tommye
Player Valuation: £120m
Liverpool Echo review
Next year, it'll be 50 years since The Who burst out of anonymity and into rock and roll history.
With that in mind, the band that sang the words "Hope I die before I get old" must spend their days wallowing in disappointment.
However, last night there was little sense that Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend were anything other than full of youthful enthusiasm to be back on Merseyside. The Quadrophenia tour is a stage recreation of their seminal concept album of the same name, which charts the life of a young lad who "feeds pigs every day" (to quote the track Dirty Jobs), struggling to fashion an identity in the world of the Brighton mod scene, but never really fitting in.
From the outset, the band are relentless, with Daltrey bouncing around the stage, swinging the mic by its lead and Townshend slicing at his guitar with his trademark windmills.
The sound is immense, right from the opener I Am The Sea and the thunderous The Real Me.
The band is only small, but as there are more cymbals on the drum kit than there are musicians, the entire Arena thumps as each track storms into the next.
A slight bit of respite from the deafening roar comes with the acoustic overture of I Am One (accompanied by Townshend's Joe Cocker-esque vocals), but that soon descends into rock pandemonium. And the late John Entwistle's bass solo on 5.15 – projected onto the big screen – is absolutely jaw- dropping virtuoso stuff.
And the sight of Keith Moon, the ultimate casualty of rock and roll excess, singing Bellboy from above, was, along with footage of Townshend smashing his guitar into his amp 40-odd years ago, a reminder of how near to the head of the table these rock gods sit in the rock and roll pantheon.
To some extent, sitting through an entire album being performed is something of a die-hard's pursuit, and as if by way of compensation to those that aren't, a string of greatest hits followed, including the fabulous Who Are You, You Better You Bet and Pinball Wizard.
An amazing gig, and as you sat through the video montage of momentous events from the year they formed through to now, you got a feeling that this band will never die, just as their music never grows old.
Next year, it'll be 50 years since The Who burst out of anonymity and into rock and roll history.
With that in mind, the band that sang the words "Hope I die before I get old" must spend their days wallowing in disappointment.
However, last night there was little sense that Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend were anything other than full of youthful enthusiasm to be back on Merseyside. The Quadrophenia tour is a stage recreation of their seminal concept album of the same name, which charts the life of a young lad who "feeds pigs every day" (to quote the track Dirty Jobs), struggling to fashion an identity in the world of the Brighton mod scene, but never really fitting in.
From the outset, the band are relentless, with Daltrey bouncing around the stage, swinging the mic by its lead and Townshend slicing at his guitar with his trademark windmills.
The sound is immense, right from the opener I Am The Sea and the thunderous The Real Me.
The band is only small, but as there are more cymbals on the drum kit than there are musicians, the entire Arena thumps as each track storms into the next.
A slight bit of respite from the deafening roar comes with the acoustic overture of I Am One (accompanied by Townshend's Joe Cocker-esque vocals), but that soon descends into rock pandemonium. And the late John Entwistle's bass solo on 5.15 – projected onto the big screen – is absolutely jaw- dropping virtuoso stuff.
And the sight of Keith Moon, the ultimate casualty of rock and roll excess, singing Bellboy from above, was, along with footage of Townshend smashing his guitar into his amp 40-odd years ago, a reminder of how near to the head of the table these rock gods sit in the rock and roll pantheon.
To some extent, sitting through an entire album being performed is something of a die-hard's pursuit, and as if by way of compensation to those that aren't, a string of greatest hits followed, including the fabulous Who Are You, You Better You Bet and Pinball Wizard.
An amazing gig, and as you sat through the video montage of momentous events from the year they formed through to now, you got a feeling that this band will never die, just as their music never grows old.
