1963 – The Detours play at the Oldfield Hotel in Greenford
1964 – The Who play the Glenlyn Ballroom in Forest Hill
1965 – The Who’s first French EP is released featuring an alternate vocal to “Anyway Anyhow Anywhere” that is not released anywhere else officially until 2002. Some versions of the EP also feature the title “Bald Headed Woman” misspelled as “Blad Headed Woman”
1966 – The Who fly into Arlanda Airport, Stockholm. Pete is interviewed for a Swedish magazine at the airport. He tells them he is currently working on a musical called “Summer City”.
1966 – The June 1966 issue of Beat Instrumental features an article titled “Not The New Who” by Alex Hayes
Transcript:
NOT THE NEW WHO
Down at Tiles, with girls being carried here and there in various states of mental and physical detachment, I nabbed Roger Daltrey just after The Who had finished a particularly stage-powdering performance.
“Do you think that there is any reason at all for calling your group ‘The New Who’?” I asked trying hard not to tread on the heads of several prostrate faint-merchants.
“None at all”, he answered through an exuberant smile. “We change all the time but that’s no reason to stick a label on us. ‘The new Who’ sounds like a completely different group”.
“But certainly there have been drastic personal and musical changes”, I went on. “Yes, of course”, said Roger. “Common sense has made us change our music and presentation, now that we are doing straightforward stuff like the Dion numbers. The new approach seems to appeal to a very wide audience instead of just those people who understood us right from the start. Personally, of course, we’ve all changed, but I can’t, and don’t, really want to give many details. Let’s just say that personally, I have grown up a bit. I used to be a real tearaway, I mean I was really widld. Now I have a load of laughs but I’m not as mad as I used to be. Pete’s the only other member of the group I can really comment on. HE’s got much deeper, more intellectual, although he always was on the brainy side. Sometimes, you know, you can walk into a room and say hello to him and he won’t answer, then half an hour later he’ll turn round and say ‘hi’.”
I asked next, whether the Who had ever regretted that they came in on the ‘mod’s group’ promotion bit. Roger commented, “The first few months we played round the London scene the Mod’s were the only ones to really ‘twig’ what we were doing. They bought our records and we were grateful. Since then I think we’ve become a group for all the kids. We don’t regret that we started off as an exclusively ‘mod’ group”.
AUDENCE CHANGES
If the Who have changed, so have the audiences. Said Roger, “They have been getting wilder and wilder. In the early days of feedback and things like that they stood and watched. Now they really go with us. Beat is definitely coming back”.
It’s paid off then. No longer does Pete T. go into 20 minute ear and eye dissolving guitar phrases. No longer does John Entwistle attempt to blow his speakers out of their cabinets and into the audience. Keith Moon well, I don’t suppose there’s much you can do to restrain such a great showman. Roger admits that his multi-tambourine smashing days are over.
Personally I like the Who much more now than I did when I first saw them in their amp-hacking era. Now that they’ve modified their act, they are getting themselves across much better. Their sound is better balanced, cleaner but still exciting and well … “Whio-ish”.
Gearwise there is always something new happening as far as this group is concerned. John Entwistle is after a setup consisting of many 15” speakers and a 200 watt amp. Roger wants to pick up some Swedish PA. He heard it on his last trip and thought it was great. On his forthcoming trip he’ll probably buy himself a setup. Keith will probably need a few new sets of drums if he keeps kicking his kits off rostrums, although just lately he has been pretty well-behaved on the whole.
Recording, that all-important part of group life, is at a standstill for the Who because of “Legal Matters”, but with “Substitute” still well-placed they needn’t be over-worried. Said Roger, “Studios are strange places. We have to force ourselves to be wild because of the cold surroundings. Sometimes it clicks, sometimes it just doesn’t and we all know we are wasting our time. We tried the party atmosphere thing for some of the tracks on our first LP but I don’t think it was very successful.. Now we treat sessions very seriously”.
The big “conflict within the group” image doesn’t seem to apply to the Who anymore. Roger told me that because of the chemical reactions brought about by success and time the four extroverts are getting on together much better. Each understands the other’s problems more fully than before. “‘Substitute’ has made us very happyy indeed”, said Roger. “As we told ‘B.I.’ a couple of months ago, we really thought we were in trouble but then ‘Generation’ broke for us and it’s been progress, progress ever since.”
1967 – The Who were scheduled to appear at the 1er Internationval Festival de Pop Music at the Palais des Sports, Porte de Versailles, Paris 15ème, France. but as Keith was still in hospital recuperating from his hernia operation and with no replacement drummer to take his place the group had to cancel. Appearing were Herbert Leonard, Baschung, The VIPs, The Pretty Things, Ronnie Bird, Jimmy Cliff, Cream, John Walker of the Walker Brothers, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, and The Troggs. Here’s Cream onstage at the event.
