The Who at 50: Our Generation
Then & Now
On the eve of The Who's 50th anniversary tour of UK arenas, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend explain to The One Show's Cerys Matthews how the band formed, how they wrote their breakthrough hit I Can't Explain, and what they now think of their anthem My Generation.
There is also an amazing interview with Pete Townshend in 1966, from TV show A Whole Scene Going, plus a look through the years at some classic The Who performances:
- 1966: Out in the Street, also from A Whole Scene Going;
- 1972: Join Together, recorded at The London Studios, with terrific audience participation;
- 1977: Won't Get Fooled Again, recorded at the Gaumont State Cinema in Kilburn, London.
The first clip from BBC TV show A Whole Scene Going features the band playing in The Witch Doctor nightclub in Hastings, plus an extended interview with Pete Townshend in which he talks honestly about the band, pop art and the music scene.
Our sound caters for aggression...Pete Townshend
The second clip is a studio Q&A with Townshend, in which he is equally frank - "the Beatles' voices are flipping lousy".
The final clip features The Who performing Out in the Street, again on A Whole Scene Going. The song was the opening track on their debut album My Generation, released the previous month in December 1965. In 2006 the NME listed the album at No.49 in its 100 Greatest British Albums.
This episode of A Whole Scene Going was the first of "a new series reflecting the tastes and times of Britain's under-twenty-ones". It is one of just three from the series to survive in the BBC archive.
Other features in this opening programme included an agony aunt section for viewer's problems answered by Spike Milligan and Lulu, fashion predictions for 1966 and a look at the brand-new American youth trend of skateboarding.
