1965 – The Who play the Two Red Shoes Ballroom in Elgin, Morayshire, Scotland. The Alex Sutherland Sextet opened
1966 – The Who play the Top Hat Ballroom in Lisburn, Northern Ireland
1966 – New Musical Express has coverage of the recent Poll Winners Concert which included The Who. Substitute is still in the charts at #13
1966 – Roger runs into Bob Dylan who is performing at the ABC Cinema. Bob and Roger have tea and a chat between the acoustic and electric sets of his show.
1967 – Melody Maker answers a letter regarding Keith Moon. This issue also features an ad for the current issue of Disc and Music Echo (with The Who on the cover) and an ad for “The Marshall Sound”
1967 – Record Mirror carries an article titled “The Who lose money and write a science fiction story” by Bill Harry
Transcript:
The Who lose money and write a science fiction story
BY BILL HARRY
THE WHO’s new H.Q. in Old Compton Street is in a starkly modern office block. ROGER DALTREY and I took over RICHARD GREEN’s office, MOUSE sitting at his feet. Mouse is a sleekly beautiful Arabian Saluki dog who sat bored, sometimes whining throughout the conversation.
Roger himself, remarkably enthusiastic about a lot of things, regularly using the word “fantastic” for anything he was delighted about. Their recent American trip for instance, that Murray The K. show at the RKO Theatre did the trick for us. Not the show at the RKO Theatre did the trick for us. We’re not short of talent over there—we’ve achieved what we wanted to. We lost money on it but we had a real time. It was also a great experience for the four shows in one day in one theatre and during the first three days all we did was phone radio stations. The DJ’s announced the calls and started playing “Happy Jack” — now it’s 47, with a bullet, which is higher than we’ve ever been in the American charts before.
“We just met some great people, the kids in the business, over there are fantastic. They’ve got such real ideas and great thinking. I felt like I was at home at last. I don’t like the older people in the States, though, they like to keep up with the people next door. No, I wouldn’t like to settle in the States—but being there for about two weeks was real.”
A few months ago there was a lot of talk about The Who becoming a television series which would be a British equivalent of THE MONKEES. This has been dropped. We found that The Monkees series itself lost money—and the networks weren’t really interested in it was too much of a gamble. Besides, people feel bored. I think they’re already sick of The Monkees after such a short time. Our ideas for the films were really good, the ideas alone would have made us more popular than The Monkees—but for how long? We didn’t think it would be good for us. We also think it is a mistake for THE TREMELOES to do it. It could do them a lot of harm. We want a lasting career and we don’t think that a series like that would particularly make us more popular than we are. A feature film would do much more good—and we’re going to do one this year. Kit Lambert has a couple of scripts and we’ve got a very strong story.”
Roger was guarded when we discussed the story-line because he believed that the British pop scene was such a bad way that any new ideas were likely to be stolen. For instance, JIMI HENDRIX came over here with a sound for now everyone’s stealing that sound. What I like about the States is that people think of ideas themselves and really try to be original. Over here they’re content to slow down and nick other people’s ideas.
Interest and controversy have been aroused by the HAMISH GRIMES press advertisements for “Pictures Of Lily”. “They were fantastic adverts, really great. No, we didn’t decide to have the adverts like that, we were in Germany when they came out. ‘Pictures Of Lily’ is so good anyway, it’s a publicists dream.”
Concerning the group’s instrumental E.P.’s for Track Records, Roger said: “The instrumental market now is pretty small and there’s a lot we can do instrumentally anyway which we used to do a long time ago. It’s merely a trombone and John plays a lot of brass anyway. It’s wide open.”
Later in the week I saw KEITH MOON, new short haircut and all, sitting alone in a pub sipping his favourite Vodka and Bitter Lemon. We engaged in a conversation concerning pop films. “Privilege”, THE BEATLES movies, “Only Lovers Left Alive”. I know they’ve been discussing it for a long time, but I’m sure that THE ROLLING STONES will make a film.
“And The Who’s first feature? We wanted to make a horror film. Not a comedy horror, but a really strong film—like Hammer make with Werewolves in it. That’s what we really wanted to do most of all—but we couldn’t get away with it because it wouldn’t be given an ‘X’ certificate. That’s no good to us, a lot of fans wouldn’t be able to go and see it—and we owe loyalty to the fans, we’re concerned about them.
“However, Keith saw the solution in science-fiction. There are some terrific Jules Verne stories, but there’s difficulty with copyrights, so Pete and I have worked on an original script. Original? It’s quite unique. Pete and Keith are Earth scientists who travel to another planet which threatens Earth. The other planet is a hollow world where people live on different levels underground. There is a ruling council of four—John, Roger, Pete and Keith (dual roles for K & P) and some of the people are telepathic. After many interesting adventures all four of them are killed.
