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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