Evening Standard on Hyde Park

[Brian Cady]

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music/articles/23037367?source=Evening%20Standard

Who2 are still on fire 
By David Smyth, Evening Standard 
3 July 2006

Exactly a year ago they shared the same stage at
Live8. This year The Who and Roger Waters returned to
Hyde Park for no higher purpose than pure
entertainment 

Both acts revisited their greatest moments as the sun
blazed down over two days on some 60,000 rapidly
reddening necks. 

Last night Roger Daltrey, 62, and Pete Townshend, 61,
aired classic singles with the vigour of far younger
men, while on Saturday Waters, 62, reprised an entire
album - track by track - Pink Floyd's 1973 monster,
Dark Side Of The Moon. 

High-profile support bands warmed up the already
sweltering crowd from midafternoon. Yesterday the
always-entertaining Zutons demonstrated why a sunny
field is vastly improved by their presence. Then
Razorlight rose to another big occasion, a shirtless
Johnny Borrell confident in the power of some great
new songs. 

Who2, as surviving members Daltrey and Townshend have
occasionally called themselves, began by looking back
as far as possible. Footage of their guitar-wrecking
days accompanied first hit single I Can't Explain. 

Townshend was in a chatty, jokey mood throughout,
encouraging fans to buy both the Who's and Limp
Bizkit's versions of Behind Blue Eyes so he would make
more money, while he and Daltrey made frequent
references to their venerable age. But Daltrey still
bellowed with mighty lungs and the guitarist still
swung that windmilling arm at every opportunity, even
playing an acoustic guitar as though he was about to
smash it on Drowned. 

The slower pace of Waters' evening had more to do with
the epic structures of Pink Floyd's music than his
age. He meandered through his back catalogue for
almost three hours, performing tracks such as Fletcher
Memorial Home, Shine on You Crazy Diamond and Set The
Controls For The Heart Of The Sun before immersing
himself in Dark Side Of The Moon. 

When not preaching about Iraq, Waters was pleasant
company, ably recreating complex songs with a large
band that included Floyd drummer Nick Mason. 

He closed Comfortably Numb by shooting flames from the
top of the stage, but in this weekend of legends, it
was the Who who were really on fire.


-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
http://www.thewhothismonth.com

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