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THE WHO IN AUGUST (A HISTORY)



15 Years Ago This Month (1982)

Taking a break between the recording of "It’s Hard" and the upcoming
tour, Pete takes his family on vacation in Cornwall.  While there he
records the demo "Baroque Ippanese" on his new TEAC Portastudio.  It
ultimately appears on "Another Scoop."

In the U.S. Pete’s solo single "Uniforms (Corps d’Esprit)" backed with
"Slit Skirts" is released in the U.S.  "Slit Skirts" gets more airplay
than the A-side, but ultimately it fails to chart.

Trouser Press magazine runs excerpts from a soon-to-be-published Who
biography written by Pete’s friend Richard Barnes.

On the 20th, The Who hold a press conference in New York City about their
upcoming tour.

On the 25th in the New York Times, a spokesman for The Who says that the
next tour may be their last.

20 Years Ago This Month (1977)

On the 2nd, The Who purchase Shepperton Film Studios for between £350,000
and  £1 million.

Roger's solo single "Say It Ain't So, Joe" backed with "Satin and Lace"
is released in U.S.  It fails to chart.

On the 23rd, Keith Moon is the last member of The Who to turn 30.

25 Years Ago This Month (1972)

On the 9th, Variety reports that Track Music had taken legal action to
prevent a group of Catholic priests from organizing a live performance of
Tommy.

On the 11th, The Who begin their European tour in Frankfurt, Germany. 
Other dates are Hamburg (12th), Brussels (16th), Amsterdam (17th),
Copenhagen (21st and 22nd), Stockholm (23rd), Gothenburg (25th),
Copenhagen again (25th), West Berlin (30th), and Essen (31st).  Entering
the sets for the first time at these concerts are the songs  "Relay" and
"Long Live Rock."  On the flight from Brussels to Amsterdam, The Who come
down with food poisoning.  Nevertheless, they perform and the Amsterdam
concert is filmed.  "My Generation" from this show later appears on the
"Maximum R’n’B" video.  The Stockholm show is also filmed and later
broadcast on Swedish television as part of a special called "Roadies."

Back in Britain, on the 19th, Melody Maker prints an interview with Pete
in which he gives the first description of the "Quadrophenia" project. 
He also discusses the rock ‘n’ roll train idea he and The Stones were
working on in 1968 that ultimately became the "Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus."  On
the same day New Musical Express carries another interview with Pete
called "Townshend: pill head mod turned accurse intellectual"  It is a
continuous monologue by Pete in which he discusses Who Came First and
Meher Baba.

30 Years Ago This Month (1967)

The Who spend their 1st month entirely within the United States as the
support act for the "Herman’s Hermits" tour.

On the 6th and 7th, The Who use a break in the tour to record more
material for their 3rd album at Talent Masters Studio in New York City. 
Al Kooper accompanies them on organ and is heavily featured in versions
of "Mary-Anne With The Shaky Hands" that are recorded then.  "Relax" is
also recorded as is "Someone’s Coming," John’s song about the courtship
of his new wife.

Back in Britain, on the 15th,  The Marine Broadcasting Bill becomes law,
banning pirate radio stations like Radio London.

Atco reissues "Substitute" backed with "Waltz For a Pig" in the U.S. 
American D.J.’s had complained that the lyric "I look all white but my
dad was black" was keeping them from programming the single.  For this
version the line was re-recorded as "I tried walking forward but my feet
walk back."  Nevertheless, it again failed to hit the U.S. charts.

The U.S. tour continues with many more dates.  Confirmed ones are
Atlantic City, New Jersey, Chattanooga, Tennessee (17th), Fargo, North
Dakota and Minneapolis, Minnesota on the same day (20th), Rochester, New
York (22nd or 30th), Flint, Michigan (23rd), Philadelphia (24th),  and
Atlanta (29th).  Sometime during the month, The Who run out of their
powerful smoke bombs and, unable to get more through U.S. customs,
substitute lamer American smoke powder.

The night of the 23rd becomes one of the most notable in Who history as
Keith Moon celebrates his "21st birthday" at a Holiday Inn in Flint,
Michigan.  It was actually his 20th, but he claimed he was 21 to get
liquor served at the party.  What actually happened is that a huge cake
was brought out and a food fight quickly insued.  In addition to all the
noise and flying cake, someone went outside and hosed down the now
non-sleeping hotel patron’s cars with fire extinguishers.  The manager
called the cops and Keith, running from them, slipped on some cake and
knocked out two front teeth. The carpet and the paint jobs on some of the
cars were ruined.  The next day the manager sent out a description of the
event to the home office and The Who were banned from Holiday Inns for
life.  Keith did not, unfortunately, drive a Cadillac into the hotel’s
swimming pool.

50 Years Ago this month (1947)

On the 23rd, Keith Moon is born in Wembly, Middelsex.

			-Brian in Atlanta
			 briancady@juno.com