100 Fun Facts About The Who

What is the nickname of Pete Townshend's trademark guitar-playing move?

The windmill. Townshend picked up the full-circle arm swing after watching Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones loosen up before a show, and made it his signature.

When Keith Moon passed out mid-show in 1973, who took his place to finish the set?

A fan from the crowd. Pete Townshend asked whether anyone out there could play the drums, and 19-year-old Scot Halpin came up from the audience and finished the show.

What were the Who called before they first took that name in early 1964?

The Detours. They found another act was already using the name, and after a night of joke suggestions, including the Hair, Daltrey picked the Who the next morning.

Under what name did the Who briefly record the mod single "Zoot Suit" in 1964?

The High Numbers. Manager Peter Meaden renamed them to court the mod scene and wrote the lyrics himself, but the single flopped and they went back to being the Who.

What was the Who's first single, a UK top ten hit in 1965?

I Can't Explain. Townshend deliberately wrote it to sound like the Kinks, hoping to catch their producer's ear, and future Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page played on the B-side.

Which Who single peaked at No. 2, their highest UK chart position?

My Generation. It began as a slow blues before it was sped up, given its famous stutter and opened out for John Entwistle's bass solo.

The Who's only US top ten single was neither Pinball Wizard nor Behind Blue Eyes; which 1967 song was it?

I Can See for Miles. It peaked at number 9 in America, but Townshend, who was sure it would be a huge hit, was disappointed that it climbed no higher than number 10 at home.

Townshend first smashed a guitar on stage after accidentally breaking its head on what?

A low ceiling. When the audience at the Railway Hotel laughed, he smashed the rest of the guitar in anger, and the next week the crowd came back hoping to see it again.

Which producer, fresh from the Kinks, signed the Who and produced their early singles?

Shel Talmy. After the band fell out with him he kept the master tapes, which is why their debut album could not be properly reissued until 2002.

Which two filmmakers managed the Who through their 1960s peak?

Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp. They went looking for an unknown band to make a film about and ended up managing it; a 2014 documentary told their own story.

Which 1965 Who single was so full of feedback that their US label thought the tape was faulty?

Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere. Roger Daltrey recalled the Americans sending it back as a mistake, and the band insisting that the noise was exactly what they wanted, cut loud.

At Monterey in 1967, Townshend argued with which rival guitarist over who would go on stage first?

Jimi Hendrix. The Who went on first and smashed their gear, and Hendrix closed his own set by setting his guitar on fire.

Which pop group did the Who support on their first full US tour in 1967?

Herman's Hermits. The headliners were a straightforward pop act, yet the tour is remembered for Keith Moon's 21st birthday party, which wrecked a Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan.

What did Moon load into his drum kit on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967?

Explosives. A bribed stagehand packed in about ten times the intended charge, and the blast singed Townshend's hair, left his ear ringing and threw Moon off his riser.

The Who Sell Out parodied what, between its songs?

Pirate radio. The album links its songs with station jingles and spoof adverts, a salute to the offshore stations that Britain had outlawed in August 1967.

By Pete Townshend's account, which country's prime minister told the Who never to return after a 1968 tour?

Australia. An incident on a flight to Sydney got the band briefly arrested and sent out of the country, and the Who did not play there again until 2004.

The 1969 rock opera Tommy tells the story of a boy who is what?

Deaf, dumb and blind. Tommy shuts down after a childhood trauma, becomes a pinball champion by feel alone, and ends the story hailed as a kind of messiah.

Why did Townshend write "Pinball Wizard"?

To win over a critic who loved the game. Nik Cohn had been lukewarm about Tommy, so Townshend made the boy a pinball champion, and later called the song the clumsiest thing he'd written.

Which spiritual teacher, followed by Townshend from the late 1960s, shaped the story of Tommy?

Meher Baba. Townshend also planned to feed the guru's vital statistics into a synthesiser to make music; the idea fell through, but the title Baba O'Riley still honours him.

What lit up the finale of the Who's set at Woodstock?

The sunrise. Delays pushed their Saturday-night slot back to 5 am, and the sun came up as they reached See Me, Feel Me; John Entwistle said God was their lighting man.

Which activist did Townshend kick off the stage at Woodstock mid-set?

Abbie Hoffman. The Yippie leader seized a microphone between songs to protest the jailing of activist John Sinclair, and Townshend ordered him off 'my stage' in no uncertain terms.

