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Re: Bad opening acts



        Michael Forster wrote:

>I'm sorry to close a discussion but the worst opening act anyone has 
>ever had, not limited to the Who (although it was our boys) was the 
>Rockets opening for them in 1981 in Birmingham, Alabama.  I drove from 
>Athens,GA and got there early enough to endure their whole 9 hour (OK, 
>you know what I mean) set.  Their claim to fame was an incredibly lame 
>version of "Oh Well" and their attempt to get the crowd to echo their 
>shouts of "Turn it Up" only to get met with stony silence still cause 
>me nightmares.

        Whole-heartedly agreed!  Saw them in April of '80 on the same tour, 
at the "Echodome" (Checkerdome - now the St. Louis Arena) in St.L - Rockets 
opened, and were non-stop booed, the whole time, even when they played a 
medley of their 'hit' - when they finally stopped, they were met with stoney 
silence - until the house lights came up!  Then the crowd erupted, realizing 
that they weren't coming back!!  Oh, I also saw, at that show, a person 
wearing a t-shirt with footprints printed on the front, with the words on 
the back reading, "I'd walk over you to see the Who", which given the 
nearness in time to Cincinatti, I thought was in fairly poor taste.

        Whack up the volume, & rock on!

        Kevin