From The Bush To The World: The Who Tour 2000 > Reviews (1)

“So here we are. Back in the USSSK. No easy-to-find petrol, no trains, and charter airplane flights through storms that toss me around like the leaf I really am. But somehow we and the fans have got to every show … Is it sad to be 55 and still doing this sh*t? You tell me” – Pete Townshend Nov 2000

North American Tour 2000. Tampa Ice Palace. September 26th 2000.
World Tour 2000. Newcastle Telewest Arena. November 6th 2000.

It was luck rather than design that we were able to attend two concerts within a period of six weeks. I had tried to get tickets for the concert at Shepherd’s Bush Empire the previous December but such was the demand that they were sold out almost immediately. The only tickets left were in the hands of the package agents at astronomical prices.

The American Tour had been planned and advertised months in advance. We have a property interest in Tampa, Florida and we need to make an annual visit for business purposes. We were therefore able to arrange our trip to coincide with the show at what is now called the St Pete Times Forum. We also discovered that our accountant had also booked to see the show and we made an evening of it (dinner, the show, drinks) from our base at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Downtown Tampa. The following day there was an exhibition of paintings and drawings and lithographs by John Entwistle in a local gallery in St Petersburg. A few of the limited edition lithographs are still available but at very much inflated prices (the album cover “Who By Numbers” limited to 350 copies - $1500)

We were surprised when the UK tour was announced and even more amazed when Newcastle was one of the slated venues. I originally wrote the review of the concert which follows, immediately after the Newcastle event.

”This tour, now in its UK phase, has taken the world by storm. The line up is a tight five piece, having dropping the ever expanding brass section and support vocalists. Gone are the Union Jack jackets and backdrops. The Who now comprise Roger Daltrey (vocals), Pete Townshend (guitar, vocals), John Entwistle (Bass), John ‘Rabbit’ Bundrick (keyboards) and Zac Starkey (Ringo’s son - drums). There was more than a little surprise and scepticism from the media when the tour was announced in the autumn of 1999 – but show after sell out show, review after review has confounded the pundits. So, has the hype been justified and, equally, has the standard been maintained?

Judith and I have seen The Who on stage twice (once in the US and once in the UK) this year. We also went to see Pete Townshend perform Lifehouse at Saddler’s Wells, London in February. We flew over to Tampa on business in September and timed it to coincide with the Ice Palace concert. Last night it was the turn of our home town arena. We took with us a friend who hadn’t seen The Who live since 1973 and our 13 year old son who hadn’t experienced a rock concert before.

There were some differences of course. Last night the weather was atrocious (three inches of rain in 12 hours, storm force gusting winds) whereas six weeks previously it was warm and sunny in Florida (although a hurricane had skirted the Bay area the previous week!

). The Ice Palace is by far the larger venue with three tiers of banked and more comfortable seats.

The programs were the same (entitled “From The Bush To The World”) in both places. In comparison with many other recent gigs we’ve been to it represented extremely good value for money (£12 or $20) with an excellent retrospective of the group and many, many photographs. The ‘T’-shirts were (not) the same – our Tampa shirts were printed US Tour 2000. The Newcastle offerings had the same logos now printed World Tour 2000 with the addition of the six UK venues.

The supports were different: The Unamericans in the US; Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros in the UK. We avoided the support in Tampa and wished we’d done the same last night. The problem with any support is that a bad group cannot be made good by turning the volume up so loud that it distorts and becomes painful – but a good group can sure be destroyed by the same treatment. In either event an arena is a barn and requires a miracle worker of a sound engineer to overcome the inherent inadequacies of such a space.

The stage set was a fairly simple affair with a circular overhead gantry supporting a number of lighting arrays but subtly different in each venue (presumably we had the Number One set in Tampa and the Number Two set in Newcastle). Last night’s colours did seem more intense and played over the audience longer. The laser patterns seemed more intense.

The audience in both places were equally mixed in age (tee-wearing mid life crisis individuals as well as the younger element). It was standing room only throughout the floor area yesterday. Absent at TeleWest was the aroma of those special cigarettes!!!

The Who have performed a reasonably consistent play list at each concert. There have been occasional variations, perhaps more to keep the performers interests from flagging. The running order last night was:

I Can’t Explain
Substitute
Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere
Relay
My Wife
Barba O’Reilly
I don’t even know myself
Bargain
Drowned
Behind Blue Eyes
Pinball Wizard
Can you see the Real Me?
Who are you?
You better you bet
5.15
Won’t get fooled again.