Which line in "Baba O'Riley" was inspired by the litter after the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival?

The roadies helped clear the rubbish-covered field after what Townshend called a great concert.

Live at Leeds was taped on Valentine's Day 1970; in which city was the back-up show recorded the next night?

Hull. Its tapes turned out to be missing the bass guitar on several songs, so the Leeds show became the album, and the Hull show stayed unreleased for 40 years.

The Who were the first rock act to play which New York venue during the Tommy tour?

Metropolitan Opera House. At the two shows there in June 1970, Townshend announced the last Tommy ever, a farewell the band went on to repeat more than once.

What was the name of the abandoned multimedia project whose songs became Who's Next?

Lifehouse. Townshend's science-fiction follow-up to Tommy proved so hard to explain to anyone else that he had a nervous breakdown and shelved it, salvaging its songs.

Which producer took over the Who's Next sessions after the first New York recordings were abandoned?

Glyn Johns. He decided it was better to re-record the album from scratch in London than rescue the New York tapes, and was credited as its associate producer.

Which Who title track was inspired by a night that ended with Townshend asleep in a Soho doorway?

Who Are You. After a bruising business meeting and a drinking session with two of the Sex Pistols, he was woken by a policeman who let him go home if he could walk.

Which London club gave the Who the Tuesday-night residency that made their name in late 1964?

The Marquee Club. The 16-week run was soon selling out the Soho venue, and after English Heritage refused Keith Moon a blue plaque, a charity put one up on its old site in 2009.

Quadrophenia is about a mod named what?

Jimmy. Townshend gave him a four-way split personality, one side for each member of the Who, which is where the album's title comes from.

Who directed the 1975 Tommy film?

Ken Russell. Townshend admired his earlier films, and Russell's extravagant version earned Oscar nominations for Ann-Margret and for Townshend's score.

Which singer, star of the rock film That'll Be the Day, auditioned to play Tommy before Daltrey took the role?

David Essex. He had acted alongside Keith Moon in that film and its sequel, Stardust, but the band persuaded Daltrey to take the lead himself.

The Who set a record for the largest indoor concert in December 1975 at which venue?

Pontiac Silverdome. The Who filled the months-old Michigan football stadium, and their record stood until Led Zeppelin drew a slightly bigger crowd there in 1977.

The Who's 1976 show at Charlton Athletic's ground earned a Guinness listing as the world's what?

The loudest concert. The sound was measured at 126 decibels from 32 metres away, and Guinness later dropped the category for fear of encouraging hearing damage.

Keith Moon died in September 1978 after taking what?

Prescribed alcohol-withdrawal pills. He took 32 tablets of clomethiazole, the drug meant to wean him off drink, after a night out at a party thrown by Paul McCartney.

Which former Small Faces and Faces drummer replaced Moon?

Kenney Jones. He had been with Moon at Paul McCartney's party on the last night of Moon's life, and had already drummed with the others on the Tommy film soundtrack.

Which star drummer offered to leave his own band in 1978 to replace Keith Moon?

Phil Collins. The job had already gone to someone else, but he got a taste of it in 1989, guesting as Uncle Ernie when the Who performed Tommy on their reunion tour.

Who played the Ace Face in the 1979 film of Quadrophenia?

Sting. His Ace Face is the idol of the film's young mods until he is discovered working a menial job as a hotel bellboy.

Eleven fans died in a crowd crush outside the Who's concert in which US city in December 1979?

Cincinnati. Only a few doors were opened for thousands of fans holding unreserved tickets, and the band were not told what had happened until after the show.

Which American news magazine put the Who on its cover in December 1979?

Time. Jay Cocks's story said the Who had outlasted and outclassed every other band, and quoted Daltrey: 'We've been breaking up ever since the day we started.'

Which band supported the Who on their 1982 farewell tour of North America?

The Clash. The punk band found itself opening stadium shows, including one at New York's Shea Stadium, on a tour the Who later released as the live album Who's Last.

What interrupted the broadcast of the Who's Live Aid set in 1985?

A blown fuse in the BBC truck. The pictures failed just as Daltrey sang the line 'Why don't you all fade away', and did not return until the end of Pinball Wizard.

Which drummer, the son of a Beatle, joined the Who for the 1996 Quadrophenia tour and stayed for decades?

