1964 – The Who play the Goldhawk Social Club in Shepherd’s Bush
1965 – The Who play The New Palladium in Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland.
The opening acts are Studio Six and the Jaygars, the latter featuring twelve-year old guitarist and later member of Thunderclap Newman and Wings, Jimmy McCulloch.
1965 – Pop Weekly’s “Top Thirty” has The Who’s “I Can’t Explain” down 2 at number 18.
1966 – The Who play the Arcadia Ballroom in Cork, Ireland
thewho.com has a story Irish Jack wrote about this date here
1966 – The New Musical Express Poll Winners concert at the Empire Pool from the 1st is broadcast on ITV. It is re-broadcast on the 15th. Video from this show does exist – but unfortunately the portion containing The Who does not. You can see what does exist here
1967 – The Who flew back to London from Sweden and began rehearsals at Brian Epstein’s Saville Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, London.
1968 – Pete talks about touring in Disc and Music Echo. Keith is also featured admitting he’s been married for 2 years.
Transcription:
Who: U.S. tours are a drag!
by HUGH NOLAN
AFTER spending most of this year in the States, where the Who are now generally acclaimed as one of the top groups, Pete Townshend announced this week: “The next American tour might very well be my last — and I think that goes for the rest of the group as well.”
Because, says Pete, not only is the work so gruelling and the travelling so tiring that there is just no time for writing songs or getting together musically with the rest of the group — financially, it’s very difficult to just break even, let alone come back with pockets and bank accounts stuffed with glittering dollars.
“On our first tour there with Herman’s Hermits we were amazed to see how scrimping the Hermits were in everyday living. We thought ‘Why the hell are they being so penny-wise?’
“We found out why — we lost 5,000 dollars on that tour.
“The Who’s most recent tour of America, which lasted six weeks and made them one of the four biggest groups in the country, grossed 630,000—700,000 for the group. But by the time Pete, Keith Moon, John Entwistle and Roger Daltrey arrived back in Britain they found they had earned barely £1,000 each, after paying managers, agents and all expenses.
“But of course with all the whole kybosh is about to go on, i.e. all the record [ ] which are sold to them, copies would keep us for life out of our lives.
“That’s where the bread is, in recording and songwriting.
Flamboyant
“But then the Who are big spenders. We’re flamboyant and extravagant—smashing two £250 guitars onstage a night is only an indication of how we feel about money.
“And of course, as testified by the shoals of complaining letters which swamp Disc’s Pop Post whenever yet another group leaves for the fleshpots of the U.S. of A., the Who’s British fans find their constant trips to conquer America one enormous drag.
“For not only are the fans robbed of any sight of their idols for months on end — they also miss out on new records.
“A lot of fans have asked us to release ‘Call Me Lightning’, our last American single, here too—not because it’s particularly exciting, but because it’s better that than nothing.
“But really it’s not advanced enough to release here. I want to spend more time on recording new material.
“In the next few weeks we hope to record an opera as a complete LP, and we’ll probably take a single off that. I’ve been talking about doing opera for so long.
“Of course it won’t be an opera in the classical sense of the word, with librettos and big boring songs, but it will in that it has a story and set of characters. It’s called ‘The Amazing Journey’, and the single might very well be ‘I Am A Farmer’, but we’re not quite sure about that yet.”
The group stays in Britain until June 27, when they leave for another, even more gruelling American tour. Ten whole weeks of it, in fact. But, says Pete, it could well be the last ever.
“It’s all right onstage, and the audiences are quite incredible. But you just keep slogging away, travelling the highways and the freeways and the byways and the airways.
“You can’t work, you can’t think—your mind’s blanked out.”
This constant grind has left Pete firmly aware of his grandest ambitions—producer and recording other groups.
“It’s amazing—you join a group and become a star, and then you just want to become a recording engineer, twiddling knobs.”
“I was planning to produce the Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, but got to the States just a stop to that. I saw Kit (Kit Lambert, manager of both the Who and Arthur) and told him he’d have to do it instead.
“The current American music scene is somewhat empty, Pete thinks. “Most of the groups there seem to have worked through their ideas very fast.
“Quite honestly, the biggest groups at the moment are the Cream, Jimi Hendrix and The Doors, who are huge—and they’re going to be even bigger. They do this incredibly melodic sort of stuff which only they could come up with.
“It’s because Jim Morrison is a real superstar—everything he does is accepted hands down.
“The Americans love superstars. There’s a lot of interest now in Arthur Brown, because he has got superstar potential.
“And that’s why we’re so successful too—Keith Moon and I have super potential. It’s the same with Hendrix—he’s so assertive onstage, though he’s not at all otherwise, and the kids see him up there saying this is where it’s at, this is the way. And that’s what they want.”
Caption:
Pete Townshend: “We lost 5,000 dollars”
1970 – The Who play Eliot College of the University of Kent in Canterbury, Kent. Despite being advertised as the support band, Genesis cancels at the last moment and are replaced by the group Spirogyra. 1,400 attend, a sellout.
1971 – Melody Maker interviews John about his new solo album.
If anyone has this issue, please share!!
1971 – Record Mirror interviews Roger about the collapse of the Lifehouse project.
1974 – Three days of filming the “Pinball Wizard” sequence with Elton John at the King’s Theatre in the Albert Road, Portsmouth begins. The extras are students from the local Portsmouth Polytechnic. Pete, while smashing his guitar for the cameras, accidentally brains one of the female students, sending her to hospital. Pete later gives her the guitar
1974 – The Who begin three days of filming the “Pinball Wizard” sequence with Elton John at the King’s Theatre in the Albert Road, Portsmouth. The extras are students from the local Portsmouth Polytechnic. Pete, while smashing his guitar for the cameras, accidentally brains one of the female students, sending her to hospital. Pete later gives her the guitar
1976 – Record Mirror confirms that Bill Curbishley has been named the manager of The Who
1986 – Roger is part of a panel at the 1st International Music & Media Conference in Montreux, Switzerland. The Bronski Beat and Mike Rutherford are also on the panel.
Roger is reportedly photographed around the conference
1986 – Roger performs “Under a Raging Moon” and “The Pride You Hide” for the Montreux Rock TV show. It is aired later in the month.
1999 – Pete travels to La Jolla, California to meet with Ted Waitt of Gateway Computers to discuss the Lifehouse Method software development. While there he pens the poem “I Want To Get Through The Fall.”
2006 – Roger performs at Arsenal Stadium in Highbury during ceremonies marking the last football game played at the stadium. In honor of his favourite team playing his favourite stadium, Roger sings a song he has written for the occasion called “Highbury Highs”.
2008 – Roger Daltrey performs with the RD Crusaders in a charity event at the Old Billingsgate fish market in London. They perform “Giving It All Away”, “Squeeze Box”, “Substitute”, “Pinball Wizard” and “Ring of Fire”. Audience attendees include Liz Hurley, Katie Price, Trinny Woodall and Mark Ronson
2009 – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band cover “My Generation” during their show at University Park, Pennsylvania. You can watch it on YouTube here
2011 – Pete’s literary agent, Ed Victor, begins shopping Pete’s autobiography to publishers. The proposed title is Pete Townshend: Who He?
2016 – The Who play the Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
2022 – The Who play the Woodlands Pavilion in The Woodlands, Texas