Background attended
Ealing Art College in west London (pictured in 2010), and his experience there contributed to the Who's career.|alt=Photograph of Ealing Art College in 2010 The founding members of the Who,
Roger Daltrey,
Pete Townshend and
John Entwistle, grew up in
Acton, London and attended
Acton County Grammar School. 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. Townshend and Entwistle became friends in their second year of Acton County, and formed a
trad jazz group; 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". 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. After Acton County, Townshend attended
Ealing Art College, a move he later described as profoundly influential on the course of the Who. 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. He was expelled at 15 and found work on a building site. 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. Daltrey spotted Entwistle by chance on the street carrying a bass and recruited him into the Detours. In mid-1961, Entwistle suggested Townshend as a guitarist, Daltrey on rhythm 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. Daltrey was considered the leader and, according to Townshend, "ran things the way he wanted them". 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. Dawson left after frequently arguing with Daltrey and was briefly replaced by Gabby Connolly, before 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, 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, playing melodies. In February 1964, the Detours became aware of the group Johnny Devlin and the Detours, and changed their name. Townshend and his house-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". Daltrey chose "the Who" the next morning.
1964–1978 Early career , London, marking early performances by The Who 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. They had also replaced Druce as manager with Helmut Gorden, with whom they secured an audition with Chris Parmeinter for
Fontana Records. 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. 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. He was performing with a semi-professional band called the Beachcombers, and wanted to play full-time. Moon played a few songs with the group, breaking a bass drum pedal and tearing a drum skin. The band were impressed with his energy and enthusiasm, and offered him the job. Moon performed with the Beachcombers a few more times, but dates clashed and he chose to devote himself to the Who. The Beachcombers auditioned Sandom, but were unimpressed and did not ask him to join. with its high fashion, scooters for transport, and shaggy hairstyles. The Who changed managers to
Peter Meaden. He decided that the group would be ideal to represent the growing
mod movement in Britain which involved fashion,
scooters and music genres such as
rhythm and blues,
soul and
modern jazz. He renamed the group the High Numbers, dressed them up in mod clothes, secured a second, more favourable audition with Fontana and wrote the lyrics for both sides of their single "
Zoot Suit"/"I'm the Face" to appeal to mods. The tune for "Zoot Suit" was "Misery" by the
Dynamics, and "I'm the Face" borrowed from
Slim Harpo's "I Got Love If You Want It". Although Meaden tried to promote the single, it failed to reach the top 50 and the band reverted to calling themselves the Who. The group none of whom played their instruments conventionally began to improve their stage image; Daltrey started using his microphone cable as a
whip on stage, and occasionally leapt into the crowd; Moon threw drumsticks into the air mid-beat; Townshend mimed machine-gunning the crowd with his guitar while jumping on stage and playing guitar with a fast arm-windmilling motion, or stood with his arms aloft allowing his guitar to produce feedback in a posture dubbed "the Bird Man". Meaden was replaced as manager by two filmmakers,
Kit Lambert and
Chris Stamp. They were looking for a young, unsigned rock group that they could make a film about, and had seen the band at the Railway Hotel in
Wealdstone, which had become a regular venue for them. Lambert related to Townshend and his art school background, and encouraged him to write songs. Angered by the audience's laughter, he smashed the instrument on the stage, then picked up another guitar and continued the show. The following week, the audience were keen to see a repeat of the event. Moon obliged by kicking his drum kit over, and
auto-destructive art became a feature of the Who's live set.
