A Warwick bass once owned by The Who’s late, great John Entwistle has tripled in value ahead of its auction after wood grain analysis revealed its links to another British rock icon.

The 1986 Warwick Buzzard was initially estimated to sell for £10,000 (approx $13,000), though its value later rose to £40K (approx $52,300) after “a painstaking exercise in matching the pattern of the wood grain” uncovered its extra-illustrious past.

Precise grain-matching has confirmed that it’s the very same bass played by Queen’s John Deacon in the video for the band’s 1986 single, Friends Will Be Friends, and during their Montreux Pop performance in 1986.

It’s believed to have been loaned to Deacon, after which the bass returned to Entwistle’s sizable collection by the time of his death in 2002.

“The wood grain of a guitar is like a fingerprint, so thank goodness the bass wasn’t painted,” says Gardiner Houlgate’s Luke Hobbs. “If it had been, the current owners probably wouldn’t have been able to prove the connection to Queen.”

The guitar was auctioned off for £3,500 (approx $4,600) in 2003 by Sotheby’s, but the connection between the two massive bands hadn’t been made. If it reaches its £40K estimate, its value would have inflated by 1,042%.

Entwistle's signature bass was designed in collaboration with Warwick in the mid-1980s. It features a wild X-like shape and a pretty sizable headstock, designed to resemble a buzzard’s beak.

This particular bass is a prototype of the Buzzard made in 1986, with the serial number #005, four EMG pickups, and that all-important natural finish. Entwistle had partnered with the German firm after pivoting away from his Rickenbacker 4001.

The bass became a regular feature during Entwistle’s final years with the band. Deacon, it turns out, was also privy to its kind of magic.

This doubly prestigious bass will be auctioned by Gardiner Houlgate on Tuesday, December 2. It will also be available for public viewing ahead of its second sale.

Visit Gardiner Houlgate for more information.

Its price tag falls way short of the most expensive bass auctions, with Billy Wyman's Fender Mustang, which sold for $384,000 in 2020, and Paul McCartney's $496,100 Yamaha BB-1200, auctioned off a year later, topping the pile. The most expensive guitars sold at auction sit comfortably ahead of those.

Having worked with a veritable list of musical legends – most of whom feature in his 2007 book My Bass And Other Animals, if he were stranded on a desert island with any of his previous employers, living or dead, who would bassist Guy Pratt choose to be stuck with? Surprisingly, his choice is immediate.

“Number one, David Gilmour – because he’s the most consummate musician l've ever met,” Pratt told Bass Player. “Number two would be Robert Palmer, because of everything about him: he lived his life on his own terms and he was the only person l've met who could say, ‘Listen to this Ozzy Osbourne track, it's amazing,’ and you would have to sit back and agree that he was absolutely right.”

With so much studio work behind him and a highly impressive list of credits, Pratt is the ideal man to ask about how he comes up with basslines in the studio.

“On a session you have to have ideas and come up with things immediately. So often you can be driving home from a session and you start thinking, ‘What if l'd played such and such?’ But that's a part of the job.”

Pratt, whose session resumé is among the most impressive in modern rock – he's worked with Madonna, Michael Jackson, Bryan Ferry, the Smiths, Tom Jones, Iggy Pop, Elton John, and many others – has also performed a comedy act in which he recounts anecdotes from his life as low-ender to the stars.

“I was trying to write a book about my experiences as a bass player, and it occurred to me that no-one had ever done a show from the hired hand's point of view. I had all this material, which is basically my life, so I thought if I didn't have a go at doing something comedic I'd never forgive myself.”

If he finds himself short on ideas, does he go back and listen to stuff that influences him, or does he just hope that something will develop the next day? “Yeah, that's basically it! Something usually pops out of the ether.”

How do you approach Pink Floyd and Roxy Music’s classic bass parts?

“With Floyd songs, I could reinterpret the bass parts in my own way if I wanted to, but I'm more interested in playing them so they sound right. David is happiest when I just play an old Fender Precision, but Precisions have no front end. That's why I have to play them with a pick.

“With Roxy Music, I mainly use Betsy, my 1964 Fender Jazz, because Bryan Ferry absolutely loves her. She's famous – she's pictured in The Bass Book as one of the reference Jazz Basses. I use a Music Man StingRay for Love Is the Drug, because I can get a really cutting top-end without using a pick.”

You've played on huge hits, including Madonna's Like a Prayer, and Michael Jackson's Earth Song. What was it like working on them?

“Like a Prayer was amazing – Madonna had tons of input. It was great to get away with such an insane performance: the whole middle and end section of the song is basically bass. It's a massive octave-pedal freakout, like a punk Pino Palladino. I used Spectors with Madonna, but nowadays I find them a bit hi-fi.

“Earth Song was another octave-pedal thing. I basically stole the bassline from Bad because I figured Michael would like it, but wouldn't know why!”

You've performed in many styles. Who were your primary influences on bass?

“As a kid I listened to John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney and the Beatles, and Andy Fraser of Free. Andy was very funky, and he used to do high chordal stuff, which – considering he played a Gibson – was extraordinary.

“I also loved John Entwistle's playing; the Who was the whole reason I got into rock ’n’ roll. I bought Betsy off him. Was I asked to join the band after he died? No, but apparently I was the next phone call.

“Also, James Jamerson is God, no doubt about it. So is Bernard Edwards; I worked with him on Robert Palmer's Riptide album when I was only 21. In fact, Bernard hired me; the credit on the album reads, ‘Bass: Bernard Edwards and Guy Pratt.’ That is my proudest credit.”

Oh, to be Rancid. Mixing high-energy punk with the infectious, quick-time bounce of second-wave ska, the brazen foursome from Berkeley, California, continues to do things their way. That's apparent the moment you cue up Tomorrow Never Comes, the band’s 10th studio album. Freeman's bass screams as he gooses his band's turbocharged ska with tight turns and high-speed thrills.

Live, his picking prowess is nothing short of breathtaking. Dialling in a burnished tube tone and latching onto drummer Brett Reed like a clenched fist, Freeman weaves aggressive walking lines and monstrous flatpicked fills into and around guitarists Tim Armstrong's and Lars Frederiksen's pounding, lock-step rhythms.

“The Who's Live at Leeds turned me onto bass,” Freeman told Bass Player, explaining the genesis of his take-no-prisoners approach. “And the first Specials record got me into ska. Still, X is probably my favorite band of all time.”

“John Doe is amazing; his bass guitar is pretty buried on those early records, but if you listen closely you'll hear all this walking stuff moving in and out of chords. 99% of Rancid songs have a walking bassline in there somewhere.”

Among punk-rock bass players, Freeman is a bit of an anomaly. His basswork on nascent punk anthems such as Maxwell Murder and the rolling ska grooves of Time Bomb set him far apart from the root-pounding horde.

And while terms like “scalar runs” and “chromatic movement” might elicit a dismissive sneer from some of his contemporaries, Freeman cautiously cops to such musical awareness.

“I've been playing music since I was seven. I took lessons, and I learned to read charts in my high school jazz band. But I found out a long time ago there's no committee that decides if you're doing things right. Play what you wanna play – you'll know what sounds good.”

The following interview from the Bass Player archives took place in August 2009.

How do you foster your continual growth as a bass player?

“I listen to music in a lot of different ways. Sometimes I put it on in the background, and other times I focus in on a bass or drum part. I try to take influences from everywhere.”

Where does the melodic aspect of your playing come from?

