The Best Thing Since Woodstock

By Edith Robertson

Miami News Reporter

Rock fans haven’t been so deep-down muddy, stoned and happy since Woodstock, and they were sloshing and screaming the wonderful news at last night’s concert by The Who.

A late-afternoon thunderstorm turned the Miami Stadium field into a mud bath which an estimated 20,000 fans churned into soup long before the British rock group appeared, an hour late.

Robert Rococo, 18, a University of Texas student from Houston, said he came to the concert “for the circus,” adding, “Look at this; it’s bizarre.

“This is the largest variety of strange people I’ve ever seen. It’s really worth the trip. Look at her,” he said, pointing to a young girl staggering past. “That’s a victim of the modern age — drugs.”

They came from everywhere for The Who’s first Miami appearance in four years, and they spanned a couple of rock-fan decades.

Teeth braces glinted like fireflies in the spotlights, which cut through marijuana smoke thick enough to chew around the stage area in center field.

Joan Sirkin, 23, of Palm Beach, eight months pregnant with twins, came with her husband, Michael, 27, because both have been Who fans for 11 years.

They held their spot around homeplate through the downpour. “We aren’t very bright, and we got drenched,” Michael said. “But we thought we should come to their concert while we could. After next month, it will be harder.”

Fans started gathering at the baseball stadium yesterday morning. By the time the storm hit about 5:30 p.m. they had spread blankets around the field, staked out seats in the stands and broken out coolers full of every kind of drink from soda pop to Southern Comfort.

Some had to empty six-packs of beer into Thermos bottles on police orders, because cans and bottles are banned in the stadium. Both were plentiful, despite the gate precaution.

Some fans had passed out, lying in the mud, heat and confusion, long before the rock group finally appeared onstage at 9:30 p.m. Dancing, though difficult, was energetically attempted in the thick mud. The baseball field turf was chopped to soup, and it was anybody’s guess last night whether it could be restored in time for tomorrow night’s Miami Orioles baseball game with Pompano Beach.

Bill Hall of Miami called the spectacle “reminiscent of Woodstock seven years ago, although it was muddier there, but at 16 I really enjoyed it.

“But I’m 23 now, more mature and less tolerant. If I hadn’t paid $10 for tickets, I might have turned back when it began to rain today.”

Scott Medler of Delray Beach, Tim Horn and Sugarfoot Phillips, both of Boynton Beach — rock concert connoisseurs all — arrived at the stadium at 3 a.m. yesterday.

“We’ve been here through the mud and the rain,” said Phillips. “A bunch of fools in this pigpen. But it’s probably The Who’s last concert in Florida, and we wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“It’s worth it,” sighed Cindy Johnson of North Miami. “Worth every bit of it.”

Miami News Staff Photos by BILL REINKE

Screams greeted Roger Daltrey, lead singer of The Who