{"id":69790,"date":"2026-08-03T13:06:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T13:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/03\/the-who-kick-off-their-last-tour-with-keith-moon\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T13:06:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T13:06:46","slug":"the-who-kick-off-their-last-tour-with-keith-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/03\/the-who-kick-off-their-last-tour-with-keith-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Who Kick Off Their Last Tour With Keith Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/the-who\/\" id=\"auto-tag_the-who\" data-tag=\"the-who\">The Who<\/a> didn\u2019t have a new album to support when they kicked off a late summer U.S. tour at the Capitol Center in Landover, Maryland, on Aug. 3, 1975, but it didn\u2019t matter. They were a rock institution, rivaled in popularity only the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/the-rolling-stones-residencies-tour-scenarios-1235594735\/\">Rolling Stones<\/a>, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd. The strength of their back catalog guaranteed sellout crowds whenever they toured.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Who Live in Landover, MD (3rd August 1976)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bvDjESBHlFY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThat doesn\u2019t mean Pete Townshend was satisfied. \u201cIt\u2019s just that when I\u2019m standing up there on stage playing rock and roll, I often feel that I\u2019m too old for it,\u201d he told <em>NME<\/em> the previous year, shortly after his 30th birthday. \u201cWhen we last played Madison Square Garden I felt acute shades of nostalgia. All the Who freaks had crowded around the front of the stage and when I gazed out into the audience all I could see were those very same sad faces that I\u2019d seen at every New York Who gig. There was about a thousand of \u2019em and they turned up for every bloody show at the Garden, as if it were some Big Event \u2013 The Who triumph over New York\u2026It was dreadful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tA furious Roger Daltrey fired back in his own interview with <em>NME<\/em> later that year. \u201cI never read such a load of bullshit in all my life,\u201d he said. \u201cTo be perfectly honest, it really took a lot of my Who energy out reading that. Because I don\u2019t feel that way about the Who, about our audiences or anything in that way. It was an unbelievably down interview. And I still haven\u2019t come out of it properly yet. I\u2019ve talked to fans, and I think Townshend lost a lot of respect from that article. He\u2019s talked himself up his own ass. And there are quite a lot of disillusioned and disenchanted kids about now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThis may have read like a band on the verge of a nasty breakup, but the Who had survived worst schisms in the past \u2014 including a very brief period in 1965 where Daltrey was thrown out of the band following a fistfight with drummer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/keith-moon\/\" id=\"auto-tag_keith-moon\" data-tag=\"keith-moon\">Keith Moon<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tWhen <em>Miami News<\/em> music critic Jon Marlowe visited Daltrey in his suite at the Watergate hotel in Washington, D.C., right before the gig in Maryland, the singer was still processing the band\u2019s battle in the press. \u201cI took a real chance answering Pete that way with another interview,\u201d\u00a0 Daltrey said. \u201cBut I sat there and I read what he said and just had to do something. In my eyes, Pete was wrong\u2026 Besides, at that point, the band was almost over always, so it really was a final move in hopes of saving everything\u2026[Today] we\u2019re quite close. We\u2019re always going to be a little frayed at the ends, but that\u2019s the Who. You\u2019ve got four people who are just so totally different from one another. But those interviews cleared the air. Everything had been building for a long, long time. And something just had to give.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ editors-pick-module lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"TOMMY (1975) - Official IMAX Trailer (HD)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QaFIq3dbu4U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tDaltrey spent the Who\u2019s early days living somewhat in the shadows of Townshend and Moon, but his staring role in Ken Russell\u2019s twin 1975 films <em>Tommy<\/em> and <em>Lisztomania<\/em> dramatically upped his public profile. They also drew his time and attention away from the Who, leaving bassist John Entwistle time to record his solo LP M<em>ad Dog <\/em>and tour with his side project Ox. Moon, meanwhile, recorded <em>Two Sides of the Moon, <\/em>his only solo album, with buddies Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson, Joe Walsh, and Bobby Keys. (It\u2019s <em>possible<\/em> an illicit substance or two was consumed during these sessions.) Townshend used the layoff to write songs for the next Who album, and oversee <em>With Love<\/em>, a tribute album to his spiritual leader, Meher Baba.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Keith Moon - Two Sides of the Moon [Full Album]\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DW98jKsnzBc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe Who toured major markets across the United States in March 1976, played a handful of big shows in Europe in late May and early June, and then came back to the States in August. \u201c[This tour is] simply to hit the cities that the Who missed last time around,\u201d Daltrey told Marlowe. \u201cWe really won\u2019t be making any money from this one, but that\u2019s not the point of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tTickets for every seat in the 18,000-capacity Capitol Center were $8.75, or $51.35 adjusted for the inflation of today. Many venues didn\u2019t use tiered-pricing in the Seventies, meaning people in the highest nosebleed seats paid the same amount as people in the front row. Neil Diamond came to the same arena a week later and asked for $10.00 ($58.69), but the Doobie Brothers and special guest Firefall were only charging $6.50 ($37.95) in advance and $7.50 ($43.79) on the day of show.