PETE TOWNSHEND and ROGER DALTREY durlng satellite modla conference

The Who stage
a media event

HE Who sure can sell
beer.

That was the message given
Wednesday through the medium
of satellite communication with

the band the Who addressing reporters
during a 55minute media conference
live from a Toronto hotel.

Sitting under a “Molson-Molson-
Molson-Molson" sign. band members
talked about how they liked Maple Leaf
Gardens. how they might have spent
too much time making films instead of
music and how much they enjoyed giv-
ing concerts.

But local reporters at the CKVU
studios got no chance to ask questions
about the future of the band, which is
staging a soecalled final concert in
Toronto on Friday.

Only two questions got asked from
Vancouver, one from CKVU Vancouver
Show host Wayne Cox.

Molson's had arranged the question—
ers in advance. Coincidentally enough,
the Who concert is to be carried Friday
night simultaneously by CKVU and by
CFOX at 9 pm.

While the rest of the reporters sat
under beer signs. drank free light suds
and listened quietly — playing the role
as the audience for the Vancouver
Show‘s clips of the event — Cox asked if
members of the Who will ever play to-
gether again. even though the Friday
show is billed as “The Who — The Final
Concert."

Responded singer Roger Daltrey:
“One thing that’s happened is that peo
ple feel this is our la st concert. I don’t
think it‘s true. This is the last concert of
our farewell tour. There won’t be any
more tours. We might do. . .festi-
vals." he said. “There’ll be more con-
certs."

Most of the other questions centred
on the future of cable-T‘J rock concerts
— “The financial potential of cable for
groups is pretty big," said Pete Town-
shend, but Daltrey said they lack the
vitality of live concerts — and the past
and future of the Who.

“Most of our good stuff is old." says
Daltrey. “The Who has had its crack at
innovating and sometimes it works and
sometimes it doesn’t."

Friday's concert, he said. will con-
tain perhaps four songs that haven't
been performed in Toronto before, and
will contain “a few different lighting ef-
fects."

The press conference almost didn't
happen. The band, flying from Cleve-
land, was forced to land in Buffalo and
drive to Toronto, arriving at the hotel
almost 25 minutes late.

The beer companies had booked only
55 minutes on the Anik B satellite to
pump the television feed to TV stations
throughout the country. A number of
stations lost the broadcast half-way
through because the time couldn’t be
extended.

CKVU was able to switch over to the
Weststar satellite carrying the show to
Los Angeles and caught the entire
show, but the Toronto emcee ignored
requests for more questions from Van-
couver.

Daltrey, however, racked up local
points when he noted that “Outside the
UK, there aren‘t many places I could
live. I think Toronto's one of them.
Toronto or Vancouver."