Just had an absolutely excellent weekend, topped off by a visit down to Brighton with Mat to see The Who. My wonderful wife bought me a pair of tickets a little while ago from eBay as a present as she knows how much I love the band. I’d thought about getting a ticket for their Hyde Park gig later this summer but I’m not a massive fan of humungous venues – this was great as it was a the Brighton Centre which only holds about 5,000 people.
Mat and I made a bit of a day of it – we got the train down to Brighton early, checked into the Hilton Brighton Metropole hotel (which at £65 was a complete bargain) and found ourselves a comfy pub to watch the football and catch up. A few shandies and a lovely dinner of fish and chips later and we were ready for the gig.
Doors opened at six-thirty; we got there about seven o’clock but didn’t miss much. The first band up were Two Choices and by the sound of things we didn’t miss much. The standing area was quite empty and and the lead singer seemed to really misjudge things when he tried to get everyone to repeat a long non-catchy chorus with screams of “I want to hear everybody here sing!” etc. Not so good. Next up were Casbah Club which features Simon Townshend, Pete’s younger brother, on lead vocals. They were much better and had some good songs – some much better than others. By the time they finished their set it was time for the main event.
I’ve been to quite a few gigs, especially in my student days, but I can’t remember feeling quite so excited before a band came on. By this time the place had filled up and there was a real sense of anticipation in the air. When Pete, Roger and the band came on the cheers were massive. The next hour and three-quarters passed by so quickly. First up was Who Are You which is a great song to start off the show, although Roger fluffed a couple of the lines and laughed as he said “well, I don’t f****** know!”. That didn’t detract from anything – the music was absolutely fantastic. After that they dived straight into I Can’t Explain, The Seeker and Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere. All through the set the lighting was some of the best I’ve seen at a small venue – it always seemed to be pretty much in time with the music and the effects were used brilliantly, like the fade out to a near-black yellow glow at the end of a big number.
The band ran through a medly of songs from their new album (or, I think albums if I understood Pete correctly) that are due to be released next year. The music was good but because the crowd didn’t know it the atmosphere seemed to fade just a little. Pete gave a wry smile and said “Yeah, I know – wierd, isn’ it? You’ll get used to them.”
I can’t describe the feeling when the really big numbers started – Baba O’Reily and Won’t Get Fooled Again – with their amazing synthesiser intros (if you haven’t heard these tracks, trust me in that this is so much better than I’ve described it!) and everyone in the audience gave out what seemed to be a cheer with a simultaneous intake of breath as to what was about to happen. They really didn’t disappoint – the lighting guys even managed to recreate a little of the sweeping lasers during Won’t Get Fooled Again like they used in the famous video in The Kids Are Alright. Another highlight was Pete’s solo performance of Drowned on his “new acoustic guitar” – I’ve never seen somebody play the guitar so fast and so well.
The best bit of the show for me was when they launched into a suite of songs from Tommy. Amazing Journey/ Sparks was just fantastic and really did seem to take things to another level. You know you’ve seen something great when you can’t wait to get home and listen to all of the albums again.
I’ve had a quick look around the web for things posted about the show and have found a few good photos from the evening on Pete’s website. Lonewolf posted a good review this morning and hnclover’s blog entry has led me to find that you can watch tracks from future live gigs through a special Who website for a buck a pop, which goes to charity! I’ll try and tune in in future.
All in all, an amazing night. It’s put me in a great mood all day and I’ve got Who songs buzzing all over my brain. Thank you so much my lovely wife! You’re the best.
Posted by adoran2 
Posted by adoran2 
Posted by adoran2 
