The Who at the Jaguar, 10 August 1968

An account of the Who’s show at the Jaguar Club, St. Charles, Illinois, on 10 August 1968, by Rick Giles.

Photos copyright and courtesy of Rick Giles.

Rick Giles:

I first saw the Who on Aug. 10, 1968, at a small venue in St. Charles, Ill., which was a converted roller rink. Sat on the floor with about 300 other people. Very up close and personal so to speak and VERY, VERY, LOUD. But it was a life-changing experience.

Keith’s drums were unmiked except for a vocal mike. You could hear Keith perfectly over John’s two Sunn 200s bass amps with four speaker cabinets and Pete’s two Sound City stacks. They used a Swedish PA system called Ackuset for power and four Marshall 8×10 speaker cabinets for speakers. The cabinets were set up like a “T” — that is, one cabinet was set upright with the other on top horizontally. No throwbacks or monitors and you could hear the vocals perfectly like you always could with the Who. They always had the best PA equipment every time I saw them.

My dad flew me up from Dayton, Ohio, that Saturday afternoon and we had dinner at a restaurant atop a hotel in downtown Chicago and drove out to St. Charles that evening. Paid $4.00 to get in and the club owner wasn’t going to let my dad in because he was “too old, over 21.” He explained that we had just flown all the way up from Dayton just to see the Who so he let my dad in and he and my dad hung out together in the back of the place during the concert. My dad had his new Polaroid camera and took about a dozen photos. The owner brought him backstage after the show and he took a couple of photos of John, Pete, and Roger in the “dressing room.” Keith was nowhere to be found but there was a bar across the street...... It was the first time any of them had ever seen a Polaroid camera.

My dad was pretty good at schmoozing so I’m sure he and the club owner hit if off and the guy let my dad wander around and get some pretty good shots from the side of the stage which was only about 3 feet off the ground. The place had a VERY low ceiling with exposed girders and water pipes which Pete promptly pulled himself up with and kicked holes in the acoustic tile ceiling at the end of the show after he broke his guitar and knocked over the amps.

Additional note from Dean Milano (toys-n-cars.com):

How cool to read an article from someone else who was at the Who show in St. Charles, Il. The Jaguar may have been a roller rink at one time, but it was originally a car dealership.

My band played there several times and I was at that same show in ’68. I remember Pete putting aside the nice guitar he’d been playing all night and picking up a cheap one just before they started My Generation. Of course, he smashed that one to pieces. And as soon as the song was done, a group of policemen lined up in front of the stage. What a great concert that was!

The club owner, by the way was Rusty Paulsen. He lives in California now, but I actually ran into him in Wisconsin about 5 years ago. The next big show I saw at the Jaguar was the Yardbirds. Those were the days — $4.00 to get in!

• Return to the main 1967–68 PA page.
• Return to the main gear page

Acknowledgements

• All information and photos courtesy and thanks to Rick Giles.