Watford fan review reposted from theshout

["Jeff House" <whocasa@hotmail.com>]

Petes playing was immense and relentlessly powerful last night - I have 
never seen him play guitar with the intensity with which he played and it 
was just so ....... mega cosmic & beautiful beyond all description

My brother joked with me afterwards that it was the "Pete Townshend" show 
last night and to a certain extent it was. Pete was adding extra solos and 
licks on all night (including the extra bit on the end of WGFA) and at 
points Roger and the rest of the band were looking at him like " what the 
f***?" Towards the end of the gig Roger looked really tired , or maybe he 
was pissed off with Pete

Pete seemed to have tuning probs all evening with a red fender (which I 
hoped he'd smash but he didn't) and John also seemed to be having problems 
with his set up. Roger made some comments about the venue being a shit-hole 
- he seems to do this at every gig I see them at in London (except RAH) and 
Pete and he made some comments abour Harvey Goldsmith ( a UK tour promoter) 
and plans for the Millenium Dome ( a now redundant exhibition centre near 
Greenwich in London) with comments on Harvey Goldsmiths prioritys for 
staging basket ball and Opera events (Aida) over Rock gigs. the general 
conclusion from this exchange is that there are no decent rock venues.

Rogers singing was excellent, it wavered a bit at one point and he missed a 
cue in one of the songs - I think it was amazing journey which was funny as 
the band gave him gave him "what the f***?" sort of looks and also the 
"sweet f*** all" ending of Young man blues sort of got lost. As we know he 
is a fantastic rock vocalist - highly underated & he really was great 
yesterday.

John played well, his 5:15 solo was one of the more "musical" versions I've 
heard - sometimes these seem to lose their way and he sang "my wife" and he 
made a funny "laddish" type comment about the WHO singing My Wife after "I'm 
free" on the set list, something along the lines about this song (my wife) 
should have come before the last one (I'm free).

Zak was just so amazing - immense. wow wow wow his drumming was great - and 
so in time with the "air - drumming" I was "sadly" doing in the audience - 
that takes talent! Pete described him as being "the satanic nephew of Keith 
Moon" (or it may have been "the demonic nephew of Keith Moon"). Whatever it 
was Zak laughed. I think he is the best rock drummer on the planet

Rabbit I'm afraid to say I didn't notice much. He was there and played well 
and got a good cheer when he was "introduced" by Pete.

Back to Pete - Pete came on stage at the start of the evening looking really 
really mean. Like really pissed off. His mood was hard to read all evening 
cos sometimes he was laughing and joking and other times he looked fed up. 
He had some back chat from the audience who kept shouting "get on with it" 
so he heckled back saying the next person who said get on with it was a twat 
. The response he got back was someone shouted "take your time" which he 
laughed at. He also joked with someone who had heckled him from one side of 
the stage (John side) and had later changed side to extreme Pete side saying 
something like - oh I 've got you in stereo tonight. Later on he mentioned 
that he should take the hecklers outside prior to the show and give them 
proper things to heckle like "Pete Townshend is a f***ing c***". It was hard 
to read him at times whether he was annoyed or actually having a laugh. Pete 
said a couple of times "drop a marble down your neck / throat" - seemingly 
in jest - can't remember the context of this but it was a bit ..... eh? what 
bought that on?

The audience where I was (6 rows back on Johns side) was a bit unusual. As 
well as some of us die hard WHO fans there seemed to be many people who knew 
one or two singles and otherwise were there to get a tick in the box of 
their "great rock bands I have seen" diary. I don't know. There was lots of 
reaction in the very front, lots of reaction throughout the venue and 
especially at the back in the circle but around me seemed to be a pocket of 
indifference - f*** em ! I enjoyed it. There was a bit of a nasty fist fight 
just in front me during WGFA which Roger saw and looked disturbed about

the song list

I can't explain
substitute
AAA
I don't even know myself
Amazing Journey (Pete joked we're going to play some of Tommy - and then 
added quite a bit of Tommy laughing)
(this went into) Sparks (which was amazing)
Pinball
I'm Free
My Wife
Who Are You
Getting in Tune (Roger made a joke at Petes expense as Pete was tuning up 
his guitar - again)
BBE
Drowned (Pete on his own/ acoustic)
Baba O' Riley
Real Me
You Better you Bet
5:15
WGFA

Encore
TKAA
Baby Don't You do it. (this really rocked and just towards the end Pete went 
guitar crazy which I think caught the other guys out)
My Generation
Summertime Blues (John did the deep voice bits and all the house lights went 
off apart from a spot light on him when he was singing)
Young Man Blues

Overall, it was a great immense gig. 2nd best WHO gig I've ever seen after 
23/12/99 Shepherds Bush.

Highlight - Petes guitar playing - boy o boy just so fantastic

Paul


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