The British rock group The Who burst onto the stage at Pontiac Stadium Saturday night in front of a whistling, screaming crowd of nearly 76,000 young people, the largest crowd to hear an indoor rock concert in Detroit area history.

Drummer Keith Moon rolled a somersault across the stage and the group began the packed concert with "I Can't Explain" as flashbulbs popped, girls cried and young men jumped up and down in their seats.

THE FANS, most aged 15 to 22 and dressed in blue-jeans, had staked out places inside the huge domed stadium as long as five hours before the concert began at 8 p.m.

The Who went onstage at 9:09 p.m. — 21 minutes ahead of schedule — after arriving at the stadium at 7:30 by helicopter.

The fans seemed generally pleased with the sound system in the stadium. Speakers that cost $25,000 to rent for three hours were piled in four levels 100 feet high on either side of the stage at the stadium’s south end.

Stadium officials had been forced to open their gates at 3 p.m., three hours ahead of schedule Saturday afternoon, as ticket holders, some of whom arrived at 7 a.m., lined up 10 abreast and blocks long at the doors.

A PARTY atmosphere prevailed in the stadium as youths packed themselves in shoulder-to-shoulder in front of a five-foot high fence protecting the stage on the playing field.

Mike Wesley, 18, of East Detroit, who waited from 2 a.m. Saturday outside the stadium, mounted a two-foot, 70 power telescope on a small platform in front of his seat to watch the concert.

Seven people were sent from the stadium to area hospitals

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