przed

Just got back from seeing The Who, and it was brilliant.

They're touring Quadrophenia, which is my absolute favourite Who album, but I still nearly didn't go to the show. The last time I saw them Roger's voice was shot, and now that John's dead, and Pete and Roger are seriously into Old Rock Star Geezerdom, I wasn't sure about going. But I called my usual Who-going pal, and she was game if I was, so I got tickets, and I'm so glad I did.

I'd seen them do Quadrophenia live once before, but more as a theatrical piece with lots of guest singers doing various parts, and that was fine. Tonight it was just the band doing it more or less as it was on the album and it was really tight and powerful. Roger's voice was in fine form, and he even managed the high notes of Love Reign O'er Me. Pete's voice, interestingly, is the one that's shot now, but he's morphed his singing style into this bluesy growl that's really interesting, so it's okay, and his guitar playing is as fantastic as ever. The rest of the band (including Pete's younger brother, Simon) is good, but Zack Starkey on drums is possibly even more brilliant than ever. He's like Keith Moon without the drug addiction and alcoholism.

They did Quadrophenia as a single, unbroken set with no patter, and then did another 45 minutes of some of their bigger songs with much speaking to the audience. The crowd was totally into it, and got even more into it as they did the big hits like Who Are You, Baba O'Riley, and Won't Get Fooled Again. Though I have to say, it's pretty amusing to hear an arena of middle-aged rock fans (and I count myself in their number) singing "It's only a teenage wasteland" at the top of their lungs.

We were far enough back that I didn't get a really good picture of Pete or Roger, but I did get a nice one of the whole stage when they were doing Love Reign O'er Me.