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Today in Whostory: 6/05/2025

    1965 – The U.S. release of the single “Anyway Anyhow Anywhere” gets a full-page ad in Billboard magazine. This is practically the only evidence that the single is released in the U.S. at this time as it does not make a dent in the U.S. charts. The b-side is a cover of Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters’ soul ballad “Any Time You Need Me”, here called “Anytime You Want Me.”

    1965 – The Who play Loyola Hall in Stamford Hill

    1965 – Pete is interviewed in Melody Maker. “We think the mod thing is dying. We don’t plan to go down with it, which is why we’ve become individualists.” He also declares The Who’s new single, “Anyway Anyhow Anywhere” to be “the first pop-art single.”

     

    Transcription:

    EVERY SO OFTEN, A GROUP IS POISED ON THE BRINK OF A BREAKTRHOUGH.  WORD HAS IT IT’s THE WHO

    They Think the Mod Thing IS Dying….But They Don’t Intend To Go Down With It

    A new name is being hurled around in hip circles – The Who. They are four mods from Shepherds Bush, London. And their popularity is gathering strength in exactly the same way The Animals experienced two years ago.
    Like The Animals and The Yardbirds, The Who are a product of the club scene. Today, with one hit gone and another on the way, they are reckoned by the ‘in-crowd’ to be on the crest of a success wave that could make them the new rave – on a nation-wide scale.
    The Who are Roger Daltrey (aged 20, singer); Pete Townshend (aged 19, lead guitar); John Entwistle (aged 19, bass guitar) and drummer Keith Moon, who is 17.
    Moon is the most popular with fans. They mob him. Already.
    Their music is defiant, and so is their attitude. Their sound is vicious. This is no note-perfect ‘showbiz’ group.
    The Who lay down a heavy beat, putting great emphasis on the on and off beats.
    Moon thunders round the drums. Townshend swings full circles with his right arm. He bangs out Morse code by switching the guitar pick-ups on and off.
    Notes bend and whine. Pete turns suddenly and rams the end of his guitar into the speaker. A chord shudders on the impact. The speaker rocks.
    Townshend strikes again on the rebound. He rips the canvas covering, tears into the speaker cone, and the distorted solo splutters from a demolished speaker.
    The crowds watch this violent display spellbound.
    The Who started a year ago, changing their name from The High Numbers. They played regularly at the Goldhawk in Shepherds Bush, and graduated to the plusher Marquee in London’s West End.
    They were billed in small print and played to audiences of 200 every Tuesday. But word spread. The name intrigued.
    Tuesday audiences grew. They became favourites of the mods: “Have you heard The Who yet?”
    That was the start.
    Mods identified themselves with The Who because The Who identified themselves with them.
    Pop music is often allied to social trends and fashions.
    Pete Townshend wore a suede jacket, Roger Daltrey hipster trousers. They were mods playing mod music.
    It’s an exhausting act to watch. But also highly original and full of tremendous pace.
    What makes The Who click on stage?
    Townshend: “There is no suppression within the group. You are what you are and nobody cares. We say what we want, when we want. If we don’t like something someone is doing, we say so.
    “Our personalities clash, but we argue and get it all out of our system. There’s a lot of friction. Offstage we’re not particularly matey. But it doesn’t matter.
    “If we were not like this it would destroy our performance. We play how we feel.”
    The Who are linking their image with what they call Pop Art.
    They describe their current chart success, ‘Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere’, as “the first Pop Art single,” and they have started designing their own Pop Art clothes.
    “Pop Art is something society accepts, but we represent it to them in a different form. Like Union Jacks. They’re supposed to be flown. John wears one as a jacket.
    “We think the mod thing is dying. We don’t plan to go down with it, which is why we’ve become individualists.”
    Anti-Who people condemn their music as a messy noise. The Who like this; “Best publicity we could have.”
    Their idea of a messy noise is the music of Freddie & The Dreamers, Val Doonican and Ronnie Hilton; “It’s just dozy.”
    Cathy McGowan and assistant editor Vicki Wickham are devout Who followers.
    The Who are modern, short-haired rebels with a cause. There’s sadism in their characters and in their music. But at least what they’re doing is something NEW.

    1965 – The Newcastle Evening Chronicle’s POP SPOT by Maureen Cleave carries an article titled “Paris invites the Who to play”

     

    Transcription:

    Paris invites the Who to play

    THE man charged with putting the Who’s latest song on to sheet music has been sent abroad for a complete rest.  It was too much for him.  “Ad lib morse code effect for 16 bars,” he wrote, pathetically aware that it did not sum up the situation.  Later, finally, desperately, he wrote: “Hit cymbals with microphone,” and departed.

    The Who are a newish group, one of the many to become prominent since the time scheduled for the decline of groups.  London might call them its own local group: which is how it once thought the Rolling Stones in the days when the Liverpool Movement threatened its survival

    The Who are the darlings of “Ready Steady Go,” they are very, very smart indeed though they would shudder to read this.  The faintest hint of trend-setting makes them feel tired.

    The Who are Mods and beloved of Mods and as the Who know that Mods ended just before Christmas (they were buying Christmas presents for their mothers at the time) this lends a sadness and poignancy to their very existence/  “The whole thing still has a chance,” they say.

    But in their heart of hearts they feel proudly, cynically, wearily fin de race.

    THEIR OWN…

    If you haven’t come across their music it is well worth listening to. Their second record is “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere,” their own composition.  It is so interestingly electronic that they have been invited to play as a mystique concrete concert in Paris.

