Saturday, July 31st, 1965

Irelands Saturday Night (newspaper) carries an article titled "Meet 'The Who' - they dress according to their mood"

 

Transcript:

Meet ‘The Who’—they dress according to their mood

THE FOUR MAN POP GROUP named "The Who" are aggressively mod. For months they have been the rave of the London mods.

"The Who" are the first combination to use distortion and out-of-tuneness of part of their music. Lead guitarist, 19-year-old Peter Townsend, does a great deal to help in this style of playing by bashing his guitar against the amplifiers. The other members of the group are Keith Moon. 18 (drums); 19-year-old John Entwistle (bass); and 19-year-old Roger Daltire (singer).

Clothes

They are all noted for their "pop art" clothes, a distinctive style of dress which I find amusing and not unattractive.

In their strangely assorted wardrobe John has a jacket made out of a Union Jack; Keith wears sweaters adorned with such things as a shooting target stitched on; Peter wears a jacket covered with medals and badges and Roger likes to wear belts covered in any unusual decoration he can find.

"The Who" change their clothes a great deal, sometimes two or three times a week.

They create styles to suit their mood. When they get tired of a design they put it aside and make up a different style. One never knows what next "The Who" will wear.

When I talked to John Entwistle he told me that "The Who" are closely associated with the Mods because of their clothes and the way they play. The group use a lot of electronic sounds, including feed backs. They are all solo artists, but when they get together for a performance hit it off perfectly.

Said John: "We improvise and rarely play the same sequence twice running." Peter writes most of the group's songs, the latest of which is "anyway, anyhow and anywhere." It has been recorded on the Brunswick label.

Peter wrote this number in association with Roger. "It is about ourselves, and the way we play," added John. "We have been together for about a year."

The group started as "The Detours," but found that another team of musicians were using the same name. "So we changed ours. Someone suggested 'The Who' because we said we wanted a name quite different from all the others. At first we thought it slightly ridiculous. However, we found that people remembered it. Then we began to like it more and more—and it has stuck."

Personalities

John says that when the group is free of engagements they stay away from each other "because we are such completely different personalities."

He went on: "We get along famously on stage, but we find that being close together for a long time day after day that we end up getting very tired of one another."

"The Who" rarely rehearse. One reason is that they are so heavily in demand for concerts—most weeks they are playing every night—that rehearsal is not strictly necessary.

John used to work as an income-tax clerk. "I just do not know why I went on so long at such a job," he says.

“The Who”—They rarely rehearse.