Look Who They've Got Now

Where would we be without The Who? I’ve often thought about this question. The face of rock & roll as we know it today would be very much different if Townshend, Daltrey, Entwistle and Moon opted against forming a band back in the day. If Daltrey was your local butcher and Townshend was teaching your little sister to speak French, we would never have had The Jam. And without The Jam, The Stone Roses would never have existed. And without The Stone Roses, Oasis would never have been. And without Oasis… you get the picture.

The Who are regarded by many as the most vital voices in rock & roll. Time Magazine wrote in 1979 that "No other group has ever pushed rock so far, or asked so much from it”. And 30 years later you still wouldn’t argue against that. Daltrey and Townshend are still touring strong, and have been booked to supply the half time entertainment at next years Super Bowl. Although I love The Who, I’ve got about as much interest in watching the Super Bowl as I have trying to write “Go Pacers!” into my inner thigh with a blunt razor. However, some people obviously do enjoy it, as Super Bowl XLIII was watched by 151.6 million people word wide.

The forecast for the 2010 battle of the men in shoulder pads is set to be even bigger. With this in mind, it’s a great testament to the boys who were originally an R&B band called The Detours. You see, not a lot of people know that when Moon, Townshend and Entwistle first joined Daltrey in the early sixties, The Who were an R&B outfit that recorded under a different name entirely. Fast forward nearly 50 years and with a quick name change they are set to use the Super Bowl as a platform to play to over 150 million people. And they’ll do this after they’ve had a career that has seen them sell over 100 million records and chart 27 top forty singles in the United Kingdom and United States with 17 top ten albums.