Who’s too previous to play rock and roll? Apparently, not The Who if this previous week’s live performance at London’s Royal Albert Corridor is something to go by. It featured the 2 core members of the group, 81-year-old lead singer Roger Daltrey and soon-to-be-80-year-old songwriter and lead guitarist Pete Townshend.
Not like different “senior” musicians and teams like Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, who’ve well-oiled touring machines round them, this was extra of a one-off (nicely, two-off, there had been one other live performance a couple of days earlier than) for the revered UK charity Teenage Cancer Trust.
And so it had greater than its share of “bumps,” which solely made the moments of rock and roll heaven that rather more pleasing.
Guess what? These guys can nonetheless rock, sixty years after their first top-ten hit, if a bit tempered by age.
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Roger Daltrey of The Who performs throughout the Teenage Most cancers Belief profit live performance on the Royal Albert Corridor in London, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (James Manning/PA Photographs by way of Getty Photographs)
Daltrey had a couple of of his memorable hand-mic air throws. OK, as a substitute of hurling the microphone within the air vertically for thirty ft, they have been extra sideways for ten.
And Townshend, sure, did his windmill guitar stroke movements. I did depend eight in a row at one time, however for probably the most half it was extra like one or two at a time.
Nothing was tempered about Daltrey’s voice, regardless of issues and surgical procedure up to now. It nonetheless sailed over the rafters on a variety of songs. The excessive notes of the tune “Love Reign O’er Me” have been achieved with blockbuster bombast.
And Townshend’s guitar licks may stand as much as Clapton’s any day. (The latter additionally simply turned 80, by the best way.) Distinctive, trendy, no flubs.
The Who (with backing band) performed a couple of of their very early stand-outs. Particularly ironic: “My Technology.” (Key line: “I hope I die earlier than I get previous.” Effectively . . . perhaps not.)
The rock opera in regards to the deaf, dumb and blind pinball wizard, Tommy, acquired a little bit of a gloss-over, maybe due to Daltrey’s current admission that his imaginative and prescient is starting to go (alongside together with his listening to).
Fox Information Correspondent Greg Palkot at The Who’s live performance in London. (Greg Palkot/Fox Information)
The follow-up, city rock opera Quadrophenia, was handled with a deeper dive, perhaps plugging the ballet model working in London later this yr. It by no means ends.
However what many take into account their most interesting album, Who’s Subsequent, acquired the complete remedy. From “Discount” to “Baba O’Reilly,” from “Behind Blue Eyes” to “Received’t Get Fooled Once more.”
The synthesizer components may need been pre-recorded . . . however the forceful Daltrey-Townshend duet on the important thing “Blue Eyes” line was completely telling:
“And if I swallow something evil, put your finger down my throat. And if I shiver, please give me a blanket. Maintain me heat, let me put on your coat.”
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Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey of the rock band The Who carry out on stage throughout the Teenage Most cancers Belief profit live performance on the Royal Albert Corridor, London, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (Ian West/PA Photographs by way of Getty Photographs)
So . . . the “bumps” famous earlier: Townshend acknowledged that he had had knee-replacement surgical procedure a month in the past. Except for a couple of whinges (“I’m in agony,’ “I can’t breathe”), he appeared to take it in his stride. Really, he took it sitting down via half the songs. (No Woodstock-style leaping scissor kicks for him.) However he admitted that it helped him play higher.
And Daltrey’s earpiece (which, regardless of that spotty listening to, helps him keep “in tune”) was performing up all through the night time. At one level, he stopped the complete band. “I’m not listening to the Who,” he mentioned good-naturedly, “it feels like I’m listening to the Troggs,” referring to an previous ’60s British pop band. Townshend mentioned in an apart ” . . . it was going so nicely.”
In reality, the 2 of them, identified to have had their ups and downs through the years professionally, usually resembled on stage an odd couple, snapping at one another every now and then but in addition heat to one another . . . and the viewers.
Townshend (not essentially identified for his bedside method) at one level thanking the 5,000-plus Royal Albert Corridor crowd for sticking with all of them these years, and calling The Who “geriatrics who fake to be younger.”
The demographics of the gang, I need to admit, have been considerably on the senior aspect. However sufficient little kids have been current and entering into it to provide one hope, if not for the long run, then at the least for the current.
The Who pose for a press name, July 1971, Surrey, United Kingdom: John Entwistle, Keith Moon, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey. (Michael Putland/Getty Photographs)
For we certainly are seeing, unhappy to say, the tail finish performances of the second nice technology of rock and rollers. After Chuck, Little Richard and Elvis, got here The Beatles, The Stones, Dylan . . . and, sure, The Who.
That’s why it’s extra than simply enjoyable; it’s an honor to catch these last farewells.
Together with their punchier later hits like You Higher You Guess and Who’re You, The Who performed a music Townshend mentioned they’d by no means performed in live performance earlier than. Unimaginable, because it was recorded 54 years in the past. Amid excessive crucial acclaim.
Referred to as “The Tune is Over” (additionally from the Who’s Subsequent album), it was nothing lower than extraordinary. And applicable.
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As Townshend labored via the riffs and features. And Daltrey was actually utterly slumped over and supported by the standing mic, as if he may go no additional, it ended with them singing:
“The music is over, the music is over. Excepting one word, pure and simple, enjoying so free, like a breath rippling by.”
Besides, I take exception. The music, hopefully, just isn’t “over” . . . but.
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