Isle of Wight!!
June 12, 2004

We met up with Ruby and Jackie and then the members of the Mooncusser film crew @ the airport and set off for the Isle of Wight.

The ferry trip over was beautiful. Dougie said that someone on the ferry introduced him to who he thought were some members of the current Who, but they turned out to be some local musicians who had just played a wedding. There was a rumor that Pete Townsend was on the ferry, but I didn’t see him.

We parked the bus in the parking lot, which was to be our home for two days. It was behind the stage. Isle of Wight has only one stage unlike Glastonbury which has several. This makes it much simpler. We got out, and went to see Jet performing. Saw John Giddings my agent, out in front of the stage, which was nice. More on him later. I liked the band, they were accomplished and cool. I recognized their song from some commercial in the States. The camera work for the screens by the side of the stage was excellent, it looked like a music video. In spite of this, Ruby declared the band “pathetic” and stalked off to go on the rides with Jackie.

After their performance there was scramble for food before the Who came on, so we went out and walked among the grounds to the concession stands. I tried to avoid going through the crowd by walking behind the chain link fence barricading the grounds. I was with Ruby, Jackie the babysitter, and Glynn. Suddenly I realized that right ahead of us were about 20 guys with their penises out, all urinating through this fence. We were about to walk right in front of them.

“Girls! Stop!!” I shouted. “Why?” said Ruby. “Turn around right now! Let’s go this way!” “Why?” said Ruby. Apparently the girls hadn’t noticed anything.

We stepped over people on the ground, sunburned, one boy looked very drunk or drugged, probably about 14, which disturbed me. We tried to get Ruby something to eat, which we achieved finally with great difficulty. Glynn and I ate pork sandwiches and made our way back to the bus, avoiding the urinators.

I made sure Ruby got into her pajamas and started to brush her hair when Glynn came running in -- “There’s a seat for you at the VIP lounge to see the Who, but you have to come NOW!” he said. I gave Ruby a kiss and went running off. She complained, but I promised her she could see David Bowie the next day. She was too tired to stay up any later, and I didn’t think she would like it anyway.

The energy as the Who hit the stage was like a punch in the face. The younger bands had been good, but this was another level. I had never seen them live before. I knew about them because every boy I liked in high school was crazy about them. My first date was at the age of 15 to see the movie “Tommy” at the Ziegfeld Theater with Joe Piscitello.

I didn’t like rock n’ roll at that age. All my friends were into Patti Smith, The Who, and David Bowie but I thought rock musicians were stupid posers acting silly. I was deeply suspicious of any hype and showmanship. I was into Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan. Although I wanted to be a performer and had written lots of songs, I never went to an actual show until 1979 when I saw Lou Reed.

I don’t remember what they started with, but early on in the set Townsend began to shout for them to turn up the music, complaining that it was too quiet. Everybody cheered loudly, and he seemed to visibly relax. It was good to see some humor in his craggy face.

Of the two frontmen, Roger Daltrey seemed to be struggling more, straining on certain notes, and also he’s a bit heavier now than he was, not quite the golden boy he has been. Townsend fares better in that respect -- having never been a beauty he has lost little in that department.

Daltrey at one point launched into a harmonica solo which sounded bizarre, having nothing to with the rest of the song - Townsend whispered into his ear and Daltrey flung the harmonica away. Someone had given him the harmonica in the wrong key. This annoyed him, understandably.

I was more and more drawn in by Townsend as the show went on, by his dark charisma, and the language of his body with the guitar. Although I have seen the pictures so many times, when he did the first windmill, I was struck by the absolute defiance of the gesture, not only in his arm. But especially his eyes. And then down through every sinew of his body.

I found myself really moved watching him play not only the thunderous pounding of “Pinball Wizard” but also the more delicate phrases, I don’t remember now which songs they belonged to. “Love Reign O’er Me” was exhalted and probably the high point of the show for me. Though we were 60,000 people we could feel and see the artistry in his fingers as he coaxed the tender notes from the sound hole, notes you would think would be lost in the production but never were. I vowed to myself NEVER to lose control of my own guitar on stage again.

I particularly wanted to hear “Behind Blue Eyes” since we have been covering it in our set. I love this song and have always identified with it. More on that some other time. To be honest, they seemed to walk through it, and it was a shock hearing Daltrey forget the lyrics at one point. I feel it’s one of their most poignant songs.

I began to love Townsend in his black Nehru suit, for his lean austerity, his body twisting with power, and the way he became one animal with the guitar, one minute bashing on it in a kind of abusive fury and the next caressing sweet unexpected notes into the air.

I was glad to see them at this stage of the game rather than at their height. It’s more difficult now, and they rose to it. We were curious -- how would they play the line “Hope I die before I get old?” Would they wink at it? They did not. They played it straight and went on with the show. They could have been a cliche, but they weren’t.

The press later confirmed that it was a great show and they were still in great form. The article I read in the New York Times a couple of months ago when they played Madison Square Garden was mixed, so I really didn’t know what to expect beforehand.

The other thing that struck me about the performance was the inventiveness of the music. I HATE long solos, and really love words. To me a song is lyrics and a melody, sometimes not even that. The rest is theater. During long musical breaks I find myself getting restless, and wondering what to do with myself, sometimes even in my own shows, looking at my nails and wondering if they need a trim. But here I was completely absorbed in their musical landscape of shifting harmonies, rhythmic changes, melodic riffs, and unexpected textures. I am sure all of this has been written about and analyzed to death in the music press but for me it was all new.

I am curious to know more about Townsend the man. Remembering everything in the press about him from last year, you don’t want to get too close, however. I can’t imagine leaning against a bar and having a drink with him somewhere. Although one senses self loathing and personal unhappiness, the way he tranforms it onstage is pure dark alchemy. I love the way he plays acoustic guitar especially, he opens up all new possibilities of how to play it. I came away completely inspired. He did a runner afterward so we will never know about him. We all went to bed on the bus and prepared to take the stage ourselves the next day.

[Next: Isle of Wight - Continued... ]