Lambert and Stamp decided instead to manage the group, which quickly rose to prominence in first England and eventually America on the backs of several key elements, not least of which were brilliant songs, written by Townshend, a group with four very distinct personalities, and a powerful stage show, culminating in Townshend and Moon “destroying” their equipment. Later in 1964, The Who were discovered by wannabe filmmakers turned rock impresarios Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, when they stumbled into London’s Railway Hotel wanting to making a documentary about the then-burgeoning London “mod” scene, coming across one of the mods’ favorite bands, The Who. What he couldn’t know is that he had stumbled into the rock and roll group, one of the most influential bands of the 1960s and 1970s. Determined to escape his lower-middle class existence in the west London district of Acton, Daltrey was driven to be the lead singer of a rock and roll group. Kibblewhite, who told him on his 15th birthday that “you’ll never make anything of your life, Daltrey,” after expelling him for truancy. He would leave the band in 1964, and be replaced by the now legendary Keith Moon, then age 18.Īll during this time, Daltrey was driven by a statement from his headmaster at Acton County Grammar School, Mr. During that period, Doug Sandom, a decade older than the rest of the members of the Detours, served as their drummer. A few months later, guitarist Pete Townshend would join. The band that would become The Who began in 1961 as the Detours, when Roger Daltrey, then age 17, talked bassist John Entwistle into joining his group. “Today is one of their better days.”īut we’re getting ahead of ourselves. The bigwig’s first sight of his big new signing was of the lead vocalist knocking the lead guitarist out cold. To make matters only slightly worse, our publicist Keith Altham chose that moment to bring the American managing director from our newly signed record company onto the sound stage. And then he fell down hard, cracking his head on the stage. Pete went up and backward like he’d been poleaxed. He’d called me a little fucker, after all.įinally, after almost ten years of Peaceful Perce, after another left hook narrowly dodged, I replied with an uppercut to the jaw. I still hadn’t retaliated, but I was beginning to feel quite put out. It whistled past my ear and glanced off my shoulder, very nearly bringing a much earlier end to The Who. Next thing I knew, he’d swung a twenty-four-pound Les Paul guitar at me. “I’ll kill the little fucker.” They let me go. The roadies knew what I was capable of so they sprang into action and held me back. This is not the way to talk to me, but I still backed off. “You’ll do what you’re fucking well told,” he sneered. Pete, fueled by the best part of a bottle of brandy, went off like a firecracker. The Who battled it out right in public.ĭaltrey punctuated a few of those arguments with his fists – most notoriously, an October 1973 argument with The Who’s songwriter, guitarist, and resident genius Pete Townshend, while shooting a promotional film clip during a rehearsal for the British leg of the world tour to promote their then-new album Quadrophenia: The Stones were scruffier by far, but their very essence was never losing their cool. The Beatles might have argued among themselves as much as the Who, but they were discreet. If the music world could be compared to a neighborhood, then the Who were the one family in every block who simply cannot keep their squabbles private, who make a mess that dangles out of the windows and into the yard and who unashamedly tangle with one another publicly in ways that mortify the neighbors. As Dave Marsh wrote in Before I Get Old, his excellent 1983 history of the band, completed immediately after their “first” farewell tour: But he does discuss some of the many squabbles that involved him, his band mates, and his managers.
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