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<em>Florida Times-Union<\/em> writer Roy Simpson traveled to D.C. for the show. \u201cTownshend was his acrobatic best,\u201d he wrote. \u201cHe jumped and whirled about the stage seemingly indifferent to the fact that his guitar was connected to a wall of amplifies by a cord. His windmill-like flails at his instrument caused resounding sounds throughout the hall, certainly not too far below the decibel label of a supersonic Concorde landing at Dulles Airport nearby. Even though Moon was almost hidden behind his massive chrome and white drum kit, his presence was felt in every beat\u2026. It is hard not to wonder how Moon can keep up such a high energy pace without ever missing a beat or even just plain passing out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cAs usual Entwistle\u2019s bass guitar carried the heaviness of the Who\u2019s message to their fans,\u201d he continued. \u201cEntwistle\u2019s style is not fancy, just extremely efficient. How can he stand there almost motionless amidst all the energy will probably remain a mystery to audiences forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tSimpson declined to name any songs they played so he wouldn\u2019t spoil their upcoming show at Jacksonville\u2019s Gator Bowl, but the show was a standard hits revue with a very large portion of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/townshend-on-tommy-behind-the-whos-rock-opera-99396\/\">Tommy<\/a><\/em> in the middle. \u201cLadies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce a piece of music written by Mr. Peter Townshend that was made into a ballet, an opera, and a motion picture,\u201d Moon told the audience before it began. \u201cLadies and gentleman, I give you the original rock opera, performed by the Who, <em>Tommy<\/em>!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe album came out seven years earlier, but it remained their signature work. \u201cWe knew that <em>Tommy<\/em> was big,\u201d Daltrey told the <em>Miami News<\/em> before the show. \u201cBut nobody in the group had any idea of what it was going to turn into. Movies, lunchboxes, touring companies, beach towels, posters. And when it got that big, people just said, \u2018That\u2019s it. The Who have reached their peak. They\u2019ve gone as far as they can go. That is it for them. There\u2019s nothing left for them to do,\u2019 which really hurt us immensely because the next album (<em>Who\u2019s Next<\/em>) was a much better record than <em>Tommy<\/em>. There\u2019s no question about it. But nobody wanted to know about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tIt\u2019s a wild overstatement to say that \u201cnobody wanted to know\u201d about <em>Who\u2019s Next<\/em> considering it featured \u201cBaba O\u2019Riley,\u201d \u201cWon\u2019t Get Fooled Again,\u201d and \u201cBehind Blue Eyes,\u201d and went triple platinum in America. But it\u2019s true that anything after <em>Tommy <\/em>was going to feel at least slightly underwhelming, especially since the <em>Tommy<\/em> machine kept chugging along with a ballet, an actual opera, a symphonic work, and finally the Ken Russell movie.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe Who\u2019s early hits (\u201cI Can\u2019t Explain,\u201d Substitute,\u201d \u201cMy Generation\u201d), an eight-song <em>Tommy<\/em> block, the three <em>Who\u2019s Next<\/em> hits, and Entwistle\u2019s spotlight moment with \u201cMy Wife,\u201d didn\u2019t leave room for even a single song from <em>Quadrophenia<\/em> at the Landover show. And even though <em>The Who By Numbers<\/em> was their newest album, they ignored it besides \u201cSqueeze Box\u201d and \u201cDreaming From the Waist.\u201d\u00a0The album is simply too dark, quiet, and introspective for an arena crowd. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe <em>Miami News<\/em> described a teenage girl in the third row at the Capitol Center as a typical fan. \u201cHer hands are on her hips and her lips pouted ala Mick the Magic, screaming and writhing along with Daltrey as he bites out the words and tells them all \u2018We\u2019re Not Going to Take It.&#8217;\u201d Her boyfriend, meanwhile, is \u201cfingering an imaginary Fender Telecaster, filling in notes that Pete Townshend will never ring.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"However Much I Booze\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rqQJgn-ZtZg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThese aren\u2019t fans waiting for \u201cNo Matter How Much I Booze,\u201d \u201cImagine a Man,\u201d \u201cBlue Red and Grey,\u201d or \u201cHow Many Friends.\u201d They came for the <em>Tommy<\/em> suite and the other oldies, even if Townshend already knows it\u2019s somewhat of a trap to keep playing them.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cYou\u2019ve got to remember that there was a time when suddenly Chuck Berry couldn\u2019t write any more,\u201d he told NME in the infamous 1975 interview.\u00a0 \u201cHe just went out and performed his greatest hits and I\u2019ve always wondered what <em>that<\/em> was all down to? Jagger told me at his birthday party that he was having difficulty in writing new material for the Stones, which is unfortunate because nowadays so much importance is placed upon writing songs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tJagger didn\u2019t need to worry. <em>Some Girls<\/em> was on the horizon. And the Who\u2019s next album was 1978\u2019s <em>Who Are You.<\/em> The title track became one of their biggest hits.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Who - Who Are You (Promo Video)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PNbBDrceCy8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tDays before the 1976 Landover show, Moon was looking ahead to\u00a0all of this with optimism. \u201cAs soon as we finish this tour, I\u2019d imagine we\u2019ll be starting work on [an album] in September or October,\u201d he told the <em>Florida Times-Union<\/em>. \u201cI\u2019m too young to retire. I\u2019m doing a couple of films, producing a play, and all sorts of things.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules trending-in-article lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tHe\u2019d be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/keith-moon-1947-1978-244564\/\">dead<\/a> in just two years, weeks after <em>Who Are You <\/em>hit record stores shelves. The Who limped ahead until 1982 with Kenney Jones of the Faces behind the kit, and they still had a few great songs left in them, but Moon\u2019s death marked the end of their imperial era.\u00a0The setlist in Landover would largely remain their setlist for the next 50 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tBut nobody at the Capitol Center knew they were seeing the start of the Who\u2019s final tour with Keith Moon. They just knew they were witnessing an incredible night of music. \u201cIndividually, they are musical giants,\u201d wrote Simon in his review of the concert. \u201cOnstage together in Washington they lived up to the title of \u2018rock\u2019s premier attraction.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/50-years-ago-the-who-final-keith-moon-tour-1235601643\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Who didn\u2019t have a new album to support when they kicked off a late summer U.S. tour at the Capitol Center in Landover,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":69791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}