First singles and My Generation By late 1964, the Who were becoming popular in London's
Marquee Club, and a rave review of their live act appeared in
Melody Maker. Lambert and Stamp attracted the attention of the American producer
Shel Talmy, who had produced
the Kinks. Townshend had written a song, "
I Can't Explain", that deliberately sounded like the Kinks to attract Talmy's attention. Talmy saw the group in rehearsals and was impressed. He signed them to his production company, and sold the recording to the US arm of
Decca Records, which meant that the group's early singles were released in Britain on
Brunswick Records, one of UK Decca's labels for US artists. "I Can't Explain" was recorded in early November 1964 at Pye Studios in
Marble Arch with
the Ivy League on backing vocals, and
Jimmy Page played
fuzz guitar on the B-side, "Bald Headed Woman". "I Can't Explain" became popular with
pirate radio stations such as
Radio Caroline. Pirate radio was important for bands as there were no commercial radio stations in the UK and
BBC Radio played little pop music. The group gained further exposure when they appeared on the television programme
Ready Steady Go! Enthusiastic reception on television and regular airplay on pirate radio helped the single slowly climb the charts in early 1965 until it reached the top 10. In early 1965, the Who made their first appearance on the television music show,
Top of the Pops, at the
BBC's
Dickenson Road Studios in
Manchester, with "I Can't Explain". The follow-up single, "
Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere", by Townshend and Daltrey, features guitar noises such as
pick sliding, toggle switching and
feedback, which was so unconventional that it was initially rejected by the US arm of Decca. The single reached the top 10 in the UK and was used as the theme song to
Ready Steady Go! The transition to a hit-making band with original material, encouraged by Lambert, did not sit well with Daltrey, and a recording session of R&B covers went unreleased. The Who were not close friends either, apart from Moon and Entwistle, who enjoyed visiting nightclubs together in the
West End of London. The group experienced a difficult time when touring Denmark in September, which culminated in Daltrey throwing Moon's
amphetamines down the toilet and assaulting him. Immediately on returning to Britain, Daltrey was sacked, but was reinstated on the condition that the group became a democracy without his dominant leadership. At this time, the group enlisted
Richard Cole as a roadie. The next single, "
My Generation", followed in October. Townshend had written it as a slow blues, but after several abortive attempts, it was turned into a more powerful song with a bass solo from Entwistle. The song used gimmicks such as a vocal
stutter to simulate the speech of a mod on
amphetamines, and two
key changes. Townshend insisted in interviews that the lyrics "Hope I die before I get old" were not meant to be taken literally. Peaking at No. 2, "My Generation" is the group's highest-charting single in the UK. The debut album
My Generation was released in late 1965. Among original material by Townshend, including the title track and "
The Kids Are Alright", the album has several
James Brown covers from the session earlier that year that Daltrey favoured. After
My Generation, the Who fell out with Talmy, which meant an abrupt end to their recording contract. The resulting legal acrimony resulted in Talmy holding the rights to the master tapes, which prevented the album from being reissued until 2002. The Who were signed to
Robert Stigwood's label, Reaction, and released "
Substitute". Townshend said he wrote the song about identity crisis, and as a parody of
the Rolling Stones's "
19th Nervous Breakdown". It was the first single to feature him playing an acoustic
twelve-string guitar. Talmy took legal action over the B-side, "
Instant Party", and the single was withdrawn. A new B-side, "Waltz for a Pig", was recorded by
the Graham Bond Organisation under the pseudonym "The Who Orchestra". In 1966 the Who released "
I'm a Boy", about a boy dressed as a girl, taken from an abortive collection of songs called
Quads; "
Happy Jack"; and an EP,
Ready Steady Who, that tied in with their regular appearances on
Ready Steady Go! The group continued to have conflict; on 20 May, Moon and Entwistle were late to a gig having been on the
Ready Steady Go! set with
the Beach Boys'
Bruce Johnston. During "My Generation", Townshend attacked Moon with his guitar; Moon suffered a black eye and bruises, and he and Entwistle left the band, but changed their minds and rejoined a week later. Moon kept looking for other work, and
Jeff Beck had him play drums on his song "
Beck's Bolero" (with Page,
John Paul Jones and
Nicky Hopkins) because he was "trying to get Keith out of the Who".
A Quick One and The Who Sell Out (left) and
Keith Moon, 1967|alt=Roger Daltrey and Keith Moon backstage in 1967 To alleviate financial pressure on the band, Lambert arranged a song-writing deal which required each member to write two songs for the next album. Entwistle contributed "
Boris the Spider" and "Whiskey Man" and found a niche role as second songwriter. The band found they needed to fill an extra ten minutes, and Lambert encouraged Townshend to write a longer piece, "
A Quick One, While He's Away". The suite of song fragments is about a girl who has an affair while her lover is away, but is ultimately forgiven. The album was titled
A Quick One (
Happy Jack in the US), and reached No. 4 in the UK charts. It was followed in 1967 by the UK Top 5 single "
Pictures of Lily". By 1966,
Ready Steady Go! had ended, the mod movement was becoming unfashionable, and the Who found themselves in competition on the London circuit with groups including
Cream and
the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Lambert and Stamp realised that commercial success in the US was paramount to the group's future, and arranged a deal with promoter
Frank Barsalona for a short package tour in New York. The group's performances, which still involved smashing guitars and kicking over drums, were well received, and led to their first major US appearance at the
Monterey Pop Festival. The group, especially Moon, were not fond of the
