Roger Daltrey: The Biography by Stafford Hildred & Tim Ewbank

Author:Stafford Hildred & Tim Ewbank [Hildred, Stafford & Ewbank, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Music, Musician, Nonfiction, Retail, Rock Star, Singer
ISBN: 9781405518451
Google: 2sMzAgAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00GVFLMZA
Publisher: Piatkus
Published: 2012-09-06T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

LIVE AND KICKING

Roger is one of the few people who can and will take him [Pete Townshend] on, usually with monumental frustration and sometimes justifiable anger, I think, that he’s being dismissed in some way or another.

Keith Altham

How to follow Tommy was always going to prove a headache for The Who, particularly for its composer, Pete Townshend. After spectacularly pulling off their attempt at artful glory with Tommy, Roger was keen for the band now to reassert itself as a rock force. The problem was partially, but only temporarily, solved by the band starting the new decade by taking the Pye mobile studio up to Leeds to record an album intended to capture the excitement of their live performances.

Recorded at Leeds University refectory on 14 February 1970, Live at Leeds set a standard for in-concert albums which countless groups and singers have tried to match ever since. Very few have succeeded.

While Tommy was sophisticated, highbrow rock opera, Live at Leeds was The Who back to the raw power that had always been their calling card. When released in May 1970, the LP was even covered crudely in clicking noises, which, according to Pete, were caused by a ‘dodgy mike cable’. This prompted the inclusion of a note on the circular label of the album that read: ‘Crackling noises OK. Do not correct.’ As well as a version of ‘My Generation’ consisting of a jam lasting almost 15 minutes, the album included majestically noisy, heavy-rock covers of Mose Allison’s ‘Young Man Blues’, Eddie Cochran’s ‘C’mon Everybody’ and Johnny Kidd and the Pirates’ ‘Shakin’ All Over’.

‘I’ve always maintained they were the greatest rock ’n’ roll band because they were north, south, east and west,’ says Keith Altham. ‘Each was diametrically opposed to each other and when they got together they put together something that was quite beautiful. It’s almost like Gestalt, the German word, a unique blend which presented something they couldn’t and have never been able to do individually. Collectively there was an extraordinary balance of four people coming together and finding a perfect harmony. On some nights when they played, without any of them being brilliantly individual musicians – not an Eric Clapton or a Jeff Beck or a Rod Stewart or a Michael Hutchence, in other words without a superstar in there – they did something that I’ve never seen equalled. I’ve seen all the bands, all the supergroups, but I’ve never seen a band with that kind of blend that could provide that unique unity. Live at Leeds best captures that on record.’

Live at Leeds kept Who fans happy enough. But it brought to a close the most prolific phase of the group’s recording career. In the seventies they released only four albums of new material and in the eighties just three. During periods of inactivity by the band, Roger contented himself with working on his farm, expanding his forays into acting, and generally enjoying his home in Sussex.

Roger had worked hard to convert one of the barns on his land into a well-equipped recording studio.

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