Possibly My Generation

The Who: Quadrophenia NYNEX Arena

I WAS either too young or insufficiently cool to take any notice of The Who (the who?) when they released Quadrophenia in 1973.

As a small boy in short trousers I knew nothing of four-way split personalities, Lambrettas, smashed guitars or Purple Hearts.

But I now suspect that somehow, in a previous incarnation, I existed, for a while, as a fully paid-up mod, standing proud in my parka.

The stage revival of Quadrophenia was a peculiar experience for me, as though I was being re-acquainted with a long-lost friend, even though I had no recollection of any previous meeting.

The songs struck a hauntingly familiar chord, as if I'd heard them 100 times before. I remain convinced that someone must have repeatedly played the album to me in my sleep, and planted it in my subconscious.

Hits that were already well known to the older and cooler members of the audience, such as The Real Me,

Is It In My Head?, Bell Boy and Doctor Jimmy sounded almost too good to be true.

Fifty-somethings Roger Daltrey (still looking youthful), Pete Townshend (looking less so) and John Entwistle, helped by a four-

piece brass section, a stage full of assorted other musicians, and appearances by Billy Idol and PJ Proby, produced a huge, crashing sound, big enough to fill the arena several times over.

Clips from the 1979 film of Quadrophenia, shown on a vast screen behind the stage, recaptured the sixties’ feel of adolescent drug-fuelled angst, as narrated by the lyrics.

It was pure nostalgia, I think.