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Old Who Footage
The other day I acquired some old Who footage I had not seen in my 20
years of Who collecting.
First off, it's from around '65-'66, in black & white, and from a French
T.V. show which seems to be called "Made In America."
This particular episode (45 minutes) features The Merseys, Georgie Fame
(with a young Mitch Mitchell on drums), & The Who.
The host is a French dude (obviously) who wears a homemade-looking
"I Love Pirates" T-shirt, & he shouts out comments about the bands from
a studio / control room area.
The Who footage starts out with John, Roger, & Keith coming out of a
French hotel & jumping into a waiting car. Lambert & Stamp are watch-
ing from the hotel doorway & before getting in the car Daltrey shouts,
"Where's Pete, Kit?" Kit responds, "I have no idea."
Then we're in the backseat of the car as John, Roger, & Keith are driven
to a show. While in the car, John plays various 45's on a portable record-
playing unit.
The three don't even really speak to each other but they do start mimick-
ing their own singing when John plays the "I'm A Boy" single. Roger &
Keith share a newspaper.
Next, the French host dude is visited in his control room by Lambert &
Stamp, & Kit answers a few questions in fluent French while Chris stands
by & listens.
All of a sudden we're on stage with The Who playing for a few hundred
people (at the most). And I mean literally on stage as the camera man
(there only seems to be one) stands right in the middle of all the action,
on stage himself.
There's a short segment of The Who playing "Heatwave," a longer seg-
ment of "So Sad About Us," part of "I'm A Boy," & part of "Substitute."
Then "My Generation" begins (from after the bass solos) & we're treated
to the somewhat subdued autodestruction finale. When the camera man
focuses on Pete during the feedback phase, Pete pretends to wipe some-
thing from his face & gives the midddle finger....twice.
Moonie kicks over his drums & Pete bangs his guitar against his amps
but doesn't smash it. Then it's all over & we're in the host dude's control
room again which has now filled with smoke.
The Who segment is only about 15 minutes long altogether. I checked
the Concert Guide but couldn't find any mention of a French show called
"Made In England." The entry for March 30, 1966 says they played on
a French T.V. show called "Music Hall De France" at an unknown venue,
but I'm not sure if that's it.
There's concert footage of The Merseys & Georgie Fame as well, but
whether or not this all occured on the same day, at the same venue, I
can't tell.
Anyway, even though the Who footage was only around 15 minutes long,
it was still fascinating to watch & had me thinking about it for days. This
show must've been rebroadcast in the 90's on some French VH1-like
station because the quality is superb.
Anyone else know anything about this?
- SCHRADE in Akron