Poll: When did you see The Who live on stage for the first time?

1979. GREAT show. Then again in 82. Then again in 89. All at the Pontiac Silverdome.

 

Quite a few future well known musicians attended these shows. Joey Ramone, Ace Frehley, Max Weinberg....any others?

 

Now I love Rush. I saw them on that Signals tour too (Nashville, TN), but don't you wish you had passed on just one of those shows to see The Who? Just a little bit?

 

September 1971 Kennington Oval cricket ground. A young Tony Blair was there too. Support were The Faces who I had seen at Kingston Poly 2 or 3 weeks before play a terrible drunken show. Big surprise: at the Oval The (sober) Faces were sensational, but The Who were even better. Gibson SG smashed at the end. Who's Next had only just come out... I was surprised that so much of the signature sound came from Entwistle.

Summer 1974 at Charlton Athletic's football ground, The Valley. By this time Pete had adopted a white boiler suit and a whole regiment of numbered sunburst Gibsons. Fine show - later televised.

October 1975 Leicester Granby Halls. Support from the excellent Steve Gibbons Band. I later met Steve when I taught his son, Dylan. Steve walked into the classroom and presented me with a sandwich box that his son had forgotten. Green lasers at the show, which was halted after one song (Can't Explain) when Pete and Keith had a punch up on stage. Pete reckoned Keith had made a mistake and told him so. Keith leapt through his kit and started belting Pete. Roger just stood by amused. A squadron of roadies parted the pair and dragged them off. After about 15 minutes the show resumed. The planned Quadrophenia was abandoned and we got a truly ferocious greatest hits set. Atmosphere palpable.

NEC Birmingham 1989. I was angry that Pete just played acoustic guitar behind a glass screen. The spirit and danger had gone with Moonie I thought at the time.

Hyde Park 1996. Orchestral Quadrophenia with Gary Glitter and other guests I don't remember. I was disappointed again.

NEC again circa 2000. It was US election year as Pete had some choice words for George W. Bush. The fire was back - great show.

Birmingham NIA 2002 (?) post Entwistle. Support were Kasabian playing their first show in a big hall. They were terrified and terrible. Another good show from the 'oo. Red strat.

Glastonbury 2007. Festival closer Sunday night. We were absolutely exhausted and hung over after 4 days of wading through a foot or more of mud. Probably a better show than I remember. I drove 150 miles home afterwards. I don'y know how I stayed awake.

 

Al Kooper, playing with his band Blues Project.

 

My first show was '96 in Philly. I loved Quadrophenia. Was too young to see them in '82 (Philly at old JFK Stadium). Saw them in '97, '00, and '06. I got tickets for the concert in '08 in Philly, but did not go. Went and saw the Fightn' Phils in game 4 of the World Series. Don't regret it one bit. I have seen more Who shows than I see the Phils in the World Series.

 

October 1976

As many have written- incredibly powerful and dynamic show with master musicians Who sounded like a fine tuned Rock and Roll Army.

Opening Act: Prime time Jefferson Starship with Grace, Paul, Marty et all

What a night! tailgated in the parking lot listening to the Ford-Carter Presidential debate before the show. A 70's night, for sure.


The Who Setlistat Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Phoenix, AZ, USA
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Setlist
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1. I Can't Explain
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2. Substitute
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3. My Wife
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4. Baba O'Riley
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5. Squeeze Box
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6. Behind Blue Eyes
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7. Dreaming From the Waist
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8. Magic Bus
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9. Amazing Journey
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10. Sparks
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11. The Acid Queen
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12. Fiddle About
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13. Pinball Wizard
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14. I'm Free
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15. Tommy's Holiday Camp
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16. We're Not Gonna Take It
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17. Summertime Blues
    (Eddie Cochran cover)
    Play Video
18. My Generation
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19. Join Together
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20. My Generation Blues
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21. Won't Get Fooled Again

 

Umm...no. Obviously had many chances after '82 to see The Who, but never really wanted to.
And I say that without any issue with them continuing on. Seriously.

 

First say them at the Capitol Center in Largo (not landover!) MD in 1976. Even though I knew I was going to see some of the legends of rock and roll I had no idea what I was walking into. Wow!

I used to work with a guy who saw them and The Beatles back in 1963 in London. He said they were both good but nowhere near as good as they were going to be. Yet.

 

1969. -- Electric Factory. Philly.

 

September 1982 at the old Cap Center in Maryland!

 

I think that's the worst Who concert I ever saw. I had hyped it up to the people in my office and got a group of about ten to go. Townshend seemed to be going through the motions, Jones seemed to know his time was up, Daltrey seemed very angry and the Ox was ...the Ox. The playing of the songs that had been so electrifying in earlier Moon shows, just kind of sat there. A disturbing evening for this fanatic. I also lost all credibility in my office!

 

Me too! Hershey, PA. It was one of their first shows back. The TWO

 

I saw one of their last shows. December 1982 at the Worcester Centrum. I think they may have played a couple more after that.

 

October, 1969, at the Fillmore East. They were the only act. They played some album cuts, took a short intermission and played pretty much all of the Tommy album, took a short break and played their radio hits to finish the show. This was my first concert and I was there with my first love (sigh). I remember that Townsend had a problem mid song with a pedal (fuzz box) and he started kicking it in a rage until a tech ran out and replaced it with one that worked.

 

The Isle of Wight Festival - the other one - in August 1969. Pete flailing around in his white boiler suit. I remember being particularly impressed at the fluency of his guitar playing in the intro to Tommy's Holiday Camp!

That was the first time I'd actually heard Tommy.

I saw them again in October 1970, at the University of Sussex. We were perfectly happy sitting on the floor until a few people at the front stood up, forcing everybody else to do the same. Surprisingly, John Sebastian (!) joined the Who on stage at the end.

The following month, I finally bought Tommy, and was disappointed that it simply didn't have the power I remembered. Maybe it was my Dansette record player...

 

I don't remember this... Must have been another of the shows on the MSG stand. But I was at one of them, and it was my first evening with the 'OO. Yep, June '74, MSG, NYCNY. I was all of 15. Man, am I old...

 

I was at one of the Shea shows... Johansen opened there too. What, were you late or something?

 

Well, I could be a few years off . . maybe the harness thing was '76? Fuzzy memories

 

December 1976, Pontiac Silverdome

 

Could be either way. Hey, I couldn't tell you what I had for dinner on Friday, so no worries!

 

Hours long journey up to Chicago through a snowstorm to see their "farewell" tour. Hours (I am not exaggerating) for 15k people to exit on just TWO lanes of traffic Hours driving back...sun was rising, literally.

WORTH IT!!! I had EXTREMELY high expectations, and they delivered for sure. Jeez, Entwistle was totally amazing, just standing there sipping Jack with his fingers flying. I really liked when he sang "The Quiet One" and really liked "Eminence Front" and the giant flash pots they set off during..."Baba O'Riley" (????). Could feel the heat way up in our seats.

 

#%!£# 7 train! Actually no I didn't attend but didn't realize Johansen was on the bill. I'm a lifelong Clash and Who fan and can't remember why I didn't at least try to get tickets. I managed to miss the Clash each time they toured.

 

Never saw The Who but saw Entwistle with Ringo.