The Who close their TCT series with what could be the last live performance of their long career, last night in Londonas The Evening Standard reports.
Below the new videos
In front of such an auspicious 6,000 crowd, Townshend, 79, appeared to be having a senior moment early on, after windmilling at his guitar like a young ’un during a giddy run of bangers such as I Can’t Explain, Substitute, Who Are You and The Kids Are Alright.
Despite having played a first show here only last Thursday, he seemed blindsided by the two banks of seating behind him, either side of the Royal Albert’s famous church organ.
“Are those real people up there,” he wondered, gathering himself for an ironic chuckle, “or are they cardboard cut-outs? Did they pay extra to get such a shitty view?”
“They should definitely pay extra to look at my arse,” sniffed Daltrey.
After thanking the crowd for coming to the gig in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust, and telling them “we couldn’t do it without you, well we could, but we wouldn’t raise much money”, the band continue to dig into their goldmine singles.
They follow it up with another of their classic early singles, Substitute, before reaching for 1978’s Who Are You?, with the crowd chanting along with its “who, who, who, who” chorus.
First comes The Kids Are Alright, followed by The Who Sell Out cut I Can See For Miles, which Daltrey dedicates to a 19-year-old girl he visited in hospital, who recently died, telling the audience “early diagnosis is everything”.
At times, The Who’s unstoppable creative core bantered like an octogenarian double act, The Pete & Rog Show, and they made no effort to hide their age and infirmities. Townshend, in charcoal-grey oldster’s suit and black skull cap, revealed that he’d had a knee replaced a month ago, and, taking a seat to play an acoustic guitar, admitted that he struggled to breathe when standing too long.
Even with their firebrand guitarist in a sitting position, however, the seven-man line-up did serious damage: Pete’s “breather” took in a killer one-two of The Seeker, followed by Behind Blue Eyes – his Who songwriting at its questing best, rendered with full-blooded groove and feeling.
Below the full 27 March concert video
In yellow pyjamas and peroxide thatch, drummer Zak Starkey powered them onwards with more than just Starr quality – Ringo’s son has satisfactorily stood in for the late Keith Moon for some three decades now, and, himself now 59, shows no sign of flagging zeal. Now that it’s confirmed he won’t be resuming his *other gig this summer, with Oasis, does that mean The Who may yet tour again?
As they rolled on into the more free-flowing style of rock-opera tunes like 5:15, Love, Reign O’er Me, See Me, Feel Me/Listening To You and the synth-burbling Baba O’Riley, Daltrey, still hanging onto his bubble curls and tinted lenses, brought the house down, his voice soaring, unbelievably unspoiled by time’s onward march.
Townshend self-effacingly muttered about how “we continue on into the fucking geriatric phase, just by not dying”, but this most noncompliant group from the classic-rock era, who of course towards the end sang My Generation’s famous line, “I hope I die before I get old”, were here making an exemplary fist of raging against the dying of the light.
They scaled back the virtuoso soloing, and simply delivered a bunch of their best songs, concisely, like a rapid-fire living jukebox, with bonus comic asides. At the end, a sketchily rehearsed The Song Is Over fell apart midway through and, as they exited, Townshend jokingly motioned a rollercoaster’s up-and-down passage. For the rest of us, it was two hours of unrelenting joy.
Tickets for the italian dates are still widely available
The legendary British band will bring their unmistakable sound to Padua and Milan in July
Sunday 20 July – Padua (Padova), Stadio Euganeo
Tuesday 22 July – Milan, SNAI San Siro Racecourse
Mastercard cardholders will have priority access to tickets starting at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, 3rd February. Find out more at www.priceless.com/music.
Roger Daltrey UK Tour Dates
Sunday 20 April Brighton Dome
Monday 21 April London – The Palladium
Wednesday 23 April Southend-on-Sea – The Cliffs Pavilion
Thursday 24 April Wolverhampton – University of Wolverhampton at The Halls
Saturday 26 April Dundee – Caird Hall
Monday 28 April Glasgow – SEC Armadillo
Wednesday 30 April Edinburgh – The Usher Hall
Thursday 1 May Gateshead – The Glasshouse – Sage 1
Sunday 4 May Manchester Bridgewater Hall
Tuesday 8 July Llangollen International Eisteddfod
Wednesday 30 July TK Maxx presents Live at the Piece Hall, Halifax
Friday 1 August Audley End, Saffron Walden, Essex
Friday 8 August Margate Summer Series at Dreamland
Roger Daltrey: The Who's next tour will be without orchestra, just us louder than ever.
In a new interview with the Press Association, the 80-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer confirmed that The Who has “a couple of things planned for next year.” This matches up with recent comments from his bandmate Pete Townshend, who told U.K. newspaper The Telegraph that the band had “accepted an offer from Live Nation to do something in America.”
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Since 2019, all of The Who’s tours have featured the band playing arenas with the accompaniment of an orchestra. Daltrey told the Press Association that he wants the group’s next trek to be a more stripped-down affair. He also suggested that he’d like to see The Who get more improvisational during shows, like the band did in its early days.
“ We took it to the pinnacle, which was kind of the last tour, which was with an orchestra,” Roger noted. “The only place we can go now is back to the beginning, when we were raw, small and raw, and bring back the jamming, because we used to do a lot of that.”
He added, “ L et’s give the audience what we feel like giving them, and dig in and maybe we’ll find something else. It maybe needs to get a bit more dangerous.”
“I met with Roger for lunch a couple of weeks ago,” Townshend revealed in the interview, striking an optimistic tone about the band’s future. “We’re in good form. We love each other. We’re both getting a bit creaky, but we will definitely do something different next year.”
Townshend suggested the band is leaning toward live shows rather than new music. “The album side of it…Roger’s not keen,” Townshend admitted, while also hinting at his personal hope to record new material, jokingly adding that he might “bully” Daltrey into a studio session.
However, for now, the band appears more interested in returning to its rock ‘n’ roll roots onstage. “The last big tours that we’ve done have been with a full orchestra, which was glorious, but we’re now eager to make a noise and make a mess and make mistakes,” Townshend added.
In a recent video interview with the Toronto Sun, Townshend clarified his feelings about hitting the road with The Who again, and also discussed whether the band might release another studio album sat some point.
