We Were Always Top Of Our Game

Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey talk about their life in The Who and a new DVD which documents it, AMAZING JOURNEY.

It’s one of the quintessential moments in rock history. The Who are performing in front of an invited audience at the behest of filmmaker Jeff Stein, who needs a definitive performance of Won’t Get Fooled Again for his new film. After an average rendition of the band’s signature classic, the group head off stage to call it a night. Like a man possessed, Stein charges into their dressing room begging, badgering and saying anything to coerce the band to return to the stage and deliver what he demands, the ultimate rendition of the song. Angry words fly. Pissed off and exhausted, Townshend and band climb back on the stage for a climactic take on the track, which would prove to be Keith Moon’s last live performance with the band. Near the end of the song, Roger Daltrey’s trademark blood curdling primal scream (“YEAHHHHH!) leads to Pete Townshend’s death-defying knee slide across the stage; pure rockn’n’roll magic. This is what Stein had in mind. Now he has an end to his movie.

1978’s The Kids Are Alright is routinely heralded as one of the best music documentaries ever made. The filmmaking team behind Amazing Journey, a new two-hour distillation of The Who’s story, were in for a mighty challenge working in the shadow of such a revered celluloid artefact. Yet somehow, against all odds, they’ve pulled …

by Ken Sharp
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