The Who in Vancouver: The many times the band played epic performances in the city

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Sixty years after Roger Daltrey sang the classic verse “I hope I die before I get old” in the song My Generation, The Who is coming to Vancouver on The Song Is Over: North American Farewell Tour.

Could it be the last time fans hear those defiant words blaring across arenas? Maybe. Maybe not.

The legendary mod band played its first farewell tour in 1982, and a large contingent of Vancouver fans drove down to Seattle, WA., to see the band with the Clash opening. Then the group reunited for a full tour in 1989. The 50th anniversary tour in 2015 was billed as a goodbye as well. But the 2019 tour in support of the album WHO nixed that.

Whatever the future holds, surviving founding members Daltrey and songwriter/guitarist Pete Townshend — and whoever is in the band backing them — will bring The Song Is Over: North American Farewell Tour to town adding to a history that stretches back to the band’s local headlining debut at the PNE Agrodome on March 1, 1968. The group had previously played an opening slot for Herman’s Hermits in town.

Not that the performance merited much more than a big photo and a wee mention in The Vancouver Sun’s Rock Session column titled Smashing Good Time At Concert.

“Four young Britishers had a smashing time Friday night at the Agrodome. They were The Who — a British group who end their act by smashing their instruments in a cloud of smoke.”

The net result of which, to the columnist, was “the climax of a rock concert in which the most interesting musical segment was Tom Northcott of Vancouver.”

While Northcott went on to enjoy a career as a folk rocker, co-founding Vancouver Mushroom Studios, where Heart recorded its debut Dreamboat Annie, and being inducted into the B.C. Entertainment Hall of Fame in 2008, The Who became one of the biggest bands of the British Invasion of the 1960s. Morphing into megastar arena rockers in the 1970s, the group’s music spun off films, stage musicals and other dramatic projects up to this very day.

Not that the career path was always an easy one.

Dynamite drummer Keith Moon died of a drug overdose at age 32 in 1978. He was replaced by former Small Faces drummer Kenney Jones, who was with the band when a fan rush toward the stage at a show in Cincinnati left 11 people dead. Jones’ final show with the band was the 1982 farewell tour, which ended in Toronto on Dec. 17.

Vancouver fans were treated to this formation of the group on April 14, 1980 at the Pacific Coliseum. Vancouver Sun reviewer Jamie Lamb didn’t hold back in his estimation of the power of the veteran act in concert: “Nobody does it better than the legend known as The Who. … Pure rock ‘n’ roll.”

Breaking down key moments in the show, the review raved about one tune in particular, Won’t Get Fooled Again, from the fantastic album Who’s Next, is a howl of defiance in the face of a future that didn’t improve from those initial youthful stuttering taunts in My Generation.

“Won’t Get Fooled Again. The guys in the blues are tearing into this one. Any teen working for minimum wage can take this political song to heart with its ‘Meet the new boss/same as the old boss’ line. But what everyone is waiting for is The Scream. Three-quarters through the song there’s a break, the instruments noodling around, the lights shooting sparks off the revolving silver ball, then Daltrey’s rooster stance and, the blood curdling yell. ‘Yeaaaaaaaaaahhh.’ Nothing like it in rock and he’s still got the tonsils to make it pay off.”

Just under a decade later, in a two-show run at B.C. Place in August 1989, Vancouver Sun reviewer John Mackie noted the band still had what it took to put on a solid show. This was true even with Townshend only playing acoustic guitar for much of the concert, owing to advanced hearing problems. This was the last time fans would hear John Entwistle on bass, as he died of a heart attack in 2002.

“Its promoters hailed it as a triumphant return to the stage for one of rock’s legendary acts, celebrating their 25th anniversary. Cynics dubbed it ‘The Who’s retirement fund tour.’

“And while there is no doubt money was one of the prime motivations for Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle getting back together — rumours have it they will rake in $20 million US each before The Who’s summer tour ends — after Friday night’s show at B.C. Place Stadium, there can be no doubt that The Who is still a fairly lethal live act.

“It’s hard to say if The Who has a future, but the group sure does know how to celebrate the past.”

The Who will be celebrating the past again with Daltrey, Townshend, his brother Simon Townshend on guitar and vocals, Jon Button on bass, Loren Gold on keyboards and newest touring band member Scott Devours on drums. Longtime touring drummer Zak Starkey, son of Ringo Starr of the Beatles, was fired from the band in April of this year after a fallout following a Royal Albert Hall performance.

Tickets to the Sept. 23 show at Rogers Arena start at $56.90 and are on sale at Ticketmaster.ca.

sderdeyn@postmedia.com, with research by Postmedia librarian Carolyn Soltau

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