Zak Starkey. Ringo Starr's son got his first drum kit not from his father but from his godfather Keith Moon, the man whose seat in the Who he would one day fill.

Where was John Entwistle found dead in June 2002?

The Hard Rock Hotel, Las Vegas. He died of a heart attack the day before the first show of a US tour, which went ahead days later with Pino Palladino on bass.

What was the title of the 2006 album, the Who's first new studio record since 1982?

Endless Wire. It grew out of The Boy Who Heard Music, a novella Townshend serialised online, whose songs became the album's mini-opera, Wire & Glass.

The Who gave the final performance of the night at which 2012 event?

The London Olympics closing ceremony. Daltrey and Townshend sent the athletes home with a medley of three of their best-known songs, two years after playing the Super Bowl halftime show.

What was the title of the Who's 2025 farewell tour?

The Song Is Over. The name comes from a Who's Next track on which Townshend and Daltrey trade the lead vocal, a fitting choice for the band's last two original members.

Which term did Townshend coin in 1967 to describe the Who's style?

Power pop. Promoting Pictures of Lily, he said it was what the Who played and what the Small Faces used to play, but the label only caught on a decade later.

Which TV crime franchise has opened every one of its series with a Who song?

CSI. Won't Get Fooled Again opens CSI: Miami, and the band's singer even turned up in a guest role in the original series.

Which British maker built the 100-watt amplifiers that Townshend pushed for in 1965?

Marshall. The eight-speaker cabinets Townshend ordered with them proved too heavy for his roadies, so he asked for them to be cut in half, and Jim Marshall's answer was two smaller cabinets, one stacked on the other.

Which Eagles guitarist gave Townshend the Gretsch 6120 he used in the studio from Who's Next on?

Joe Walsh. He made the gift in 1970, when his band the James Gang had opened for the Who and toured Europe with them, years before he joined the Eagles.

On the cover of The Who Sell Out, Roger Daltrey sits in a bathtub filled with which tinned food?

Baked beans straight from the fridge filled the tub for the 1967 photo shoot. Daltrey later blamed the long, freezing sitting for making him ill.

Which member of the Muppets' house band, the Electric Mayhem, is often said to be modelled on Keith Moon?

Animal shares Moon's wild mop, heavy eyebrows and all-out drumming style. Cream's Ginger Baker is another hard-partying drummer the character has been compared to.

Keith Moon's 21st birthday party in Flint, Michigan, ended with a $24,000 bill from which hotel chain?

Holiday Inn managers were furious, and Pete Townshend claimed the Who were banned from the chain for life. A biographer found they checked into another branch a week later.

Pete Townshend's boast about the Who's rawest, dirtiest single spurred Paul McCartney to write which song?

Helter Skelter was McCartney's bid to outdo that claim with something even wilder. It appeared on the Beatles' White Album in 1968.

The concrete pillar on the cover of the Who's album Who's Next is a cheeky nod to which science fiction film?

2001: A Space Odyssey and its monolith came up when Entwistle and Moon were discussing Stanley Kubrick. The band posed as if they had just urinated on the slab.

Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle voiced themselves in which sitcom, in an episode about a town split in two?

The Simpsons had a Who riff bring down the wall dividing Springfield. Pete Townshend missed the recording because he assumed an actor would voice him.

Keith Moon may have inspired which band's name with a joke about how badly a 1966 supergroup would go down?

Led Zeppelin echoes a quip, credited to Moon or John Entwistle, that the idea had gone down like a lead zeppelin, a twist on the phrase lead balloon.

Which American nu metal band released a cover of the Who's ballad Behind Blue Eyes as a single in 2003?

Limp Bizkit added a bridge built around a Speak & Spell toy. The Who's original appeared in 1971 on the album Who's Next.

The Who played a 12-minute set of five songs at which televised American event in February 2010?

The Super Bowl halftime show sent digital sales of the five songs up 400% in the following week. Pete Townshend had revealed the setlist to Billboard beforehand.

Which pop star wore boots four and a half feet tall as the pinball champion in the 1975 film Tommy?

Elton John at first turned the part down. He plays the cocky reigning Champ, beaten at the table by Roger Daltrey's Tommy.

Which Hollywood actor, not known as a singer, sang on screen as the Specialist in the 1975 film Tommy?

