WALKING up 8th Avenue in Midtown in January 2019, I saw a Gray Line bus tricked out with an ad publicizing The Who’s 2019 tour by the iconic group that I call The Two, since Keith Moon and John Entwistle have both been playing to a heavenly crowd for many years. In 2019 and 2020, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend, along with longtime associates Simon Townshend (Pete’s brother), Zak Starkey (Ringo’s son) and Billy Nichols, planned a worldwide two-year tour backed by a symphony orchestra to promote their album simply titled “Who.” 2019 went smoothly, but the Pandemic ended things the following year. I have seen The Who twice, both unfortunately after Moon’s death, at Madison Square Garden in 1979 and Forest Hills in Queens in 2015.
The bus artwork was no doubt meant to conjure memories of the Who’s 1968 LP “Magic Bus–The Who on Tour.” Unfortunately this was a slow period for the band and to compound things, their US label, Decca, titled the album to make fans think they were getting a live album, when this was only a collection of previously released material. The following year, “Tommy” came out and the band never looked back; the Two still play much of it in concert to this day.
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11/8/22
2 comments
“The Two” – funny and apt. To be frank, The Who never put out any more monumental works like Who’s Next, Tommy, Quadrophenia etc after Keith Moon died. Some good tunes but nothing on the same level as during the Moon era.
I was at one of the Who’s MSG shows in ’79 as well. Again at Shea Stadium in ’82.
Just saw them. Still awesome though more sedate.