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Re: Pete & The Audience



> This segregation between rock artist and audience was a tough cross for Pete
> to bear

It's one of the reasons being in The Who went sour for him.

> (the crowds were a combination of
> disinterested who fans [they wanted to hear "My Generation,"

I don't think it could be put better. It reminds me of Pete's comment
about the crowd yelling: "Jump, jump, jump" when he was trying to
explain QUAD in `73. The audience was there for the event, not the band.
I would say that for the most part, Who fans are more sophisticated
today...which may be one reason Pete felt he could tour QUAD.

> Sad, in'n't it?  And yet i still plod on to see the Who's stadium shows,

As do I. But, after all, it's become almost intimate again these days.

> music, they still sometimes feel the same way we do .

I hope that they do, and I think at least Roger does. Pete...he's a
strange fellow (a real newsflash, right?). When I saw the band in 1989,
he really seemed to be having a good time. And it was clearly not an
act. For the encore he came back out alone, pushing an imaginary broom
as if he was the janitor, looked up "in surprise" at the
cheering...would he do that if he was hating it?
The MSG show last year also seemed to be fun for him, if you judge from
his antics (he acted as if he was going to leap, and then
hopped...grinning as he did it, and teased us with almost-windmills).
In `75 I was too far from the stage to tell, but then I was having
enough fun for the both of us...

- -- 

            Cheers                ML

 "It's more than a looking back...it's a bringing up to date.
  Quadrophenia is about where we're all at today...maybe you too,
  I don't know..."
            Pete Townshend