The Who - Teenage Cancer Trust @ Royal Albert Hall
Roger Daltrey
Fifteen years after the inaugural concert in support of charity Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall billed as ‘The Who and Friends’, the Roger Daltrey-curated concert series continues into 2015 with headline concerts by some of those same ‘Friends’ who joined the band in 2000 including Kelly Jones-fronted rockers Stereophonics, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Paul Weller. And while Daltrey’s own band haven’t played a show every year of those fifteen they were back in force as they play their own series of ‘The Who hits 50’ shows which the frontman has described as “the beginning of the long goodbye”.
Given that the concert series has raised over £20m over those fifteen years allowing Teenage Cancer Trust to provide facilities across the country catered specifically towards teenagers battling cancer, it’s a mission that has likely exceeded the initial goals of that first concert.
So it was disappointing to see the TCT message largely lost on an audience for the first time in all of the shows I have attended as part of the series over the years, largely down to emcee for the evening Tim Lovejoy who first attempted to engage the audience during an interval between the performances of Wilko Johnson and The Who while reading flatly from a script and picking on a specific audience member who was unfortunate enough to be in both close proximity to the Sunday Brunch host and still in his seat.
A film shot at a TCT ward in Birmingham brought home the message stressing just how important the work they do is. And all was redeemed when curator and The Who frontman Roger Daltrey appered on stage with teenagers who had benefited from work of the Teenage Cancer Trust on wards in Manchester and London. “I’ll be back shortly” Daltrey quipped as he departed, “just gotta do my hair”.
For a band formed in 1964, it’s not surprising that only two of the original line-up remains, but what legends lead singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist-songwriter Pete Townshend are. Joining them on drums was former Oasis drummer Zak Starkey – son of Beatles drummer Ringo Star, Welsh blues rock bassist and John Mayer trio man Pino Palladino along with original guitarist Townshend’s younger brother Simon Townshend, also on guitars. The sound was rounded out by no less than three keyboard players.
While 71-year-old Daltrey and 69-year-old Townshend may not bound around the stage with quite the dexterity of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards, who are also both 71, Daltrey was still determined to demonstrate his enthusiasm and energy, bursting back onto the Royal Albert Hall stage before launching into their first single as The Who, I Can’t Explain. Hit single Substitute was next, these two being staple show openers for The Who since 1971.
There was good banter from both Daltrey and Pete Townshend throughout the night, particularly between the two with Townshend living up to his miserable and grumpy image through smiles. The aging rockers came across more as a pair of bickering old geezers, eliciting laughs from the crowd. At one point the pair referenced being banned from the Royal Albert Hall in the past on two separate occasions. Townshend addressed the audience and said “If you weren’t such a bunch of c***s I’d tell you all about it!” He then started describing next song Pictures of Lily but stopped short saying “if you’ve seen The Inbetweeners, you’ll know what it’s about”.
An era theme song in its own right, single My Generation was next and it didn’t for a second seem out of place in a set performed by a band in their seventies.
By the middle of the set, the enthused crowd who had been on their feet from the beginning of the set started to wane a little, with some returning to their seats. Townshend then alluded to previous tours of Rock Opera record Quadrophenia and introduced I’m One on which he took over lead vocal duties, requesting of the audience “you have to imagine I’m 16 and having a bad day”.
Townshend also spoke of inventing the Rock Opera and attending the last Rolling Stones show with their original line-up before Brian Jones’ passing claiming “we were a better crowd for The Stones than you lot”.
All four songs now used as theme music for the various CSI television shows were played including set closers Baba O’Riley and Won’t Get Fooled Again from 1971 record Who’s Next, featuring Daltrey’s guttural scream which was once described as "the greatest scream of a career filled with screams".
While this is most certainly a group playing a greatest hits set while reflecting on an impressive career which has spanned across five decades, it’s surprising just how much energy the veteran rockers still retain in their live performance even in the more subdued setting of The Royal Albert Hall.
Catch The Who this summer as they headline the third night of the British Summer Time shows at London’s Hyde Park.
