Favorite photos of the WHO. Do we have a thread like this? My fave pic of Pete...

Based on the last series of photos:

(1) when did The Who start using floor wedges, since there are none here, and it is almost the end of 1973?

(2) who started the giant kit with gongs trend and when? Moon? Bonzo? Other?

 

(1)Front-stage wedge monitors (1974)
The advent of true front-stage foldback as we know it today: wedge monitors placed at the front of the stage for vocal foldback appear regularly in 1974, with one on each side of the stage.

Bob Heil on The Who’s use of monitoring:
We actually were the first sound company to use monitors in a major way. Nobody had figured out how to make them work at high levels without feedback. Heil Sound was the first to do that — apparent in that monmonster array John Entwistle is standing beside at Madison Square … there was a mirror of that on Pete’s side!! Peter and Roger hated floor wedges … it hindered their jumping, running, etc. … so they were not in vogue with them, so I devised a way — through out-of-phased microphones, amplifiers, speakers, etc., to get high level from the sides.

(2) Always thought it was Moon. Bonham never played a giant kit, he did have a double bass setup early on but he soon abandoned it.
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Thanks for that.

I shudder to think how loud it must have been in front of those stacks!


As for the giant kits, what about Carl Palmer?

Egos were running wild back then!

 

I was thinking about Palmer too. His kit did get bigger over time, but he didn't start using a double bass setup like Moon until much later. I will say this as far as the gongs go, Palmer probably used his more in one solo than Moon did in his entire career!

 

These shows are indeed great...unfortunately all recordings of them are crappy audience tapes. If ever there was a Holy Grail archival SBD release from the Quad tour (which is one of my favorites despite or because of its issues), this run of show would be at the top of the list.

 

Thought I read that at least one of the Edmonton Sundown shows was recorded professionally.....here's hoping......

 

I've read that too but my understanding is the tapes were/are not in The Who's possession.

 

Duke Ellington's drummer Sonny Greer; I believe he started using this setup in the mid-to-late 1930s.

 

Yowza! No idea the trend went back that far!

So, this Duke Ellington guy, he was a prog. rocker, obviously?!?!

 

43 years ago this week, The Who performed the first of three Christmas shows at Hammersmith Odeon in London, UK, which took place December 21,22, & 23, 1975.

 

And for those who don't know: George Davis (robber) - Wikipedia

 

I wonder what Ritchie Blackmore made of this set design?

 

I saw that photo somewhere when I was a teenager and thought the very same thing.

 

^ Preparing to film the scene in The Kids Are Alright. When John walks down the stairs, pulls the records off the wall. Then machine guns them to pieces.