“I really don't know. But think about all the music you've listened to throughout your life. Growing up, my mom constantly played Carol King's Tapestry. I heard one of those songs on the radio the other day, and listening to the bass parts, I thought, ‘I've played like that!’ Those kind of musical memories are in your brain. When I write and play, I try to let myself go to access it.”

How do you get yourself in shape to play fast?

“I try not to think about it. I pick the strings up near the neck, which helps with speed. It helps get your wrist going. Plus, I use medium-thin Dunlop picks.”

How do you guys make sure your song-writing is at its best?

“Most Rancid songs are acoustic before they're anything else, with Tim on his old Fender acoustic and me on my Guild B-50 acoustic bass guitar. We've been doing that for years.”

What else informs your playing?

“Growing up, I had a great bass teacher named Jeremy Cohen – he still teaches in Berkeley and plays all over the place. He was great at homing in on fundamentals. Plus, I'm a big John Entwistle fan.

“Sure, he played a lot of crazy basslines, but he really utilized the instrument for what it is. I'm an aggressive rock player, but at the same time I love old-school bass – using the instrument like only it can be used.”

Your solo on Maxwell Murder has become a mainstay of Rancid's live shows. What goes through your mind at that point in performance?

“I always have an idea of what I'm going to do with that bass solo, but I try to just throw as hard as I can and let it fly.”

Tell us about your studio setup.

“I still use a '77 P-Bass, which I bought in 1984 for $400. It's funny; with all the gear I've gotten over the years, my studio setup cost me less than $700! But I don't take any of that on tour anymore. It's like driving a '65 Chevy cross-country –stuff's going to break!”

What are some of the vintage basses you've collected?

“I've bought a few other ‘77 P-Basses, but nothing's really stuck. I've got a ‘66 Precision and a ‘74 P-Bass that used to belong to Rudy Sarzo. I also have a couple of ‘77 Fender Jazz Basses and a ‘77 Rickenbacker.

“During Life Won't Wait, I played a ‘78 Music Man StingRay. They've all seen time with Rancid – I really try to play them all. I look for ‘players’ rather than collector pieces, because they’re cheaper and more worn in.”

What advice would you give to bass players?

“Take what you do very seriously, and work hard at it. It doesn't matter whether you solo; you're the bass player, the bottom – you drive the band. When I was growing up, everyone said, ‘Oh, bass is just a second guitar.’ Bullshit! It's an art, man! We should all be proud to be bass players.”

In the late 1980s, bass guitar player Martyn LeNoble moved from the Netherlands to Los Angeles, where he spent time cutting his teeth playing for the likes of Thelonius Monster before eventually co-founding Porno for Pyros.

The move presented some insurmountable logistical problems concerning his bass gear, and when he arrived in the US he found himself without a bass amp. That proved to be a problem, since the gigs were coming thick and fast – and the bass shop LeNoble sought out couldn't supply him one in time.

Fortunately, as the bassist recalls in a new interview with Guitar World, he was once rescued by an unexpected savior: John Entwistle of The Who.

Recalling his relocation and the problems it posed to his rig, LeNoble explains, “I ended up switching to Trace Elliott amps in the '80s. That's what I played when I first moved to the United States.

“The one I had in the Netherlands was too much to ship here, so I went to buy another at a place called The Bass Center in Los Angeles. I don't think it exists anymore. I walked in and had a gig that weekend, but they didn't have an amp in stock. They said, 'We can't get one before your gig.'

“Then, this gentleman walked up behind me and said, 'You can use mine for the gig if you want.' It was John Entwistle from The Who.”

True to his word, Entwistle had one of his techs deliver his personal Trace Elliott amp to LeNoble’s place, so the new-in-town bassist could continue with his gig.

“He asked me for my address, and he had one of his techs come and bring it to my place,” LeNoble goes on. “So, the first two gigs I played here were with John Entwistle's Trace Elliott amp. He was a complete stranger to me; I was a stranger to him.

“But he did say, 'If you blow it up, I'm going to take the one that's yours that's coming next week.' So, there was really no risk for him.”

Elsewhere in his Guitar World interview, LeNoble discusses his ill-fated stint in Jane’s Addiction, which he said came to an end after a clash with Perry Farrell.

Guitar World's full interview with Martyn LeNoble will be published later this month.

With his virtuosic technique and stoic onstage profile, John Entwistle revolutionised the role of the bass guitar in rock music. His solos on Who classics like My Generation, Success Story and The Real Me became landmarks for bass players everywhere. “I really believe in the bass as a lead instrument,” he told Guitar Player back in 1975. “I think a bass solo played with a trebly sound, can be as exciting as a lead guitar solo – if not more.” 

Recorded in May 1973 at London’s Ramport Studios, The Who’s Quadrophenia told the story of a disaffected young mod over the course of a double-album of blistering rock anthems and introspective ballads. Entwistle, who arranged and played the horn lines on Quadrophenia, also served as musical director for the Quadrophenia film, which starred a young Sting as Ace, head of the mods.

During the The Who Tour 2000, the group introduced a bass solo to one of the most rousing tracks from the album, 5:15, capturing Entwistle – nicknamed ‘the Ox’ – at his best. This rendition from The Royal Albert Hall is particularly brilliant.

At the solo section, guitarist Pete Townshend, and drummer Zak Starkey all cut loose in a frenetic free-for-all. As Entwistle told Guitar Player, the Who was always in solo mode: “Once the Who gets onstage, everybody starts playing a solo straight away.”

During his own solo, fans felt the full force of Entwistle’s bass technique: standard fingerstyle, a technique he called 'crab-claws', backhanded chords, string pops and smacks, harmonics, and left-hand hammer-ons. Then there’s his impressive 'typewriter technique,' a forerunner of today’s bass tapping.

“I play my basses like I’m tapping a typewriter. A lot of bassists play down by the bridge, and get a burpy sound, but I tap the strings against the end of the fretboard – the harmonics bounce out at you.”

By striking the strings at the base of the neck with his four right-hand fingertips in quick, typewriter-like motions, Entwistle was able to play rapid triplets and various other drum-like devices. “To be a bass player, you have to think like a drummer. If you play a run off the top of your head that matches what the drummer just played, you’re going to sound like a couple of geniuses.” 

Bass-wise, the key to the main riff of the song is in the trill in the phrase’s first bar. Entwistle plays a single minor-to-major slide, from Bb to B natural, sliding back and forth between the two notes. While you can play this trill with a series of hammer-ons and pull-offs, you’ll get a more authentic sound by using your index finger to slide back and forth between the notes.

Roger Daltrey’s vocals enter at the verse, with Entwistle jumping down to a low G to anchor his percolating eighth-note bassline. He then switches the rhythmic feel by following two quarter-note hits under the C chord with rapid-fire 16th-notes. Keith Starkey drops out at the chorus, prompting Entwistle to back off in intensity and play held root notes before ramping back up to the next verse.

Upon Entwistle’s death in 2002, Phish bassist Mike Gordon summed up the man and his legacy: “He was just a ferocious player – melodic, driving, high-energy. I got to know his playing more intimately when Phish covered Quadrophenia at our mid-90s Halloween concert in Chicago. What was most impressive – and this is true of all the Who – was this constant sense of going for it. Even on the mellower songs, the fire was burning and the parts were constantly varying.”

Check out the rest of Quadrophenia, an album packed with some of John Entwistle’s finest moments.