hippie movement, and thought their violent stage act would stand in sharp contrast to the peaceful atmosphere of the festival. Hendrix was also on the bill, and was also going to smash his guitar on stage. Townshend verbally abused Hendrix and accused him of stealing his act, and the pair argued about who should go on stage first, with the Who winning the argument. The Who brought hired equipment to the festival; Hendrix shipped over his regular touring gear from Britain, including a full
Marshall stack. According to biographer
Tony Fletcher, Hendrix sounded "so much better than the Who it was embarrassing". The Who's appearance at Monterey gave them recognition in the US, and "Happy Jack" reached the top 30. The group followed Monterey with a US tour supporting
Herman's Hermits. The Hermits were a straightforward pop band and enjoyed drugs and practical jokes. They bonded with Moon, who was excited to learn that
cherry bombs were legal to purchase in Alabama. Moon acquired a reputation of destroying hotel rooms while on tour, with a particular interest in blowing up toilets. Entwistle said the first cherry bomb they tried "blew a hole in the suitcase
and the chair". Moon recalled his first attempt to flush one down the toilet: "[A]ll that porcelain flying through the air was quite unforgettable. I never realised dynamite was so powerful". After a gig in
Flint, Michigan on Moon's 21st birthday on 23 August 1967, the entourage caused $24,000 of damage at the hotel, and Moon knocked out one of his front teeth. Daltrey later said that the tour brought the band closer, and as the support act, they could turn up and perform a short show without any major responsibilities. backstage in 1967|alt=John Entwistle backstage with a bass guitar After the Hermits tour, the Who recorded their next single, "
I Can See for Miles", which Townshend had written in 1966 but had avoided recording until he was sure it could be produced well. Townshend called it "the ultimate Who record", and was disappointed it reached only No. 10 in the UK. It became their best selling single in the US, reaching No. 9. The group toured the US again with
Eric Burdon and the Animals, including an appearance on
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, miming to "I Can See For Miles" and "My Generation". Moon bribed a stage hand to put explosives in his drum kit, who loaded it with ten times the expected quantity. The resulting detonation threw Moon off his drum riser and his arm was cut by a flying piece of a cymbal. Townshend's hair was singed and his left ear left ringing, and a camera and studio monitor were destroyed. The next album was
The Who Sell Out a
concept album parodying pirate radio, which had been outlawed in August 1967 by the
Marine Broadcasting Offences Act 1967. It included humorous jingles and mock commercials between songs, a mini
rock opera called "Rael", and "I Can See For Miles". The Who declared themselves a
pop art group and thus viewed advertising as an artform; they recorded a wide variety of radio advertisements, such as for canned milkshakes and the
American Cancer Society, in defiance of the rising anti-consumerist ethos of the hippie counterculture. Townshend stated, "We don't change offstage. We live pop art". Later that year, Lambert and Stamp formed a record label,
Track Records, with distribution by
Polydor. As well as signing Hendrix, Track became the imprint for all the Who's UK output until the mid-1970s. The group started 1968 by touring Australia and New Zealand with the
Small Faces. The groups had trouble with the local authorities and the
New Zealand Truth called them "unwashed, foul-smelling, booze-swilling no-hopers". After an incident that took place on a flight to
Sydney, the band were briefly arrested in
Melbourne and then forced to leave the country;
Prime Minister John Gorton sent a telegram to the Who telling them never to return to Australia. The Who would not return to Australia again until 2004. They continued to tour across the US and Canada during the first half of the year.
Tommy, Woodstock, Isle of Wight and Live at Leeds By 1968, the Who had started to attract attention in the
underground press. Townshend had stopped using drugs and became interested in the teachings of
Meher Baba. In August, he gave an interview to
Rolling Stone editor
Jann Wenner describing in detail the plot of a new album project and its relationship to Baba's teachings. The album went through several names during recording, including
Deaf Dumb and Blind Boy and
Amazing Journey; Townshend settled on
Tommy for the album about the life of a deaf, dumb and blind boy, and his attempt to communicate with others. Some songs, such as "Welcome" and "Amazing Journey", were inspired by Baba's teaching, and others came from observations within the band. "Sally Simpson" is about a fan who tried to climb on stage at a gig by
the Doors that they attended and "
Pinball Wizard" was written so that
New York Times journalist
Nik Cohn, a pinball enthusiast, would give the album a good review. Townshend later said, "I wanted the story of
Tommy to have several levels ... a rock singles level and a bigger concept level", containing the spiritual message he wanted as well as being entertaining. The album was projected for a Christmas 1968 release but recording stalled after Townshend decided to make a
double album to cover the story in sufficient depth. By the end of the year, 18 months of touring had led to a well-rehearsed and tight live band, which was evident when they performed "A Quick One While He's Away" at
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus television special. The Stones considered their own performance lacklustre, and the project was never broadcast. The Who had not released an album in over a year, and had not completed the recording of
Tommy, which continued well into 1969, interspersed with gigs at weekends. Lambert was a key figure in keeping the group focused and getting the album completed, and typed up a script to help them understand the story and how the songs fitted together. '', Daltrey's stage image had changed to include long hair and open shirts.|alt=Roger Daltrey singing on stage The album was released in May with the accompanying single, "Pinball Wizard", a debut performance at
Ronnie Scott's, and a
tour, playing most of the new album live.
