Ray Fox-Cumming
As The Who hit the road in Britain for the first time in three years, their publicity men blanched. Here they were carting all these music pressmen to see she second gig of the tour in Wolverhampton armed with the knowledge that the opening in Stoke the night before had been dire. Pete Townshend was later to teIl us from the stage that it had sounded »bloody horrible«. But an overnight re-think had lapped three quarters of an hour off the running time and the remaining two hours were overlong only by about one number. Despite PA problems which swallowed up much of the lyrics, it was a triumphantly successful evening with the fans going bananas and the band enjoying themselves just as much... Now came Quadrophenia or - as Townshend put it - about five eights of It. It's a shame that the sound system destroyed so much of Daltrey's vocals since he was obviously on fine form and a shame too that Keith's singing of Bell Boy was almost totally inaudible since his mike was hopelessly underamplified.
But it's early days yet. Despite odd moments of uncertainty, it was clear that by the end Of the tour the Quadrophenia 'suite' will really be sizzling. The terminal climax of the work »Love Reign O'er Me« is already pretty stunning...