Encore

Let’s see Action
The Kids are Alright
Mary Ann with the Shaky Hand (Not performed in Tampa)
My Generation

Their performances belie their ages. Roger Daltrey is still ruggedly youthful. He twirls the microphone just as maniacally as ever. Vocally he was on peak form yesterday and hit the top notes with precision. He had problems with acoustic feedback in Tampa which did cause him difficulty in the first half of the show. He did cut down the force of the final cry in “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and he was perhaps less energetic in his stage antics with no running-on-the-spot routines.

Pete Townshend ‘windmilled’ and swung around the stage as was expected. His guitar playing is electric – he did a solo spot on acoustic guitar with ‘Drowned’ which brought the house down. He has had problems during the tour (he injured his right wrist and had to play the Atlanta gig heavily bandaged).

He also commented yesterday before the Newcastle concert that ‘… my fingers are completely destroyed again so I can’t play as well as I could at the beginning of the tour. I have to work out a trade off compromise: will a great guitar solo make the show or a serious windmill?’ It didn’t show last night. How about a ‘Townshend Unplugged’ Pete?

John Entwistle stood stolid and stoic apart from the dizzying dance of his fingers across the frets, delivering his characteristic driving ‘OO bass. He had a long virtuoso solo during ‘5:15’. He also led the vocals in his own composition ‘My Wife’.

John Bundrick provided solid keyboard support throughout. He sparkled in ‘Baba O’Reilly’ and ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’. Zac Starkey was introduced as a lad who knew Keith Moon when he was small. He has the same mop top hair cut and played the kit with similar gusto and passion.

From the first chord to their final departure The Who held their audience in wrapt attention and led them through a panoply of their hits as well as the occasional less well known song. I didn’t recognise ‘I don’t know myself’ and ‘Mary Ann with the shaky hand’ was a delightful reminder of an almost forgotten oldie. Admittedly the majority of the songs came from ‘Lifehouse’/’Who’s Next’ but given the sudden impetus and exposure of this work over the last eight months it is hardly surprising. There were three representatives from ‘Quadrophenia’ and one from ‘Tommy’. The volume was loud and intense, the sound a solid wall. Pete Townshend took the part of Master of Ceremonies, introducing the songs, the performers and entering into banter with the Geordie audience. They were on stage for a total of two hours and ten minutes.

Who would have anticipated ‘My Generation’ this powerful, live, 35 years after it was first performed? What other group is still as strong and vibrant today teeming with new ideas for tomorrow (read Pete Townshend’s web site if you don’t believe me on this score) as they were when they first started? Who would have believed songs from a previous generation would still sound so fresh? But then they are probably ageless – such is Pete Townshend’s composing prowess. He had even written new verses (for the millennium) for ‘The Kids Are Alright’.

Worth going? You betcha, you bet!!. Our friend commented that they were better, far better than he remembered from 1973. Our son wanted to find out where The Who were playing next – and could we get tickets? The Who play London Arena and Wembley Arena this month. They then play two charity concerts at London’s Albert Hall on December 2nd and 3rd 2000.

Can’t get? Try the ‘The Who Live: Blues To The Bush’ double CD album (recorded at The House of Blues, Chicago and Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London 1999) It’s only available for purchase on the internet at www.eelpie.com.”

I made a note at the end of the article that ‘This is a "must see", "must hear" bravura show. Miss it and regret it’. Prior to these two shows we had seen “Quadrophenia” live at Wembley Arena in 1997.

We were planning our trip to see one of the 2002 American concerts which of course were cut short by the tragic events of John Entwistle’s death.

[POSTSCRIPT: This article is the second in a series of three documenting my experiences of The Who tour of America and Europe. The others are:

1. TheWhoLive Blues To The Bush: 1999.
(http://www.ciao.co.uk/Blues_To_The_Bush​_The_Who_Live_1999_2000__Review_5355267)
The first review described the genesis of the project from what was to be a single charity concert in Chicago and let to the release of a two CD set which has become a prized collector’s item (“Blues

3. “Teenage Wards: Not Teenage Wastelands” The Who Live with Special Guests at the Royal Albert Hall: London.
The third review will concentrate on the recently released DVD of the charity concert held at the end of the tour in 2001. This concert was screened recently (August 2003) by the BBC.]