Wow, that must have been great fun, just as well Keith wasn't with them then They're certainly local to us : The founding members of the Who, Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and John Entwistle, grew up in Acton, London and went to Acton County Grammar School.[1] Townshend's father, Cliff, played saxophone and his mother, Betty, had sung in the entertainment division of the Royal Air Force during World War II, and both supported their son's interest in rock and roll.[2] Townshend and Entwistle became friends in their second year of Acton County, and formed a trad jazz group;[3] Entwistle also played French horn in the Middlesex Schools' Symphony Orchestra. Both were interested in rock, and Townshend particularly admired Cliff Richard's début single, "Move It".[4] Entwistle moved to guitar, but struggled with it due to his large fingers, and moved to bass on hearing the guitar work of Duane Eddy. He was unable to afford a bass and built one at home.[5][4] After Acton County, Townshend attended Ealing Art College,[6] a move he later described as profoundly influential on the course of the Who.[7] Daltrey, who was in the year above, had moved to Acton from Shepherd's Bush, a more working-class area. He had trouble fitting in at the school, and discovered gangs and rock and roll.[8] He was expelled at 15 and found work on a building site.[9] In 1959 he started the Detours, the band that was to evolve into the Who. The band played professional gigs, such as corporate and wedding functions, and Daltrey kept a close eye on the finances as well as the music.[10] Daltrey spotted Entwistle by chance on the street carrying a bass and recruited him into the Detours.[11] In mid-1961, Entwistle suggested Townshend as a guitarist,[11] Daltrey on lead guitar, Entwistle on bass, Harry Wilson on drums, and Colin Dawson on vocals. The band played instrumentals by the Shadows and the Ventures, and a variety of pop and trad jazz covers.[12] Daltrey was considered the leader and, according to Townshend, "ran things the way he wanted them".[7] Wilson was fired in mid-1962 and replaced by Doug Sandom, though he was older than the rest of the band, married, and a more proficient musician, having been playing semi-professionally for two years.[13] Dawson left after frequently arguing with Daltrey[7] and after being briefly replaced by Gabby Connolly, Daltrey moved to lead vocals. Townshend, with Entwistle's encouragement, became the sole guitarist. Through Townshend's mother, the group obtained a management contract with local promoter Robert Druce,[14] who started booking the band as a support act. The Detours were influenced by the bands they supported, including Screaming Lord Sutch, Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, Shane Fenton and the Fentones, and Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. The Detours were particularly interested in the Pirates as they also only had one guitarist, Mick Green, who inspired Townshend to combine rhythm and lead guitar in his style. Entwistle's bass became more of a lead instrument,[15] playing melodies.[16] In February 1964, the Detours became aware of the group Johnny Devlin and the Detours and changed their name.[17] Townshend and his room-mate Richard Barnes spent a night considering names, focusing on a theme of joke announcements, including "No One" and "the Group". Townshend preferred "the Hair", and Barnes liked "the Who" because it "had a pop punch".[18] Daltrey chose "the Who" the next morning.[19] 1964–1978[edit] Early career[edit] By the time the Detours had become the Who, they had already found regular gigs, including at the Oldfield Hotel in Greenford, the White Hart Hotel in Acton, the Goldhawk Social Club in Shepherd's Bush, and the Notre Dame Hall in Leicester Square.[20] They had also replaced Druce as manager with Helmut Gorden, with whom they secured an audition with Chris Parmeinter for Fontana Records.[21] Parmeinter found problems with the drumming and, according to Sandom, Townshend immediately turned on him and threatened to fire him if his playing did not immediately improve. Sandom left in disgust, but was persuaded to lend his kit to any potential stand-ins or replacements. Sandom and Townshend did not speak to each other again for 14 years.[22] During a gig with a stand-in drummer in late April at the Oldfield, the band first met Keith Moon. Moon grew up in Wembley, and had been drumming in bands since 1961.[23
Nice one. I will add one more story about this from my Dad. Even before they hit the big time as part of the show they would end the gig by smashing their instruments up. My dad used to keep the broken bits of guitar's. Anyway one day John knocked on my dads door and asked if he could have back the fretboard from the bass he smashed up a few nights before. They did not have much money and he needed to put his bass back together as they were not paid for a gig they did. Even now if I ask any questions about the who my Dad starts off by moaning about £20 he lent John and never got back. I guess £20 in the early 60's was a lot of money,lol.
Imagine how much that fretboard would be worth now if he still had it? My Dad would have at lest got his £20 back plus interest I guess
True, he is a dark horse my old man and very modest. He never really talks about all this stuff. My uncle likes to spill the beans about his shenanigans whenever I see him. The one thing I would love to get hold of is some Ready Steady Go footage. There is not much of it on youtube, anyway he won a dance competition on it once. I would pay good money to get my hands on that footage I tell you. To see something a bit like this with my old man doing it, I would p**s myself laughing...
I love that clip, I'll keep my eye out for RSG footage. There used to be some many dance contests at Butlins and places like that back in the day, with my dancing skills I'm glad that wasn't my era!
it looks like a lot of the RSG footage has been lost http://homepage.ntlworld.com/e.watkins/musictv/RSG.htm but someone I selling some shows on DVD on ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/READY-STE...S-60S-MUSIC-/261845685563?hash=item3cf738153b
Cheers for that. As I understand the person who owned the rights to ready steady go never released much of the footage. Despite DVD's and a few uploads on youtube there is still many hours of footage that never got released. A real shame being so many big acts of the day played live on that show.
I'm a huge Dylan fan and normally avoid covers of his songs (Hendrix aside) but I love a couple of fairly recent ones and having mentioned Bob, here he is with another masterpiece
