COVER STORY

Who's Who

British legends continue 'never-ending' journey from adolescence to maturity with 'Quadrophenia' tour

By Michael Norman

Plain Dealer Music Critic

On its surface, it was just a very British rock opera — a melodramatic, orchestral slice of musical theater with a story line about rival teenage gangs of "mods" and "rockers" in 1960s England. But if you dig a little deeper into the Who's "Quadrophenia," things start to get much more interesting — especially if you are a kid trying to navigate the difficult journey from adolescence to adulthood.

Who songwriter and guitarist Pete Townshend had a poet's talent for writing songs that captured the essence of adolescent fears and longing. Songs such as "Love Reign O'er Me," "The Real Me" and "5.15" ring as true today as they did in 1973, when "Quadrophenia" was first released.

That, says Who vocalist Roger Daltrey, is why band members Roger selected "Quadrophenia" as the focus of their first full-fledged concert tour in more than seven years. The show, which comes to Gund Arena on Wednesday, has contemporary relevance.

"That journey from adolescence to maturity is never-ending," said Daltrey in a phone interview from a tour stop in Vancouver, Canada. "It just keeps coming around with each new generation. We all have these feelings of vulnerability and aggression when we are going through those dreadful years. We don't quite know where they fit until we're a little bit more mature."

Daltrey says the Who began making plans to take "Quadrophenia" on the road again early this summer, after playing the piece live on June 29 at the annual Prince's Trust charity concert in London. It was the first time Daltrey, Townshend and Who bassist John Entwistle had performed the album in its entirety since an aborted 1973-74 tour that was cut short because the band couldn't get orchestral-backing tapes to work properly in concert.

This time, they used a live brass section, augmenting the orchestral arrangements with modern synthesizers. "It was probably the worst place we could have ever staged this kind of show," said Daltrey. "It was in Hyde Park in broad daylight in front of 150,000 people. But we had a great time doing it and it got very well received. We decided to take things the next step and do a big theatrical production of it in a closed arena."

The arena shows were staged for six nights at New York's Madison Square Garden in July. The response exceeded the Who's "wildest dreams," says Daltrey. The shows sold out immediately and got rave reviews in the New York press. That encouraged the band to develop the show into a traveling production. The tour kicked off Oct. 13 in Portland, Ore.

"It's a very different form of show than the Who have ever done before," said Daltrey. "We didn't want to go out on the road with a retro show. The Who as the Who were is a done deal. We didn't want to be resting on our laurels, going around doing what we always did.

SEE NOW/17

Then...

[Photo of the Who in 1967 with caption:] PLAIN DEALER PHOTOGRAPHER / RICHARD T. CONWAY The Who, circa 1967, are from left, Keith Moon, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle and Roger Daltrey.

... and now

[Photo of the Who in 1996 with caption:] The Who in 1996 are, from left, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle.

Top ticket cost $4.50 to see Townshend, Daltrey, Entwistle, Moon open for headliner Herman's Hermits in '67

By JANE SCOTT

PLAIN DEALER ROCK REPORTER

It was 29 years ago — Lyndon B. Johnson was in the White House — when the Who first came to Cleveland.

Their name was in this paper's headline the next day, but in lower case, as in "Herman, that's who."

The Who was one of three openers for that bubblegum group, Herman's Hermits, at Music Hall, along with the Blues Magoos in $1,000 wired-by-battery suits and Cleveland's top band, the Choir.

Incidentally, the top ticket was $4.50 each for the 6:30 and 9 p.m. shows on Aug. 31, 1967. The top for the Who's Wednesday show at Gund Arena? $65, and those are sold out. And remember, there wasn't any Ticketmaster charge three decades ago.

Herman (Peter Noone) bounced on stage in drapery material pants and a red jacket and led with the Beatles "With a Little Help From My Friends" in honor of Beatles manager Brian Epstein, who had just died. But Noone had a tough act to follow.

The Who — singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon — had only 30 minutes. But they wowed with "Soon to Be Home," "Substitute," "Summertime Blues," "Boris the Spider," "Pictures of Lily," and "Happy Jack" before they whipped up what the crowd was waiting for — "My Generation" ("I hope I die before I get old.") The set wound up in a cloud of smoke and screams, with Townshend smashing his guitar and Moon throwing his $3,000 drum into the audience.

Choir guitarist Wally Bryson noted that Townshend had a double-necked Gibson guitar, a six and a 12-string, and ordered one for himself the next day.

Bryson, now with the Sittin' Ducks band also noticed that the impish Moon kept going even after the Who's segment. Moon ran back and forth on stage behind the drum set of Hermit drummer Barry Witham in clear view of the audience.

And the late Moon kept going after the show too, recalled David Spero, who hung out with the James Gang and the Who at the old Captain Frank's on the E. 9th St. pier.

"Someone said something to Keith like 'Go jump in the lake,' and he did. He dove right off the back of the pier," said Spero, now manager for Joe Walsh.

The Who's wild and wonderful session at a packed (2,500) show at the Musicarnival tent in Warrensville Heights on July 14, 1968, is an even higher memory for many fans.

Townshend suddenly rammed his guitar into an amplifier and tossed another amp on the floor. Lights flashed, and soon the sound system blew out. And that was only the second song.

That's when Bryson — he was in the Cyrus Erie group that had just opened for the Who — was seen wheeling speakers up the center aisle with the Cyrus Erie roadie, Pete Randall.

"We had some Sunn bottoms and powerheads to give signals to speakers on our truck," said Bryson.

SEE THEN/17