British Pop Art in Music

The Who Have to Be Seen—And Still Might Not Be Believed

Right! You've seen The Beatles... you've seen The Stones, and you've seen plenty of other British groups, too. But until you've laid eyes on THE WHO—you ain't seen nothin' yet!

These boys have the most incredible stage act and sound ever to come from Britain or anywhere else! This may sound like quite a statement to make, but just start asking around—you'll soon discover that these seemingly bold words of praise are merely an understatement.

There are simply not enough words to describe THE WHO!

There are four members of THE WHO: Roger Daltrey is the fair-haired lead singer with the dynamic, original style that adds so much to the visual excitement of the group; Pete Townshend is the guitarist who has created such a stir in the pop world, not only with his unbelievable playing, but also with his songwriting talent; Keith Moon is the drummer who's so sensational to watch that you must close your eyes in order to fully appreciate what a skilled and creative drummer he actually is; John Entwistle, the bass player, is known as the conservative member of the group because he draws attention to himself by not moving about on stage, but standing still and acting as a sort of anchor man.

All four come from the same part of London—a district known as Shepherds Bush. Before it became known as the home of THE WHO, this was a part of town seldom mentioned. You see, it's a very tough area where most boys would sooner join a street gang than play a guitar.

John and Roger were exceptions, though, and they got together with a couple of other guys to play in a nowhere group called THE DETOURS. The specialty of this group was to play their own versions of current hit parade numbers.

It wasn't long before Roger and John were fed up with the policy. They wanted to create their own scene and play their own kind of music. Well, this idea didn't please the other Detours at all, with the result that our boys left to form another group.

They ran into a bit of trouble, though, because there didn't seem to be any other musicians around who shared their way out musical taste.

Then one day they happened to wander into a local coffee house where they struck up a conversation with this guy who was constantly playing the weirdest records on the juke box. His name was Peter Townshend, and although he played guitar, he told them he wasn't in a group because he couldn't stand the music most of them played.

Now, this sounded like a good deal to Roger and John, but they weren't too sure till they followed Pete back to his home-made recording studio built in his father's garage (where he claimed to be making complicated multiple-track tapes that no one else ever understood).

There Pete picked up a rather battered guitar and played a standard R'n'B number—but he had this fantastically weird arrangement that completely knocked the other boys out! No further consultation needed—Pete was in—the group was a threesome.

A couple of months later they were playing a gig back in their home territory, when this long-haired boy who had been madly dancing in the audience suddenly leapt up on the stage. He shouted into Roger's ear that he thought he could do better than the drummer and could he have a go? Roger said fine... and so... Keith Moon became THE WHO'S new drummer.

Despite the fact that Keith had completely different musical tastes—(being a raving fan of the California Surf Sound, while the others dug R'n'B)—everything really clicked when they played together. Keith certainly had that quality of distinction which added the finishing touch to THE WHO. And from that point, things started happening in a really big way.

Even before they released a record, word about them had spread to such an extent that they were breaking box office records everywhere—even at places with notoriously blasé audiences like London's famous Marquee Club.

So, when they finally recorded a number called "I Can't Explain," which Pete had written, it could only go straight into the charts and it did just that... hitting the top 10 not only in England, but all around the world—even in various countries where THE WHO were only known as a strange name.

THEIR STAGE act developed into something really fantastic to witness. Pete was experimenting all the time to find new sounds, and he was even going to the extent of ramming his guitar into his amplifier in order to get strange, new effects.

He had also developed a system of incorporating the feedback sounds into numbers, which produced results that groups all over the world—including The Beatles—have since picked up from The Who.

Roger had also worked out a startling effect gained from crashing his hand mike into Keith's cymbals. And Keith's drumming did everything to keep up with these new exciting sounds. John just continued to concentrate on a good solid bass sound which acted as the stabilizer.

There was no way to describe this new excitement—so it was labeled as POP ART music!

Now they are bound for Ottawa where they will play in concert with The Taggs and The Ohio Express.

The show is only a few weeks away. Prepare yourself.