Kit Lambert, The Who’s former manager and producer, is by this time living on charity that he spends mostly on heroin and alcohol. He shows up at his mother’s house bloody and broke saying he had been beaten by four men in the lavatory of a gay bar. His mother gets him to go to… Read More »1981-04-05
The BPI in London awards a silver disc for Face Dances
The double LP Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea, collected from the December 1979 concerts at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, is released in the U.S. The Who make up side one of the disc but the set starts with Pete’s accidentally out-of-tune performance on “Baba O’Riley.” It reaches #36 on the Billboard charts. The… Read More »1981-03-30
“You Better You Bet” hits the U.S. charts. It ultimately peaks at #18 in the Billboard charts and #15 in Cash Box. One later record industry book claims that the single was not played as much as it should have been on U.S. radio stations due to Warner Brothers’ refusal to shell out payola money.… Read More »1981-03-21
A luncheon party for the artists who contributed to the cover of Face Dances is held at Searcy’s in Knightsbridge. The Who discuss their portraits with some of the great talents of 1960’s and 1970’s British art. Afterward the assembled pieces of the cover are moved to the Tate Gallery.
Previews are held at Richmond’s in Hollywood, California for the long-forgotten Flash Fearless musical on which John and Keith Moon worked in 1974. The title is changed to Captain Crash versus the Zzorgwomen Chapters 5 & 6. It receives negative notices and quickly closes.
The Who record their last appearance on BBC1’s Top Of The Pops miming to “You Better You Bet.” It airs the following evening
ITV in the U.K. airs a special consisting of highlights from the 1979 Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea
Pete’s staff confronts him with bad news. He is ¬£500,000 in debt due to the combination of the recent purchase of a country estate and an unexpected printing bill at his publishing company. He is soon forced to sell off his barge company and The Magic Bus Bookstore (to Penguin Books) to raise cash.
Billboard magazine carried a feature entitled “The Lippmann+Rau Story” about concert promoters Fritz Rau and Horst Lippmann. It also featured ads from various people, including The Who.