringo’s All-Star Band featuring John and Zak play in Osaka, Japan at the Osaka Castle Hall
1996 – Those Darn Accordions! release their album No Strings Attached with a cover of “Baba O’Riley” and Fastbacks releases its album New Mansions In Sound with a cover of Keith Moon’s “Girl’s Eyes.” Eddie Vedder sings backup on the latter and can be heard offering the engineer 100 dollars if he’ll please erase his vocal and let him try again.
You can listen to Those Darn Accordions! on YouTube hereYou can listen to Fastbacks “Girls Eyes” here
1998 – John plays in Hartford, CT at the Webster Theater
2001 – “A Walk Down Abbey Road: A Tribute To The Beatles.” featuring John play in Saratoga, CA, at the Villa Montalvo Garden Theatre
2006 – The Who play in Brighton at The Brighton Centre
2007 – The Who play the Stadtpark in Hamburg
2013 – The Who play the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield, South Yorkshire
2016 – The Who play the Azkena Rock Festival in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain at Mendizabala.