The Who in San Diego

Well, what can you say about a group that are only 50% of the original line up who still manage to rock a joint even after 40 years? They were FANTASTIC! A surprise warm up performance from Noel Gallagher ( incidentally, the only acoustic performance of the night.) doing a couple of High Flying Birds numbers and then teasing the audience with fake intros to Wonderwall and segueing into another track, finishing up with a rousing Don’t Look Back In Anger.

Then it was time for the big boys. Pete made a polite mea culpa explaining that there just really wasn’t time to get the acoustic show to a level or loud enough to rock this gaff “So I bought this old red thing with me!”

Well, with that he transformed into a teenager and rocked the gaff!

Roger was rejuvenated as well, demolishing tambourines and testing the cable of his microphone to the limit hurling his mike around. His voice still with that brilliant growl pulling the tableau that is Tommy together. Simon, Pete’s brother and Zack Starkey played their parts admirably supplying character voices and playing guitar and drums like they had always been band members.

There’s only so many tracks on the Tommy album but there was no way that they were going to end the night there and went into what can only be described as a brilliant rendition of all the intros to every CSI detective show climaxing with “We Won’t Get Fooled Again”.

There is only one person who could finish a gig that good with by introducing the whole band with the phrase “You were all crap!” and that’s Pete. Did they fall below his exacting standards? We’ll never know, but in my opinion they were brilliant and roll on Saturday for round two! A great gig for an even greater charity – Teenage Cancer Trust and all that they help as Roger finishes every gig BE LUCKY!