Every once in awhile, the Pencil Storm Editorial Board publishes a column of e-mail journalism, i.e. Grown Men E-Mailing One Another About Some Rock & Roll Topic THEY Really Care About, and then we subject our readers to said opinions. Today’s subject is The Who and aging rockers in general.
Guest-commenting - along with the Edit. Board - will be drummer-extraordinaire Jim Johnson; formerly with Willie Phoenix, now with The Beatdowns.
It all started - innocently enough - with Ricki C. running across a soundcheck video of The Who from August 26th for their show at Fenway Park, and his resulting one-word comment/appraisal…….
Ricki C. - On Sat, Aug 30, 2025 at 10:22 PM Ricki C. < > wrote:
Yow.......
Jim Johnson - From: < >
To: Ricki C.
Sun, Aug 31 at 6:42 AM
The proverbial question, who are they? I guess they’re not really the Who. Can’t really expect them to have the power & bombast of the original. A pale imitation? Not even that.
Jeremy Porter - From: < >
To: Ricki C.
Cc: Colin Gawel
Sun, Aug 31 at 1:53 PM
It's awesome for 80/81 year old dudes.
Any of us should be so fortunate to be doing that at that age.
But it's time to call it a day.
Ricki C. - On Sun, Aug 31, 2025 at 2:33 PM Ricki C. < > wrote:
I know this is extreme, but it was time to call it a day when Keith Moon died. Even Led Zeppelin had the brains & integrity to break up when John Bonham died, and he wasn't nearly as integral to Zep's sound as Keith was to The Who's. They never made a good record after Keith passed.
Jeremy Porter - From: < >
To: Ricki C.
Mon, Sep 1 at 8:33 AM
Of course you can make that argument, and it's an easy one to make, but I discovered The Who when HBO aired their (original *cough*) "The Who Bids Farewell" tour in 1982 supporting It's Hard. While I know that record is no Who's Next or Quadrophenia, and Kenny Jones is no Keith Moon, I'll always love that record. So I am not in the camp that says they should've broken up. I also saw the Quadrophenia tour in `96 that was absolutely incredible, and well worth doing. I knew I'd never top that, and then Entwistle died, and I was officially out.
What Zeppelin did after Bonzo died was extraordinary. They could have kept going for sure, and they also never took the reunion bait, despite offers of massive paydays. Mad respect for them.
Ricki C. - Ricki C. - From: < >
To: Jeremy Porter
Cc: Colin Gawel
Mon, Sep 1 at 11:59 AM
Jeremy - Agreed about Zep. Although I think it was Robert Plant more than Page or Jones that scotched the reunion offers. I can't believe they never just replaced him with somebody like Paul Rodgers and went back out anyway. People wouldn't have cared. They just want to say they saw "Led Zeppelin." Who's in it doesn't really matter, or The Who wouldn't still be out there.
Which brings to mind; since they're only half of The Who without Moon and Entwistle, should they be The Wh's, or - much more appropriately - The Ho's?
Man, cheap shot, even for me.
Jeremy Porter - From: < >
To: Ricki C.
Cc: Colin Gawel
Mon, Sep 1 at 12:22 PM
You can argue all day about what losing a member should or shouldn't do to a band name. While I agree on many levels, the fact is that ship sailed LONG ago. Is it the WHO without Moon? Maybe. Without Entwistle? Maybe even less? It's ultimately not up to us, unless we refuse to buy tickets. But Foreigner, Molly Hatchet, and whoever else are out there with exactly ZERO original members, and someone is most certainly getting paid. I’d've gone to see that Quadrophenia show if it was "Townsend-Daltrey" on the ticket just the same.
Generally if the quality is there I tend to roll with it. My desire to see it is based more on that than the name on the marquee. Paid GNR prices to see The Axl Rose Band with GNR on the marquee. It was great, but it wasn't GNR. I am also boycotting the current Sex Pistols tour because how TF is it the Pistols without Rotten??? I am a walking contradiction.
xx
Jeremy Porter - From: < >
To: Ricki C.
Cc: Colin Gawel
Mon, Sep 1 at 1:33 PM
It's really easy to say "they shouldn't do that" but when there's millions and millions of dollars at stake for printing "THE WHO" on the ticket, then it's understandable why they would.
And spare me the "how much money do they need?" malarkey because it's the music BUSINESS and businesses are in business to do business (ie make money). They're not in business to make sure the environment is taken care of, their employees earn a working wage, kids aren't paying too much for tickets, and that the original bass player is standing on the stage. Bringing money is the reason they have managers and corporations.
Robert Plant is the anomaly. Good on him for standing his ground.