Primus frontman, novelist, film director and bassist Les Claypool isn’t your average musician. For starters, he doesn’t think like you and I do. As he says: “I don’t necessarily think of my bass as a bass. If I got a gig with Booker T and the MGs, I would approach it differently. I would do my job. But for me, the bass just happens to be the crayon I pulled out of the box. I would still be drawing the same kind of picture if I was playing an accordion or a guitar.”

Claypool has the added luxury of a studio in his house in northern California. “My studio would make some engineers cringe and some engineers ejaculate,” he told BP. “It’s just a room full of crap, but I’ve got an amazing collection of old vintage gear. For the bass guitars, I have a plethora of boxes all wired together, and every now and then I hit a button and a sound comes out.”

Bass-wise, Claypool is still using his famous Carl Thompson 4-string. You know the one – it has the funky scrolled-up horns and the bit of wood bearing Geddy Lee's autograph nailed to the headstock. Asked if manufacturers ever approach him about a signature bass, he replied: “Most people know that I play a Carl Thompson. If I was to play a production bass, I’d probably play a Fender Jazz.” Like Geddy Lee? “Actually, if I wanted to sound like Geddy Lee I’d play a black-and-white Rickenbacker.” 

In 2022 Claypool got his chance, as Primus stepped out on their A Tribute To Kings Tour, playing a set of original material before covering the 1977 Rush masterpiece in its entirety.

“The thing about those basses is that they all sound different, depending on what year they were made. I have a really old Rickenbacker 4001 with the herringbone binding signed by John Entwistle. I bought it the week before he died. It is a spectacular-feeling and sounding bass, but then I have another one that I got from Alex Lifeson that doesn’t play as well and doesn’t sound as good. So they’re not that consistent. I love the tone, though – it’s super cool.”

You probably know Claypool as a highly technical bass player, squeezing off flurries of notes from his bass guitar like there’s no tomorrow. However, this isn’t all he can do: on his 2009 solo album, Of Fungi And Foe, he threw all notions of technical playing for its own sake to one side, specifically on jammed tracks such as A Bite Out Of Life. As he explained: “I recorded that song after a night out of vodka debauchery. I just accompanied the guitar part – and what came out was almost like an old Bow Wow Wow bassline.

“On the song Booneville Stomp I played a Dobro bass – just a cheap thing made in China. I picked it up and de-tuned it, and had EMG stick a pickup in it, and it’s great because I can bang on it and not worry about it. EMG told me that it was a total piece of crap, but sometimes these little finds have a lot of personality.”

The off-the-wall nature of Claypool’s various activities have led to him being labelled as an eccentric maverick, but it’s all part of taking the path less travelled, he insists. “You can apply what I've said about bass to many aspects of existence on this planet. We're all taught and encouraged to conform and fit in, and wear the same style of collar and hair and shoe, and the people who raise a few eyebrows are the ones who change things.”

As well as the Carl Thompson and the Rickenbacker, Claypool has employed a range of other instruments during his career, including the famous Whamola. “It’s a one-string instrument with a handle on it, and I hit it with a stick. It’s basically a percussion instrument, the way I play it: it doesn’t have a lot of tonality to it, but I tend to pick up whatever’s handy.”

As bass players, perhaps the most important thing we can learn from Claypool is to place ourselves within the music and not worry about the details so much. As he says, “I’ve always tried to be pretty casual about the way I approach things. Because I have so many different projects going, I just start assembling songs, like making a junkyard sculpture. Y’now, like there’s an old gas tank over here and a bit of tractor over there… so when it comes time to record, I look and see what lyrics I’ve got and start building. It’s like doodling on a scratchpad.”

John Entwistle, affectionately nicknamed ‘The Ox’ for his stoic onstage profile, revolutionised the role of the bass guitar. In the face of Keith Moon’s drumming antics, Roger Daltrey’s whirling microphone and Pete Townshend’s windmill rhythm guitar, his signature bass style was one of the musical cornerstones that made The Who such an influential force.

Recorded at Leeds University in 1970, the isolated rhythm track below is of The Who’s must-listen hit, My Generation. Despite the original Live at Leeds album featuring just six songs, Entwistle’s short answering phrases in his solo section were enough to inspire a whole generation of bass players.

When the album version was released in 1965, bass guitar solos were completely unheard of. In fact, until 1966, records produced in the UK sounded virtually bass-less compared to their American counterparts. The Beatles had riff-based songs like Day Tripper, but Entwistle’s bewildering technique and guitaristic approach went way beyond any standard root/5th ideas.

“Entwistle is a fantastic player,” the late Chris Squire of Yes once told us. “In the early days I was compared to him, but then I did nick a lot of his stuff! I told him that too! He added something to bass that we were all waiting for.”

Entwistle’s solo on My Generation is based on a G minor blues scale. The live version varies slightly from the album version, but as John later said on his Hotlicks Master Class, “You need to improvise a bit to stop yourself going mad.”

An avid bass collector, John’s gear was basically everything and lots of it. He used a ‘Fenderbird’ for years, which was a Fender Precision-necked Gibson Thunderbird. He was equally fond of an Alembic Explorer and a huge Warwick Buzzard (later made in carbon fibre by Status Graphite). Interestingly enough, Entwistle had originally intended to record My Generation on a Danelectro bass, which had a more piano like sound, but eventually he opted for a newly purchased Fender Jazz Bass strung with La Bella strings. 

His ongoing quest for tonal power would also lead to the development of roundwound strings, which he developed with Rotosound in the '60s. It's also argued that Entwistle invented the 4x12 speaker cabinet while using Marshall amps. He later enjoyed a long relationship with Trace Elliot and Ashdown Engineering.

“You can’t talk about classic bass playing without mentioning John Entwistle,” Rudy Sarzo told BP. “What I loved most about him was that he had a unique tone – a sound that was his and nobody else’s. He knew what his position was in the band and he knew what the songs needed to sound good, and he played like no one else was playing – at the time or since then. John Entwistle’s bass playing is mandatory listening for anyone who wants to understand the bass guitar.”

The Who Live at Leeds is available to buy and stream.

Michael Anthony has been inducted into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame, sold in excess of 80 million records with Van Halen, and taken the classic rock world by storm with Chickenfoot – a supergroup featuring ex-Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar, guitarist Joe Satriani and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. “The great thing about Chickenfoot is that we were able to keep it going for as long as we did. A lot of times after a band like Van Halen is over, you don’t find something like that again.” 

Although he’s been asked many times about his influences, Anthony was happy to run us through the live album that helped mould him into the monstrous bass player that he is today. "To me, Live At Leeds by The Who is one of the best albums of all time. ‘Young Man Blues’ is just a great jam and that’s what really made me want to play in a band with guitar, bass and drums."

The original version of Live At Leeds came out in 1970 and featured just 6 songs, but Entwistle's solo in 'My Generation' alone was enough to inspire a whole generation of bass players. "John Entwistle was one of the first guys that I listened to that really stepped out," says Anthony.

"John Paul Jones I admired because he kept it really rhythmic, which is pretty much the style that I choose to play – only because all the guitar players that I play with are so nuts – but when Entwistle would go off on some of these jams, the way he would riff through them was amazing." 

Originally a trumpet and French horn player with the school orchestra, John Entwistle took up the bass aged 14, and later became renowned his progressive approach to the bass guitar. "Pete Townshend did play some leads but he did a lot of rhythmic stuff," says Anthony. "So it gave Entwistle a lot of room to step out and to be able to do his thing."

