Being born in 1961 and having a rock music loving sister four years my senior, I grew up listening and loving the holy trinity of ‘British Invasion’ music; The Beatles, Rolling Stones and The Who. By age fourteen, The Who was easily my favorite of the three. I even solo sang “Pinball Wizard” at an eighth grade chorus’ concert. Add to this, in the summer of 1975, I saw the rock opera movie “Tommy” three times.
My close high school friends were Who nuts too. Albums like “Tommy”, “Who’s Next” and “Quadrophenia” were constantly on our turntables. My senior year in high school started off great as we enjoyed the just released “Who Are You” album. However, three weeks later the world of Who fans crashed with the accidental drug overdose death of drummer Keith Moon at the age of thirty two. Despite Moon the Loon’s passing, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle planned to soldier on and tour with former Small Faces drummer Kenny Jones.
Fast forward to the fall of 1979 when I was a freshman in college and The Who announced a U.S. concert tour. For the Chicago date there was no camping out all night for tickets as fans had to send in money orders and hope to be one of those who scored seats. Those not selected in the lottery got their money orders sent back. My friend Frank Bombino and I sent in for a pair of tickets and landed seats on the lower level of the Amphitheatre, about twelve rows to the side of the stage. I was pumped. Earlier that summer, I saw “The Kids Are Alright” movie which showed lots of Who concert footage dating from the early 60’s into 1978 but now I was going to see the band live. I could not wait for Saturday December 8th!!!
Besides the mail-in lottery for tickets, this Chicago Who concert had an extra twist. After the show easily sold out, plans were put in place for a closed circuit simulcast of the whole show in selected movie theatres in Chicago and the outlying suburbs. At this time, the only events put on closed circuit like this were heavyweight boxing matches, Evel Knievel’s Snake River Canyon jump and in the early 70’s some Chicago Blackhawk play-off games. My dad took me to a few of those hockey game closed circuit casts. This was pretty much ‘pay per view’ before pay per view became a home TV operation. Once The Who’s concert-cast from the Amphitheatre was over, those who went to theatres were also shown the movie “Tommy.” Several of my friends got tickets for the theatres so they could catch The Who live, albeit on a big screen.
Five days before the Chicago concert, the tragedy in Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum made national news. Eleven fans died and twenty eight others were injured in what amounted to a stampede of people rushing to get into the arena. Cincinnati’s show featured festival seating or a ‘first come, first serve’ situation and when not enough doors were opened to accommodate the crowd, tragic consequences took place. Concern for the same thing happening in Chicago was alleviated by the fact that every one of the twelve thousand or so seats was reserved. Still, on the night of the show officials made sure every possible gate and door for entry was opened to prevent any crowd problems.
That night Frank and I took our seats in the mezzanine level which had a perfect side view of the stage maybe forty feet from the band. We could also see part of the backstage area where a large video screen was set up to show folks hanging there what was being broadcast to the movie theatres. This was a major event and years later I read it was one of Who manager Bill Curbishly’s proudest moments. A chance to play one show but get it out to more than just the twelve thousand fans in the arena was a major happening. WLUP FM 97.9, “The Loop” was the rock station presenting this show and well known air personality Mitch Michaels was the emcee for the night. By the way Mitch’s auto biography “Doin the Cruise” shares cool inside details on how this simulcast was pitched to the band and promoted by The Loop.
There was no opening act (no need for these guys) and as the house lights went dark thousands of fans screamed “Whoo!” Whooo”” From our vantage point, Frank and I could see the foursome make their way to the stage stairs before most others did and they got in position to kick the night off. Roger Daltrey stood in his spot at center stage, leaned his torso back and waited for Pete Townshend to open with the chords to “Substitute” and the concert was up and running. Daltrey swung his microphone cord hard and fast as they segued into “Can’t Explain” and as that song ended he introduced the next one by yelling “Out here in the fields!” With that they launched into an angry stomp of “Baba O’Riley.” Name me any band that can match those three songs to start a show. And good luck with that.
For the first time on a tour, The Who featured a keyboard player, John ‘Rabbit’ Bundrick and playing on “Baba” was when we first heard and saw him. Townshend started up his trademark windmill swipes at his Fender telecaster and the place went bananas. Entwistle’s bass thundered and Kenny Jones slammed away at his drums. A couple of songs later Pete introduced a three piece brass section (saxophone, trombone and trumpet) which enabled the group to play songs from “Quadrophenia” like “5:15” along with an intense version of “Music Must Change” from “Who Are You.” We also heard classics like “Behind Blue Eyes”, “My Generation”, “I Can See for Miles” and “Long Live Rock.” Bassist John “The Ox” Entwistle announced instead of playing his song “Boris the Spider” they were going to do “My Wife” which thanks to an extended jam, was a huge hit with the fans.
During short breaks between songs, Who members took time to say hi to the fans watching the show in the movie theatres. Daltrey, Townsend and Entwistle would give a shout out to a couple of locales each but they did a good job of focusing on the crowd in the Amphitheatre while camera operators kept positioning themselves to get the best shots of the band in action. At one point I saw Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen standing behind a stack of amps and handing Townshend guitars between songs. Pete did a little in between song clowning acting as if the closed circuit was broadcast to the world and saying hi to family and friends back in England, including an uncle who was “having his balls operated on.”
“Won’t get Fooled Again” closed the band’s set which included a large flashpot stage explosion as Daltrey belted out his last scream of that classic. “Won’t Get Fooled Again” live is one of those chaotic blow-outs with all players going full bore crazy. The foursome came out for an extended encore with highlights being the brass backed “The Real Me” and a cover of Martha and the Vandellas “Dancing in the Street”. Then Townshend led a medley of snippets that included “Dance it Away”, “Young Man Blues”, “I’m a Man” and a yet to be released “How Can You Do It Alone.” The Who rocked out a total of twenty eight songs and as the four members stood together at the front of the stage for a final bow, Roger Daltrey announced, “We had a great time tonight, we REALLY did!” I’m sure he often says this to but the guys sure looked like they were having a blast doing this show. I’ve seen The Who many times since but this virgin experience remains my favorite.
The good news is because of the simulcast into movie theatres, tech workers were smart enough to tap into that video feed and record the entire concert. The photos from this blog are still shots from that simulcast. The 12-8-79 show is one of the easiest to find video ‘bootlegs’ and most of the concert can be watched on You Tube. Fans of The Who will love seeing the band looking so young and vibrant as they played these classic songs with such passion. And while it’s great to watch on video, for lucky fans like me, there was nothing like seeing it in person. Long live rock!
NEXT WEEK’S BLOG- New ideas for an old game.