Tommy sold 200,000 copies in the US in its first two weeks, and was a critical success,
Life saying, "for sheer power, invention and brilliance of performance,
Tommy outstrips anything which has ever come out of a recording studio".
Melody Maker declared: "Surely the Who are now the band against which all others are to be judged". Daltrey had significantly improved as a singer, and set a template for rock singers in the 1970s by growing his hair long and wearing open shirts on stage. Townshend had taken to wearing a
boiler suit and
Doctor Martens shoes. In August, the Who performed at the
Woodstock Festival, despite being reluctant and demanding $13,000 up front. Pete Townshend gave journalist
Robert Christgau a ride to Woodstock. The group were scheduled to appear on Saturday night, 16 August, but the festival ran late and they did not take to the stage until 5am on Sunday; they played most of
Tommy. During their performance,
Yippie leader
Abbie Hoffman interrupted the set to give a political speech about the arrest of
John Sinclair; Townshend kicked him off stage, shouting: "Fuck off my fucking stage!" During "
See Me, Feel Me", the sun rose almost as if on cue; Entwistle later said, "God was our lighting man". At the end, Townshend threw his guitar into the audience. The set was professionally recorded and filmed, and portions appear on
the Woodstock film,
The Old Grey Whistle Test and
The Kids Are Alright. The Who were later critical of the festival: Roadie John "Wiggie" Wolff, who arranged the band's payment, described it as "a shambles"; Daltrey declared it as "the worst gig ever played"; and Townshend said, "I thought the whole of America had gone mad". A more enjoyable appearance came a few weeks later at the 1969
Isle of Wight Festival in England, which Townshend described as "a great concert for" the band. According to Townshend, at the end of the Isle of Wight gig the field was covered in rubbish left by fans (which the band's roadies helped to clear up), which inspired the line "teenage wasteland" from their single "
Baba O'Riley". at
Leeds University, where
Live at Leeds was recorded in 1970|alt=Plaque at Leeds University By 1970, the Who were widely considered one of the best and most popular live rock bands;
Chris Charlesworth described their concerts as "leading to a kind of rock nirvana that most bands can only dream about". They decided a live album would help demonstrate how different the sound at their gigs was to
Tommy, and set about listening to the hours of recordings they had accumulated. Townshend baulked at the prospect of doing so, and demanded that all the tapes be burned. Instead, they booked two shows, one in
Leeds on 14 February, and one in
Hull the following day, with the intention of recording a live album. Technical problems from the Hull gig resulted in the Leeds gig being used, which became
Live at Leeds. The album is viewed by several critics including
The Independent,
The Telegraph and the
BBC, as one of the best live rock albums of all time. The
Tommy tour included shows in European
opera houses and saw the Who become the first rock act to play at the
Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. In March, the Who released the UK top 20 hit "
The Seeker", continuing a theme of issuing singles separate to albums. Townshend wrote the song to commemorate the common man, as a contrast to the themes on
Tommy. The tour included their
second appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival. A record attendance in England which the
Guinness Book of Records estimated at between 600,000 and 700,000 people, the Who began their set at 2:00 A.M. on Sunday 30 August.
