This month...

The Who’s mini tour, 2008

Back in July the Who were honoured with a prestigious award at the rock honours ceremony in Los Angeles with top artists lined up to pay tribute to England’s finest act. The artistes paying their dues ranged from the likes of Jack Black and Adam Sandler to Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), Gaz from Supergrass to Sean Penn along with various acting superstars. It was this show that inspired us to do the 15 gigs lined up for October and November spanning America and Japan.

The first gig was staged in Detroit, followed by Ontario, Boston and Philadelphia (I was thinking of taking a gun!). Believe me, Philly was dodgy in places. What you have to remember with the Who is that no two gigs are ever the same, not just the slight variation on set lists but also Pete’s often sporadic outbursts just add to the ambience of the evening’s entertainment. For example, when he spotted a young child perched on the mosh pit barrier in Washington, he ordered him off through threat of chopping him into bits and putting him into a pot to make soup!
Uncasville in Connecticut proved a bugger to get to, but worth it as the gig was in the world’s largest casino situated on an Indian reservation.

A warm welcome followed in the up close and personal venue in Atlantic City named the Borgata (another casino) with 2000 capacity and quite possibly the craziest crowd so far, and being Halloween made it even weirder. That night we saw a band dressed as the Beatles playing Vanilla Ice tunes then to top it all Scary Spice walked in dressed as Catwoman in head-to-toe PVC to judge a fancy dress competition where she chose a man dressed as a sheep to win! It was Halloween American stylee after all!

Andy

• MUCH more in this issue of Scootering!

• On to this month's recommended listening chart >