When Live At Leeds was recorded no-one anywhere was playing the bass like John Entwistle. In fact, bass guitar solos were totally unheard of in pop songs. The Beatles had riff-based songs like 'Day Tripper', but 'My Generation' was the first time people actually stood up and took notice of the quiet guy stood at the back of the stage.

At a time when everyone was playing with a plectrum or with their thumb, Entwistle would tap the strings with a kind of quick pushing motion – a technique that finally made people sit up and take notice of the bass player. 

Interestingly enough, the first recorded version of 'My Generation' didn’t have a bass solo, but the band’s manager Kit Lambert thought it would be good to incorporate something to showcase Entwistle’s playing – and the rest is history.

Culled from a Valentine’s Day concert at Leeds University in England, and presented in nothing more than a stark, yellow sleeve bearing the band’s name (a direct nod to the look of late-1960s LP bootlegs), Live at Leeds still remains one of the most revered live rock albums to date. John Entwistle had reached a new peak in his playing and his definitive bass sound had never been better.

"At the NAMM shows one year, I went outside to take a little break and he was standing there drinking a margarita with one of his techs," says Michael Anthony. "He’d just gotten back from Cabo San Lucas where he had actually met Sammy [Hagar] and jammed with him, which I didn’t actually know until he told me. 

"He was still actually in that ‘Cabo’ moment, drinking tequila, and it was funny because I could really only understand every second or third word he was saying, but he was the coolest guy.

"I actually remember the day, or the evening, that he died. I was on my way to play a show with Hagar, so I dedicated my whole show to him that night. It was a great loss losing a guy like that, because he was such a great bass player."

While the original version of Live At Leeds offered just 6 songs, the 1995 CD reissue is fleshed out with a full 14 tracks.

Today, we're taking some time out to remember the legendary John "The Ox" Entwistle of the Who.

Below, check out some extraordinary footage of Entwistle's isolated bass track from the Who's Won't Get Fooled Again, as performed May 25, 1978, at the U.K.'s Shepperton Studios. Entwistle, who is standing in front of a wall of Sunn cabinets, is playing his Alembic Spyder bass (Dean makes a limited-run version of this bass, the USA John Entwistle Spider).

The performance is from a mini-concert set up by the band for use in The Kids Are Alright, their career-spanning 1979 documentary. It turned out to be the last performance, ever, by the original lineup of the band. Drummer Keith Moon, who is noticeably bloated in the multi-camera, full-band version of the performance below (bottom video), died just a few months later, on September 7, 1978, at age 31 after mixing the alcohol-withdrawal drug Clomethiazole with alcohol.

Sadly, Entwistle died June 27, 2002, at age 57 while the Who were on tour in Las Vegas. The local medical examiner determined that his death was due to a heart attack induced by cocaine.

The next day, the Who's Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey published a tribute on Townshend's website, saying, "The Ox has left the building; we've lost another great friend." 

Regardless of the fact that the band were clearly rusty in May 1978, this footage of Won't Get Fooled Again is one of the most exciting and powerful Who performances caught on film. And then there's Daltrey's freaking amazing scream at 7:50. Enjoy!

After Entwistle's death, bass playing duties were taken on by Pino Palladino until 2017, and by Jon Button since then. 

The Who tour the US and UK this year. Visit their website for dates.

Pete Townshend has revealed that the death of his The Who bandmate and bass guitar icon John Entwistle in 2002 prompted him to become a better guitarist.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, the electric guitar heavyweight noted that, upon Entwistle’s passing, a broad sonic space was left in the band – a space that he ultimately had to fill by experimenting and developing new approaches to playing, owing to the bassist’s nontraditional sound.

Townshend – who also reflected on the sonic space left in the wake of drummer Keith Moon’s death in 1978 – commented, “When John Entwistle died, there was another space left. That was because he was filling up so much of the musical spectrum with his bass sound, which was not a traditional bass sound. 

“And so when he was gone,” he continued, “there was suddenly space for me – not so much to try and fill up the void he had left, but a space where I could have a different approach.”

It was an approach, Townshend said, that saw him put greater emphasis on his soloing, and one that saw him take his practicing seriously for the first time. 

“I started to solo,” he continued. “I had to learn to practice the guitar, which I hadn’t done much of before. I’ll never be a famous shredder, but I can play better than I could when we were in the Live at Leeds years, for example.”

Entwistle passed away in 2002, after contributing to all of The Who’s studio albums that were released during his lifetime, from their 1965 debut, My Generation, to 1982’s It’s Hard. For the band's 2006 effort, Endless Wire, their first since Entwistle’s death, the band brought session ace Pino Palladino onboard to fulfill bass duties.

Palladino, along with Gus Seyffert, was also enlisted for The Who’s most recent LP, 2019’s Who.

In other Who news, Townshend and Roger Daltrey recently announced The Who Hits Back! tour – a 29-date stint around the US, and their first time in the country since 2019’s Moving On! tour.

Split into spring and fall legs, the tour will kick off on April 22 at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood and conclude on November 5 at Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas, with a four-month summer break taking place between May 28 and October 2.

For tickets and more information, visit The Who’s website.

The Who have announced Live at the Fillmore East 1968, a new double live album celebrating the 50th anniversary of the band's set at the legendary New York venue.

The two-CD, three-LP set features extended versions of "A Quick One" and "Relax," in addition to a previously unreleased cover of Eddie Cochran's "C'Mon Everybody." Perhaps the most notable feature of the new live album though, is its closing track, a 33-minute version of the band's classic 1965 hit, "My Generation." This version—which features quite a bit of "guitar-smashing and drum demolition"—takes up the entirety of the album's second disc.

The band performed at the titular venue on April 5 and April 6, 1968, but the recordings used for Live at the Fillmore East 1968 document only the latter concert, as the band's equipment failed to capture the first night's performance.

The recordings from the April 6 show were restored by the Who's longtime sound engineer, Bob Pridden, using the original four-track tapes. You can check out the album's full tracklist below.

To preorder Live at the Fillmore East 1968, step right this way.

The Who Live at the Fillmore East 1968 Track List

Disc One:
1. "Summertime Blues"
2. "Fortune Teller"
3. "Tattoo"
4. "Little Billy"
5. "I Can’t Explain"
6. "Happy Jack"
7. "Relax"
8. "I'm A Boy"
9. "A Quick One"
10. "My Way"
11. "C'mon Everybody"
12. "Shakin' All Over"
13. "Boris The Spider"

Disc Two:
1. "My Generation"

Eagle Rock Entertainment will release a new DVD/Blu-ray, The Who Live In Texas ’75, on October 9.

The concert featured on the DVD was filmed in Houston, Texas, November 20, 1975, during the band's extensive The Who By Numbers tour.

The show, which has been available in the past as a poor-quality bootleg, has been fully restored for the new release. The DVD's run time is 117 minutes. Check out the track listing below.

For more info, visit eaglerockent.com.

The Who Live In Texas ’75 Track Listing

• 01. Substitute
• 02. I Can’t Explain
• 03. Squeeze Box
• 04. Baba O’Riley
• 05. Boris The Spider
• 06. Drowned
• 07. However Much I Booze
• 08. Dreaming From The Waist
• 09. Behind Blue Eyes
• 10. Amazing Journey
• 11. Sparks
• 12. Acid Queen
• 13. Fiddle About
• 14. Pinball Wizard
• 15. I’m Free
• 16. Tommy’s Holiday Camp
• 17. We’re Not Going To Take It / See Me, Feel Me / Listening To You
• 18. Summertime Blues
• 19. My Generation
• 20. Join Together
• 21. Naked Eye
• 22. Roadrunner
• 23. Won’t Get Fooled Again
• 24. Magic Bus
• 25. My Generation Blues

"Godfrey Townsend: John Entwistle’s Other Guitarist."