Lifehouse and ''Who's Next'' Tommy secured the Who's future, and made them millionaires. The group reacted in different ways Daltrey and Entwistle lived comfortably, Townshend was embarrassed at his wealth, which he felt was at odds with Meher Baba's ideals, and Moon spent frivolously. During the latter part of 1970, Townshend conceived a follow-up
Tommy:
Lifehouse, which was to be a multi-media project symbolising the relationship between an artist and his audience. He developed ideas in his home studio, creating layers of synthesizers, and the
Young Vic theatre in London was booked for a series of experimental concerts. Townshend approached the gigs with optimism; the rest of the band were just happy to be gigging again. Eventually, the others complained to Townshend that the project was too complicated and they should simply record another album. Things deteriorated until Townshend had a nervous breakdown and abandoned
Lifehouse. Entwistle was the first member of the group to release a solo album,
Smash Your Head Against the Wall, in May 1971. Recording at the
Record Plant in New York City in March 1971 was abandoned when Lambert's addiction to hard drugs interfered with his ability to produce. The group restarted with
Glyn Johns in April. The album was mostly
Lifehouse material, with one unrelated song by Entwistle, "
My Wife", and was released as ''
Who's Next'' in August. The album reached No. 1 in the UK and No. 4 in the US. "
Baba O'Riley" and "
Won't Get Fooled Again" are early examples of synthesizer use in rock, featuring keyboard sounds generated in real time by a
Lowrey organ; on "Won't Get Fooled Again", it was further processed through a
VCS3 synthesizer. The synthesizer intro to "Baba O'Riley" was programmed based on Meher Baba's vital stats, and the track featured a violin solo by
Dave Arbus. The album was a critical and commercial success, and has been certified
3× platinum by the
RIAA. The Who continued to issue
Lifehouse-related material over the next few years, including the singles "
Let's See Action", "
Join Together" and "
Relay". The band went back on tour, and "Baba O' Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" became live favourites. In November they performed at the newly renovated
Rainbow Theatre in London for three nights, continuing in the US later that month, where
Robert Hilburn of the
Los Angeles Times described the Who as "the Greatest Show on Earth". The tour was slightly disrupted at the
Civic Auditorium in
San Francisco on 12 December when Moon passed out over his kit after overdosing on
brandy and
barbiturates. He recovered and completed the gig, playing to his usual strength.
Quadrophenia, Tommy film, and The Who by Numbers After touring ''Who's Next
, and needing time to write a follow-up, Townshend insisted that the Who take a lengthy break, as they had not stopped touring since the band started. There was no group activity until May 1972, when they started working on a proposed new album, Rock Is Dead—Long Live Rock!'', but, unhappy with the recordings, abandoned the sessions. Tensions began to emerge as Townshend believed Daltrey just wanted a money-making band and Daltrey thought Townshend's projects were getting pretentious. Moon's behaviour was becoming increasingly destructive and problematic through excessive drinking and drug use, and a desire to party and tour. Daltrey performed an audit of the group's finances and discovered that Lambert and Stamp had not kept sufficient records. He believed them to be no longer effective managers, which Townshend and Moon disputed. The painful dissolution of the managerial and personal relationships are recounted in James D. Cooper's 2014 retrospective documentary,
Lambert & Stamp. Following
a short European tour, the remainder of 1972 was spent working on an orchestral version of
Tommy with
Lou Reizner. By 1973, the Who turned to recording the album
Quadrophenia about mod and its subculture, set against clashes with
Rockers in early 1960s Britain. The story is about a boy named Jimmy, who undergoes a personality crisis, and his relationship with his family, friends and mod culture. The music features four themes, reflecting the four personalities of the Who. Townshend played multi-tracked synthesizers, and Entwistle played several overdubbed horn parts. By the time the album was being recorded, relationships between the band and Lambert and Stamp had broken down irreparably, and
Bill Curbishley replaced them. The album reached No. 2 in both the UK and US. The Quadrophenia tour started in
Stoke on Trent in October and was immediately beset with problems. Daltrey resisted Townshend's wish to add
Joe Cocker's keyboardist
Chris Stainton (who played on the album) to the touring band. As a compromise, Townshend assembled the keyboard and synthesizer parts on backing tapes, as such a strategy had been successful with "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again". The technology was not sophisticated enough to deal with the demands of the music; added to this issue, tour rehearsals had been interrupted due to an argument that culminated in Daltrey punching Townshend and knocking him out cold. At a gig in Newcastle, the tapes completely malfunctioned, and an enraged Townshend dragged sound-man
Bob Pridden on-stage, screamed at him, kicked all the amps over and partially destroyed the backing tapes. The show was abandoned for an "oldies" set, at the end of which Townshend smashed his guitar and Moon kicked over his drumkit.
The Independent described this gig as one of the worst of all time. The US tour started on 20 November at the
Cow Palace in
Daly City, California; Moon passed out during "Won't Get Fooled Again" and during "
Magic Bus". Townshend asked the audience, "Can anyone play the drums? I mean somebody good". An audience member,
Scot Halpin, filled in for the rest of the show. Recording of
Who Are You started in January 1978. Daltrey clashed with Johns over the production of his vocals, and Moon's drumming was so poor that Daltrey and Entwistle considered firing him. Moon's playing improved, but on one track, "Music Must Change", he was replaced as he could not play in time. In May, the Who filmed another performance at Shepperton Sound Studios for
The Kids Are Alright. This performance was strong, and several tracks were used in the film. It was the last gig Moon performed with the Who. The album was released on 18 August, and became their biggest and fastest seller to date, peaking at No. 6 in the UK and No. 2 in the US. Instead of touring, Daltrey, Townshend and Moon did a series of promotional television interviews, and Entwistle worked on the soundtrack for
The Kids Are Alright. On 6 September, Moon attended a party held by
Paul McCartney to celebrate
Buddy Holly's birthday. Returning to his flat, Moon took 32 tablets of
clomethiazole which had been prescribed to combat his
alcohol withdrawal. He passed out the following morning and was discovered dead later that day.
