Re: Hearing and the Who

[Litgo@aol.com]

Gary M., re:

>Can PT not play loud because it hurts his
>ears to do so? Because he can't hear well enough to play solos? Because more
>volume simply will reduce his hearing further - although by all accounts he
>seems to hear people fine in normal conversation? Why can he hear a Bolton
>fine on stage, or at least well enough to play and sing in time with him,
>but not play as loud himself with a remote kind of set up, eg., with his
>Hiwatts on the opposite side of the stage and a monitor right in front of
>him to control the volume further? 

I would guess that his hearing has gotten better since he's begun to take
care of it. I'm sure he doesn't want to go back to those problems, lip
reading and all. Having tinnitus, he had (or has; I don't know about now)
permanent ringing. Most of us having seen the Who, or at least a loud concert
in general, know what this is like for limited periods of time. I know I do.
Having been in bands in high school and part of college, I had a hard time
hearing anything the next day after playing. 

BTW, he was a major supporter in the research of using classical music in
theraputical applications -- for hearing restoration, and for therapy for
autistic children. 

As far as the onstage setup in '89, he didn't listen to what Bolton was
playing. All he needed was the keyboards, probably bass, drums (quietly) and
vocals. All Steve Bolton was doing was the lead parts or mimicking Pete's
rythym parts. Also, given the omnidirectional nature of bass frequencies, he
probably could feel Entwistle's bass, as well as the bass drum, so that
could've been mixed out of the monitors, too.

As I said yesterday, the "sound" you get out of an amp, speaker cabinet and
guitar are all connected. He probably could have had the stacks at the other
end of the stage, but it might not sound the same. I do remember reading a
blurb from Alan Rogan saying they did bring a Hiwatt rig on that tour, "just
in case"......

Litgo