Re: various stuff

The first time I saw the Who was in Atlanta in 1970 - in June at the old
Municipal Auditorium (now a parking lot).  The oepening band was a local
Atlanta group that ended up playing again as the Who's equipment truck got
lost and went to the wrong facility.  They had half the police department out
looking for it!  The local band played their second set then left.  An
announcer came out and said that the truck had been located and was on its
way to the hall.  People just hung around, threw frisbees, Keith was out in
the lobby talking to folks while Roger tossed frisbees from the stage (a few
years later the crowd would have torched the place!).
       The stuff was finally hauled in and set up, quickly tested and the
announcer came back out and said that the Who were really upset over all of
the delays and promised to do a full blown concert despite the late hour with
surprises.  The Who finally came on at midnight  (I guess they worked out
something with the officials about doing a late show) and blasted through
"Heaven And Hell" and all the other pre-Tommy stuff, then a longer than
normal Tommy was played (so they said), as well as lots of other stuff.  They
walked off stage after two encores at 3:45 AM!!!!!!!  I got home at 4:30 AM
and had to get up at 6AM for driver's education in summer school (this was
between my junor and senor high school years).  Couldn't hear a thing in
class the next day!  It was amazing to say the least.  Even better was the
Who's Next tour in November 1971 at the same hall where they came out and
stated that they felt they still owed Atlanta one for the foul-ups of the
year before!

Saw them three more times with Keith (1973 Quad tour and twice for By
Numbers), then 7 times in 1980 (including the worst Who gig I ever saw - one
of the nights at the LA Sports Arena - they were terrible and they knew it
too!), twice in 1982 and three times in 1989, including the LA Tommy show
(which I really felt was bogged down heavily with the celebrity guest
singers).  That's it.

Ticket scalpers - they rate even lower down on the food chain in my book than
politicians.  Politicians rate even below the Anti-Christ for me, so you now
see where scalpers rate!

Spinal Tap - got to see the original band in an LA club a bit after the movie
was out.  They were doing a benefit show.  I could not tell who was funnier -
them taking the piss out of heavy metal or the heavy metal opening band
trying to be serious!  One highlight was when Nigel Tufnel came to the mike
and  said "we don't ever want to be accused of not being contemporary."  Then
they did a reggae version of "Listen To The Flower People" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  It was a true highlight of my life!!!!


Greg Biggs