1978–1983 The day after Moon's death, Townshend issued the statement: "We are more determined than ever to carry on, and we want the spirit of the group to which Keith contributed so much to go on, although no human being can ever take his place". Drummer
Phil Collins, having a temporary break from
Genesis after his first marriage had failed, was at a loose end and asked to replace Moon, but Townshend had already asked
Kenney Jones, who had previously played with the Small Faces and
Faces. Jones officially joined the band in November 1978.
John "Rabbit" Bundrick joined the live band as an unofficial keyboardist. On 2 May 1979, the Who returned to the stage with a concert at the Rainbow Theatre, followed by the
Cannes Film Festival in France and dates at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The Quadrophenia film was released that year. It was directed by
Franc Roddam in his feature-directing début, and had straightforward acting rather than musical numbers as in
Tommy.
John Lydon was considered for Jimmy, but the role went to
Phil Daniels.
Sting played Jimmy's friend and fellow mod, the Ace Face. The soundtrack was Jones' first appearance on a Who record, performing on newly written material not on the original album. The film was a critical and box office success in the UK and appealed to the growing
mod revival movement.
The Jam were influenced by the Who, and critics noticed a similarity between Townshend and the group's leader,
Paul Weller.
The Kids Are Alright was also completed in 1979. It was a retrospective of the band's career, directed by Jeff Stein. The film included footage of the band at Monterey, Woodstock and Pontiac, and clips from the Smothers Brothers' show and
Russell Harty Plus. Moon had died one week after seeing the rough cut with Daltrey. The film contains the Shepperton concert, and an audio track of him playing over silent footage of himself was the last time he ever played the drums. In December, the Who became the third band, after the Beatles and
the Band, to appear on the cover of
Time. The article, by
Jay Cocks, said the band had outpaced, outlasted, outlived and outclassed all of their rock band contemporaries.
Cincinnati tragedy On 3 December 1979, a
crowd crush at a Who gig at the
Riverfront Coliseum,
Cincinnati killed 11 fans. This was partly due to the
festival seating, where the first to enter get the best positions. Some fans waiting outside mistook the band's
soundcheck for the concert, and attempted to force their way inside. As only a few entrance doors were opened, a bottleneck situation ensued with thousands trying to gain entry, and the crush became deadly. The Who were not told until after the show because civic authorities feared crowd problems if the concert were cancelled. The band were deeply shaken upon learning of it and requested that appropriate safety precautions be taken in the future. The following evening, in
Buffalo, New York, Daltrey told the crowd that the band had "lost a lot of family last night and this show's for them".
Change and break-up Daltrey took a break in 1980 to work on the film
McVicar, in which he took the lead role of bank robber
John McVicar. The
soundtrack album is a Daltrey solo album, though all members of the Who are included in the supporting musicians, and was his most successful solo release. The Who released two studio albums with Jones as drummer,
Face Dances (1981) and ''
It's Hard (1982). Face Dances
produced a US top 20 and UK top ten hit with the single "You Better You Bet", whose video was one of the first shown on MTV. Both Face Dances
and It's Hard
sold well and the latter received a five-star review in Rolling Stone
. The single "Eminence Front" from It's Hard
was a hit, and became a regular at live shows. By this time Townshend had fallen into depression, wondering if he was no longer a visionary. He was again at odds with Daltrey and Entwistle, who merely wanted to tour and play hits and thought Townshend had saved his best songs for his solo album, Empty Glass'' (1980). Jones' drumming style was very different from Moon's and this drew criticism within the band. Townshend briefly became addicted to heroin before cleaning up early in 1982 after treatment with
Meg Patterson. Townshend wanted the Who to stop touring and become a studio act; Entwistle threatened to quit, saying, "I don't intend to get off the road ... there's not much I can do about it except hope they change their minds". with
the Clash as support, ending in Toronto on 17 December 1982. Townshend spent part of 1983 writing material for a Who studio album owed to
Warner Bros. Records from a contract in 1980, but he found himself unable to generate music appropriate for the Who and at the end of 1983 paid for himself and Jones to be released from the contract. On 16 December 1983, Townshend announced at a press conference that he was leaving the Who, effectively ending the band. After the Who's break-up, Townshend focused on solo albums such as
White City: A Novel (1985),
The Iron Man (1989, featuring Daltrey and Entwistle and two songs credited to the Who), and
Psychoderelict (1993).
