| However, if Townshend was the intellect
of the band, Keith Moon was its libido. His drive spirited the group,
just as his drumming helped define its sound. (Moon seemed to have understood
the drums as the most important part of the band.) |
| |
| 1962 [RD and JE 17-18; PT 16-17] |
| After playing in a number
of skiffle groups, Entwhistle and Townshend joined Daltrey's trad band,
the Detours. At this point, Daltrey played lead guitar and trombone,
Colin Dawson sang, and Harry Wilson (and later, Doug Sandom) played
drums. Daltrey, having spied Entwhistle with his electric (Fender) bass
on the street, drafted him into the band. Entwhistle brought his friend,
Townshend. They played social clubs, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and company
dances in the suburbs of Acton, Ealing, and Shepherd's Bush. (See McMichael
and Lyons 1997:9.) |
| November. Betty Townshend
(Pete's mother) set up concerts for the Detours through the agents Bob
Druce and Barry Foran (Commercial Entertainments) (McMichael and Lyons). |
| |
| 1963 [RD
and JE 18-19; PT 17-18] |
| The Detours opened for Johnny Kidd and the Pirates where they catch a glimpse of the singer-guitar-bass-drums format. Dawson, however, leaves
the band early in the year. Because one of their steady gigs is at Douglas
House (an American servicemen's club), they hire Gabby Connolly who knew
a number of American country and western songs. He also played bass, which
allowed Entwhistle to play trumpet sometimes. |
| After another gig opening
for Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, they decide to strip down to a quartet
in the same mould. The Douglas House jobs had ended, so they dumped Connolly.
Daltrey moved up to singer, and Townshend became the only guitarist. Notably,
they also dropped their multi-genre approach and became a "beat group." |
| 22 December. Opening
for the Rolling Stones, Townshend notices Keith Richards swinging his
arm. Townshend tries it out himself and exaggerates. |
| |
| 1964 [RD
and JE 19-20; PT 18-19] |
| The Detours continued to open
for a number of British groups including the Rolling Stones, The Hollies,
Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, and the Undertakers. |
| 20 February. After
an appearance on Thank Your Luck Stars (ABC) by Johnny Devlin and
the Detours, the Detours consider changing their name. Tonight at the
Oldfield Hotel, Greenford, West London, they probably appeared for the
first time as the Who. |
| 7 May. Oldfield Hotel,
Greenford, West London. On one of their Thursday night performances at
the Oldfield, Keith Moon asked to sit in for one of the visiting drummers
(Sandom had left the band in April). |
| —— As the Beatles and other
bands are filling the radio with their sounds, Pete Meadon, the band's
first manager, has a plan for a mod band. He renames the band "The High
Numbers" and projects Roger Daltrey as the Face, the others as Tickets. |
| Around this time, the Who
began to develop their characteristic aggressive stage persona. It began
at the Railway Tavern (near Harrow and Weadlestone tube station, Bakerloo
Line). The destruction became part of the act and Townshend, the Ealing
Art College student, made the connection between what he was doing and
Gustave Metzke’s auto-destruction. |
| Townshend:
"I was trying to control the feedback one night. I had a whistle on the
guitar and I couldn’t shake it off, and I was banging the guitar around
and the neck hit the ceiling. And because I look as if I’m doing everything
so positively on the stage, I did it again. And it sounded great. It was
going boing-boing — and it was a big visual thing." (Marsh 1983: 124) |
| Marsh: "In that night’s
second set, Townshend was challenged by some art school friends in the
front ranks of the crowd to bang his axe against the ceiling again. When
he did, the guitar broke, ‘the neck dangling straight up at the ceiling’." (124) |
| Townshend:
There were a few laughs, mainly negative reaction everyone was waiting
for me to kind of sob over my guitar, going, "Yeah, yeah, that’ll
teach you to jump around like a lunatic, that’ll teach you to be flash."