Jack Nicholson took the small role of the doctor because the director's films intrigued him. Peter Sellers was originally considered for the part.

The mods and rockers of the Who's Quadrophenia brawl on the beach at which English seaside resort?

Brighton is where the story's troubled hero returns alone by train after wrecking his scooter. A passage used in the 1979 film is now known as Quadrophenia Alley.

The Who's 1975 hit Squeeze Box takes its title from a slang name for which musical instrument?

The accordion drives the song because Pete Townshend had bought one and learned to play it in an afternoon. He later described the lyric as a rude joke that missed its mark.

The Who's Live at Leeds features a thunderous cover of Summertime Blues, a 1958 hit for which American rocker?

Eddie Cochran co-wrote and recorded the original. The Who added crashing chords, a key change and John Entwistle's deep bass voice for the authority figures' lines.

Which song closes the Who's album Who's Next with a long synthesizer break and a famous Roger Daltrey scream?

Won't Get Fooled Again runs to eight and a half minutes on the album. Biographer Dave Marsh rated the scream the greatest of a career filled with them.

Roger Daltrey's signature stage move with the Who involves swinging which object around like a lasso?

A microphone swung by its cord and caught in time with the music became Daltrey's trademark. He tapes the cords to strengthen the connection and protect his hands.

Which Seattle band covered the Who's Love, Reign o'er Me for a 2007 Adam Sandler film named after the song?

Pearl Jam recorded it after Sandler approached singer Eddie Vedder at a 2006 concert. Their version plays over the end credits of Reign Over Me.

Keith Moon became notorious on tour for blowing up hotel toilets with which type of firework?

Cherry bombs became a habit after he bought a case of 500 of them. He later moved on to M-80s and then sticks of dynamite.

Pete Townshend organised the 1973 Rainbow Concert to relaunch which guitarist after heroin addiction?

Eric Clapton returned to the stage that January with Townshend's help, and the show came out as the live album Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert.

Pete Townshend won which award in 1993 for writing the score of the stage musical The Who's Tommy?

A Tony for Best Original Score went to Townshend in a tie that year. He had co-written the show's book with its director, Des McAnuff.

Which band's frontman gave the speech inducting the Who into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990?

U2 singer Bono did the honours while the rest of his band looked on. The Who entered the Hall that night as Daltrey, Entwistle, Moon and Townshend.

Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey received which American arts award in 2008 alongside Barbra Streisand?

Kennedy Center Honors went to the pair as members of the Who, in a class that also included Morgan Freeman and choreographer Twyla Tharp.

Which 1979 documentary on the Who, made by fan Jeff Stein, is named after a song from their debut album?

The Kids Are Alright captured Keith Moon's last performance with the band, filmed at Shepperton Studios in May 1978, less than four months before his death.

Which pop artist behind the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper sleeve designed the cover of the Who's 2019 album Who?

Peter Blake had history with the band: for their 1981 album Face Dances he commissioned 16 British painters to portray the four members.

John Entwistle wrote Boris the Spider after a night out drinking with which member of the Rolling Stones?

Bill Wyman and Entwistle, both bass players, were making up funny names for creatures when the title character was born.

John Entwistle's strong constitution and appetite for excess earned him which nickname in the Who?

The Ox could seemingly eat, drink or do more than the rest of the band. Entwistle was later also nicknamed Thunderfingers.

Which brass instrument did John Entwistle play on Who records such as Pictures of Lily and throughout Tommy?

French horn was Entwistle's instrument in the Middlesex Schools Orchestra, and he was the only member of the Who with formal musical training.

John Entwistle drew the cover of the 1975 album The Who by Numbers in the style of which children's pastime?

Connect the dots outlines stand in for the band members' bodies. Entwistle said the sleeve cost £32, against about £16,000 for the Quadrophenia cover.

The rubber-stamped sleeve of the Who's 1970 album Live at Leeds was designed to resemble which kind of record?

A bootleg of the era was the model, a nod to the famous unofficial Rolling Stones live album Live'r Than You'll Ever Be.

Which actor, the voice on Blur's hit Parklife, starred as the young mod hero of the 1979 film Quadrophenia?

Phil Daniels got the lead after the distributors refused to insure Sex Pistols singer John Lydon, who had screen-tested for the part.

Keith Moon died in a Mayfair flat rented from which American singer, who feared the place was cursed?