1967 – Beat Instrumental features The Who several times:
1) BI’s Chart Fax has “Pictures of Lily” at #18
2) A small article titled “Moon Kit”
3) A ad for Rotosound featuring a photo of The Who
4) An article titled “The Who Want Beatle-size Reputation in U.S.”
1968 – The June 1968 edition of Beat Instrumental has The Who on the cover as well as an article entitled “Who live! by Pete Goodman
1968 – Life magazine carries a feature on “The New Rock” which includes a two page spread on The Who
1968 – Record Mirror carries a photo from Pete’s recent wedding
1969 – The Who play the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis, Missouri with Joe Cocker and The Grease Band opening
1974 – Track Records releases A Quick One/The Who Sell Out as a low-price double album.
1979 – The May 16th Who performance is broadcast in its entirety on French Radio.
1980 – The Who Anthology, a collection of Who songs in sheet music form, is published in the U.K.
1985 – Pete takes his family to see Bruce Springteen at Slane Castle in Ireland. He declares Bruce “the greatest rock ‘n’ roller in the world.” Afterwards he appears live via satellite on the U.S. ABC-TV program Nightline where he also praises Springsteen.
1989 – The book Standing in the Shadows Of Motown: The Life and Music of Legendary Bassist James Jamerson is published. It is accompanied by two cassette tapes containing famous bass players, including John, playing some of Jamerson’s famous riffsIt is now available with 2 CDs rather than tapes, check Amazon for more information here
1990 – Pete is interviewed in this month’s issue of Musician. He disassociates himself from the recently released Join Together boxset: “I didn’t pick the title, cover or collection of songs, and I wouldn’t be hurt if a Who fan told me they weren’t going to buy it.” He also says he is responsible for The Who not extending their 25th Anniversary Tour to Australia and Japan and that Atlantic Records wants his next solo album to be a “formula” album: “I could create a lot of red faces by asking what the formula is.”
1991 – During this month “McEnroe & Cash with The Full Metal Rackets” release the charity single “Rock and Roll” featuring Roger Daltrey. It is done for Rock Aid Armenia
1996 – During this month Geoffrey Giuliano’s unauthorized biography of Pete, Behind Blue Eyes: A Life Of Pete Townshend is published in the U.K. Read a bit about it here
1996 – Sometime this month Listening To You: The Who At The Isle Of Wight, Murray Lerner’s movie of The Who’s concert at the 3rd Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, is released in Europe and Japan on videotape and laserdisc
1999 – The soundtrack to Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is released containing the first official release of a live at the BBC recording of The Who performing “My Generation” in 1965. The soundtrack peaks at #5 in the U.S. charts and #6 in the U.K. charts.
1999 – Early in the month, Roger travels to Los Angeles to shoot an appearance for the Showtime cable television program Rude Awakenings
2001 – John Entwistle plays The Chance in Poughkeepsie, NY
2001 – Rhino Video begins showing the movie Quadrophenia in movie houses in select U.S. cities to promote their forthcoming DVD
2004 – Silverline Records releases From The Front Row…Live! John Entwistle on DVD-Audio
2006 – The first day of rehearsals for The Who’s new set at Bray Studios in Windsor. According to keyboardist John Bundrick, 8 or 9 songs are rehearsed after lunch and a long nostalgic reunion. Rehearsals continue through the 5th. See a short video from the rehearsal studio on YouTube here
2007 – The Who play Liberty Stadium in Swansea
2007 – The Who, or at least Pete and Roger, were to begin the month with an appearance on the BBC TV show Later… with Jools Holland, but they postpone it to save Roger’s voice for that night’s concert. The White Stripes take their place and sign a big sympathy card for Roger.
2010 – The Melvins release their album The Bride Screamed Murder with a cover of “My Generation” and JFA releases Speed of Sound with a cover of “My Wife” Listen to The Melvins on YouTube here and JFA here
2011 – Pete Townshend checks in with the fans on thewho.com: “WHAT I’M DOING EVERYDAY
I am shut away in my home studio at the moment working to restore the demos of Quadrophenia. Bob Pridden is doing surround-sound mixes of selected tracks. Jon Astley is remastering the original vinyl mix, and evaluating his own 1996 remix (the one where you can properly hear Roger’s astonishing vocals). I am sitting in a pile of notes, desk diaries, photos (I took a lot of my own between 1971-1973 when Quadrophenia emerged), original lyrics and writing liner notes…You are going to love it. I hope so, because I am missing this summer shunshine to get it completed on time.”