    There’s a kind of desolate demolition noice in the middle where the versifying appears to fall to pieces.  “I can go anywhere. I can live anyhow. I can do anything for something new,” bawls the singer desperately, and its quite frightening,

    “It’s music for people who’ve been messed around,” someone said “just right for the Mods.” The who prefer to call it “the first true Pop Art single”

    “Unlike other groups when they become successful.” their managers said, “the Who haven’t gone nice at the edges.” They sat around the room wearing peacock colours, in turn filing their nails on an emeryboard.

    They dislike each other intensely a lot of the time. “Ours,” they say, “is a group with built-in hate.  If we liked each other, we probably wouldn’t exist.   Once we took a few days off to go away and hate each other, and when we cam back, we played 20 times better.”

    There are four Who: Roger Daltrey the singer, who has bright yellow hair: John Entwistle who rarely utters: Peter Townsend, who has a long striking intelligent yellow face: and Keith Moon who has bright button eyes which make him look less weary of the world than the others.  Indeed one might go so far as to think he had something to live for.

    A SMASHER

    Some people go to watch the Who in the hope that Peter Townsend (sic) will smash a costly guitar.  He has so far smashed four-hundred pounds worth. Do not think this is pure histrionics.  Any apparent dottiness about the Who’s musical work is carefully contrived.

    The Who have many boys among their fans whom they regard with patronizing affection.  “They’re in a crummy predicament., having to work to live: in respectable places.   They envy our music.

    “They would love to get hold of a £200 guitar and wallop it.  They would like to jump up on the stage and yell about why can’t the kids have pills and how the youngsters are bing put down by people of 40 who want to be 20.”

    Two passions rule their lives: one is music, the other is their personal appearance.  They are most particular about their hair, having it tinted and occasionally done after hours.  Their managers say it’s a war of nerves about their clothes.

    Peter Townsend (sic) explains the Mod and his ways thus: “People of a certain age have to identify with something, don’t they? Two wars gave youngsters before something to identify with.  Our generation had to find something else.”

    And when does a Mod cease the frantic search for the newest and the first and most novel?

    “When he finds his own identity, of course,” said Peter Townsend (sic)

    1965 – Record Mirror carries a brief announcement that The Who will appear on “Ready Steady Radio” on June 13 as well as an ad for The Who’s June 7 Marquee Club show.  Anyway Anyhow Anywhere moves up 9 space to number 26 in the Top 50!

    1966 – The Who play in Nyköping at The Träffen

    1966 – The Who play in Örebro at the Idrottshuset. During the show the police panic and pull the plug on The Who when the audience rushes the stage. Pete threatens the police and stagehands to get the power back on but after a part of the set the police cut The Who’s power off permanently. John has a rare display of temper and rams his bass guitar through his amp so hard it takes two roadies to get it out.

    1966 – The Popside program featuring The Who recorded on the 3rd airs on Swedish television. Between the shows in Nykoping and Orebro, The Who stop at the home of Gunnel Larsson in Vrena to watch themselves on TV.

    1967 – The Who were scheduled to play at the Top Rank Suite in Swansea but was cancelled because of John’s broken finger.

    1967 – The”Instrumental – No Title” a/k/a “Soddin’ About” is mixed and shelved, awaiting an official release that does not come for forty-two years. Listen to the song on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwVI7F-DdHY:

    1969 – The Who play the first of two nights at the Fillmore East in New York with Chuck Berry and Albert King

    1969 – The Who are photographed by Jack Robinson for a feature in Vogue magazine. The date of these photos was confirmed by the “Official gallery for Vogue fine art photographer Jack Robinson” on an instagram post (https://www.instagram.com/robinsongallery/)

    1971 – Six takes of “Bargain” are recorded at Olympic Studios in Barnes

    1972 – The Who record “Long Live Rock” at Olympic Studios, London. The song is meant as the title track for a never-shot Who television special.

    1975 – Rolling Stone magazine features a review of “Tommy Original Soundtrack Recording”

    1976 – The Who continue their “Who Put The Boot In Tour” performing at the Celtic Football Ground in Glasgow, Scotland. 35,000 attend and over £100,000 are donated to charity. That afternoon in the backstage area of the parking lot, Keith fulfills the request of the 11-year old who won the organ from the Tommy film by smashing it with a sledgehammer.

    1976 – Record Mirror features The Who on the cover with a two page spread titled “Who are the champions” covering their show at Charlton days earlier

    1979 – The Kids Are Alright soundtrack double LP is released in the U.K. Complimentary reviews come from Chris Welch in Melody Maker, Charles Shaar Murray in New Musical Express and Steve Simels in Stereo Review. Greil Marcus dubs the album “okay” in Rolling Stone, using the review as a platform to damn the song “Won’t Get Fooled Again” for being “stale.” David Hepworth in Sounds gives the record a thumbs-down in a review entitled “How To Flog Dead Horses.” The album peaks at #26 in Britain

    1990 – It is reported that Pete has turned down £2 million from Coca-Cola to use “My Generation” as part of their “Generation after Generation” ad campaign. The Who had previously recorded adverts for Coca-Cola that played on British radio in 1967.

    2005 – The comic strip “Off The Mark” features a reference to The WhoYou can view it here

    2007 – The Who play in Rotterdam at Ahoy

    2007 – Marty Stuart releases his album Compadres featuring a cover of “I Can See For Miles” done bluegrass-style with the Old Crow Medicine Show. Listen to it on YouTube here

    2007 – Pete is interviewed about the writing of Endless Wire in Metro International: “Some of them I started in 2002, when John Entwistle was alive, and he always had lots of songs ready. At that time Roger was promising to write songs as well, so I concentrated on trying to produce songs that were arch, dark and extreme – leaving the lighter stuff to John and Roger.”