The Who - Teenage Cancer Trust @ Royal Albert Hall
Roger Daltrey
Fifteen years after the inaugural concert in support of charity Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall billed as ‘The Who and Friends’, the Roger Daltrey-curated concert series continues into 2015 with headline concerts by some of those same ‘Friends’ who joined the band in 2000 including Kelly Jones-fronted rockers Stereophonics, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Paul Weller. And while Daltrey’s own band haven’t played a show every year of those fifteen they were back in force as they play their own series of ‘The Who hits 50’ shows which the frontman has described as “the beginning of the long goodbye”.
Given that the concert series has raised over £20m over those fifteen years allowing Teenage Cancer Trust to provide facilities across the country catered specifically towards teenagers battling cancer, it’s a mission that has likely exceeded the initial goals of that first concert.
So it was disappointing to see the TCT message largely lost on an audience for the first time in all of the shows I have attended as part of the series over the years, largely down to emcee for the evening Tim Lovejoy who first attempted to engage the audience during an interval between the performances of Wilko Johnson and The Who while reading flatly from a script and picking on a specific audience member who was unfortunate enough to be in both close proximity to the Sunday Brunch host and still in his seat.
A film shot at a TCT ward in Birmingham brought home the message stressing just how important the work they do is. And all was redeemed when curator and The Who frontman Roger Daltrey appered on stage with teenagers who had benefited from work of the Teenage Cancer Trust on wards in Manchester and London. “I’ll be back shortly” Daltrey quipped as he departed, “just gotta do my hair”.
For a band formed in 1964, it’s not surprising that only two of the original line-up remains, but what legends lead singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist-songwriter Pete Townshend are. Joining them on drums was former Oasis drummer Zak Starkey – son of Beatles drummer Ringo Star, Welsh blues rock bassist and John Mayer trio man Pino Palladino along with original guitarist Townshend’s younger brother Simon Townshend, also on guitars. The sound was rounded out by no less than three keyboard players.
While 71-year-old Daltrey and 69-year-old Townshend may not bound around the stage with quite the dexterity of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards, who are also both 71, Daltrey was still determined to demonstrate his enthusiasm and energy, bursting back onto the Royal Albert Hall stage before launching into their first single as The Who, I Can’t Explain. Hit single Substitute was next, these two being staple show openers for The Who since 1971.
There was good banter from both Daltrey and Pete Townshend throughout the night, particularly between the two with Townshend living up to his miserable and grumpy image through smiles. The aging rockers came across more as a pair of bickering old geezers, eliciting laughs from the crowd. At one point the pair referenced being banned from the Royal Albert Hall in the past on two separate occasions. Townshend addressed the audience and said “If you weren’t such a bunch of c***s I’d tell you all about it!” He then started describing next song Pictures of Lily but stopped short saying “if you’ve seen The Inbetweeners, you’ll know what it’s about”.
An era theme song in its own right, single My Generation was next and it didn’t for a second seem out of place in a set performed by a band in their seventies.
By the middle of the set, the enthused crowd who had been on their feet from the beginning of the set started to wane a little, with some returning to their seats. Townshend then alluded to previous tours of Rock Opera record Quadrophenia and introduced I’m One on which he took over lead vocal duties, requesting of the audience “you have to imagine I’m 16 and having a bad day”.
Townshend also spoke of inventing the Rock Opera and attending the last Rolling Stones show with their original line-up before Brian Jones’ passing claiming “we were a better crowd for The Stones than you lot”.
All four songs now used as theme music for the various CSI television shows were played including set closers Baba O’Riley and Won’t Get Fooled Again from 1971 record Who’s Next, featuring Daltrey’s guttural scream which was once described as "the greatest scream of a career filled with screams".
While this is most certainly a group playing a greatest hits set while reflecting on an impressive career which has spanned across five decades, it’s surprising just how much energy the veteran rockers still retain in their live performance even in the more subdued setting of The Royal Albert Hall.
Catch The Who this summer as they headline the third night of the British Summer Time shows at London’s Hyde Park.