Last Sunday night, Peter Townshend methodically smashed a $300 guitar to splinters—while it was plugged in. Keith Moon tossed parts of a custom-made drum set high in the air and let them crash to the ground.

John Entwhistle picked up a sensitive microphone and banged his guitar with it. Roger Daltry kicked a hole in an amplifier.

If anyone else tried to do this, they'd probably be arrested, but for the four members of The Who it's all part of the act.

The Who are four young men who match their wild music with a spectacular stage show culminating in the celebrated wrecking of their instruments.

In Britain, The Who are one of the top groups, but in America they are lost in the maze of pop music. Only four or five of their records have been released this side of the Atlantic, and their albums are not topsellers.

Sunday they played at the Oakdale Summer Theater in Wallingford. They are particularly well-suited to the "theater-in-the-round" setup at Oakdale, since they must be seen—and heard—from all sides to be appreciated.

Peter Townshend, lead guitar, coaxes, screams, whines and somehow manages to get both chords and melody from his instrument, for although The Who is a four-member band there are only three instruments.

Pete uses wild flailing motions as he plays—he swings his right arm in a large circle, striking the strings with what must be terrific force. At the same time, he wiggles a Presley—and sings.

Keith Moon sits at the rear of the stage surrounded by his drums. One is convinced that there must be another drummer hidden in the pile somewhere, for he is extremely fast and loud.

As he plays, the drumsticks shoot from his hand into the air and the audience, and one stagehand does nothing throughout the performance except hand Keith new sticks from a huge carton.

Sunday, Keith used somewhere in the neighborhood of two dozen sticks.

In one number, he placed his tom tom on top of a snare drum and played the side of it. When he was through, he casually tossed it over his head. It was caught by another stage hand.

Roger Daltry, the lead singer, swings his microphone like a yoyo. The sensitive instrument flies out into the audience, around his head and between his legs. Yet when he's not swinging it, he sings into it, and the results are fascinating.

Keith on drums, but most of the time he is red-facedly singing and dancing.

John Entwhistle, bassist, stands at one corner of the stage and—just plays his bass.

He doesn't dance, twist or jump with Peter, but John is the one who writes all The Who's material, so he can be forgiven for not entertaining the eyes—his specialty is the ears.

Songs which drew loud applause from the Oakdale audience Sunday night were "Happy Jack," "Boris the Spider," "Tattoo" and "A Quick One While He's Away."

"Boris" is typical of The Who's style. Ostensibly, it is about a small spider crawling on a wall. The singer is afraid of Boris, so he kills him with a book.

At the end, the singer says philosophically, "He's come to a sticky end." Is the song only about spiders or about the "sticky end" of humanity? The Who decline to answer.

John's raspy voice is also used in this song. It can briefly be described as Everett Dirksen imitating Louis Armstrong. By the way, John must affect this voice. His normal tones are very pleasing.

"Tattoo" is also done in a kindergarten style. Two young boys discuss "what makes a man a man—" and decide that the answer is a tattoo on the arm.

So they both get tattooed. They come to find out that this is hardly the solution to their problems, but like many decisions they must live with it all their lives.

"Quick One" is a mini-opera, according to Townshend. It concerns an affair between a Girl Guide and a railroad engineer and consists of six different musical styles.

It is during this song that Keith Moon plays the side of his tom tom—to imitate the cliplop of hoofbeats during a Gene Autry-style passage.

In the end, as in many operas, "all is forgiven, all is forgiven."

The culmination of the show is the smashing of all the instruments. It was apparently once a great surprise and a treat to see such total destruction, but now it is expected and is done much as Kate Smith sings "God Bless America"—not for the novelty of it but to satisfy the audience.

It occurred during "My Generation," and was so predictable that a good quarter of the audience left its chairs to crowd around the stage.

Even though it lacked spontaneity, the destruction was marvelous to watch. Pete starts by whirling the microphone around and around his head. Then—smash-twang!—into an amplifier. The crowd roars.

By this time, the light man has got the idea. Red-blue-white-black… the stage has become a giant strobe light and through the crowd the action can be seen.

Roger Daltry swings the microphone around and around then up in the air. Piff! no more microphone.

Keith and John do a job on the drums while the stage hands run frantically around the edges preventing souvenir hunters from carrying off mementos.

Finally, the lights come on. John shrugs his shoulders and with a mighty twang his bass falls on the floor. They head for the exit and the concert is, without a doubt, over.

Before the show, The Who answered a few questions about their personal life and their act.

Pete Townshend appears to be the spokesman for the group, although he acknowledges John Entwhistle's "lightning wit."

He said they enjoy playing on the same bill with The Small Faces, the Bee Gees and The Troggs. They would rather not appear in concert with Jimi Hendrix, according to Pete.

All four said they admired Tiny Tim (who appears at Oakdale Sunday). "He's incredibly honest," John said. "A real personality with lots of talent."

They admit their smashing is getting to be a bore. "It's still spontaneous," they say. "It's spontaneous right after Pete signals with his hand in the third bar of the last number."

Pete says it's "a gimmick, a noise, a laugh but it's musically legitimate."

They said they will return to England in a few weeks to work on a new album. They were going to call it "The Who's Greatest Flops," they said, but decided to change the title.

Their last album, "The Who Sell Out," is programmed like a radio station with jingles and commercials, placed back-to-back with the songs with the "no dead air" sound of radio.

As on radio, some of their commercials are the best cuts on the record.

Pete denied they were being sued by the makers of the products they satirized (Heinz Baked Beans, for example). He said, however, they did get into some trouble with Radio London, whose station breaks and promotional jingles they used.

Just before they went on stage, John replied to the question: "What does The Who lack that you wish you had?"

"Sleep!" he said.

"He's right, you know," said Roger.

The Who!

Three members of "The Who," British rock group, get ready for a show at Oakdale. A stage hand, left, assists. The Who are, from left, Peter Townshend, guitar; John Entwhistle, bass; and Roger Daltry, singer. Keith Moon, drummer, was elsewhere in the dressing room.