the who

[munkonthehill]

So im sitting watching The Who.... the kids are alright.

Now am sure we can all agree that John is a monster on bass, but what I really love is the he takes care of his gear.


I couldnt imagine for one second whacking any of my basses to death.

Whilst the other 3 are destroing everything on stage, John keeps playing and makes sure his gear is untouched, what a gent in my opinion.

What do you chaps think?????????????

[thisnameistaken]

I went to see that Scott Pilgrim flick last weekend, he's got a lovely fireglo Ric bass that gets destroyed fighting a vegan bass player with a Mustang. In the next scene the Ric was held together with gaffa tape and I was distraught!

[Lozz196]

Could never understand why The Who (and countless others) felt the need to smash some great instruments. Even when I was younger, I thought it rather stupid and very un-cool. To me, its not about the money, its almost sacreligeous (hope I spelt that right, tho prob not) to smash a musical instrument. Am not fussed if my basses get dings, thats character & road-wear, but I`d never deliberately damage them.

[Marvin]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='950051' date='Sep 8 2010, 10:55 PM']I went to see that Scott Pilgrim flick last weekend, he's got a lovely fireglo Ric bass that gets destroyed fighting a vegan bass player with a Mustang. In the next scene the Ric was held together with gaffa tape and I was distraught![/quote]

It's all CGI these days, so the fireglo Ric probably never existed. Why did a vegan have a ferrel horse anyway?

[TimR]

[quote name='Lozz196' post='950058' date='Sep 8 2010, 11:02 PM']Could never understand why The Who (and countless others) felt the need to smash some great instruments. Even when I was younger, I thought it rather stupid and very un-cool. To me, its not about the money, its almost sacreligeous (hope I spelt that right, tho prob not) to smash a musical instrument. Am not fussed if my basses get dings, thats character & road-wear, but I`d never deliberately damage them.[/quote]

The big secret is that Townsend used to swap his guitar for the last song with one that had been glued back together from the previous show.

The things you hear on Radio 2 late at night eh....

PS Good to see you here Lozz. You know me. I'm friends with the guys from Nadir Rising.

[Musky]

Didn't Entwistle trash one of his buzzards outside a studio?

[Mr. Foxen]

None of that gear had legendary status at the time, they were just guitars. Now they are guitars like The Who used to play.

[Bloodaxe]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='950051' date='Sep 8 2010, 10:55 PM']I went to see that Scott Pilgrim flick last weekend, he's got a lovely fireglo Ric bass that gets destroyed fighting a vegan bass player with a Mustang. In the next scene the Ric was held together with gaffa tape and I was distraught![/quote]
I would be too! Rick QC is frankly shocking for the prices they ask
[quote name='TimR' post='950068' date='Sep 8 2010, 11:09 PM']The big secret is that Townsend used to swap his guitar for the last song with one that had been glued back together from the previous show.[/quote]
Ritchie Blackmore did much the same in Rainbow. I'm sure I've seen footage of him playing a Strat one minute, & then a Hondo/Encore meets a messy end.

Edited September 8, 2010 by Bloodaxe

[skankdelvar]

What do I think? Townshend claims to have been influenced by the concept of 'Auto-Destruction', while simultaneously admitting that accidentally breaking a Rick one time got an interesting reaction from an otherwise sleepy audience. Bit like the windmilling arm, the feedback and the stage jumps. Moon just did it for a laugh. Daltrey and Entwistle just stood and watched.

Whether it was a pretentious 60's 'Concept' or a bit of showmanship doesn't really matter. It was [i]40 years ago[/i], it's what they did at the time, it helped their career, punters liked the sense of 'occasion', it was their money and their equipment to do what they liked with. No offence intended to the OP or anyone else, but as for whether it was 'acceptable', if you don't get it, you don't get The Who.

As for gear smashing, well, it's your gear, do what you like with it, polish it or trash it; no one's holding a gun to your head.

