David Smyth, Evening Standard
Exactly a year ago they shared the same stage at Live8. This year The Who and Roger Waters returned to Hyde Park for no higher purpose than pure entertainment.
Both acts revisited their greatest moments as the sun blazed down over two days on some 60,000 rapidly reddening necks. Last night Roger Daltrey, 62, and Pete Townshend, 61, aired classic singles with the vigour of far younger men, while on Saturday Waters, 62, reprised an entire album - track by track - Pink Floyd's 1973 monster, Dark Side Of The Moon.
High-profile support bands warmed up the already sweltering crowd from midafternoon. Yesterday the always-entertaining Zutons demonstrated why a sunny field is vastly improved by their presence. Then Razorlight rose to another big occasion, a shirtless Johnny Borrell confident in the power of some great new songs.
Who2, as surviving members Daltrey and Townshend have occasionally called themselves, began by looking back as far as possible. Footage of their guitar-wrecking days accompanied first hit single I Can't Explain.
Townshend was in a chatty, jokey mood throughout, encouraging fans to buy both the Who's and Limp Bizkit's versions of Behind Blue Eyes so he would make more money, while he and Daltrey made frequent references to their venerable age. But Daltrey still bellowed with mighty lungs and the guitarist still swung that windmilling arm at every opportunity, even playing an acoustic guitar as though he was about to smash it on Drowned.
The slower pace of Waters' evening had more to do with the epic structures of Pink Floyd's music than his age. He meandered through his back catalogue for almost three hours, performing tracks such as Fletcher Memorial Home, Shine on You Crazy Diamond and Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun before immersing himself in Dark Side Of The Moon.
When not preaching about Iraq, Waters was pleasant company, ably recreating complex songs with a large band that included Floyd drummer Nick Mason.
He closed Comfortably Numb by shooting flames from the top of the stage, but in this weekend of legends, it was the Who who were really on fire.