I had no recourse but to completely look as though I meant to do it, so
I smashed the guitar and jumped all over the bits. It gave me a fantastic
buzz. (Marsh 1983: 124) |
| Lambert and Stamp, realizing
how successful the Kinks had been with an independent producer, arrange
for Shel Talmy to produce the Who's first releases. Talmy is sufficiently
impressed to negotiate a contract with Brunswick. |
| November. The Who begin
their "Maximum R and B" show on Tuesdays (7:30 to 11:00 PM)
in the Marquee Club (90 Wardour Street, Soho). They will continue for
23 weeks. |
| |
| 1965 [RD
and JE 20-21; PT 19-20] |
| Townshend:
I used to think the Beatles were very old fashioned, even when they were
new. I remember someone saying to me, 'Don't you like the new Beatles
album?' I said, 'It's full of those fucking Italian love songs.' That's
how it seemed. ... The rules were laid down: you do not sing about fucking
love, you don't do it, you don't sing soppy love songs. There are songs
about "I Can't Reach You," "You're Beyond My Reach"
... "I Exhort You," "I'm Gonna Fuck You," but "We
Are in Love" is a No... "We Are in Love"..., That was just
ruled out. (Oldham 2003: 261) |
| 15 January. "I
Can’t Explain" [RR #8] / "Bald Headed Woman" [Brunswick 05926]. |
| 29 October. "My
Generation" [UK #2] / "Shout and Shimmy" [Brunswick 05944] |
| 20 November. "My Generation" [US #74] / "Out in the Street" [Decca 31877] |
| 3 December. My Generation [Brunswick LAT 8616; UK LP; #5] |
| Side One |
Side Two |
| "Out in
the Street" (Townshend) |
"The Kids
Are Alright" (Townshend) |
| "I Don't
Mind" (Brown) |
"Please,
Please, Please" (Brown, Terry) |
| "The Good's
Gone" (Townshend) |
"It's
Not True" (Townshend) |
| "La La
La Lies" (Townshend) |
"I'm A
Man" (traditional) |
| "Much
Too Much" (Townshend, Pavey, Doonican) |
"A Legal
Matter" (Townshend) |
| "My Generation"
(Townshend) |
"The Ox"
(Townshend, Moon, Entwhistle, Hopkins) |
|
| |
| 1966 [RD
and JE 21-22; PT 20-21] |
| January-February. As
Pete Townshend and the other band members became more savvy about the
recording business, they realized that Shel Talmy was reaping substantial
sums from their recordings. As an independent producer, Talmy financed
the early Who sessions (as well as session for the Kinks and others) rather
than take a flat studio fee. (George Martin, for example, received nothing
above his EMI salary while producing hits for the Beatles.) To compensate
for this risk, he took a percentage of any profits. Some of the artists
he produced in this era had no success, but the Who and the Kinks scored
numerous top-ten hits. |
| The Who management attempted
to break the contract and eventually gave a recording to Robert Stigwood
to release on his new label, Reaction. The first post-Talmy recording
was "Substitute," and the legal maneuvering and simultaneous versions
of this single (on both Reaction and Brunswick!) mark a sordid and complicated
era for the Who. In the end, Talmy won confirmation of his rights to a
percentage of all Who releases until the early 70s, regardless of whether
or not he participated in the recording (which, of course, after 1966
he did not). That the Who even survived this period, given the legal morass
and the seismic cultural shifts this year, is a testament to their determination. |
|
| Essex (the Who's publisher)
offered them £500 each if each of them wrote two songs for the album. |
| Side
One |
Side
Two |
| "Run
Run Run" (Townshend) |
"Don't
Look Away" (Townshend) |
| "Boris
the Spider" (Entwhistle) |
"See
My Way" (Daltrey) |
| "I
Need You" (Moon) |
"So
Sad about Us" (Townshend) |
| "Whiskey
Man" (Entwhistle) |
"A
Quick One, While He's Away" (Townshend) |
| "Heatwave"
(Holland, Dozier, Holland) |
|
| "Cobwebs
and Strange" (Moon) |
|
|
| 1967 [RD
and JE 22-23; PT 21-22] |
| 22 April. "Pictures of Lily" / "Doctor, Doctor" [charts 27 April, UK #4 on 20 May] |
|
| Sources |
| Barnes, Richard. The Who: Maximum R&B. London: Plexus, 1982. |
| Marsh, Dave. Before
I Get Old: The Story of the Who. London: Plexus, 1983. |
| McMichael, Joe and
Jack Lyons. 1997. The Who Concert File. London: Omnibus Press. |
| Neill, Andy and Matt
Kent. Anyway Anyhow Anywhere: The Complete Chronicle of the Who, 1958-1978.
New York: Friedman/Fairfax, 2002. |
| Oldham, Andrew Loog. 2Stoned. London: Vintage, 2003. |
| The Kids Are Alright [Skidmore video PN 1992.8.M87 K5 1979] |
|