[munkonthehill]

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='950111' date='Sep 9 2010, 12:00 AM']What do I think? Townshend claims to have been influenced by the concept of 'Auto-Destruction', while simultaneously admitting that accidentally breaking a Rick one time got an interesting reaction from an otherwise sleepy audience. Bit like the windmilling arm, the feedback and the stage jumps. Moon just did it for a laugh. Daltrey and Entwistle just stood and watched.

Whether it was a pretentious 60's 'Concept' or a bit of showmanship doesn't really matter. It was [i]40 years ago[/i], it's what they did at the time, it helped their career, punters liked the sense of 'occasion', it was their money and their equipment to do what they liked with. No offence intended to the OP or anyone else, but as for whether it was 'acceptable', if you don't get it, you don't get The Who.

As for gear smashing, well, it's your gear, do what you like with it, polish it or trash it; no one's holding a gun to your head.[/quote]

no offence taken,,,it wasnt my gear,,,,I dont do it,,,,,,,,,,your right, its theirs to do what they like!

[risingson]

[quote name='Lozz196' post='950058' date='Sep 8 2010, 11:02 PM']Could never understand why The Who (and countless others) felt the need to smash some great instruments. Even when I was younger, I thought it rather stupid and very un-cool. To me, its not about the money, its almost sacreligeous (hope I spelt that right, tho prob not) to smash a musical instrument. Am not fussed if my basses get dings, thats character & road-wear, but I`d never deliberately damage them.[/quote]

It's auto-destruction, it's an art form in a loose sense... literally an expression of raw emotion culminating in giving your respective instrument the beating of a lifetime. Hendrix bankrupted himself at some stage doing it. He went through so many wah pedals just from standing on them and rocking back and forth.

[Kiwi]

[quote name='Musky' post='950082' date='Sep 8 2010, 10:21 PM']Didn't Entwistle trash one of his buzzards outside a studio?[/quote]
Yes and the pieces were framed and presented back to him as a gift.

[Lozz196]

[quote name='TimR' post='950068' date='Sep 8 2010, 11:09 PM']The big secret is that Townsend used to swap his guitar for the last song with one that had been glued back together from the previous show.

The things you hear on Radio 2 late at night eh....

PS Good to see you here Lozz. You know me. I'm friends with the guys from Nadir Rising.[/quote]
Hi Tim, yep thought I needed to join up, hope all`s well.

Re the OP, to me, it don`t matter if for the last number "proper" guitars were swapped for cheapo ones, in order to smash them - I just find trashing guitars etc wrong, irrespective of value.

[munkonthehill]

[quote name='Lozz196' post='950198' date='Sep 9 2010, 08:02 AM']Hi Tim, yep thought I needed to join up, hope all`s well.

Re the OP, to me, it don`t matter if for the last number "proper" guitars were swapped for cheapo ones, in order to smash them - I just find trashing guitars etc wrong, irrespective of value.[/quote]

yeah guitars through amps and drums reduced to skelves.

Brings a wee tear to my eye

[MoonBassAlpha]

I remember seeing Bebop Deluxe on their "Sunburst Finish" tour, and Bill Nelson swapped his 335 for and Audition or somesuch cheapie for the last number to set it on fire. I felt a bit cheated and glad at the same time.

[SteveK]

Well, without it we wouldn't have this iconic (?) bit of [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J249iACsmKY"]film[/url].
Used to amuse me hearing punk rock described as [i]exciting and dangerous[/i]...oh yeah? well, you obviously had never seen The Oo!

It's The Who, It's what they did. It all added to their legendary status.

[JTUK]

I watched some of that as well... my overiding thing was to switch over..they were pretty ropey at that time.
I don't care that they felt the need to smash up their gear to get column inches

[TimR]

I agree that destroying a PLAYABLE instrument is bad. If its an old one that's fallen down the stairs or has a warped neck and is beyond economical repair and would only get binned whats the problem.

I have a bass that's sat in it's case for over 5 years. I may have played it 3 times. It's not worth anything to sell, I'm not going to bin it and it would break my heart to give it away.

Am I any worse for keeping it in captivity?

As for the WHO, I think that as bands go they were different in that the Bass was the instrument everything sat on. The drumming was wild and didn't carry the band solidly. Moon played the drums as you would play another instrument, almost a solo instrument. Listen to some of the OX's isolated bass tracks, the bass carries the whole band and the guitar fills the gaps in the rhythm.