That was the title of a feature article that appeared in Long Island’s Good Times Magazine in 1996. I had just finished my first tour as the front man for The John Entwistle Band, handling the dual tasks of lead guitar and lead vocal.

There has always been the curiosity of those who (unaware of the difference in spelling) assume I am related to Pete Townshend of The Who. It was also a running joke within the Entwistle band as he introduced me onstage every night by saying, “On guitar and vocals, Godfrey Townsend, no 'h,' no relation.”

As I had mentioned in my previous blogs, I had been intrigued when I was 13 by seeing Pete Townshend’s name on the back of the album cover for The Who’s rock opera Tommy. As a result, I bought the album and became a huge fan of the music of The Who.

You can imagine the feeling of fulfillment almost 30 years later of having John Entwistle introduce me every night onstage within a reference to Pete. Although, whilst growing up and teaching myself how to play “lead” guitar, I mostly listened to players like Clapton, Page, Beck and Hendrix.

I always considered Pete a “tasty” lead guitarist but respected him much more as a genius songwriter and an amazing rhythm guitarist. He practically single-handedly invented the “power” chord. Anyway, here it was 1996 and I was getting ready to embark on a cross-country tour as John Entwistle’s guitarist/vocalist. All those years of listening closely to every nuance and phrasing of every guitar lick and vocal part was about to prove worthwhile.

It certainly contributed to the ability of the John Entwistle Band to maintain the authenticity of The Who’s powerhouse sound. Another huge factor was John’s humongous bass rig and my three stacks of amps. At one point, I was using two stacks running in stereo out of an Eventide Harmonizer and another stack in the middle with a dry signal. My rigs changed several times over the six years from Hiwatts to Trace Elliots to Peavey 5150s to Line 6.

I remember being at the NAMM show in Anaheim, California, with Entwistle before the first tour started and knowing I needed to get “geared” up for a proper tour, he asked me what type of amps I wanted. Being given a choice, I quickly answered, “Marshall.” Off we went to the Marshall booth. Unfortunately, at the same time, Slash was doing some sort of appearance and here I was, standing there with the bassist of The Who, not being able to get anyone’s attention.

That didn’t last very long before John said to me, “@#$% this. Follow me.” Next thing I knew, we were standing at the booth of Hiwatt amps and John was making arrangements for them to give me two 100-watt heads and four 4 X 12 cabs. I used them for a week or so, but they were a little too clean for my taste. They were very loud and punchy but had no real gain or sustain. I never use a distortion or overdrive as I usually depend solely on the amp’s drive.

Another company John was associated with was Trace Elliot. John managed to get them to send me two 100-watt Bonneville heads and four 4 X 12 cabinets loaded with Celestion speakers. They later sent me two 100-watt Speed Twin heads as well. They were pretty good-sounding amps, but they didn’t travel well. A small design flaw had them blowing up every other show and I was down to one working head when we stopped by the Peavey factory/showroom in Meridian, Mississippi.

I left there with a pair of EVH 5150 stacks. These were also great-sounding amps but this time, ironically, they were TOO dirty and distorted for my taste. (We also got another stack of speakers and a separate power amp to put on John’s side of the stage so that he could hear me too.)

Another running joke; At the end of the first tour we were sitting at an “End Of Tour” party (like ya do), and someone asked John what he thought of my playing and singing, to which he replied, “I don’t know. I haven’t heard him yet.”

To give you somewhat of an idea of John’s rig (although it really had to be seen and heard to be believed), John was running a stereo/bi-amped rig with about 1800 watts. (4 x 600 watt Trace Elliot power amps in his rack/one for a spare).

As a matter of fact, he used four bass port cabs and four 2 X 12 cabs when he toured with us and only two when he toured with The Who. (When it’s The John Entwistle Band, and YOUR name is John Entwistle, you can play as loud as you like.)

For more info and details about his actual gear, check out this link ... and this one.

We played lots of rock clubs and the occasional casino gig or festival. John’s bass rig actually rivaled some of the PA systems in some of the “smaller” clubs.

We toured the USA and Canada as The John Entwistle Band in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2001 and released a live album that was recorded during the 1998 Left For Dead tour called Left For Live (1999). Also in 2001, I toured the US and Japan with John Entwistle, Ann Wilson of Heart, Alan Parsons and Todd Rundgren on a “tribute” to The Beatles tour called, “A Walk Down Abbey Road."

I switched to Line 6 somewhere around 2000. Most gear and tone purists might say “Yuck!” at this point, and I would totally understand where they are coming from. There are several reasons I logically chose to go with the whole “modeling” technology.

• I mostly use a Marshall-like blues-rock tube-crunch tone and the JCM 800 models in the Line 6 heads are pretty good. (take off the noisegate and the cab simulator and you have a pretty natural sounding basic Marshall tone)

• Doing away with traveling down the road with unpredictable tube heads, sorted the problem of having them blow up mid-tour. (I traveled for several tours with a spare head in my rig that NEVER got turned on)

• Having the convenience of delay/chorus/wah and volume pedals/boost and tuner ALL in one pedalboard with a single ethernet cable connector is a BIG advantage.

I’m currently touring using a Marshall JCM2000 Super Lead head / Marshall 4 X 12 cabinet and a Line 6 POD XT Live running directly into the effects loop return.

When we last left off, I was briefly summarizing the years of playing experience I had gotten under my belt and how, in turn, that helped prepare me for what was to come.

On Feb. 23 and 24, 1994, Roger Daltrey, lead singer for The Who, performed two sold-out shows at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in celebration of his 50th birthday. The show also featured Michael Kamen and The Julliard Orchestra, as well as guest appearances by Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, Eddie Vedder, Sinéad O'Connor, Lou Reed, David Sanborn, Alice Cooper, Linda Perry, The Chieftains and others. (The show is available on DVD.)

As I mentioned in my first blog, it was around this same time that I was hosting the Wednesday Night Pro Jam at New York City’s China Club.

The drummer I had been working with had previously toured with John Entwistle, the bassist of The Who. Having kept in touch with him over the years, he contacted John when he arrived in New York and invited him to come up to the China Club after his performance with Daltrey at Carnegie Hall. (I believe a limo was even rented to sort of sweeten the deal.)

I was a huge fan of The Who ever since discovering the rock opera Tommy at age 13 during the summer of 1969. (Apparently, a lot of great things happened that summer.) For decades, I listened to, learned and played everything by The Who that I could get my hands on.

So, when I was told that John Entwistle might show up at the Pro Jam to sit in, I was very excited and confident I could handle whatever he threw at me. Heck, I was even prepared to handle the lead vocals as well.

Needless to say, with the buzz going ‘round, the China Club was packed to the rafters with anxious Who fans waiting to get a glimpse of a larger-than-life, full-fledged rock star - and maybe even get to witness an impromptu, private and personal, up-close jam session.

Somewhere around midnight (the bewitching hour), The Ox walked in, wearing his jewel-encrusted spider necklace, followed by Linda Perry of 4 Non-Blondes, Pino Palladino, “Rabbit” Bundrick, Phil Palmer and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam. The place became a madhouse, and it was necessary to get Entwistle right up onstage to avoid a calamity.

