OKAY you lads, so you want to become famous pop stars. Well, first of all you have to buy a few thousand pounds worth of equipment and then you stand on a stage in front of several hundred people, and just smash it up.

This is precisely what The Who did at the California Pool Ballroom on Saturday evening.

Just returned from Rome, where they had encountered thick snow. John Entwhistle, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon and Pete Townsend ascended the stage watched by a capacity audience.

The group hit off with what I consider to be their best single record, "Substitute." Driving bass riffs competed with cymbal sizzles, which in turn drowned distorted guitar chords. The exciting atmosphere was there and so was the showmanship as Keith Moon gave an exquisite lesson in how to pull all the weirdest faces imaginable while playing the drums at the same time.

The main trouble was that the backing was too loud for the vocals. In the early part of the act this was the only fault which marred an otherwise entertaining performance. "So Sad." from their L.P. which is riddled with good chord sequences, was spoilt as the sound gradually became louder and more distorted. The act gradually became worse and worse as Pete Townsend's guitar consistently became out of tune (probably due to thumpings he gave it during his solos).

The crunch came during the final rendering—and I use this word in its proper form—of "My Generation." As Keith Moon hammered his way round his multi-drum kit Pete Townsend, the lead guitarist, turned round and thrust his guitar through the amplifier behind him. There was a flash of light and out poured thick clouds of smoke as the amplifier fell dead to the ground. He then proceeded to bounce his guitar on the stage like a rubber ball as the drummer systematically pulled his drum set apart and threw them to the ground.

By this time the stage was filled with smoke and the group calmly walked off the stage leaving distorted noises from the remaining live amplifiers to fill the hall. The stage-hands were left to clear up the mess.

The obvious answer to this attempt at sensationalism was that The Who had been smashing up dummy equipment specially wired to create the explosive effect. Unfortunately, as I later found out, the group had been breaking up good usable equipment.

Undoubtedly, there will be many starry-eyed fans who will insist that this performance was "knock out" and would even attempt to describe it as a mild form of psychedelicism, which is strictly for the junkies. But when one considers the amount of groups in this country who would defend such musical equipment with their lives, it shows just how much the value of money declines when you're at the top.

The Who were due for a couple of days' rest after their performance at the California. Apparently they will spend that time patching up their equipment ready for their next gig in Wales.

Supporting groups on Saturday were the Hush and David Essex and the Mood Indigo. The latter, although playing with a new drummer and starting off rather shakily, soon overcame their problems and to my mind were the best group of the evening.