Re: Pete's Amazing Jumping

["L. Bird" <pkeets@hotmail.com>]

>I follow the igtc list regularly, and enjoyed in particular
>the recent discussions about Pete's amazing jumping.
>
>To my understanding, this is one of the few Who/Pete areas not fully
>analysed.
>
>First, when did Pete start jumping?  Was it in England or America, and when 
>exactly (because earliest Who clips don't show any jumping).

I certainly don't have much of an idea about this myself, but as usual, I 
don't mind discussing it. :) There were no recorded jumps in 1967, right?  
And there are in 1969.  Maybe some of the UK Whofans could pin this down a 
little better for us, but it looks like Pete started doing it in 1968 or 
'69, probably with the shift to the boiler suit, which would be harder to 
rip than expensive, tailor-made pants.  Certainly it was well-developed by 
the 1970 Isle of Wight video.  Pete seemed pretty much at the height of his 
gymnastic ablity then, at least as far as height and extension on the jumps 
went.  (Whew.)


>Second, why did he do it?  Did it come out of his onstage style
>organically as it were, or was it a conscious decision to enhance the
>live show? If the latter, did he adopt it to replace guitar breaking (or at 
>least regulat guitar breaking?).

The Who's image also changed about then to something more macho, which would 
need more athletic moves to carry off.  Pete was competing with Roger, after 
all, with the bare chest and the big voice and needing to hold up his end of 
the show, and I'd say this was a way he found to do it.  Likely it was 
something fairly organic, as performers tend to develop their abilities 
rather than planning things out ahead of time.

It seems like it continued concurrently with the guitar-breaking, but I 
think you're right that it gradually replaced the worst of the instrument 
bashing.  As The Who became more successful, they needed to break fewer 
instruments every night.  You can see by the videos that the shows became 
more kinetic and visually exciting as they developed their stage personas 
(except John, of course), so they saved the guitars.


>Third, how could a thin gangly guy, who shows no particular athletic
>build in his mid-60's pictures, suddenly (by '69) turn into an
>impressive, balletic athlete?  Did he train for this methodically in
>some way?

I just can't see Pete training for something like this methodically.  
Certainly not in those years.  They all look like such jokesters, and Pete 
still has a tendency to bounce.  I'll bet he tried out an imitation of some 
of the black rockers (Did Chuck Berry jump?), and discovered he had a knack 
for it.  Pete did look awfully good physically in the Seventies so he may 
have been working out, but it looks more like general toning.

As I said before, Pete's build has a lot to do with his ability.  Everybody 
has a different musculature, and Pete is built to jump.  As far as the 
mechanics of how to do it go, the ballet lessons may have helped, and also 
they may have given him the idea to add height and extension on the leaps.  
I have no idea how long Pete's lessons lasted, or what they included, but 
jumps are an integral part of the discipline.

There are been plenty of imitators, I think, especially among the hair bands 
of the Eighties.  I notice that some of the rockers appeared to use 
tramoplines to get height on their jumps, and there seemed to be a few 
injuries.


>Fourth (and getting to a specific point you made), how could he do this for 
>years on end and not hurt himself if he took very much drink and dope?  In 
>other words, I believe during those great athletic years
>onstage, he must have been sober almost always: it would have been
>dangerous to do it drunk, he could easily have broken a leg or worse,
>yet to my understanding he never was injured undertaking those wild
>moves on a broad range of stages surely (ie. not all plywood, some wet, 
>etc).

That is amazing.  You can see in a lot of the videos that they're all 
(except Roger) completely trashed, but Pete still pulls that stuff off.  His 
record isn't completely clean, though.  Didn't he fall at Live Aid?  But 
still you don't hear about broken bones or knee surgery.

It's not unusual for athletes to have long careers (Mc's comments 
notwithstanding).  Track stars, basketball players, ballet dancers and etc. 
continue to jump through their thirties and forties, and some continue to 
perform (like Pete), into their fifties--though somewhat more carefully.


>Last, has anyone catalogued his full range of athletic stage moves?  If so, 
>where?  There are so many: the crouched high leap, splits legs
>apart, scissor kick (with variations on that), high leap with windmill done 
>in the air (eg. at Woodstock, Tanglewood), and an amazing backwards leap 
>done I believe during Substitute in 1974, in that BBC filmed concert in 
>England.  Actually he did look a little blitzed during that show and didn't 
>jump that much but still pulled off this incredible nonchalant backwards 
>leap, I don't know how he did it (and playing great during the jumping, 
>which no one else in the world could do like he - to say he is overrated 
>whether on stage or in studio is just ludicrous.

I've never seen any kind of catalog like this.  You'll have to add the move 
from WHO ROCK AMERICA where Roger swings the mike and Pete does his split 
leap over it.  (Ha! Indication of rehearsal--or at least preplanning.) They 
got into trouble here because the cords entangled, which makes for the great 
comedy moment of the show.  If you watch THE WHO LIVE tape carefully, you 
can see they also do this same move in 1989, but successfully this time.  
They know about the thing with the cords.  ;)


>Feel free to pass on these notes to the site from a now-lurker, with
>regards to those who recall my contributions in years past.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Gary in Toronto.

Great to hear from you.


keets