He walked up to me and shook my hand and said hello. He was handed a red vintage Fender Jazz bass guitar, after which he turned around to me and with a thick English accent said, “Okay, mate. Wot you wanna play?”

OK, how’s this for a setlist?

"My Generation / See Me Feel Me" (medley from Live At Leeds), "Shakin’ All Over," "I Can’t Explain," "The Kids Are Alright," "Happy Jack" (with a very drunk Eddie Vedder on lead vocal) and "Twist And Shout" (with Entwistle on lead vocal).

There was lots more. Apparently, they had so much fun, they came back again the next night as well. I remember also playing "Won’t Get Fooled Again," "Baba O’Riley," "My Wife" and "Long Live Rock."

When I called that one, John shook his head no and said, “I don’t know it.” I said, “Sure you do.” He then asked, “Wot’s the chords in the middle bit?” I explained to him what the changes were (imagine telling John Entwistle what notes to play to “Long Live Rock”), and we proceeded to play the song without a single mistake.

I also remember playing a few cover tunes. “Tush” by ZZ Top was one of them, and the other was “Whole Lotta Love,” which Linda Perry sang the hell out of. Earlier that first night, Steve Lukather (guitarist extraordinaire) from Toto and Jason Bonham were also in the house. We managed to get them up for a few tunes as well. Jimi Hendrix’s “Red House,” “Hold The Line” by Toto (It was like pulling teeth to get Luke to play it) and the Zep classic, “Misty Mountain Hop.”

All in all, it was a star-studded, rock 'n' roll-filled night I’ll most likely never forget. (The house soundman even captured the whole thing on three cassettes right off the board.)

A year and a half later, in September 1995, I set out to Laughlin, Nevada, for a three-month-long gig at the Flamingo Hilton Casino Showroom. I was offered the gig by my good friend Mitch Weissman, who was the original Paul McCartney in Broadway’s "Beatlemania" at NYC’s Winter Garden theater in the '70s.

We played a short 20-minute Beatles set and then backed up three or four featured guest artists like Joey Molland from Badfinger, Mitch Ryder of the Detroit Wheels, Spencer Davis, and even “Tiptoe Through The Tulips” by Tiny Tim. We played two shows a night, six nights a week, for three months. (More playing experience under the belt … about 144 shows).

Somewhere around the second month into the gig, I got a phone call from the China Club Pro Jam band drummer back in New York. He said, “Guess who wants to put a solo band together with you on guitar and go out on the road?”

… LONG SILENCE …

JOHN ENTWISTLE!!!

Tune in next time for "Godfrey Townsend, John Entwistle’s Other Guitar Player."

Please don’t forget to visit my official website for more info, gear pages and stories. And don’t forget to check out my instrumental guitar CD.

Godfrey Townsend is a New York-based musician who has worked with dozens of rock’s most influential names. In the past decade alone, he has performed nationwide with John Entwistle, Jack Bruce, Dave Mason and Alan Parsons. His current instrumental guitar CD, Easy Journey To Other Planets, is available at cdbaby.com, and a new album is in the works. Read more about him at godfreytownsendmusic.com.

"The Who were not just another rock band. And Pete Townshend was never your run-of-the-mill guitar hero. Without Townshend, the terms 'power chord,' 'Marshall stack' and 'feedback' might never have entered the modern guitarist’s vocabulary.

"Instrumentally speaking, the Who—rounded out by singer Roger Daltrey, drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle—were the first power trio, and Townshend defined what the electric guitar could do within that context. But he was never one to riff on mere notes. The guy riffs on ideas—ideas which have profoundly affected the way rock music is performed and presented. He increased rock’s vocabulary a hundredfold, dramatically expanding what can be said with a song, a show or an album." —Alan Di Perna

Read the following bios of Townshend, Daltrey, Entwistle and Moon, courtesy of TheWho.com.

PETE TOWNSHEND

Pete Townshend, The Who’s guitarist and principal songwriter, was born into a musical family in Chiswick, West London, on May 19, 1945. His father Cliff played the alto saxophone with the Squadronaires, the RAF dance band, and his mother Betty Dennis sang professionally. An aunt encouraged him to learn piano but after seeing the movie Rock Around The Clock in 1956 he became drawn to rock’n’roll, an interest his parents actively encouraged.

Having dallied briefly with the guitar, Pete’s first real instrument was the banjo which he played in a schoolboy trad jazz outfit called the Confederates. The group featured John Entwistle on trumpet but after John took up the bass guitar the two friends joined another schoolboy band, the Scorpions, with Pete on guitar.

Pete and John both attended Acton County School where another, slightly older, pupil Roger Daltrey had a group called the Detours. Roger invited John to join and around six months later the nucleus of the Who was in place when John persuaded Roger that Pete should join too. Meanwhile Pete had graduated to Ealing Art College, where he broadened his mind on a diet of radical performance art and American blues music, both of which would eventually inform the Detours as they worked their passage through the West London club and pub circuit.

With the arrival in 1964 of drummer Keith Moon and managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, The Who were on their way, with Pete increasingly cast in the role of leader and spokesman. Pete soon found himself at the forefront of the British musical boom of the Sixties. As guitarist and composer of the band, he became the driving force behind one of the most powerful, inventive and articulate bodies of work in rock. From early classic three-minute singles like ‘My Generation’, ‘Substitute’ and ‘I Can See For Miles’, through to complete song cycles in the shape of Tommy, Lifehouse and Quadrophenia, Pete established himself as one of the most gifted and imaginative musicians working in the rock field.

Pete spent all of the Sixties and much of the Seventies concentrating his creative energies on the Who. In concert he became recognized as the most visual guitarist of his and future generations, careering around the stage, leaping into the air and spinning his arm across the strings in his trademark ‘windmill’ fashion. He developed a unique guitar style, a cross between rhythm and lead which veered from furiously strummed chord patterns and crunching power chords to chromatic scales and delicate arpeggios. On top of this he frequently smashed his guitar into smithereens at the climax of a performance.

In 1967 Pete became a follower of the Indian avatar Meher Baba which inspired him to release three privately circulated devotional albums. These led him to compile Who Came First (1972), the first of a series of non-Who albums, beginning with Rough Mix (1977), a collaboration with fellow Baba devotee Ronnie Lane, and followed by the solo albums Empty Glass (1980), All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes (1982), White City: A Novel (1985), The Iron Man, an adaptation of Ted Hughes’ children’s story (1988), and Psychoderelict (1993).

In 1984, with the Who temporarily disbanded, he led an ad-hoc group called Deep End which released a live album in 1986, and he has also issued a series of albums called Scoop which feature Pete’s demos for Who songs, solo material and miscellaneous unrealized projects.

At various times throughout the Nineties Pete toured North America with a solo band, initially performing Psychoderelict but, as the decade wore on, he presented shows that included his solo material as well as Who classics. Many such shows, including occasional concerts in the UK, have been done in aid of charities.

Long acknowledged as one of the most intelligent and articulate of rock performers, Pete has run his own book publishing company and worked as an editor at the literary house of Faber & Faber which in 1985 published Horse’s Neck, a collection of his short stories. Ever inquisitive about new ideas and technology, he has turned his attention to the Internet on which his regular and often frank journals and essays provide essential reading for fans. In many ways Pete can be regarded as an Internet pioneer, insofar as Lifehouse, the project that embraced the songs on the album Who’s Next, included ideas such as the ‘Grid’, a national communications network, and ‘experience suits’ where life programs were fed to individuals via the Grid. At the time most observers were unable to grasp these ‘science fiction’ ideas but with hindsight it’s clear that Pete’s concepts were not too far removed from the web and virtual reality that we know today. In 1970, the technology wasn’t available for the project to be realized and it took Pete almost 30 years to see it through. It was only fitting that when he did get to perform the Lifehouse music in its entirety it was available to a global audience via a webcast.

