The Who

A ridiculous display of unwarrented violence

By Steve Hughes

THE WHO rock band lived up to its reputation for violence on stage with an expensive display of guitar and amplifier-smashing at the Odeon Cinema last night.

The concert was stopped in chaos when guitarist Pete Townshend bowled out sound engineers, destroyed pre-recorded backing tapes and smashed up £100 worth of equipment during the group’s presentation of its latest rock opera.

It was a ridiculous display of unwarrented violence witnessed by thousands of ____ influenced teenage pop fans.

Townshend, a temperamental but brilliant guitarist, is quite notorious for sudden fits of violence on stage which have since (?)  become accepted as  part of the stage act by his many followers

But this time stage hands rushed to disconnect electric amplifiers and Townshend’s elect guitar after he ___ it ___ a microphone and then smashed it to pieces on the stage floor. 

Tempers flared after drummer, Keith Moon had trouble with headphones.  He let the drumsticks fly as sound engineers battled to fix them.

Then Townshend intervened, yelling at the engineers behind control panels on the side of the stage.  He ripped out backing tapes and heaved over equipment into the side curtains.  

The three other members of the band — lead singer Roger Daltery (sic), guitarist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon — just stared.  The safety net was lowered to the stage but the lights stayed out.

____ out, quietely at first in total darkness and ____ obviously quite frightened — frantically flashed tourchlights across the audience.

After 10 minutes, with absolutely no trouble from the audience the curtain was raised and Daltery launched the brand into a medley of “oldies.”

The he yelled four letter words at the audience calling them — among many other derogatory terms — bastards and tried to explain everything by singing “My Generation,” a song about the generation gap and how no one understands the younger generation.

Then Townshend hurled his guitar against the upstanding microphone and smashed it into a score of pieces by banging it against the stage floor.

He then turned on a row of piled amplifiers at the back of the stage and hurled the top one to the ground.  Keith Moon waded through his range of drums, spilling them across the stage and Daltry (sic) took a last kick at his microhphone,  They all left to  thunderous applause.

It was, in my opinion, an extremely childish publicity stunt with potentially damaging effect on the thousands of youngsters who invariably follow their idols in all they do.

Otherwise, The Who were musically immaculate, as always.

Concerts tonight and tomorrow will go ahead as planned