The new title describes The Who's complete history as a live force, from pre-band endeavours in 1962-63 all the way to summer 2023, as told by more than 500 fans. These are the poignant and often hilarious eye-witness accounts of the emergence of one of the world's greatest-ever rock bands – from Keith Moon's teenage debut in the Beachcombers and the early days of The Detours, who turned into The Who, then The High Numbers, then The Who again.
The book documents the band's rise from pub and club dates to landmark performances at Monterey, Woodstock, the famous university gig that led to Live At Leeds, and on to storied shows at Charlton Athletic FC, Live Aid, Hyde Park and beyond. Heartwarming anecdotes are accompanied by rare photographs, posters, date sheets, fan shots and press clippings.
For this special evening, Houghton will be in conversation with Sound Lounge patron, music journalist and Rolling Stones author Paul Sexton. The interview will be illustrated with classic and lesser-known music by The Who on record and in some unforgettable video highlights, and signed copies of This Guitar Has Seconds To Live will be on sale. Is this a night not to miss for Who fans and nostalgia buffs? You better you bet!
The Book is not in the stores, only purchase by Amazon or others. By Edoardo Genzolini and Foreword by Joel Selvin.
The majority of the 1968 photos are from the lens of Douglas Kent Hall, who shot the band both onstage and in more casual backstage/hotel settings. An especially informative essay on the band’s “years between” lead into the 1976 shows, by which time the band had ascended into the highest level of rock bands in terms of popularity and acclaim.
Generally considered as two marginal years in the Who’s career, they are only apparently so. These two years represent a screen grab of the band taken in its purest form: live, and harder than ever, right before and right after the huge success the Who struggled to live with in the years between.
Winterland was the perfect setting to see the band live in the city that welcomed them as a second home, San Francisco. At the Who’s first Winterland show in February 1968, just a few hundred hippies turn up.
In March 1976, the venue is crammed to capacity—5,000 tickets are sold. Still, as the Examiner noted, “The Who could have sold eight times as many,” since 43,000 requests for tickets were sent! This all-access look at those two shows is a glimpse of what it was like to see the Who at Bill Graham’s legendary concert venue, and features firsthand accounts and previously unpublished photos by fans at the shows, as well as details the band behind the scenes and onstage.
The RpmOnline review: This super glossy 250-plus-page hardback book documents The Who at Winterland in fabulous technicolour.
There are few words in what is pretty much a pictorial record of the late 60s and mid-70s Who and some of these pictures captured are incredible. On and off stage There is no denying the Who were a very visual band full of larger-than-life characters who knew from very early on the power of what you looked like as much as what you sounded like.
In the opening pages strewn with some cool backstage pics, there are transcripts of long-lost interviews with people like Buck Munger who was Sunn Amps director.
Also recollections from people who were there who commented on just how life-changing it was being at the front of a stage when The Who started to play and the volume they attacked the songs with. All Fascinating stuff from an era of music and performance that is being lost or forgotten.
