Re: average age

[Keithjmoon70@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 5/3/2003 11:08:41 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
SicilianMother@aol.com writes:

> Keets said, and I believe her, that the Who peaked in the early 80's.  That 
> explains why the average who fan age would be around mid-thirties.
> 

I'm 38

I am right in the average, then. I was born the year that The Who formed with 
Keith, so I am special. ;-)  Actually I am sort of a second generation fan to 
my big sisters who are 8,10 and 11 years older than me and dug 'em from the 
start, and saw them on the first US tour with Herman's hermits.

I believe that Keets is right on with the early 80's being their peak because 
of the reaping of the success of the 70's. She probably knows the stat.  The 
death of Keith and TKAA brought about huge attention to the band and that is 
what hooked me in to being a hard-core fanatic.  Does anyone remember the 
commercial on TV with Ringo asking if we all know who The Who are, followed 
by Pete smashing his guitar? My soul took a picture there and it stuck.  The 
imagery reeled me in. The music kept me.

We all have heard the hits on the radio, but when I bought each album one by 
one, I was astounded that the *whole* album would be good! ; and it was that 
way with every one that I bought. I wouldn't buy them all, so I could get 
into and discover them at a slow pace.  When I bought Quadrophenia and 
listened to it for the first time, I felt that I had been ripped off by the 
radio stations for keeping this a secret.  I remember where and when I was 
when I first heard The Real Me ascending into the song Quadrophenia as chills 
covered my skin, and it just got better.

At school there was David Hughes the KISS fanatic, Tim Reynolds the ELO 
fanatic, and yours truly was the unquestioned Who nut. It made it easy to get 
dressed for school because I always wore a Who shirt of some sort.  Or a 
boiler suit. (just kiddin') but I did wear the Doc Martens, which the black 
kids thought were way out there in '81 and told me so, often.  

I remember this gay blade named "Victor" in my history class that I used to 
piss off just to get him to jump up and yell at me (with arms akimbo) in 
front of the whole class with that funny voice.  He would always make 
reference to my boots in his outbursts. He would shake his finger at me and 
call me "Jon Knoppe!" -never just Jon.  Ahh, those were the days...

To help keep the list alive during the slow news times, it may be good if we 
could share our experiences like this possibly?  I have many, but I would 
like to hear all of yours.


Jon in Mi.