New Pete Diary

[L. Bird]

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Ready to Roll, Wobble, Slip, Slide and Collapse.

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Sorry, I meant ready to rock. There are a number of moments in the Who set 
when I feel like Jack Black in School of Rock. He has parodied so many of my 
moves, and so brilliantly. But the key moment is when I play a series of 
AC/DC like semi-quavers with my fingers during the middle build up in Won't 
Get Fooled Again. The only thing that's missing is his enthusiasm - I won't 
mention the school girls. But on our test webcast we had the guy with no 
shirt, Rabbit didn't even know we were filming, or so he said. He must live 
in a completely private world back there in that keyboard array. In the 
flesh he looked pretty scary. I was stunned to see that on the TV screens he 
looked completely gorgeous.

The rehearsals are complete now and the equipment is on its way to Leeds. 
This time the caravan of vehicles headed up the M1 motorway includes four 
new ones - Rachel's Airstream studio for In The Attic, a Satellite truck (or 
more accurately a rented white van with a free-standing satellite dish in 
the back), a Production vehicle (a huge camper bus) and my own old Airstream 
bus. I hasten to note that I do not entertain visiting fans in my bus - it 
acts as a private dressing room. Ring the bell and you may get stale chicken 
goujons thrown at you.

Leeds promises to be a very exciting and also movingly nostalgic day. My 
friend Robin Denselow is now a correspondent for the Newsnight show on the 
BBC, and is fairly fresh back to rock and pop reporting after a stint in the 
actual fray in Iraq. He will be up there to cover the unveiling of an 
English Heritage Blue Plaque that celebrates the University building as the 
site of the Live At Leeds recording. He is also doing a feature on our 
webcasting. Andy Kershaw will be there, he was once a student at Leeds, is 
now a radio man whose knowledge of World Music in particular makes every 
show he does a treat; he has been a real force in getting the Who back to 
Leeds this Saturday. Also present will be my old mate Sir Peter Blake the 
Pop Artist I so adored as a teenager, who curated the sleeve for the Who's 
multi-faceted Face Dances LP sleeve of 1981; he has done a wonderful new 
sleeve design for Saturday's show. Peter Smith who was the man who actually 
booked the Who for the show in 1970 will be there of course. Lots to do, 
lots of people to see.

Our set will certainly fail to match the now legendary show we did in 1970. 
That show happened at the end of a long and elegant American tour, at a time 
we had our original line up, just the four of us, and despite our apparent 
lunacy, were fit, strong and playing powerfully. Tonight is the first show 
after an exhausting rehearsal schedule, and kicks off a tour that will last 
slightly over a year if I get my wish to end it next year at Glastonbury. 
Now that will be the show to watch. We should be warmed up by then.

Spitfire Films are filming the show on Hi-Definition, and if there is more 
history to be made, perhaps it is simply that we are all of us able to 
gather again thirty-six years later and celebrate not only a great Who 
record, but also - at Leeds Refectory - a great a tradition of British 
University life in the discriminating patronage of emerging music artists. 
We owe so much to the gang at Leeds University of 1970. And so does Mose 
Allison……..