The Who

About the Event:

The Who are one of the top three greatest rock legacies in music history. Their music provoked explosive change and spanned what many critics declare is rock’s most elastic creative spectrum, with Pete Townshend’s songwriting moving between raw, prosaic, conceptual, and expressively literate. Their visionary sense of stagecraft headed by Roger Daltrey’s soaring vocal prowess is topped off by the band’s blistering rhythm section. With both Roger and Pete delivering their memoirs in recent years (Pete’s Who I Am was released to much acclaim in 2012, and Roger’s autobiography, Thanks A Lot Mr. Kibblewhite; My Story, was embraced by critics in 2018) it’s fitting that the two remaining WHO members have shared their incredible legacy in literary fashion, for few bands have had a more lasting impact on the rock era and the reverberating pop culture than The Who.

Emerging in the mid-1960s as a new and incendiary force in rock n’ roll, their brash style and poignant storytelling garnered them one of music’s most passionate followings, with the legendary foursome blazing a searing new template for rock, punk, and everything after. Inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall Of Fame in 1990, the band has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, placing 27 top-forty singles in the United States and United Kingdom and earning 17 Top Ten albums, including the 1969 groundbreaking rock opera Tommy, 1971’s pummeling Live At Leeds, 1973’s Quadrophenia and 1978’s Who Are You. The Who debuted in 1964 with a trio of anthems “I Can’t Explain,” “The Kids Are Alright” and “My Generation.” Since then they have delivered to the world hits such as “Baba O’Riley,” “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “Pinball Wizard,” Who Are You,” and,” You Better You Bet.”

In 2008, they became the first rock band ever to be awarded the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors. The Who has performed all over the world including global music events for the Super Bowl XLIV Halftime Show in 2010 and closing the London 2012 Summer Olympics. The Who continued their charity work by playing a concert in January 2011 to raise money for trials of a new cancer treatment called PDT. In December 2012 they performed at the Hurricane Sandy Benefit in New York. In January 2014 they played a set on the U.S. television special to support the charity Stand Up To Cancer. In November 2012 Daltrey, with Townshend at his side, launched Teen Cancer America. The charity is now established in the USA, with offices in Los Angeles and devoted Teen Cancer units being opened in hospitals all over the U.S. TCA’s work has impacted over 5,000 young people and their families nationwide during the last ten years.