Reunions In July 1985, the Who performed at
Live Aid at
Wembley Stadium, London. The BBC transmission truck blew a fuse during the set, temporarily interrupting the broadcast. At the
1988 Brit Awards, at the
Royal Albert Hall, the band were given the
British Phonographic Industry's Lifetime Achievement Award. The short set they played there was the last time Jones played with the Who until 2014.
1989 tour In 1989, the band embarked on a 25th-anniversary
The Kids Are Alright reunion tour with
Simon Phillips on drums and
Steve "Boltz" Bolton as a second guitarist. Townshend had announced in 1987 that he suffered from
tinnitus and alternated acoustic, rhythm and lead guitar to preserve his hearing. Their two shows at Sullivan Stadium in
Foxborough, Massachusetts, sold 100,000 tickets in less than eight hours, beating previous records set there by
U2 and
David Bowie. The tour was briefly marred at a gig in Tacoma, Washington, where Townshend injured his hand on-stage. Some critics disliked the tour's over-produced and expanded line-up, calling it "the Who on Ice"; A 2-CD live album,
Join Together, was released in 1990.
Partial reunions In 1990, the Who were inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The group have a featured collection in the hall's museum, including one of Moon's velvet suits, a
Warwick bass of Entwistle's, and a
drumhead from 1968. In 1991, the Who recorded a cover of Elton John's "
Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" for the tribute album
Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin. It was the last studio recording to feature Entwistle. In 1994, Daltrey turned 50 and celebrated with two concerts at New York's
Carnegie Hall. The shows included guest spots by Entwistle and Townshend. Although all three surviving original members of the Who attended, they appeared on stage together only during the finale, "Join Together", with the other guests. Daltrey toured that year with Entwistle,
Zak Starkey on drums and
Simon Townshend filling in for his brother as guitarist.
Re-formation Revival of Quadrophenia had been The Who's main drummer from 1996 to 2025 and turned down an invitation to be a full-time member. In 1998,
VH1 ranked the Who ninth in their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of Rock 'n' Roll".
Charity shows and Entwistle's death In late 1999, the Who performed as a five-piece for the first time since 1985, with Bundrick on keyboards and Starkey on drums. The first show in
Las Vegas at the
MGM Grand Garden Arena was partially broadcast on TV and the Internet and released as the DVD
The Vegas Job. They then performed acoustic shows at
Neil Young's
Bridge School Benefit at the
Shoreline Amphitheatre in
Mountain View, California, followed by gigs at the
House of Blues in Chicago and two Christmas charity shows at the
Shepherd's Bush Empire in London. Critics were delighted to see a rejuvenated band with a basic line-up comparable to the tours of the 1960s and 1970s. Andy Greene in
Rolling Stone called the 1999 tour better than the final one with Moon in 1976. culminating in a charity show at the
Royal Albert Hall for the
Teenage Cancer Trust with guest performances from
Paul Weller,
Eddie Vedder,
Noel Gallagher,
Bryan Adams and
Nigel Kennedy. Stephen Tomas Erlewine described the gig as "an exceptional reunion concert". In October 2001 the band performed at
The Concert for New York City at
Madison Square Garden for families of firefighters and police who had lost their lives following the
September 11 attacks on the
World Trade Center; with
Forbes describing their performance as a "catharsis" for the law enforcement in attendance. Earlier that year the band were honoured with a
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. The Who played concerts in the UK in early 2002 in preparation for a full US tour. On 27 June, the day before the first date, Entwistle, 57, was found dead of a heart attack at the
Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas.
Cocaine was a contributing factor.
After Entwistle: Tours and Endless Wire , Daltrey, Townshend, and
John "Rabbit" Bundrick.|alt=On-stage shot of The Who Entwistle's son, Christopher, gave a statement supporting the Who's decision to carry on. The US tour began at the
Hollywood Bowl with touring bassist
Pino Palladino. Townshend dedicated the show to Entwistle, and ended with a montage of pictures of him. The tour lasted until September. The loss of a founding member of the Who caused Townshend to re-evaluate his relationship with Daltrey, which had been strained over the band's career. He decided their friendship was important, and this ultimately led to writing and recording new material. In 2004, the Who released "Old Red Wine" and "Real Good Looking Boy" (with Palladino and
Greg Lake, respectively, on bass guitar) on a singles anthology,
The Who: Then and Now, and went on an
18-date tour of Japan, Australia, the UK and the US, including a return appearance at the Isle of Wight. Later that year,
Rolling Stone ranked the Who No. 29 on their list of the
100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The Who announced in 2005 that they were working on a new album. Townshend posted a novella called
The Boy Who Heard Music on his blog, which developed into a mini-opera called
Wire & Glass, forming the basis for the album.
