“AVOID THE OLD WAYS!”
IT is meant to be an auspicious night for The Who. Gathered on stage at New York’s cavernous Madison Square Garden, the band are playing the biggest show so far of the most significant Who tour this century. Alas, not for the last time this evening, things aren’t quite going according to plan. The intended tour debut of “I Can See For Miles” grinds to a halt after only a few bars, as rhythm guitarist Simon Townshend inexplicably finds himself without guitar. Roger Daltrey looks on nonplussed. Pete Townshend, meanwhile, is pointing meaningfully at Daltrey behind his back, and miming one of Stan Laurel’s head-scratching meltdowns. “Here, Roger,” he asks innocently. “Have you seen Stan & Ollie?”
But perhaps such hiccups are only to be expected, even for staunch tour veterans such as The Who. The band are only a handful of shows into their current Moving On! tour – their first ever with an orchestra – and on this chilly May night in Manhattan, their ambitions are clearly being put to the test. After a 30-minute opening salvo drawn from Tommy, Townshend demonstrates a keen if humorous sense of his band’s worth. This storied venue is, as signs declare, the band’s “second home”; the place they’ve played more than anywhere else in the world, usually for multiple nights. “What an occasion,” Townshend deadpans. “The first of… oh, one show at Madison Square Garden. And almost completely sold out.”
“I’VE ALWAYS SEEN PETE’S MUSIC AS CLASSICAL”
ROGER DALTREY
Such mock-indignation aside, Townshend, Daltrey and their accomplices show conspicuously more enthusiasm for the surprising and wide-ranging show itself. There are many highlights: a punchy “Who Are You”, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” reconfigured as a Dylanesque acoustic protest song, a towering “Love Reign O’er Me” – with the 52-piece orchestra valiantly matching Daltrey’s towering vocal. There is another unplanned incident that threatens to derail the show, when Daltrey tells the audience that their cannabis smoke had ruined his night.
“All the ones smoking grass down in the front there, I’m totally allergic to it,” the singer says. When the audience laugh, possibly mistaking the comments for a joke, Daltrey snarls, “I’m not kidding. Whoever it is down there, you fucked my night. I’m allergic to that shit and my voice just goes.” Townshend offers up a more conciliatory solution: “Eat it!”
Tonight’s show itself is broken down into three sections that roughly work out as: Tommy with orchestra, greatest hits, Quadrophenia with orchestra. In some respects, this tripartite set goes some way to acknowledging the exceptional and complex relationship Townshend and Daltrey have with their back catalogue – and throws forward, too, to the latest plans for their indefatigable band. For the last few years, they have been involved in an ongoing process of reimagining their music, beginning with Townshend’s symphonic rescoring of Quadrophenia in 2015.
But nothing is ever straightforward as far as The Who are concerned. First, there is Tommy Orchestral to consider, then Moving On!, which includes a sole UK date at Wembley Stadium – their biggest British show since they last headlined the old Stadium in 1979 – and also the small matter of their first new studio album since 2006’s Endless Wire as well as a number of archival projects in various stages of completion. The 50th anniversary of Tommy and the group’s appearance at Woodstock also loom large.
Two days after the Madison Square Garden show, Daltrey meets Uncut to dig deep into the weird logistics of The
