I first heard The Who in 1966. The band I was in at the time was rehearsing at our keyboard players house, his older brother played us his collection of British Who singles and told us all about the band. Hearing The Who completely changed my perception about what rock music could be. Picked up the My Generation LP and then Happy Jack when it was released, we were ready when the band came to the states for the first time in 1967 to play the Murray the K Easter shows. Like most of the early rock shows there were a lot of acts all playing only a few songs and each day there was a featured act that got an entire set. We went the final day of the nine day run. The Young Rascals were the headline act and Mitch Ryder also got a full set. Murray the K did not want to book The Who but the agency that managed Mitch Ryder was also representing The Who and Cream so he had to book both acts to get Mitch. Murry quickly changed his tune once he realized he had two of the hottest British bands booked, the run of shows were the first US performances for either band, quite a coup for him. The shows constituted the entire first US "tour" for The Who. I saw the band with Keith a lot, favorite year was 1969 with 1968 coming in second. My last live Who show was at Shea Stadium in 1982. The only other times I saw the band with Kenny were in 1979 at Madison Square Garden. At one of the shows someone in front kept calling for Keith and finally Roger had it with the dude, jumped into the audience and decked him. You don't mess with The Who!
Attached is a picture of the newspaper ad for the Murray the K Easter shows that ran from 3/25-4/1/67 and part of Keith's floor tom. We bribed one of the rent-a-cops to get backstage and fished a bunch of broken pieces of The Who's equipment out of the trash bin, they played three shows a day all culminating in the destruction of their gear and lots of smoke bombs. The only remaining piece I have is part of Keith's floor tom tom which was broken to bits as it rolled by Roger and he hacked it up with the bottom of a microphone stand. I used to have the grill cloth from Pete's Vox SuperBeatle amp and also the cover and part of the side of the cabinet. They were in storage at my mother's apartment and the landlord threw them out in the early 90s thinking they were junk, which they kind of were, but I was seriously bummed. The little chunk of red sparkle finish from Keith's drum spent years taped to the front of my Modulus bass near the input jack for "mojo and intensity". Nobody ever asked me what it was or why it was there...