Harry Nilsson was wary of letting the flat to Moon because Cass Elliot of the Mamas & the Papas had died there four years earlier.

Roger Daltrey played which 19th-century composer, portrayed as the first pop star, in a flamboyant 1975 film?

Franz Liszt got the rock-star treatment in Lisztomania, released the same year as Tommy. Rick Wakeman worked with Daltrey on the soundtrack.

Pete Townshend of the Who took a job in the 1980s as an acquisitions editor at which London publishing house?

Faber and Faber brought Townshend the friendship of Lord of the Flies author William Golding, and published his own story collection Horse's Neck in 1985.

Pete Townshend's 1989 musical The Iron Man adapts a children's story by which British Poet Laureate?

Ted Hughes became Townshend's friend through the guitarist's publishing job. The same story reached cinemas in 1999 as the animated film The Iron Giant.

Which instrument did Pete Townshend play in the Confederates, his schoolboy trad jazz band with John Entwistle?

Banjo is one of many instruments Townshend taught himself, a list that also runs to mandolin, ukulele, violin and drums.

Pete Townshend's father Cliff played which instrument in the Squadronaires, the Royal Air Force dance band?

Saxophone ran in a musical family: his mother Betty sang with the Sidney Torch and Les Douglass orchestras.

Pete Townshend produced and played bass on Something in the Air, a 1969 UK number one for which band?

Thunderclap Newman were assembled by Townshend, who played bass under the alias Bijou Drains. The single spent three weeks at the top of the UK chart.

Which 1980 Pete Townshend solo album included the US top-ten single Let My Love Open the Door?

Empty Glass was Townshend's solo breakthrough, arriving two years after Keith Moon's death, and it also carried the single Rough Boys.

In 1967 the Who rush-released covers of The Last Time and Under My Thumb in support of which jailed pair?

Jagger and Richards had just been sentenced on drugs charges, and the Who vowed to keep their songs before the public. Townshend overdubbed the bass because Entwistle was on honeymoon.

The Who performed A Quick One, While He's Away at which 1968 Rolling Stones TV special, unreleased until 1996?

Rock and Roll Circus also featured Jethro Tull, Taj Mahal and Marianne Faithfull. One theory for the long delay is that the Stones felt upstaged by the Who.

Simon Townshend, who joined the Who's touring line-up full-time in 2002, is what relation to Pete Townshend?

His brother by fifteen years, Simon had already filled in for Pete on guitar during an earlier Roger Daltrey tour of the band's songs.

Which session bassist saved the Who's 2002 tour after John Entwistle died the night before it began?

Pino Palladino, a Cardiff-born player, was on stage when the tour opened in Los Angeles and became the band's bass guitarist on the road.

Which auto-destructive artist taught at Ealing Art College and inspired Pete Townshend's guitar smashing?

Gustav Metzger's own work was projected on screens at Who concerts during the 1960s. Townshend later cited his ideas as an influence on the instrument wrecking.

Which record label did the Who's managers found, later scoring a UK number one with Arthur Brown's Fire?

Track Records was meant to give the Who more creative freedom, with distribution handled by Polydor. Pete Townshend co-produced that chart-topping single himself.

Which drummer walked out of the Who after a bruising record-company audition, clearing the way for Keith Moon?

Doug Sandom left in disgust after Pete Townshend turned on him over his playing at the audition, and the two did not speak again for 14 years.

Pete Townshend favoured which joke band name on the night his housemate Richard Barnes argued for the Who?

The Hair lost out because Barnes felt the Who had more punch, and Roger Daltrey made the final choice the next morning.

Which single gave the Who their first top 40 hit in the United States, peaking at No. 24 in 1967?

Happy Jack was such a calling card in America that the album A Quick One was released there under the single's title.

Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and John Entwistle all attended a grammar school in which west London district?

Acton County Grammar School is where Townshend and Entwistle became friends in their second year and formed their first group together.

Which actress earned an Oscar nomination as Nora Walker, the hero's mother, in the 1975 film Tommy?

Ann-Margret also won a Golden Globe for the performance, playing a mother obsessed with glamour and luxury.

Roger Daltrey played which real-life 1960s armed robber, later a writer, in a 1980 British film?

John McVicar's story also gave Daltrey a soundtrack album, featuring the other members of the Who and the US top-20 single Without Your Love.