Gary Glitter, and my comments about the Quad tour

[Howard Powers <howie@rexnet.net>]

I haven't had much to say about the Quad tour since I've opened my big
mouth and begun posting on the list, but when I saw it in Chicago Gary
Glitter and Billy Idol were there.  Much later, quite near the end of
the
tour, some no-name "talents" were on-board (I saw them in Indianapolis).

The Godfather (which had been Glitter's role) forgot lines, sang poorly
when he did remember, and totally pissed off Roger, who was practically
knocking the loser in the head with his microphone to cue him that he
was
supposed to be singing.  Roger never really lost his composure, but I
was
close enough that I could tell he wasn't pleased.  The guy was just
absolutely not concentrating.

Anyway...

Does anybody know what happened to Glitter?  With ticket sales a bit
less-than-expected, were they cutting costs?

What brought this up was Glitter's child pornography charges... was this

part of his dismissal from the tour?  I read about the charges at
classicrock.miningco.com/msub7.htm

My comments about the Indianapolis show:  SUCKED!

My comments about the Chicago show:  Sound quality was poor, but this
was my first Who concert.  It was no Live at Leeds, as it was more of a
show than a concert, but I was mesmerized by John.  Some bass players
pluck with one finger, good players use two.  John's the only one I've
seen
using at least three... I couldn't tell, because they were a blur!  The
Who are
greater than the sum of their parts, but John is one helluva part.

The concert was elevated above mere entertainment during the encore.
Pete said something like, "Well, this is what's left:  Three men and a
corpse."
(The rest of the orchestra was left out... Just John, Roger, and Pete)
And then he went on to do his first aggressive playing for the night, as
he
showed everyone just how hard an acoustic guitar can rock when it's
played right.  When Pete's playing.

This is, to me, the moment when I first heard The Who live.  It still
wasn't
Live at Leeds, but Keith was there... conjured by Pete and Roger, who
were playing some pretty interesting drums by stomping their feet!  Man,

if you weren't moved by that, you weren't there.

If there is a video of one of the Chicago shows, I'd love a copy... If
anybody can offer me some leads (or is it Leeds)?

By the way, to whoever had requested that we long-winded folks keep
our posts short, all I can say is I'm sorry.... I just don't know how to

express myself without using a lot of words... I hope you don't mind
too terribly much.

Long Live Rock!

Howard P.