Paul Weller too.
xx
Ricki C. - On Tue, Sep 2, 2025 at 11:44 AM Ricki C. < > wrote:
Jeremy - I think a lot of this has to do with our relative ages. I first saw The Who on Shindig in 1965 when I was 13, bashing out "I Can't Explain" and "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" and blowing my little Dave Clark 5-loving mind. They didn't replace the DC5 as my favorite band on the planet right then, but it didn't take that long after.
(Ya know, another future P/S blog idea might be a group-effort progression-of-our-favorite-bands feature, i.e. - for me - The Dave Clark 5 > Paul Revere & the Raiders > The Who > Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band > The Strokes and The White Stripes, which is where I have rock & roll ending. 1957 - when I became aware of rock & roll at 5 years old - to 2007 when The White Stripes released their last record, Icky Thump, it was a good 50 year run for me.)
Anyway, that was 60 YEARS AGO and it actually PAINS me to see my former favorite band just going through the motions at 80. To me, that's just not the way rock & roll was supposed to work. But once my Boomer Generation seized control of the Means of Communication and AOR-radio prevented punk-rock from happening in 1976 we were locked into that paying hundreds - if not thousands - of dollars to see out former heroes go senile before our very eyes.
And though my lifelong Bruce Springsteen buddies Jodie & Chris are gonna be upset with me, at this point I don't wanna see Bruce playing arenas with approximately 1100 people onstage with him when I remember back to the lean, mean/fine, fine, superfine 7-piece E-Street Band from the 1978 Darkness On The Edge Of Town tour.
I saw Bob Dylan and the Hawks in November 1965 from the tenth row of Vet's Memorial when I was in eight grade, I saw Jimi Hendrix play guitar right before my eyes when I was 16, I saw The Who on the first Tommy tour when I was 17.
I can't ruin those memories.
(And yeah, I totally understand that younger people than me of all ages WANT to see those bands NOW, and more power to 'em, but it pains me they don't know what they missed.)
Colin Gawel - From: < >
To: Ricki C.
Cc: Jeremy Porter
Tue, Sep 2 at 11:55 AM
Lots of stuff here.
I’m on Jeremy’s side of things when it comes to older bands if they want to keep playing or adding new members that is up to them.
I must admit though that this last run by The Who seems a bridge too far even for them. I think they have hit every single market for the past two years and the shows have been pretty mediocre. And to do it without Zach?
I guess they still sell tickets somehow.Jeremy Porter - From: < >
To: Colin Gawel
Cc: Ricki C.
Tue, Sep 2 at 10:17 PM
I can't blame you, Ricki, for not wanting to ruin those memories. I feel the same way, just that my line ended in ‘96, not ‘76. And I agree with Colin that this run seems (my word, not his...) pathetic. I have almost no interest in it. I probably wouldn't go if it was free. They are hanging on by a thread. It's not enjoyable to watch, and they don't look happy.
We're in uncharted territory with these guys in their 80s. If they can get up there and play the songs they wrote and sell some tickets and get their grandchildren through college, and our children, nieces, nephews...can say they saw THE WHO, then who are we to shit on it? Doesn't that make US the pathetic ones? We don't have to like it. I don't like it. But we also don't have to buy tickets, watch the YouTube clips, and cringe when they look like they’d rather be eating Tuesday parsnips at the nursing home than slinging a Telecaster for a 30-minute soundcheck.
I've never seen a Beatle. I got tickets to see McCartney in November in Canada. Is some grumpy bastard saying he should have hung it up after WINGS? Fuck ‘em. I put off seeing Eddie Van Halen. I missed The Jam and The Minutemen. I never saw Haggard or Cash. I'm alive at the same time the Beatles are (were) alive and I want to be in the same room where he's singing those songs while it's still possible.
You know what we do have though? WE HAVE THIS: https://shop.thewho.com/collections/live-at-the-oval and by all counts I've heard, it rules. I plan to get it as soon as I see it on a shelf. Our nieces and nephews probably ain't buying that.
Jim Johnson - From: < >
To: Ricki C. Wed, Sep 3 at 11:49 AM
Sounds to me like “Don’t tarnish my precious memories”. Musicians like to play, as long as they can play. Yeah, Pete can do his solo stuff, but with touring costs being what they are, he would probably lose money. He could afford to lose, but is it worth the hassle? I think Roger could care less. Are they embarrassing themselves? Sell-out crowds don’t think so. It will all be over soon. Let ‘em have their fun.
I know The Stones will come up. I say, as long as Keith feels like playing, let him play, it’s his band. After all, they’re just a blues band, and Muddy played until he kicked, and Buddy Guy is STILL out there.
The last word from Ricki C.“These videos are from the same tour I saw in Columbus, Ohio Vet’s Memorial, November 1st, 1969; the greatest rock show I ever witnessed.
THOSE four turbines - Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, Keith Moon - are what made The Who engine roar.”