The Who Hit 50 at Newcastle

Last night, the dh and I went to the Metro Arena to see one of the all time great rock and roll bands, legends in fact.
Pete Townshend can be forgiven for wearing track pants and a leisure wear type top when he can play the guitar so fantastically. Roger Daltrey may be older and greyer but his smile still shines. And his eyes. Plus he can still belt them out. He wore an untucked denim shirt  and jeans.
They started with  Can't Explain and did Magic Bus for the 'encore'. It was good to see to see that they didn't bother to leave the stage but just played it.
By the courtesy of technology, past performances from John Entwhistle and Keith Moon were worked in seamlessly.
Townshend is a grumpy old man but he can play the guitar. No smashing up of guitars but he did slam one down in disgust. The guitar techie rapidly brought another.
I was so pleased they played Pinball Wizard and the Kids are alright. 2 1/2 hours of the Who without a break. It is the Who hits 50 tour so they played their hits from years gone by which was totally fine by me.
This is the last tour for Daltrey and Townshend. After it, they will retire -- something they repeated several times. I believe in the last date is 26 June 2015 in Hyde Park. Each venue has a different support act before the Who came on. Newcastle based Makimo Park played last night and were excellent but not a patch on the Who. The difference between excellence and genius, I suppose.  But I do need to get the dh some of their stuff as it was very listenable to. He had heard them before on Jools Holland and so was pleased to see them live.
As ever at these concerts, the crowd has aged with them.  Lots of Who memorabilia and thicker middles. Although I stood for the entire concert, some seemed to struggle.
It was another one to tick off my list (Jackson Browne was ticked off last month). And I am so very pleased I went. My ears may take awhile to recover though. And unlike the Jackson Browne concert, the Who were not conducive to plotting. It was more letting the wall of music surround me.