Endless Wire, released in 2006, was the first full studio album of new material since 1982's ''It's Hard'' and contained the band's first mini-opera since "Rael" in 1967. The album reached No. 7 in the US and No. 9 in the UK. Starkey was invited to join Oasis in April 2006 and the Who in November 2006, but he declined and split his time between the two. In November 2007, the documentary
Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who was released, featuring unreleased footage of the 1970 Leeds appearance and a 1964 performance at the Railway Hotel when the group were the High Numbers.
Amazing Journey was nominated for a 2009 Grammy Award.
Super Bowl halftime show The Who toured in support of
Endless Wire, including the
BBC Electric Proms at the
Roundhouse in London in 2006, headlining the 2007
Glastonbury Festival, a half-time appearance at the
Super Bowl XLIV in 2010 and being the final act at the
closing ceremony of the London
2012 Olympic Games. In November 2012, the Who released
Live at Hull, an album of the band's performance the night after the
Live at Leeds gig.
Quadrophenia and More In 2010, The Who performed
Quadrophenia with parts played by Vedder and
Tom Meighan at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the
Teenage Cancer Trust series of 10 gigs. A planned tour for early 2010 was jeopardised by the return of Townshend's tinnitus. He experimented with an in-ear monitoring system that was recommended by
Neil Young and his audiologist. The
Quadrophenia and More tour started in November 2012 in
Ottawa with keyboardists John Corey,
Loren Gold and
Frank Simes, the last of whom was also musical director. In February 2013, Starkey pulled a tendon and was replaced for a gig by
Scott Devours, who performed with less than four hours' notice. The tour moved to Europe and the UK, and ended at the
Wembley Arena in July 2013.
The Who Hits 50! and beyond In October 2013, Townshend announced the Who would stage their final tour in 2015, performing in locations they have never played before. Daltrey clarified that the tour was unrelated to the band's 50th anniversary and indicated that he and Townshend were considering recording new material. Daltrey stated, "We can't go on touring forever ... it could be open-ended, but it will have a finality to it". Kenney Jones reunited with the Who in June 2014 at a charity gig for
Prostate Cancer UK in his Hurtwood Polo Club, alongside
Jeff Beck,
Procol Harum and
Mike Rutherford. In September, The Who released the song "
Be Lucky", which was included on the compilation
The Who Hits 50! in October. The Who headlined 2015's
Hyde Park Festival in June, and two days later, the
Glastonbury Festival. Townshend suggested to
Mojo that it could be the group's last UK gig. To coincide with the Who's 50th anniversary, all studio albums, and the new compilation
The Who Hits 50!, were reissued on vinyl. In September 2015, all remaining US tour dates were cancelled after Daltrey contracted
viral meningitis. Then Townshend promised the band would come back "stronger than ever". The Who embarked on the
Back to the Who Tour 51! in 2016, a continuation of the previous year's tour. This included a return visit to the Isle of Wight Festival (at the Seaclose Park in Newport) on 11 June opening date. After 13 concerts, it concluded with a performance at the
Desert Trip festival at the
Empire Polo Club in
Indio, California on 16 October. In November, The Who announced that five UK dates the following April (previously scheduled for that August and September) would include a full live performance of
Tommy. The five-date tour was renamed "
2017 Tommy & More" and included the largest selections from the album since 1989. Two preliminary concerts at the Royal Albert Hall for the Teenage Cancer Trust on 30 March and 1 April featured
Tommy in full. In January 2019, the band announced the
Moving On! Tour, followed by their first studio album in thirteen years,
Who, to critical and commercial success.
The Who Hits Back and The Song Is Over In February 2022, the band announced they would embark on a new North American tour entitled the Who Hits Back beginning 22 April 2022 in
Hollywood, Florida and concluding 5 November 2022 in
Las Vegas, Nevada. Shortly afterwards, Starkey left the band after a dispute over his playing style at a
Royal Albert Hall gig. Starkey stated that he was "surprised and saddened anyone would have an issue with my performance that night" but that he would "remain their biggest fan". However, Townshend clarified a few days later that there had been a miscommunication and that Starkey would remain in the group. The band announced their North American tour in mid-2025 would be their last. Starkey left the band, to be replaced by
Scott Devours (who had played in Daltrey's solo touring band) for the remainder of the year; Starkey remarked he had been fired. The band released a formal announcement reiterating their upcoming retirement and that Starkey "needs to devote all his energy" towards his other projects. == Musical style and equipment ==