There was method in that final smashing up madness. Drums, guitar and singing could stop but the song didn't end until the bass stopped. There's only so many times you can kick drums over and hit a guitar on the ground. I think keeping the bass going helped keep the interest and lengthened the smashing up process.

[MB1]

[quote name='Musky' post='950082' date='Sep 8 2010, 11:21 PM']Didn't Entwistle trash one of his buzzards outside a studio?[/quote]

MB1.
..Was a Green Warwick Buzzard bass!......................Should have gone to Status!....

Edited September 9, 2010 by MB1

[Cat Burrito]

[quote name='Lozz196' post='950198' date='Sep 9 2010, 08:02 AM']Re the OP, to me, it don`t matter if for the last number "proper" guitars were swapped for cheapo ones, in order to smash them - I just find trashing guitars etc wrong, irrespective of value.[/quote]
I used to hate seeing bands like Kiss where Paul Stanley came back on with a cheapy guitar & smashed it. I always thought it was the worst of rock 'n' roll excess when genuine and quite frankly, a bit crap, when it was a fake. I tried trashing my bass back in 1995 when drunk on stage and wound up 1) spending a lot of money sorting it & 2) looking a prat doing it at the time. Ultimately it's your gear, you do what you like with it but it does seem a bit pointless really.

[Muzz]

Think it all looks petulant and pointless, to be honest. But then I always did.

[EBS_freak]

Ah well, all this smashing kept the luthiers of Denmark Street busy. He was doing his bit for the economy.

[deaver]

I saw Townshend smash a guitar live at the Manchester Apollo 1981, it was most definitely not a cheapo passed to him by a roadie. It was also hugely exciting for the 18 year old Deaver.

I also saw Daltrey mouth "how much did that fakkin' cost, then" at the end of the song.

[TimR]

Its amazing what you find on the Web.

The 1981 event was an accident!

Some of the early ones were specially prepared or swapped with cheap ones (which is what I must have heard). I would guess that at some stage they had enough money to be able to afford to smash one a gig.

"I used to break a guitar every performance — if not two sometimes — and they would always cost around $150. They would always cost me an incredible amount of money to find — they’d cost, like, road manager’s time and my time to look through pawn shops, local music stores and things like that."

BUT That was $150 in 1967!

[url="http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gear/guitar/smashed.html"]http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gear/guitar/smashed.html[/url]

[garethox]

[quote name='MB1' post='950680' date='Sep 9 2010, 02:51 PM']MB1.
..Was a Green Warwick Buzzard bass!......................Should have gone to Status!.... [/quote]

Nah, twas a Black Warwick Buzzard. Story goes that John was rehearsing with the JEB and he tried 3 different Buzzards, but each one of them was giving a lot of fret buzz. John got so annoyed he excused himself, took the 3rd Buzzard outside and beat the thing to death!
Bobby Pridden collected the bits and had it framed as a Christmas present for John.

The only times I heard of John's guitars being broken was once when Keith Moon fell over a Thunderbird and broke the neck off and another time when Roger kept telling him to turn down - he got so pissed off he threw his Alembic down on the stage, shouted 'You play the f***in' thing then' and stormed off.... jumping 12 feet off the back of the stage in his Cuban heels!

As for the auto-destruction - I think it was a bit of both i.e. Pete's art school lectures and blind luck. The accident with the Rickenbacker just clicked with him and the audience; becoming a showstopper and gaining them national press coverage but also giving a physical outlet to the frustrations he, the band and a lot of the audience were feeling.

I love watching The Who smash their gear, although not at Monterey - I think they tried too hard that night to make an impact and also to upstage Hendrix who had told them he planned to destroy his gear as well.

This Youtube clip is great for those haven't seen it - Lego Who!

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsSo01FIXk8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsSo01FIXk8[/url]

I just wanna know who the hell that is on JTUK's avatar! The guy's face in the background is priceless - and a lot like mine when I first saw it!

Edited September 9, 2010 by garethox