After an hour and a half delay, nearly 700 disappointed fans left the Capitol Theatre Wednesday night when the appearance of British rock group The Who was cancelled.

Outside the theatre, throngs of teenagers waited to buy tickets for the 9:30 p.m. show until ushers told them the bad news.

A road manager for the group announced The Who would not be appearing because their musical equipment had not yet arrived from Toronto and drummer Keith Moon was ill with bronchial pneumonia.

The would-be audience found itself with time on its hands, and milled around the theatre, tying up Bank Street traffic. Four police squad cars and two motorcycle policemen were called in to sort out the confusion.

There were no incidents, and the throngs dispersed, allowing the scene at Bank and Queen to return to normal after about 30 minutes.

Money paid for the 6:30 p.m. show is to be refunded at The Treble Clef Friday.

During the delay, someone threw a firecracker on stage, and popcorn cartons were showered from the balcony. There was intermittent stomping of feet and shouts of "let's go."

The audience was not entirely deprived of what they had expected, however. The Spencer Davis Group played at the first show, although they, too, were late — by 20 minutes.

The blues-rock group played two of their hits, "I'm A Man" and "Give Me Some Loving."

Group leader Spencer Davis and the lead guitarist did some well-coordinated blues ad libbing.