Pete has run successful websites and blogsites, takes a hands-on approach with this medium and, indeed, has been nominated for a number of awards. As well as his diary entries, he has often made available free mp3s of rare tracks and ‘work in progress’ materials, video diaries and ‘pdf’ downloads of short essays.

He has also made available for sale at www.eelpie.com exclusive material, such as his live ‘signature’ series of CDs as well as the standard back catalog. The site has also been used for charity auctions and in 2000 it raised in excess $250,000 for Oxfam’s relief effort in Mozambique when Pete auctioned off many of his personal effects. This site will soon be brought into this official Who site.

Townshend has ambitious plans for future artistic endeavors using the Internet. They include continuing to distribute free music and selling CDs and DVDs. But most important he is still looking at ways of using the Internet to present musico-dramatic works (musicals, light operas) with a degree of audience interactivity akin to that enjoyed at live concerts.

In the meantime Pete continues to write and perform with The Who, and 2006 saw the release of Endless Wire, the band’s first new album in 24 years. He is presently working on an autobiography due for publication in 2010.

ROGER DALTREY

If any one member of The Who can be said to be the group’s founding member it is singer Roger Daltrey, who was born in the West London suburb of Shepherd’s Bush on March 1, 1944. Roger first assembled the group that would become the Who in 1961 while at Acton County School, recruiting John Entwistle and subsequently agreeing to John’s proposal that Pete Townshend should join. In those days Roger, whose daytime job was in a sheet metal factory, even made the band’s guitars, and it was his energy and ambition that drove the group during their formative years. That same energy, coupled with his unwavering resolve, has sustained the group during periods of uncertainty ever since.

Roger’s earliest tastes in music ran to the blues and R&B which formed the setlist during their early years as the Detours, as well as Fifties rock’n’roll, which is reflected in his outstanding interpretations of such noted Who covers as ‘Summertime Blues’ and ‘Shakin’ All Over’. In surrendering his leadership of the band to Pete when the latter became the group’s songwriter, Roger became the mouthpiece for Pete’s lyrics and ideas. At the same time he contributed to the group’s sense of showmanship by developing his unique skill at twirling his microphone lead around like a lasso and, by the time of Tommy in 1969, becoming one of rock’s most iconic sex symbols with his golden curls, bare chest and fringed suede coats.

In this respect Roger became Tommy, the deaf dumb and blind boy of Pete’s imagination, and it was therefore only natural that he should assume the role in Ken Russell’s movie adaptation of the rock opera in 1975, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination. This in turn led Roger to develop a concurrent career as a film actor while continuing to sing with the Who. Other film credits over the years include Ken Russell’s Lizstomania, the title role in McVicar, Lightning Jack with Paul Hogan, Teen Agent, and numerous roles in TV dramas. Most recently he appeared in the US CBS TV show C.S.I. – which uses Who songs as theme music - as five separate, differently made-up characters, one of them a middle-aged African-American woman. Other US TV appearances include Lois & Clarke (Superman), Midnight Caller, William Tell, Sliders and Highlander as well as Leprechauns for Celtic Leprechaun Ltd and The Bill, the long running UK TV police drama. He has also narrated a series for the History Channel, undergoing extreme hardships similar to those faced by pioneering settlers in America and elsewhere.

Roger has also cultivated a singing career outside of The Who, beginning in 1973 when he found himself on the BBC’s Top Of The Pops, the UK’s then premier chart TV show, promoting the single ‘Giving It All Away’ which reached number five in the UK charts. It was a track from his first solo album Daltrey, released that same year, which he followed up with the albums Ride A Rock Horse (1975), One Of The Boys (1977), the soundtrack to McVicar (1980), and After The Fire (1985).

Roger has appeared on stage away from the Who on many occasions, and his 1994 solo concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall, with The Juillard Orchestra, was the fastest selling event in the venue’s history. The following year he appeared on stage as The Tin Man in a production of The Wizard Of Oz at The Lincoln Centre, and in 1998 he starred as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden. He has also performed with his friends The Chieftains, the traditional Irish band, and toured the world with the British Rock Symphony interpreting a variety of rock classics.

Since 2000 he has been a patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust, a charity that builds specialized wards for teenagers with cancer in the UK. That year Roger had the idea of setting up the first show at the Royal Albert Hall by ‘The Who & Friends’, with ticket sales and revenue from a DVD and CD raising over £1.2 million, and as a result Roger was given a Humanitarian Award in 2003 from Time magazine. The actual amount Roger has raised to date from the Albert Hall shows has meant that two new TCT units have been built. Donations to The Teenage Cancer Trust can be given through their website www.teencancer.org.In February 2005 Roger was awarded a CBE by the Queen at Buckingham Palace for his services to music and good causes.

Whatever extra-curricular activities have tempted Roger away from The Who, the group he began forming at a Shepherd’s Bush Youth Club at the age of 16 will always be his first love. Even more than his colleagues, it has been Roger who has done his best to keep The Who's flag flying during those periods when Pete felt the need to seek creative outlets elsewhere, and the respect he has earned from Who fans as a result is something he cherishes deeply.

This was never more apparent than when, in 1995, Roger took the trouble to generously assemble a band to appear at the first British Who Convention, organized by Who fans for Who fans, at Shepherd's Bush, the area of London where he was born which has become synonymous with the band. As the ad-hoc group, which included John Entwistle and Pete Townshend's brother Simon, left the stage, Roger gazed over the sea of faces. “Thank you,” he said, genuinely moved by the occasion. “You've given us a wonderful life.”

JOHN ENTWISTLE

John Entwistle, The Who’s original bass player, was born in London on October 9, 1944, and his natural talent as a musician formed the backbone to many of the Who’s most memorable recordings. He was nicknamed “The Ox”, as well as “Thunderfingers” - because his digits became a blur across the four-string fretboard – and in a poll at the end of the 20th Century was voted ‘Bassist of the Millennium’ in Musician magazine.

Born into a musical family in Chiswick, West London, John was a formally trained musician who played the French horn in the Middlesex Youth Orchestra. He became a fan of Duane Eddy, the US guitarist whose hit singles featured a guitar played in a low register. As a teenager he abandoned his trumpet for a home-made bass guitar, and played in school groups The Confederates and The Scorpions with his friend Pete Townshend. In 1961, he was approached to join fellow Acton County Grammar school pupil Roger Daltrey’s group, The Detours. Six months later, John persuaded Roger to let Townshend join, and in 1964 they became The Who.

John contributed to The Who’s distinctive sound by cultivating a lead style of bass, underpinning Pete’s more rhythmic style of guitar playing with inventive runs in a higher register than most bass players, while at the same time keeping the group’s timing rigid during Keith’s volatile thrashings.

The Who’s third single, ‘My Generation’, featured a prominent bass solo by Entwistle, the first of its kind on a rock record, but unlike his colleagues John remained virtually motionless on stage, quietly observing – and underpinning - the reckless styles of Pete and Keith and Roger’s up-front approach.

