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Who convention recaps
Hi all,
I got home from London and the Who convention Sunday evening, and although
people have been posting from the convention, I seem to be one of the first
ones to return home.
This has been a magic weekend for me, and I'm sure lots of others would agree
that it was special. A lot of weird things happened, but I will limit myself
to tell about the Who convention in this posting, which of course was the
high point of the weekend.
The doors to the Bottom Line opened around 12:20 pm Saturday. By that time
about a hundred people were waiting eagerly outside. Among those were
Who-fan #1 Irish
Jack, and quite a few of late Keith Moon's family - his mother and daughter
among others. It was great to see Keith Moon's mother. She was having a great
time. She walked around the Bottom Line, her face gleaming, sometimes with
a copy of "The Who in Sweden", that she'd just bought, under her arm. I felt she
was the soul of the convention there for a while.
The Bottom Line is a typical ballroom taking at most 700 people. The only way
I can describe it is through a map so... (be sure you read this with
a monospaced font)
__________________________________
*=stalls / * * * * * * | |
----------------------/ | |
| | * ____________ | |
doors |____bar____| 1st Floor | STAGE |
| | * * | |
---------------------\____ * * * * * | |
| balcony stairs||||| /_____________________|________|
--------------------------/
The first half of the convention (12 - 5:30) wasn't as good as it could have
been. In retrospect, it would have been better had it been set up like a
proper exhibition. As it was now, it seemed like the selling of memorabilia
was the essential. There was some great stuff there, but the only one who was
really selling anything was Olle Lundin. It seemed to me that his book was
the only one that was made by Who fans for Who fans. The other new Who
books
("Teenage Wasteland" and "A Quick Sell Out") were rather pale in comparison.
These other books seemed to have a different "goal-market" - The young mods
and maybe fans of Blur and Oasis and the likes.
To be honest, I really didn't have any money left to buy anything. Vacationing
in London for 4 days was more expensive than I thought. I did, however, end up
buying a convention programme for 3.50 pounds.
During the day they were showing videos on the big screens, mostly the Who
lipsynching in 60s TV-shows like German Beat-Club, Swedish Popside. They
also showed some live material from Cleveland '75 and the Campuchea Concert
'79.
People were having a good time, hanging out, having a pint of lager, talking
and laughing.
Apart from the Moons, other members of the "Who family" showed up. Like
Jon Astley and Andy McPherson, Chris Stamp, John "Wiggy" Wolf, Chris
Charlesworth (although I never saw him).
As the Who cover band "Deja Who" was playing, John Entwistle came in and
walked almost unnoticed across the dance floor. Soon, however, he was
dicovered by most people, and a crowd started gathering around him, all
wanting photo- and autographs. The convention speaker/host had to go up
to the microphone and ask people to act a little less like "fans".
The first half of the convention ended with Deja Who doing many songs from
Live at Leeds that often sounded exactly like the record. Before that, they'd
done a great, passionate version of "Who are You" which really had the crowd
going.
Then most people went for a bite to eat before the evening shows began. Some
of us went to a nearby pub where also quite a few Lenny Kravitz fans hung out,
waiting for the doors to open to the Empire where Lenny was playing.
Luckily for me I didn't have time to drink too many beers, so I remember quite
a lot from the rest of the evening. As we got back to the Bottom Line somewhere
around 8 pm, Simon Townshend had started playing a solo show, and I was still
at the bar, halfway through a Kilkenny, as I heard "You better you bet" being
played in the inner room. Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle had started.
I can't remember exactly what songs were played, but I'm sure somebody will
post a setlist later. They did 30-40 minutes of Quadrophenia which occupied
the centre of the set, sort of like in the old days, a great version of "Naked
Eye" with Roger playing the intro on guitar. I remember "Relay" especially
since Simon messed up towards the end, so they did the ending over again, twice!
The second "reprise" started with Simon singing along with his acoustic -
"Relay things are brewin', relay something's doin'..." before the band joined
in.
The band was in great spirit. Hey, I even saw John smile, quite a lot actually.
he may even have been dancing around slightly! Simon was jumping around like
crazy, and as far as playing the acoustic and singing, Pete wasn't missed at
all. Roger said "It's been some time since we played this size venues", but
generally seemed to like it. He also said something about "coming back home".
I was told before the show that "Roger is having the fits backstage", and
Roger did have a few sarcastic remarks during the concert, like "Matt wants
us to play....", probably referring to Matt Kent of the Who convention.
After (what was to be) the last song, the audience were crying out for
more, but Roger said "Fuck it. The Who don't do encores", and dropped the
microphone onto the floor. Roger and John was then awarded some plaque by the
convention staff (ie the Who fans).
Then the show was over. Some people went home, some with VIP badges went up
on the balcony and the second floor. All I know about that "after-party" was
that I wasn't invited. :-(
Well, fuck it, Who fans don't do official after parties, or.... ? :-)
All in all, a great concert, a great day and a great weekend!
- Svante
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Svante Boerjesson <svante@df.lth.se>, phone (+46) 40 916403
homepage at: http://www.df.lth.se/~svante
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