Re: Live Aid, Phil In, Who Fix

[JB2TheWho@aol.com]

Leo ---

Once again, BRAVO for thoughts well collected and prose well wrought!

Your story about the "Green, Yelow, Red" warning-cut-off light crap they
pulled at Live-Aid....

 >were going to "pull the plug on them". He says everyone adhered to it
 >through the day, except when The Who started going long and Pete "sticks
 >his boot into the thing and smashes the lights to bits".  Good ol'
 >Pete!!  
 
That was f#@king brilliant! Speaking of Live Aid, unless I am more senile
that everyones says I am, PETE wrote his brilliant "AFTER THE FIRE"
specifically for the Live Aid gig, but the band couldn't get it "finished" in
time, so it didn't get performed at Live-Aid, although both Pete and Roger
have recopded it, SOLO, of course! (Rog even did a VIDEO, my sole
recollection of which is of Roger dramatically striking a match either just
at the beginning or just at the end of the video..."and then the sound of a
Brixton gun, and the scream of a hungry child..the night is hot, and
nothing's gonna stop..this gangf running wild.."

RE:
 
 JB-2-The Who:  Phil Collins really asked to join The Who after Moon
 died?!  Wow!  I'm not the biggest Collins solo fan, but I respect his
 stint in old Genesis enough to imagine what this would have been like. 
 I also think Collins is one of the best drummers alive, and although no
 one can match Moon, he would have been a damn good Who drummer....

My sentiments, exactly! I actually only picked that one up in the last year
or so, it was related as a story by either Phil or Pete (Phil, I believe).
What impressed the MOST about the whole story was the willingness of this
rather MAJOR rock star to openly tell the world about how profoundly he had
been inspired by THE WHO, to the point where with less than 24 hours to think
it over, he was ready, indeed, really, really ANXIOUS, to give it all up to
become part of rock's greatest creative entity...I mean, just about every
neuvo-rock idol out there has gotten where they are today because of THE WHO,
but how many, especially guys of Phils Collins' stature, would so openly and
happily disclose that fact?

I picked up on that when I attended the 1989 special "TOMMY" performance at
the Universal Ampitheatre with the five guest stars (the same show which was
released as a video...I actually made it onto the film twice, BTW, second
row, right in front of Roger..right at the climax of "listening to you" and
again at the climax of WGFA..Just look for a big, ugly fat f#@ker in a black
leather jacket..Anyway, being that close one had the chance to pick up a lot
on the interplay between THE WHO and the "Guest Stars". - And of them all,
Billy Idol (surprise!!) and PHIL COLLINS were the two that really seemed to
be "into" it - When Phil came out as Uncle Earnie to "fiddle about" in a
losely tied, open bathrobe, with only boxer shorts on and several teeth
blackened out, then spent half of the song making suspicious movements with
one hand which he kent thrust into his shorts...KEITH would have been proud..

Speaking of Keith, and you're so right about KEITH, as Pete said on stage
that night.."We tried...for several years to replace Keith Moon..untill we
realized that he just could not be replaced! --- But he's..he's very much a
"PRESENCE" here, tonight -- In order to sit where we sat, he had to go in a
seperate way, which was a trip what with all these bleedin' Hollywood types
(Whoopi Goldberg, Michael Douglas) trying to saunter in along with us -- ands
we loked real "Shepard's Bush" (as Pete would say) -- anyway, as you made
your way into this one front section (the expensive tix..but that's another
tale), there was this long red carpet, and every ten feet or so was an actor
dressed as one of the TOMMY characters, handing out free champagne --- Well,
just as we got to the door, out of the bushes pops this dead-ringer
look-alike for KEITH (as KEITH looked when playing Uncle Ernie), same cap,
jacket (with sexual devices enclosed, etc) and fervently asked me if I had
any "young ones" back home they needed "tending to" -- a nice touch!

Anyway, to jump to the end of your comment, you really hit the nail on the
head with the following...

 like Keith, often does bizarrely timed rolls.  I still give Keith the
 real award because as odd as Collins patterns sometimes are Keith's are
 positively genius.  You just can't follow that guy!  I also recently
 watched that documentary, "History of Rock and Roll" and as they were
 discussing drummers, Phil Collins came on and said (paraphrased as
 usual), "Another drummer people often forget because his personality is
 so famous is Keith Moon.  People forget about him, but he was absolutely
 brilliant!!"

That "History Of Rock and Roll", BTW, is superb (even though everything about
the packaging, etc., would tend to put one off), and PETE narrates a number
of sections in..I believe it was volume #3...mostly discussing the period
just beforeE THE WHO came onto the scene...The other volume not to be missed
is the one entitles "PUNK", and, OF COURSE, the one about THE WHO (#4 I
think)!

But that's typical of Phil Collins....he really seems to MEAN IT and "feel
it" when he talks about the greatness of THE WHO -- that's probably the 3rd
or 4th instance I've heard of in which he brings up either KEITH or PETE or
THE WHO!

RE: Your clearly well thought-out list of (Use in desperately emergencies
ONLY when WHO music NOT available), was one with which I could find little or
nothing with which to quarrel...A sample citation...

 Non-Who Fix:  Quick list of a few songs that I need to hear every so
 often:  Bold As Love - Hendrix, Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad - Derek &
 Dominoes....

In fact, Leo, I would only add one or two bands.titles....Bearing in mind
that we're talking a level just below that of the who..which would be "so
incredably high" (from your Sgt Pepper Suggestion). Here they are:

1. "GOD SAVE THE QUEEN" and "ANARCHY IN THE U.K." The Brilliant, F#@king SEX
PISTOLS (If for no other reason than the manner in which they so publically
and emphatically paid homage to Pete, right when they were at the top of
their game, destroying disco and saving rock and roll ("rock is dead they
say..LONG LIVE ROCK"), and had the signal honour of begin immortalized in a
WHO song which Pete penned after his first, chace meeting with a cople of the
PISTOLS at a London pub..the tile of which, as you already know I'm sure,
being "WHO ARE YOU"

2. "LOS ANGELES" and "WHITE GIRL" by "X" (That's NOT Gen-X, just "X"), just
due to the fact that they are the only band since than the WHO to REALLY (not
only) stand for the same sort of values as did the WHO around '65-66 (and
still do, of course), but just like THE WHO, made a bleedin mockery out of
selling out, and passed up rock superstardom in the process. (Trust me on
"X", you had to have been here...there...here).

The only good thing to come out of L.A. since Keith Moon lived here for a
year or two!

Regards,

JB-----2TheWHO!