While Pete emerged as The Who’s songwriter-in-chief, John began making distinctive, macabre contributions to The Who’s catalog, beginning with ‘Whisky Man’ and the imperishable ‘Boris The Spider’ on the A Quick One album in 1966, continuing with ‘Doctor, Doctor’ and ‘Someone’s Coming’ (1967), ‘Silas Stingy’ (from 1967’s The Who Sell Out), ‘Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde’ (1968), ‘Heaven And Hell’ with which The Who opened their formidable live shows between 1968 and 1970. John wrote ‘Cousin Kevin’ and ‘Fiddle About’ for The Who’s 1969 magnum opus Tommy because Pete specifically requested John to write “nasty songs” that he felt uncomfortable with. ‘My Wife’, John’s hilarious rocker about marital strife from 1971’s Who’s Next, also became a popular stage number.

When The Who’s success enabled the other members of the group to move out of London, John remained true to his West London roots. He married his childhood sweetheart Alison Wise in 1967 and bought a large semi-detached home in Acton, filling it with all sorts of extraordinary artifacts, ranging from suits of armor to a tarantula spider. His eccentricity and taste for the bizarre was to remain with him throughout his life, and when he finally moved out of the city to Stowe-on-the-Wold in Gloucestershire in 1975, his 17-bedroom mansion Quarwood resembled a major museum. It also housed one of the largest guitar collections belonging to any rock musician.

John’s impressive musicianship continued apace and his work on ‘The Real Me’ (from Quadrophenia) and ‘Dreaming From The Waist’ (from 1975’s The Who By Numbers) was particularly memorable. In the meantime, John sought an outlet for his backlog of songs, and in 1971 became the first member to release a solo album, Smash Your Head Against The Wall, which earned him a cult following in the US for fans of his brand of black humor. Other solo studio albums followed: Whistle Rymes (1972), Rigor Mortis Sets In (1973), Mad Dog (1975), Too Late The Hero (1981) and The Rock (1996). John also compiled a Who leftovers collection Odds & Sods in 1974 and with The Who resting in 1975, went out on the road with his own band, Ox. He also fronted the John Entwistle Band on US club tours during the 1990s, and appeared with former Beatle Ringo Starr’s All Starr Band, in 1995. A talented artist, John held exhibitions of his paintings, many of them featuring The Who, on a regular basis.

By the end of the millennium, a stripped down version of The Who – consisting of Pete, Roger, John, keyboard player John ‘Rabbit’ Bundrick, and Ringo Starr’s son, Zak Starkey (who had drummed in John’s studio band) – were touring again, amply demonstrating to original fans and a new generation of musicians just how they had established their original credentials. On these later tours John would perform an extraordinary bass solo on ‘5.15’.

John died from a heart attack on June 27, 2002, in Las Vegas on the eve of an American Who tour which carried on with a hastily recruited Pino Palladino playing bass.

KEITH MOON

Keith Moon, The Who’s celebrated original drummer, was born in Wembley on August 23, 1946, and is widely acclaimed as the greatest drummer in the history of rock. Brashly confident, he played quite differently to his peers, turning his massive kit into a lead instrument, and his up-front technique was crucial in establishing the Who’s passionate style. His playing ushered in an era wherein the drums became far more than simply a means of keeping the beat, and much of his recorded legacy from 1965–73 has a timeless quality that has never been repeated, let alone bettered. In this respect Keith Moon was to the drums what Jimi Hendrix was to the guitar – a complete original - and as such he was probably the most influential drummer the rock world has ever seen.

There was nothing in Keith’s humble background to suggest the extraordinary turn of events his life would take. He became a surf music fan as a schoolboy, took early lessons on drums as a teenager and played with three local bands in his native Wembley in north west London, The Escorts, Mark Twain & the Strangers, and The Beachcombers, before joining The Who in the spring of 1964. Shortly after Keith’s recruitment, The Who became managed by Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp whose energy and ambition focused the group.

Moon announced his arrival in spectacular fashion on the Who’s first real single ‘I Can’t Explain’ (1965) on which his rifle-shot snare preempted Roger Daltrey’s leap into the chorus. Mostly, though, his foil was Pete Townshend with whom he developed an uncanny musical relationship, the product of which became one of The Who’s great trademarks: the chiming, bell-like, open-stringed power chord, cross cut against pounding drums and bass and allowed to feedback on itself and drone into a wall of electronic discord.

Moon’s drumming is outstanding throughout the group’s debut album My Generation and on several Sixties singles, most notably ‘Happy Jack’ (1966) and ‘I Can See For Miles’ (1967), but it is on the double album Tommy (1969) that his talents are best utilized. On Townshend’s celebrated rock opera he becomes an orchestra within himself, driving the band along with an intelligence and sureness of touch that defies analysis. On Who’s Next (1971) Moon is reined in somewhat but his playing on the bridge on ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ and throughout both ‘Bargain’ and ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ ranks with anything he ever did.

The Who’s greatest strength, though, was in concert and by the end of the Sixties they were justifiably billing themselves as "the most exciting rock band in the world". To this Moon contributed an almost superhuman energy, his hands and feet battering his kit into submission night after night, the relentless power of The Who in full flight spiraling out from his arms and legs.

Moon's kit was the biggest in rock, at one stage boasting at least 10 tom-toms, twin bass drums, twin timpani, snare, half-a-dozen cymbals and a gong. With this vast array of percussion at his command, he adopted a peculiar style wherein he pointed his sticks downwards and, as John Enwtistle once remarked: "He didn't play from left to right or right to left, he'd play forwards. I've never seen anyone play like that before or since." Keith was also a virtuoso showman, twiddling his drumsticks between his fingers and flamboyantly tossing them into the air and, occasionally, catching them when they fell. He developed an on-stage image as a wise-cracker and often ad-libbed comical asides between numbers, and like Pete he took an almost manic delight in wrecking his equipment at the close of a concert, especially in the group's early days.

At the same time Keith was rock’s wildest character in the Sixties and Seventies, an unapologetic freewheeling hedonist whose lifestyle became synonymous with the mad, carefree image of the rock star at large. He courted the press and became notorious as ‘Moon The Loon’, the incorrigible clown who respected no authority whatsoever and never knew the meaning of the word embarrassment. As the Who became massively popular worldwide, so Keith Moon became a celebrity, not just as a drummer, but as the mad jester to rock’s high court whose exploits included cross-dressing, elaborate practical jokes and a much-publicized episode when he and his great friend Vivian Stanshall of the Bonzo Dog Band visited a London beerkeller dressed in Nazi SS uniforms. Keith’s Chertsey home, Tara House, became the venue for many memorable parties, not least the 1971 launch of Who’s Next.

When The Who slowed down and Pete Townshend sought creative outlets elsewhere, Keith moved to California and took cameo roles in several movies, most notably in That’ll Be The Day (1973) and its sequel Stardust (1974), as the drummer in a fictitious rock band led by David Essex. He also completed a solo album, Two Sides Of The Moon (1975). He moved back to the UK in 1977 to play on Who Are You, his last recorded work with The Who.

Keith died on September 7, 1978, from an accidental overdose of the prescription drug Heminevrin, prescribed to combat alcoholism. He died in the same flat in Curzon Place in London’s Mayfair (belonging to Harry Nilsson) that Mama Cass had passed away in during 1974. On the eve of his death, Moon had been at a screening of The Buddy Holly Story during the Paul McCartney-sponsored, annual Buddy Holly week.