Sunday, August 17th, 1969

The Who play the Woodstock Music & Art Fair in Bethel, New York.

They take the stage at 4AM. Pete lets out some of his fury by kicking Michael Wadleigh, on stage filming the acts as part of his documentary Woodstock. The Who then run quickly through "Heaven and Hell" and "I Can't Explain" before launching into Tommy. All the fury and tension come out through their instruments as The Who blaze through the rock opera in a spectacular performance captured by Wadleigh's cameras.

At the conclusion of "Pinball Wizard", radical firebrand Abbie Hoffman runs out and grabs Pete's microphone to announce, "I think this is all a pile of shit while John Sinclair rots in prison!", referring to the manager of the Detroit rock band MC5 who got ten years in prison for possession of two marijuana joints. The Who are friends with the MC5 but Pete is in no mood for interruptions. "Fuck off my fucking stage!", he yells, and pokes Hoffman in the back of the head with his guitar neck causing Hoffman to retire from the microphone. Pete in 1970: "Quite honestly, I mean knock for knock, everything Abbie Hoffman said was very fair. Because I did hit him, he must have felt it for a couple of months after." Audio exists of the incident but, for some unknown reason, it is either not filmed or the film has been lost. A search of the outtakes in 1976 by Jeff Stein and Woodstock editor Thelma Schoonmaker found no trace of it.

The sun comes up just as The Who reach "See Me Feel Me" and it is the first time the members of the band see the size of the crowd, a half million people stretching off to the horizon. Finally realizing the importance of the event, The Who put their all into the finale. After they play the new long version of "My Generation", Pete tosses his guitar into the crowd as the band walks off. The Who's roadies run out into the audience and quickly retrieve the guitar. Footage of The Who's performance at Woodstock is included in the movies Woodstock and The Kids Are Alright.