Who fans '65-'67

[cuda340@tribeca.ios.com (Tesco Vee)]

        A guy named Dennis (SoundCity@aol.com) answered my question
privately about fans in 65-67 with this very interesting personal account,
posted here with his permission:

>Yes, Virginia, there are Who old timers.
>Stacy,
>I ran across your post in mpath's Who thing. It made me feel like I should be
>a grandfather relaying sound advice to a youngster.
>I, sometimes, feel confused when thinking about persons who didn't discover
>The Who till the 1970's. What are they thinking? What's their point of
>reference? Most of all, I think about how much they missed from 1965-70
>because they were too young to have been there.
>I saw The Who on ABC's "Shindig" on a Thursday night in October, 1965 and it
>radically altered my previously shy personality, not to mention my musical
>directions. I took up drums because of Keith Moon. Not the going-down-hill
>Keith of the '70's, but the 18-year-old drumstick dynamo of 1965.
>There were two bands ( aside from the early Stones) that intrigued me in
>1965. Both were British. They were The Yardbirds and The Who. Their
>attraction was that they both dripped a sense of "I'm really hip and cool, so
>don't fuck with me".
>That sort of image strikes quite an impression on a 16-year-old farm boy in
>California.
>My introduction to The Who was a one-page story in Hit Parader magazine that
>I was paging through in my uncle's grocery store in the spring of 1965. I
>didn't buy the magazine, but the name "Who" stuck with me. That led to my
>anticipation when the October what- ever -week -it- was issue of TV Guide
>listed The Who as performers on Shindig's telecast of that summer's Richmond
>Jazz and Blues Festival (a British annual event).
>The next thing I knew, I was applying for membership in The Who Official Fan
>Club Of England. My goodies arrived in the spring of 1966: a
>personally-autographed 8x10 black and white studio photo of the band, which I
>still have framed, and the first in a monthly series of newsletters. I've
>kept everything. Including  an autographed photo of Roger (1966) I won for
>coming in second in a contest to design new stage clothing for him, as well
>as the band's official Christmas card sent to club members at the end of 1967
>which featured a cover drawing of an angel by Roger.
>
>I don't know, I could go on and on like some old grandfather, but you get the
>picture. I was almost as excited by the Sex Pistols for much the same
>reasons, and I really appreciate Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and
>Alice In Chains for carrying on after the fact. Those five bands nailed it
>down flat.
>The last correspondence from The Who Fan Club of England I have in my file is
>from early 1970, in which their secretary admits to being overwhelmed by  the
>volume of mail due to "Tommy" and the Woodstock festival. I guess they gave
>up soon after that, thinking their job was done.
>Still, those first five years were the most precious, and I wish you could
>have been there.