Well, what do you say about an iconic legendry band like The Who that’s not been said. They have been around for nearly sixty years, written some of rocks iconic songs ever, performed at some of the most venues to millions of fans, and tonight we get the chance to see them at what seems a weird choice of venue – no offence to Derby Cricket Club. It’s not one that automatically springs to mind when you think of this legendary band.

Both Pete Townsend and Roger Daltrey are in their late seventies now, and the question is can they still do it? Well, yes, they can. Obviously, they can’t jump around like they used to, but Daltrey’s voice is still good enough to deliver this mixture of hits and for the first part tracks from Tommy accompanied by an orchestra, which worked very well, as it should, as Tommy was a rock opera. The crowd sang a long and danced on the unprotected ground, even if the weather wasn’t great, at least it didn’t pour down like it did all day. For the hits segment of the night the orchestra left the stage and left the band to play on, smashing out the big guns, ‘The Kids Are Alright’, ‘You Better You Bet’, ‘Substitute’, ‘I Can’t Explain’, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ and ‘Behind Blue Eyes’, thoroughly entrancing the fans, who were loving this.

For the third part of the night the orchestra rejoins the band on stage, but the pace never let up, as they reloaded the big guns again with ‘The Real Me’, ‘5.15’ and ‘Love Reign Over Me’, before finishing off the night with ‘Baba O’Riley’, which of course was met with the biggest cheer of the night. The smiles on the faces of the crowd warmed up the quite cold night. Nobody in their right minds would expect Daltrey and Townsend to be as good as they were 15-20 years ago, but the opportunity to see these living legends play the songs that we have all grown up with and see Daltrey swing his mike around was more than enough for the crowd. One but, we have to say their performance wasn’t helped by the sound which seemed to have a problem coming and going all night long, which for us spoiled it a little. However you can’t say how many more times we are going to be able to see the legends that are THE WHO.

Photos by Geoff Griffe
Review by Jenny Griffe