A 1965 single with a stuttered vocal and a bass solo, hoping to die before getting old (1965)
'My Generation' — their highest-charting UK single, reaching number two.
Popular music · Rock
The Who
1964–present · British
Mod, then hard rock; the rock opera
The Who were the loudest and most violent of the great British groups: Pete Townshend windmilling and smashing guitars, Roger Daltrey swinging his microphone, John Entwistle playing bass like a lead instrument and Keith Moon attacking the drums. Townshend's ambition produced the rock opera, first as a mini-opera on a 1966 album, then on a full scale in 1969 and 1973. Moon died in 1978 and Entwistle in 2002; Townshend and Daltrey continue.
How to spot them
- ▸Roger Daltrey (vocals), Pete Townshend (guitar), John Entwistle (bass, nicknamed the Ox or Thunderfingers), Keith Moon (drums, 'Moon the Loon')
- ▸Previously the Detours and then the High Numbers; managed by Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp
- ▸Mod targets and Union flag jackets; auto-destructive art learned from Gustav Metzger; a Guinness record for the loudest band
- ▸Townshend's devotion to the Indian teacher Meher Baba, and his use of sequenced synthesiser as a rhythmic bed
- ▸Rock operas, stammering vocals, and a two-part suite left over from an abandoned concept project
Songs & albums
A 1969 double album about a deaf, dumb and blind boy who becomes a messianic pinball champion (1969)
Tommy — later a 1975 Ken Russell film and a Broadway musical.
A 1971 sleeve of four men walking away from a concrete monolith in a slag heap, having just urinated on it (1971)
Who's Next — salvaged from the abandoned Lifehouse project; it opens with a sequenced synthesiser pattern and closes with a scream.
A 1973 double album about a mod with four personalities, one for each member, set against Brighton beach (1973)
Quadrophenia — filmed in 1979 with Phil Daniels and Sting.
A 1970 live album packaged as a plain stamped brown cardboard sleeve, recorded at a university refectory (1970)
Live at Leeds, often called the best live rock album ever made.
A 1966 album ending with a nine-minute suite about a girl, her lover and a lorry driver, billed as a mini-opera (1966)
A Quick One, closing with 'A Quick One, While He's Away' — the dry run for Tommy.
A 1971 anthem ending with the promise not to be fooled again, and a famous synthesiser break before the scream (1971)
'Won't Get Fooled Again' — later the theme to CSI: Miami.
A 1978 album released three weeks before the drummer's death, its sleeve showing him astride a chair stencilled 'NOT TO BE TAKEN AWAY' (1978)
Who Are You — the last album Keith Moon made; the title track later became a television theme tune.
Quick-fire facts
- •Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 by U2
- •Keith Moon died on 7 September 1978, aged 32, of an overdose of the drug prescribed to curb his drinking; Kenney Jones replaced him
- •John Entwistle died of a cocaine-induced heart attack in Las Vegas on 27 June 2002, on the eve of a tour
- •Eleven fans were crushed to death before a Who concert at Riverfront Coliseum, Cincinnati, on 3 December 1979
- •They were once listed by Guinness as the loudest band in the world, after a 1976 concert at Charlton Athletic's ground
- •Townshend has said he learned auto-destructive art from Gustav Metzger at Ealing Art College; the first guitar smashing was an accident with a low ceiling
- •The band played Woodstock in 1969, during which Townshend struck Abbie Hoffman off the stage with his guitar
- •'Baba O'Riley' is named after Meher Baba and the composer Terry Riley, and is often wrongly called 'Teenage Wasteland'
- •Their songs have supplied theme tunes to three CSI television series
- •Roger Daltrey announced a 2026 solo US tour, 'A Great Night Out', that he described as possibly his last
Drill it — 10 cards
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Sources
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — The Who — Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee page
- Pete Townshend — Who I Am