Roger Daltrey: 'At R'n'R Circus we blown the Rolling Stones away'

"The Who music is for fighting, the Rolling Stones music is for f***ing" - Roger Daltrey argues that his band's music is even more vital than ever

When The Who were extended an invitation to join The Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus, the band were expected to be a loud and exciting, if somewhat slapdash, opening act that would warm up the crowd for the Stones. Instead, fresh off a recent concert tour, The Who came out guns blazing with an enthusiastic take of ‘A Quick One While He’s Away’. (Faroutmagazine)

The Stones hadn’t played live in well over a year, and their own subsequent performance failed to live up to the high standard that The Who set.

In the years that followed, it would be rumoured that The Who were unwittingly responsible for the shelving of the Rock and Roll Circus footage due to upstaging the Stones at their own show. It was more likely that the Stones were more upset at their own performance and quickly turned a page from that incarnation of the band once Brian Jones died in 1969 than it was The Who beating them at their own game, but when footage eventually did surface of ‘A Quick One While He’s Away’, it became obvious that The Who were the best performers that day.

Reflecting on  the Who songs he says, despite the inexorable passage of time, "the band's music is still more vital than ever."

"Look, I'm 78 now, and I can still sing this shit and Pete can still play it. I don't think you can ever quit this business when you're in a band like the Who, because our music has to have energy in it. We're a rock band, we're not a rock and roll band like Rod Stewart, the Faces, the Rolling Stones. It's not music to fuck. Ours is music for fighting and if that level of fighting ever gets lost - that still exists between Pete and me - then I'll stop. Because I'd fool my audience. "

In celebration of his 76th birthday  Daltrey performed onboard the Rock Legends Cruise VIII, which also welcomed sets from the likes of Roger Hodgson, Nancy Wilson and more across five days.(NME)