I saw one of the concerts here in Melbourne at Festival Hall!
I was 14 years old and it was the first time that I ever saw a live
band.......fuck.....what an introduction. :-)

I remember seeing a row of MARSHALL stacks (I think there were 4
of these (at the time) giants across the stage...could have been 6)
on stage and for those days it looked quite awesome...more on them later.

THE QUESTIONS opened the show (later to become Doug Parkinson In Focus)
and from what i remember they were ok. PAUL JONES then came on and did
his thing (the questions were his backing band). He was very good.

On came THE SMALL FACES they were great, did all their hits ITCHYCOO PARK
TIN SOLDIER, LAZY SUNDAY AFTERNOON etc., etc. I remember that STEVE
MARRIOT was playing a black GIBSON LES PAUL...more on that in a minute.

Finally on came THE WHO.....they were absolutely AWESOME!!!!
The birdman was doing his windmills, Daltrey was swinging his mic,
Moon was just goin' for it on the kit and John Entwistle was just
a rock of gibralter holdin it all together.

Townshend was playing a blue Fender Stratocaster with a white scratchplate
and during SHAKIN' ALL OVER the guitar neck snapped off midway thru the
song and he just threw it across the floor backstage and was given
STEVE MARRIOT'S black Les Paul to play. When the song finished, Townshend
explained to the audience that his roadies loosen the bolts at the back
of the neck/guitar body join so he wont hurt his hands when he smashes it
at the end of the show. The crowd were calling out to him to smash
the Les Paul but he said he couldnt cos' it was Steve Marriot's guitar.
The road crew then came back with his strat bolted back together again.

Finally at the end of the show all hell broke loose on stage, the amp's
had smoke rising out of the top of the boxes and thinking of it now,
it was obviously some special effect that was planned to go off cos the
smoke was uniform from all amps and they all "smoked" at precisely the
same time....but it was very effective, no one had ever seen anything
like this before.

Just to give you an idea of what sort of an impression it left on me,
I only lasted one more year at school, i got a job, learnt how to play
guitar, saved my money and bought some good equipment and became a
full time rock musician (check my homepage for a who's who of whom i've
worked with over the years). When I saw what happened that night i
knew what I wanted to become.

Anyway, I hope this helps you out....regards.

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WWW Home Page http://connexus.apana.org.au/~johnmoon

From: Ian Clothier

Amazingly, I was at the exact same concert as John ("awesome" just doesn't seem
enough to describe the effect this show had on us teenagers).

To follow on from what he wrote, I'd like to add that when the finale of the show
approached Pete explained that he couldn't smash Marriot's guitar so out came
his "repaired" Strat. This was then smashed and hurled into the audience.

I can still see my mate, Les Wellstead, emerging from the pack with the neck of
the ill-fated guitar in his possession. However the Roadies or Security (I think the
latter) waited till we were filing out and in that post concert dreamy state, we were
extricated from the crowd and the souvenir inexplicably confiscated.

That episode plus the obviously staged ending did diminish their hero status to
me. But not enough to prevent them still enjoying by far the largest presence in my
record collection to this day.

John Moon thank you for retelling your memories.

Ian Clothier.

From: Patrick Kennedy

Thanks for a great page, brings back many memories. I'll probably recall a lot more shortly, however I was at one of the Sydney gigs (probably the Monday one) at 6pm. The venue was the old Sydney Stadium (now extinguished by the Eastern Suburbs railway). I can recall the Small Faces getting a rather (uncalled for) bad reception as the front rows were full of sharpies. In addition, the revolving stage broke down due to the amount of gear (speakers etc). Unfortunately all I could see for most of the show was the back of the Who's sound equipment. The acoustics in the place were terrible and, if I had not previously seen the Who live in the UK, I would have been most disappointed. Sydney at that time did not have a suitable venue for bands of the Who and Small Faces calibre.

I can recall that there were so many complaints about the poor conditions and the stage breakdown that persons attending the early show (6pm) were allowed to stay for the later show but had to move to the bleachers (back rows). Despite all this, I remain a dedicated Who fan (and Small Faces). I'll be back later with more memories.

regards,
Pat Kennedy

From: R Large

I saw one of the shows at the Stadium in Rushcutters Bay. I was 5 rows
from the stage and I couldn't hear anything for 2 hours after the gig,
Which pissed my Dad off because he had to pick me up afterwards and he
was moaning about being kept waiting because the show ran late.

I saw Pete smash the blue Strat up into the roof at the end of My
Generation and Keiths drums rolled all over the place. This was after
Bob Pridden had made a great show of nailing them to the stage before
they went on. Very theatrical!!

They were brilliant. I've loved them ever since.

Rob Large - Auckland

From: Keith

My name is Keith Herbert, I am now 47 years old, and I still remember the Sydney stadium concert as being the most exciting visual/musical experience that I have attended. Some trivia : Paul Jones thanked the "Quotations" for their backing. Then, embarassedly realising his error, corrected himself. Keith Moon played a beautiful double Premier kit. As a fledgling drummer myself, I was mortified by the treatment he dealt the kit. In 1968, I realised my ambition to play on the same stage, which was fulfilled (incidentally Doug Parkinson was on the same show) with a band named Syn. Steve Gard, Robert Taylor and Dave Allen (guitar, bass and flute, respectively) being the other members. I'll never forget the feeling of elation at playing on the same stage as the Who and also The Beatles, who incidentally were my first concert experience in 1964. Through the smoke, the image of Townsend's guitar spinning up into the lights, epitomised what the Who were saying.