Cincinnati

[Dave Elliott <dae@cbcosmos.cb.lucent.com>]

Dave Kipp writes:
>      On a much more tragic topic.  I read some  E-mail references to 
> Cincinnati. I was in late grammar school at the time of the tragedy and not 
> really into the Who yet. As a matter of fact, I can remember someone saying 
> , "Eleven people died at a Who concert, you know, the band that smashes it 
> equipment."  This ignorant statement implied it happened inside the arena 
> and caused by the band.  Even though I've read accounts in all the Who 
> books, (i.e. Marsh), what really caused it?  For those who were bigs fans 
> then, what was your reaction? If eleven people died today at a 
> rock/rap/heavy metal concert today, I could see some politician raising holy 
> hell to ban all future shows. Did the Who become synonymous with violence? 
> How did the band handle it? Was  Pete's comments out of line? This horrible 
> event is documented, but  I'd like to hear a Who fans retrospect on that 
> day.  It's kind of sad that those eleven could be on our list today.

Sorry for responding to this so long after it was orginally posted, but I
got backlogged on Digests and just read it today.

I was at the Cincinnati show in 79, and it turned me from a Who worshipper
into a mere fan.  The events as described by another poster were pretty
accurate, though the entire show was "festival seating" (i.e. general
admission).  The people in charge opened only 1 set of double doors, and did
so only about an hour before the show started.  There were several thousand
people trying to get through those two doors to get positions on the floor
right up front, and what happened was inevitable.

The show had a high energy level, and no announcement was made to the crowd
(or to the band) about what happened.  The scene leaving the arena was eerie
and ominous, though, as we waded through hundreds of shoes which had been
ripped off of people's feet and left lying on the cement outside.

I don't remember the band being blamed much for what happened, but there
certainly was a perception in the media that the crowd was either drunk or
"drug crazed".  Of course, that was not the case.

I was quite miffed at Pete's interview on the subject in 80, and profoundly
disappointed that the tragedy never made it into any of his music.  He
certainly finds the time to write about his personal struggles, and
apparently the Cincinnati tragedy is not among them.

My lesson from all of this was that Pete Townshend, The Who and their music
are not worth dying for.  I also learned that Pete can't really care about
us on a personal level, and even if he could he probably wouldn't.


Dave Elliott