“The Who intend to go to the Monterey Festival Of Pop—and on their return Pete was bringing back a talented American artiste he discovered on their last trip there. TINY TIM, who was going to record for Track Records. However, the trip might be postponed due to John Entwistle’s marriage around that time. However, the boys will be returning to the States for a six-week tour with HERMAN’S HERMITS and seem set to make a far bigger name for themselves over there.”
1967 – Disc and Music Echo features a picture of The Who on the cover with an article entitled “Are Pop Stars Overpaid?”. “Samantha’s Scene” also has a brief mention of The Who.
Transcript:
PETE—I could have committed suicide!
● Much more mental and physical demand on a pop star ●
SIR WILLIAM Carron, president of the million-member Amalgamated Engineering Union, thinks pop stars are non-productive workers and get paid too much.
Mr. Peter Townshend, as unmentioned in the Honours List but, as leader of the Who, a gentleman with acute awareness of the pop scene, thinks Sir William is undoubtedly “misguided.”
Sir William said, in a speech at Scarborough last week: “Whether it is a seven-inch disc, a reel of television film, or a pocketful of tickets from the Tote, Bingo or a betting shop, the remuneration to the individual per hour, per effort must give the average industrial or agricultural worker much food for thought.”
Pete Townshend says: “He wants to try it. He wants to work in a group and learn what hours of work, thought and nervous strain are involved.
“Any job of responsibility in industry is highly paid. And pop stars have a job of responsibility as well. We have a responsibility to our fans, to our general image, to our behaviour abroad on tour and we bring a lot of money into Britain—probably more than this man does.”
SCOPE
a series in which stars comment on news topics of the day
Just what is life like for a pop star? “For a start, it’s a 24-hour-a-day existence for perhaps three years or longer. It’s a job with no promise of future earnings. It’s a job in which you have to present a good image—like having cars, clothes, a smart house—and in which you have to pay for publicists and road managers and all manner of extras that involve you in fantastic expenses.
“To stay successful, you have to be in touch with what the fans want. So you have, therefore, to throw in a bit of psychotherapy and philosophy.
“There is much more mental and physical demand on a pop star than any ordinary worker. Here’s an example. We went to the States for nine days and worked solid each day from breakfast time till past 1 a.m. It was a promotional visit which meant we weren’t paid anything for all this.
“But we had to do photo sessions and interviews and sign autographs and smile all the time lest the fans felt cheated.
“We’ve just come back from Germany. We were there eight days but we did 14 jobs in that time.
“This man must be really snooty to put us down. Just because we’re not churning out something row of radio parts or something we’re classed as non-workers.
“Fans know plenty of the work in hours of always-on-show pop stars. They may not possibly appreciate the mental exhaustion involved. Says Pete: ‘Working at our pace, you can lose your physical stamina, which means that your energy has got to come from somewhere else. It’s something like when you go on stage and feel ready to drop. But you see the kids happy and ready to go with you and you get a feeling that you can’t let them down. Then everything becomes all right and you do a good show.’
“But I know I did have a complete mental blackout once. I just couldn’t sort out anything. I couldn’t write songs; I had a thoroughly miserable 24 hours and came close to the point of suicide. Truthfully. Luckily that only lasted for a day, but it’s something that doesn’t normally happen in the average job.”
GRIM
“I bet Paul Jones is going through a pretty grim period right now. He’s just finished a tour and before that he was working solidly on his film. Now ‘Privilege’ is out and he’s got to carry the full weight of it because he’s the star. He deserves his pocketful of money.
“And what if the film was panned? This is something your average worker doesn’t have to face. If the Who get booed off a stage, for example, I’m sure it’s much better getting a ticking off from a bloke in a boiler suit than having a full hall shouting abuse at you.”
That payments to pop stars have been defended, Pete also has his own opinions about AEU workers: “The average AEU man doesn’t produce a tenth of his Continental counterpart. He doesn’t work hard, he dreams, he’s lazy, he sits back and thinks ‘We’ve won two world wars so I’ll have a rest.’
“The British worker should take a look at the industry of his counterpart abroad. In Germany and Japan particularly.
“And the AEU leader has the nerve to turn round and criticise us!” — BOB FARMER
1967 – Day six of The Who’s mini tour of Scandinavia sees the group appearing at the Kungliga Tennishallen in Stockholm, Sweden.
1972 – The Birmingham Daily Post reports on The Who’s sponsorship of a car, “The Who Special” in the “International Welsh”
1974 – The Who hold an announced warm-up concert at the New Theatre in Oxford.
1980 – The Who play the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1997 – The Who play Festhalle in Frankfurt, Germany
2000 – John Entwistle plays a benefit show for the Stow Surgery in his hometown of Stow-In-The-Wold, Gloucesterchire, England, with a bunch of other mid-50’s rockers under the name “The Stowaways”. You can watch a news report on the Stowaways on YouTube here
2014 – Roger visits the SiriusXM Studios in New York City
2016 – The Who play the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada