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The Age
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
From unimpressed mums to Peter Garrett's butt: The Spicks and Specks stories you haven't heard
Over its 20-year history, and 308 episodes, Spicks and Specks (named after the 1966 Bee Gees song) has become one of Australian television's enduring success stories: a family-friendly quiz show that celebrated music and comedy, revelled in nostalgia and sparkled with the chemistry of its three stars, Adam Hills, Myf Warhurst and Alan Brough. It turned a generation of musicians and comedians into household names and still remains one of the few outlets for live music on TV. For the show's 20th anniversary season, Hills, Warhurst and Brough share their memories of the iconic music quiz show, with an assist from frequent guest stars Dave O'Neil, Hamish Blake, Denise Scott and Brian Mannix. Adam Hills, host: It was pitched to me as a music quiz show that also celebrated Australian music and showed new music. But the thing that really got me was when I sent an outline of games for the show and I remember sitting on a plane back from London reading the outline for Substitute, and it was where you sing a well-known song using the words of an unrelated book. And I used the Qantas magazine, and thought of some songs, and went through it, and went, 'Oh, wow. I could see this could be a thing.' It was like a cross between a trivia quiz and Countdown. Myf Warhurst, team captain: I got a call at Triple J, where I was working, and they said, 'Can you come for an audition?' I thought it sounded like a bit of fun and I said yes to everything back in those days! I turned up for the audition, and I literally got a call within a day. I hadn't met you [Adam]. I knew Alan. And then I was like, 'Oh, what's the show?' Alan Brough, team captain: Well, approached is a big word for how it happened. I think [TV producer] Anthony Watt called me and said, 'I'm involved in a show about music. Do you want to do it?' And I went, 'Yeah.' And that was all I knew. Do you remember watching the first episode go to air? Myf Warhurst: It was a very strange experience because I'd not had any mainstream television experience prior to this, and it was like a dream of mine, growing up in the country, [to be on ABC TV] because we only had the ABC. It was like, 'Oh, I've made it.' But then I spoke to mum on the phone and she said, 'Yes, it's very good, but I hope you recorded that on VHS, just for your files.' She thought it was so bad! Mum loves the show, by the way. Nance is the biggest fan. Alan Brough: My mum, when she came over to Australia [from New Zealand], she said, 'I saw that show you're on.' And I said, 'Oh.' And she said, 'Thank god all the useless stuff you know, it's come in handy.' Myf Warhurst: It's often been compared to overseas shows like Never Mind the Buzzcocks, which was much more competitive. They take the mickey out of some artists, but we never did that. We were very supportive and played very nicely with everybody. What was it like being a guest on the show? Denise Scott, comedian: I know f--- all about music. Every time, including an episode I just did recently, I feel sick because of my complete lack of knowledge of music. I keep thinking, 'What am I doing here?' But it did give me confidence about telling what I thought were pretty boring stories, they made everyone laugh. Hamish Blake, TV presenter: [On my first episode] I knew – and know – very little about music trivia, a deficiency I was assured wouldn't be a problem. But the fact it's a show that's 100 per cent about music made me nervous of that assurance. Dave O'Neil, comedian, who has appeared more than 60 times, more than any other guest: It was a perfect show for me because I don't have that much knowledge about sport or current affairs, but music, I'm going to be up for it. Brian Mannix, lead singer of the Uncanny X-Men: The first time I went on, I had a couple of beers. I think I was on about six times before I was ever on the winning team. Hamish Blake: I was almost exclusively on Myf's team and have a lot of fond memories of celebratory high-fives after looking in each other's panicked eyes and pulling answers out of thin air that somehow were correct. Also, being on Myf's team gave me a front-row seat to appreciate Alan doing his thing and being able to name the cab driver who dropped Freddie Mercury to Live Aid or some other wild fact. Denise Scott: They always put a question in that they assume you might know. For me, it'll be about Julie Andrews. But otherwise, I must admit, I do try and give a bit of time to looking at YouTube clips of various artists. I don't even know what to Google. I don't even know what name to search for. And then I think, 'Who am I kidding?' Brian Mannix: The show has been really good to me. I talked to [musician] Wilbur Wilde about this the other day, because our mothers have passed away, and I said the good thing is we get to see our mothers every Mother's Day because me and Wilbur had our mums on the show for the Mother's Day episode and we get to see it in repeats. Were you ever starstruck? Adam Hills: My favourite was Weird Al Yankovic because I was a comedy nerd. I was losing my mind. And he's one of the few people that have been on the show that I've kept in touch with. I've caught up with him. He's met my kids, and he still sends me a birthday email every year. Alan Brough: Lloyd Cole from Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. [Producer] Anthony Watt knew I loved him, so he didn't tell me he was coming on. I walked into the green room [and saw him] and I went, 'F---' and then walked out, had a few breaths, came back in, and I said, 'I'm really sorry.' And he said, 'It's happened before.' Myf Warhurst: For me, growing up, Countdown on the ABC was all we had. We didn't have much and no internet, obviously, because I'm ancient. So when all these Australian pop stars that I grew up adoring came on the show, it was wild. I did shows with Sharon O'Neill from New Zealand, and Jane Clifton from Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons and Renee Geyer. Dave O'Neil: I met Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil, which was great because I showed him my Year 10 folder, which had his butt on the front. It freaked him out a little bit. And because I was a big fan of Oz rock, they started putting me with difficult people, like Chris Bailey from the Saints. He was really grumpy. I remember Jim Keays, from the Masters Apprentices, said to me once, 'Adam's a busy person, he hosts this and The Gruen Transfer.' And I said, 'That's Wil Anderson.' He thought Wil Anderson and Adam Hills were the same person. At that point he'd been on the show four or five times. Denise Scott: I had an interesting – oh, I can't say who it was because it was an American performer, a quite well-known musician – and he talked to himself the whole show so quietly and no one else knew except me. It was a mental health issue. OK, who was the worst at Substitute? Alan Brough: It was Hamish [Blake] doing Eye of the Tiger. He did all of the song and then he stopped, and I think Adam said, 'Hamish, can you tell us what it is?' And he said, ' Eye of the Tiger.' And you may have said, 'Are you sure?' And then he did it again, and we still didn't know what it was. Hamish Blake: Now that I think about it, that segment is literally for professional singers so, of course, I was the No. 1 worst. Denise Scott: I did have to do Substitute, but interestingly, I only ever got asked to do it once… Brian Mannix: The last time I did the show, I was dressed up in a Taylor Swift ballerina outfit. I don't often get to do that. In 2011, Hills, Warhurst and Brough decided it was time to leave the show. It was briefly rebooted for one season in 2014, with a new host and team captains, but it didn't last. Do they ever regret calling it quits in 2011? Myf Warhurst: I thought it was perfect timing because we'd done it for seven years and told all our stories. It meant people got to miss us, and we got to step away and realise how much joy the show had given us. It's one of the sweetest gigs for Alan and I, because we just turned up, basically. We sit back, knowing that we get to talk about what we love, meet people we love and hang out with our friends that we love. Adam Hills: You don't realise what you've got until you finish it. My manager had a really good phrase for it, he said, 'It's important to go off and do other things and realise that you're not magic.' Alan Brough: He's wrong because you got even more famous after we stopped. So you are magic. Dave O'Neil: My mum would watch [the repeats] in the nursing home and then ring me up and say, 'Did you dye your hair? I saw you on TV last night.' And I was like, 'Mum, that episode was 15 years old!' Who made the first move to get the band back together in 2018? Alan Brough: I made the first move once. It didn't work out and I didn't do it ever again… Adam Hills: It was the ABC wanting a one-off Aus music special. As soon as we all walked into the make-up room, it was like we'd never been away from each other. And I think, probably, at the end of that episode, there was talk of maybe we could do a couple of specials, and then, we could do a small series… Do you have another 20 years in you? Alan Brough: I don't think I've got 20 years of life. Myf Warhurst: We were talking about it today. We might do one in the nursing home. A reality show, maybe. Adam Hills: Music is constantly refreshing itself, and especially now with Spotify and the internet and all that kind of stuff. So as long as there's more music to talk about, then I think we could probably still talk about it. Alan Brough: There's a picture of the three of us, just as you go into the make-up room, and when we first came back, my daughter, who was born in 2011, walked past that at the age of 10 or something, and went, 'Oh, Myf and Adam look good, but you have got much older.' Adam Hills: We're like a three-part harmony. If you look at it in a musical sense, we each bring something different. And when you have all those three voices on their own, the voices are fantastic, but all those three voices together, it's bigger than the sum of the parts.
Sydney Morning Herald
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
From unimpressed mums to Peter Garrett's butt: The Spicks and Specks stories you haven't heard
Over its 20-year history, and 308 episodes, Spicks and Specks (named after the 1966 Bee Gees song) has become one of Australian television's enduring success stories: a family-friendly quiz show that celebrated music and comedy, revelled in nostalgia and sparkled with the chemistry of its three stars, Adam Hills, Myf Warhurst and Alan Brough. It turned a generation of musicians and comedians into household names and still remains one of the few outlets for live music on TV. For the show's 20th anniversary season, Hills, Warhurst and Brough share their memories of the iconic music quiz show, with an assist from frequent guest stars Dave O'Neil, Hamish Blake, Denise Scott and Brian Mannix. Adam Hills, host: It was pitched to me as a music quiz show that also celebrated Australian music and showed new music. But the thing that really got me was when I sent an outline of games for the show and I remember sitting on a plane back from London reading the outline for Substitute, and it was where you sing a well-known song using the words of an unrelated book. And I used the Qantas magazine, and thought of some songs, and went through it, and went, 'Oh, wow. I could see this could be a thing.' It was like a cross between a trivia quiz and Countdown. Myf Warhurst, team captain: I got a call at Triple J, where I was working, and they said, 'Can you come for an audition?' I thought it sounded like a bit of fun and I said yes to everything back in those days! I turned up for the audition, and I literally got a call within a day. I hadn't met you [Adam]. I knew Alan. And then I was like, 'Oh, what's the show?' Alan Brough, team captain: Well, approached is a big word for how it happened. I think [TV producer] Anthony Watt called me and said, 'I'm involved in a show about music. Do you want to do it?' And I went, 'Yeah.' And that was all I knew. Do you remember watching the first episode go to air? Myf Warhurst: It was a very strange experience because I'd not had any mainstream television experience prior to this, and it was like a dream of mine, growing up in the country, [to be on ABC TV] because we only had the ABC. It was like, 'Oh, I've made it.' But then I spoke to mum on the phone and she said, 'Yes, it's very good, but I hope you recorded that on VHS, just for your files.' She thought it was so bad! Mum loves the show, by the way. Nance is the biggest fan. Alan Brough: My mum, when she came over to Australia [from New Zealand], she said, 'I saw that show you're on.' And I said, 'Oh.' And she said, 'Thank god all the useless stuff you know, it's come in handy.' Myf Warhurst: It's often been compared to overseas shows like Never Mind the Buzzcocks, which was much more competitive. They take the mickey out of some artists, but we never did that. We were very supportive and played very nicely with everybody. What was it like being a guest on the show? Denise Scott, comedian: I know f--- all about music. Every time, including an episode I just did recently, I feel sick because of my complete lack of knowledge of music. I keep thinking, 'What am I doing here?' But it did give me confidence about telling what I thought were pretty boring stories, they made everyone laugh. Hamish Blake, TV presenter: [On my first episode] I knew – and know – very little about music trivia, a deficiency I was assured wouldn't be a problem. But the fact it's a show that's 100 per cent about music made me nervous of that assurance. Dave O'Neil, comedian, who has appeared more than 60 times, more than any other guest: It was a perfect show for me because I don't have that much knowledge about sport or current affairs, but music, I'm going to be up for it. Brian Mannix, lead singer of the Uncanny X-Men: The first time I went on, I had a couple of beers. I think I was on about six times before I was ever on the winning team. Hamish Blake: I was almost exclusively on Myf's team and have a lot of fond memories of celebratory high-fives after looking in each other's panicked eyes and pulling answers out of thin air that somehow were correct. Also, being on Myf's team gave me a front-row seat to appreciate Alan doing his thing and being able to name the cab driver who dropped Freddie Mercury to Live Aid or some other wild fact. Denise Scott: They always put a question in that they assume you might know. For me, it'll be about Julie Andrews. But otherwise, I must admit, I do try and give a bit of time to looking at YouTube clips of various artists. I don't even know what to Google. I don't even know what name to search for. And then I think, 'Who am I kidding?' Brian Mannix: The show has been really good to me. I talked to [musician] Wilbur Wilde about this the other day, because our mothers have passed away, and I said the good thing is we get to see our mothers every Mother's Day because me and Wilbur had our mums on the show for the Mother's Day episode and we get to see it in repeats. Were you ever starstruck? Adam Hills: My favourite was Weird Al Yankovic because I was a comedy nerd. I was losing my mind. And he's one of the few people that have been on the show that I've kept in touch with. I've caught up with him. He's met my kids, and he still sends me a birthday email every year. Alan Brough: Lloyd Cole from Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. [Producer] Anthony Watt knew I loved him, so he didn't tell me he was coming on. I walked into the green room [and saw him] and I went, 'F---' and then walked out, had a few breaths, came back in, and I said, 'I'm really sorry.' And he said, 'It's happened before.' Myf Warhurst: For me, growing up, Countdown on the ABC was all we had. We didn't have much and no internet, obviously, because I'm ancient. So when all these Australian pop stars that I grew up adoring came on the show, it was wild. I did shows with Sharon O'Neill from New Zealand, and Jane Clifton from Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons and Renee Geyer. Dave O'Neil: I met Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil, which was great because I showed him my Year 10 folder, which had his butt on the front. It freaked him out a little bit. And because I was a big fan of Oz rock, they started putting me with difficult people, like Chris Bailey from the Saints. He was really grumpy. I remember Jim Keays, from the Masters Apprentices, said to me once, 'Adam's a busy person, he hosts this and The Gruen Transfer.' And I said, 'That's Wil Anderson.' He thought Wil Anderson and Adam Hills were the same person. At that point he'd been on the show four or five times. Denise Scott: I had an interesting – oh, I can't say who it was because it was an American performer, a quite well-known musician – and he talked to himself the whole show so quietly and no one else knew except me. It was a mental health issue. OK, who was the worst at Substitute? Alan Brough: It was Hamish [Blake] doing Eye of the Tiger. He did all of the song and then he stopped, and I think Adam said, 'Hamish, can you tell us what it is?' And he said, ' Eye of the Tiger.' And you may have said, 'Are you sure?' And then he did it again, and we still didn't know what it was. Hamish Blake: Now that I think about it, that segment is literally for professional singers so, of course, I was the No. 1 worst. Denise Scott: I did have to do Substitute, but interestingly, I only ever got asked to do it once… Brian Mannix: The last time I did the show, I was dressed up in a Taylor Swift ballerina outfit. I don't often get to do that. In 2011, Hills, Warhurst and Brough decided it was time to leave the show. It was briefly rebooted for one season in 2014, with a new host and team captains, but it didn't last. Do they ever regret calling it quits in 2011? Myf Warhurst: I thought it was perfect timing because we'd done it for seven years and told all our stories. It meant people got to miss us, and we got to step away and realise how much joy the show had given us. It's one of the sweetest gigs for Alan and I, because we just turned up, basically. We sit back, knowing that we get to talk about what we love, meet people we love and hang out with our friends that we love. Adam Hills: You don't realise what you've got until you finish it. My manager had a really good phrase for it, he said, 'It's important to go off and do other things and realise that you're not magic.' Alan Brough: He's wrong because you got even more famous after we stopped. So you are magic. Dave O'Neil: My mum would watch [the repeats] in the nursing home and then ring me up and say, 'Did you dye your hair? I saw you on TV last night.' And I was like, 'Mum, that episode was 15 years old!' Who made the first move to get the band back together in 2018? Alan Brough: I made the first move once. It didn't work out and I didn't do it ever again… Adam Hills: It was the ABC wanting a one-off Aus music special. As soon as we all walked into the make-up room, it was like we'd never been away from each other. And I think, probably, at the end of that episode, there was talk of maybe we could do a couple of specials, and then, we could do a small series… Do you have another 20 years in you? Alan Brough: I don't think I've got 20 years of life. Myf Warhurst: We were talking about it today. We might do one in the nursing home. A reality show, maybe. Adam Hills: Music is constantly refreshing itself, and especially now with Spotify and the internet and all that kind of stuff. So as long as there's more music to talk about, then I think we could probably still talk about it. Alan Brough: There's a picture of the three of us, just as you go into the make-up room, and when we first came back, my daughter, who was born in 2011, walked past that at the age of 10 or something, and went, 'Oh, Myf and Adam look good, but you have got much older.' Adam Hills: We're like a three-part harmony. If you look at it in a musical sense, we each bring something different. And when you have all those three voices on their own, the voices are fantastic, but all those three voices together, it's bigger than the sum of the parts.
Daily Mirror
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
The Who star makes cryptic comment about 'the end' after farewell tour unveiling
The Who guitarist Pete Townshend, the mastermind behind anthems My Generation and Substitute, shows no signs of slowing down after marking his milestone 80th birthday Legendary The Who guitarist Pete Townshend, who wrote the 1960s rock anthem I Hope I Die Before I Get Old, has just turned 80 – but says he feels like a new man. Or at least part of him does. 'That song wasn't a state of mind – it was a threat!' he laughs. 'I don't feel old – I just got a new knee.' And Townshend reveals that although he's not planning to retire just yet, he admits that The Who's days of going on the road are numbered. After 58 years since first touring America, one of the greatest – and loudest bands in rock history – has announced its farewell US tour, aptly titled, The Song Is Over, this summer. 'Whether it's the end of The Who…?' Townsend muses, before adding, 'It's certainly the end of touring in America. I asked Roger if it's the end of touring Europe, and he said. 'We'll have to wait and see'.' Speaking to My Cultural Life on Radio 4, Townsend reflects on the dark times in his life that created his wild man of rock persona, trashing guitars on stage and wrecking hotel rooms, but says even at 80, he has an edge. 'I feel like a diamond with a flaw. I am a dangerous f***er,' he reveals. 'I was a proponent of rock and roll as a philosophy. But when I started exploring my inner darkness on stage, my stage persona – smashing guitars and turning it all up – I was very detached and I didn't enjoy doing it.' He also acknowledges now that after years of a long-running feud with his 81-year-old bandmate Roger Daltry, the balance of power between them has shifted. 'Roger has said in the past that we would go on touring until we drop dead – but the needle has shifted,' he says. 'It was always me who said that, 'I reserve the right to stop,' and I have stopped twice – once for 11 years when I worked with Faber and Faber as a book editor. 'So I always thought I was holding the cards – but I think Roger holds the cards now." Although Daltry founded the band in 1964 when the pair met at Ealing Art College, Townsend wrote the rock group's huge teenage anthems including My Generation, Substitute and I Can See For Miles. He admits his co-founder thinks he's pretentious when he says The Who was an art project for him as much as a pop band. 'What was difficult was the other three members didn't (feel that way),' says the father-of-three. 'If Roger and I were sitting together and I was doing an interview now about My Cultural Life, he would spend most of his time laughing.' While Townsend planned to be an artist, it was Daltry who asked him to join The Detours – which became The Who. 'Roger sees it as his band to this day – he started it. He had been expelled and came back and asked me to be in his band. 'And that's true, and I'm grateful, but for me, the beginning of my life as a musician and an artist was when I wrote the first song I Can't Explain.' While the band played pubs and weddings, Townsend kept his hobby a secret. 'I wasn't serious about being in a band,' he admits. 'Roger was lead guitarist – but he wasn't a particularly good player. I was gawky and had a big nose and just strummed. 'But we had a good looking lead singer who the girls liked and we became quite successful. ' The young, confused Townsend was so sure he didn't want to be in a band, he even forecast its demise. 'I wrote myself a manifesto – 'The Who are a band who are chopping away at their own legs'. Then one day I'm driving home in my mum's yellow van and heard my song, I Can't Explain, come on the radio, and I thought, 'My manifesto! I don't want to be in a rock band. No – this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. But wow – people are listening to this'.' By now Daltry was lead vocalist and the line-up included drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle, and along with guitarist Townsend, released their 1969 rock opera album Tommy to huge critical and commercial acclaim. But a decade later, in true rock and roll style, Keith Moon died, aged 31, in 1978 from an accidental overdose of the prescription drug Hemineverin, prescribed to combat alcoholism. Then in 2002, bass player John Entwistle's dodgy ticker gave out after the 57-year-old took cocaine in a Las Vegas hotel room. 'The Who is a clumsy machine because we've been missing two members for a long time,' says Townsend. '(Roger and I) are very dependent on each other. We're getting old and we have different needs. 'But if Roger wanted to perform MY music, if I can put it as bluntly as this, I would be honoured. It's not about there being an argument between – we're just accepting our current situation. And he adds, 'We've never agreed on very much, but that's not to suggest there's a war on, because there isn't.' Age has finally mellowed the old enmity between him and Daltry, but Townsend says the abuse he suffered as a child created a dark side to his personality. He was officially cautioned for accessing a website containing images of child abuse in 1999, which he explained was for his autobiography. Born into a musical family right at the end of the war, Townsend first went out on the road with his musician parents aged just 13 months old. 'They were in very popular swing dance bands,' he recalls. 'My first memories are passing out beer bottles to band players on the tour bus. 'When The Who first started touring in the UK, I knew my way to all of the gigs because I'd done it so many times with my dad.' But his happy childhood came to a sudden end when his mother went on tour and sent him to live with his grandmother in Margate. 'Why my mother sent me to my grandmother who had abandoned her when she was seven, I don't know, but I left my friends and school behind in Acton,' he says sadly. 'It was just horrible and I don't remember a lot of it – I kind of black it out. She was nuts and abusive and cruel and surrounded by extremely pervy men all the time who interfered with me. It was a really shitty time and in the end somebody reported my grandmother for abusive behaviour. 'My parents saved me – they got back together and eventually I had two brothers,' he says about returning to his home in Acton, West London. 'As far as I was concerned, that was when my childhood began.' Despite his father being a musician, Townsend says he didn't encourage his son to join a band at school. 'My father didn't think I had any musicality,' he admits. 'My mum was very encouraging. When our band started, she lugged our kit around, helped us get gigs.' The rock legend has been open about his lifelong battle with depression and substance abuse, but he has been sober for 40 years now. 'I sometimes wonder if my parents knew I was damaged – I've done all of the things that people do who have fallen into addiction and bad behaviour,' he speculates. And explains how his 1965 hit My Generation was about him pushing back against his dad. 'I drew the line with My Generation,' he explains. 'Dad's music was his generation – love and romance after the war. We didn't have that reason for being – we needed to reinvent ourselves. Rock and roll was our generation. I was overthrowing my dad's big band generation.' The Who created some of the most powerful moments in rock and roll history especially when they performed at Woodstock in 1969 – and the hair-raising refrain of Tommy's Feel Me See Me Touch Me played out across the half a million festival goers as the sun rose in the sky. They went on to sell-out stadiums around the world, but Townsend felt that by the late 1970s, they'd begun to lose themselves. 'The band had turned into a prog rock outfit. I felt we have to reconnect with our roots – and I wrote Quadrophenia about the Marquee and Shepherd's Bush – where we'd grown up.' Again, Townsend's creative philosophy behind the 1979 rock concept album which tells the story of a young mod Jimmy set in 1965 was lost on his bandmates. 'The other guys didn't identify themselves with Jimmy at all. They didn't care about the manifesto that was buried in the middle of it.' It was the first album Townsend had total control over, but tensions between him and Daltry boiled over. 'It led to the only incident in which Roger and I have actually had a physical fight,' he admits. 'I'd been working all night on stage tapes and was late for rehearsal and we had an argument and I behaved badly and he knocked me out. 'But when I finished it, I thought, 'Wow, you know, they've let me do this'.' Like Tommy, Quadrophenia was adapted for film, and recently has been staged as a mod ballet. Townsend adds, 'Jimmy being vulnerable expressed the universality of what teen boys seem to go through. So it has new relevance.' The 80-year-old has as much creative energy today as he did 60 years ago, but he says it's time to do new things. 'I'm proud The Who have been able to create a form of music that lasted, and I'm not disowning my past, but I'm driven by the need to be creative. The idea that I could retire and go sailing and stop writing feels like a waste of time. 'I might have five, or 10 or 15 years if I'm really lucky at being able to work with music and art. Nothing is off the map now – I might even do some dancing when I get my other knee done!'
Daily Record
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Fans just discovering how the The Who came up with their iconic name
The Who are one of the most iconic bands in rock history, but they were originally called something very different - and the story of how they came up with their name is a classic rock 'n' roll tale Before they were smashing guitars, filling stadiums, and pioneering the rock opera, The Who were simply four London lads with a completely different name. Their journey to becoming one of the most recognisable names in rock history wasn't just by chance - it involved sketchy club gigs, a name conflict, and a brainstorming session that could have had a very different outcome. As fans continue to discover how they came to be known by their iconic name - and what they were initially called - here's a little about how the band was formed. The tale starts in Acton, West London, where a young Roger Daltrey already felt like an outsider. He didn't quite fit in at Acton County Grammar School, and after being expelled at 15, he found himself working on a construction site. In 1959, Daltrey established The Detours, a functioning band that performed at weddings and corporate events, with Daltrey handling both the music and finances. He then noticed a local lad named John Entwistle strolling down the street with a bass guitar slung over his shoulder, and invited him to join the band. Entwistle, in turn, introduced a guitarist he knew from school: Pete Townshend, reports the Express. The band's early sound was influenced by instrumental covers from The Shadows and The Ventures, with a touch of traditional jazz thrown in, and the line-up evolved over time. The group was still known as The Detours when they discovered in early 1964 that another band, namely Johnny Devlin and the Detours, already had dibs on the name. Pete Townshend recounted how he and his flatmate Richard Barnes spent an entire night brainstorming new monikers, aiming for a theme of comedic stage introductions; suggestions like No One and The Group were considered. Townshend was quite taken with The Hair, but it was Barnes who had a preference for The Who. The band unveiled their new identity with their 1965 release 'I Can't Explain'. The single broke into the UK top ten and marked the beginning of a succession of hits that would come to characterise the era: 'Substitute', 'My Generation', 'Pictures of Lily', leading up to the landmark concept album Tommy in 1969. In 1965, none other than Paul McCartney deemed them "the most exciting thing around," while John Lennon expressed his admiration for 'Pinball Wizard' by incorporating its acoustic guitar style into 'Polythene Pam'. When Jimi Hendrix landed in London in '66, he specifically requested Pete Townshend's amplifier setup, whilst bands like Pink Floyd, Queen, and The Ramones have acknowledged The Who as an influential force in their early days.
Sky News
30-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Sky News
The Who's lead singer Roger Daltrey tells fans he's going blind during live show
The Who's Roger Daltrey has told fans he's going "blind" while performing live at a charity concert. The 81-year-old lead singer was performing alongside his bandmate Pete Townshend on Thursday in the first of a series of gigs at London's Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. Daltrey told the 5,000-strong audience: "The joys of getting old mean you go deaf. I also now have got the joy of going blind. "Fortunately, I still have my voice." He went on to say if he lost his voice too, he'd have a "full Tommy" - referring to the title character of The Who's 1969 album. "Deaf, dumb and blind kid" Tommy is also mentioned in Pinball Wizard from the same record. Daltrey has long worn purple-tinted glasses when out and about. During a later song at Thursday's gig, Daltrey's voice cracked, which he called a "senior moment", before adding: "No apologies, I f***** up." Guitarist Townshend, 79, also revealed an age-related ailment, saying: "Four and a half weeks ago, I had my left knee replaced." He said he had done it by dancing in the style of Sir Mick Jagger, lead singer of the Rolling Stones, who is two years his senior. Daltrey is stepping back from his role as curator of the Teenage Cancer Trust's Royal Albert Hall concerts, having launched the series in 2000. However, he will remain an honorary patron of the charity. 0:34 The trust will now work with a series of guest curators, with The Cure's Robert Smith announced as the first musician to oversee duties next year. Daltrey and Townshend have been performing together for six decades, and are the only surviving original members of The Who. With hits including I Can't Explain, My Generation and Substitute, The Who are widely considered to be one of the most influential rock bands of the 20th century. The Who will return to the Royal Albert Hall for another gig in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust later today.
