The Evening Standard on RAH

["Brian Cady" <cadyb@home.com>]

Available on line at:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/hottx/music/top_review.html?in_review_id=3
37347&in_review_text_id=282893

The Who's Magic Bus still rolling
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The Who, Paul Weller, Noel Gallagher, Eddie Vedder, Phill Jupitus
Rating: One Star
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by Max Bell at the Royal Albert Hall, 27/11/00

Although they've come out of retirement more often than Maria Callas, the Who
have never reformed - their act, that is, rather than their band status. Once
billed as "the greatest rock and roll group in the world" (as were the Stones),
Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle and assorted chums refuse to die
before they get old.

This can be problematic. The last time I saw the Who, at Shepherd's Bush, they
were chronic, ring-rusty and rough. Last night, abetted by a star-studded cast
of special guests, in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust, they were firing on all
cylinders with only intermittent stalling.

Leaving aside obvious Who crowd-pleasers, the pleasure lay in the "surprise"
element. Paul Weller joined his hero Townshend for a kind of double "Modfather
and Son meets the Everlys" during So Sad About Us, while Pearl Jam's Eddie
Vedder had flown 8,000 miles to bark I'm One, and to swap mic techniques with
Daltrey for Getting In Tune.

Various excerpts from Townshend's Lifehouse project and Quadrophenia cut into
the meat-and-potatoes hits, but Nigel Kennedy's fast fiddling was a bonus during
a version of Baba O'Reilly that recaptured the song's original transformation
into a heavy metal folk epic.

With Noel Gallagher swapping, er, licks on Won't Get Fooled Again, and the
diminutive Stereophonic Kelly Jones adding a valley swing to Substitute, the
feel-good factor stayed high and didn't lose sight of the charitable impetus.

Long-term Who addicts were probably even happier hearing Mary Anne With The
Shaky Hand and a windmill and power-chorded attack on Magic Bus, complete with
Daltrey's Charlie McCoy impersonation. For the youngsters relishing My
Generation, the Who are an institution - go to the back of the class whoever
said the band will soon be put into one.
© Associated Newspapers Ltd., 28 November 2000

        -Brian in Atlanta
         The Who This Month!
        http://members.home.net/cadyb/who.htm