Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey performed at the annual gala of charity concerts held at the Royal Albert Hall to benefit Teenage Cancer Trust last week. The Who kicked off the series on Monday 18 March 2024, and returned for an encore performance a couple nights later on 20 March. Squeeze was the opening band for both shows.
It’s always a special event when The Who come to play in their hometown of London, especially when they appear at such a beautiful venue as the Royal Albert Hall, and these concerts were no exception. Pete and Roger performed with their usual awesome lineup of musicians, backed by the Heart of England orchestra that they toured with in the UK last summer.
The shows were the first The Who had played since the Sandringham concert last August, so the opening show on Monday was a bit rough around the edges with a few technical issues and some confusion regarding the setlist. They still put together a very entertaining show, and everyone had a great time. As always, there was a lot of great humour and stage banter between Pete and Roger. By the time they performed the second night on Wednesday, they were well warmed up and put on a fantastic show. A real highlight was when Eddie Vedder joined them onstage to perform Punk and the Godfather.
While The Who have been performing with a full orchestra since 2019 on both the Moving On and Who Hits Back tours, this was the first time they have performed their orchestral set at the Royal Albert Hall for TCT week. Many of their shows were in large sports arenas, which often times weren’t the best sound for orchestral music. The historic Royal Albert Hall is a much smaller venue with excellent acoustics, which made it the perfect place to present the dynamic combination of The Who’s powerful rock blended with a 30 plus member orchestra. They looked and sounded wonderful in that setting, so hopefully they filmed the show for a future release.
After organizing the annual Teenage Cancer Trust gala at the Royal Albert Hall for the past 24 years, Roger Daltrey announced in January that he would be stepping down as curator. Roger has done an amazing job of pulling together a stellar lineup of acts for this event every year, which has helped raise £32m for specialised NHS units to care for teenagers with cancer. While Roger will no longer be involved in putting together the annual event, he will continue in his role of Honorary Patron of Teenage Cancer Trust, and starting next year, the TCT week will be hosted by a series of guest curators.
To celebrate the 24 years milestone and all the work Roger has done for TCT, the final show on Sunday, 24 March was a special Ovation night that featured a fantastic lineup of legendary artists, including Roger Daltrey with his acoustic band, Robert Plant with Saving Grace, Eddie Vedder with guest Glen Hansard, Paul Weller, and Kelly Jones. Pete Townshend was originally scheduled to perform too, but he had conflicting work in New York to promote the new Tommy musical on Broadway so he was unable to attend.
Roger told the audience at the Ovation show, “Twenty-four years ago, I stood on this stage and pointed out what we were trying to achieve. At the time, we needed 25 hospital wards… since then, we’ve built 28.” He added, “Ovation is for all the people who’ve been there for me unconditionally whenever I’ve asked them to do something for Teenage Cancer Trust. The backstage crews, people that make the whole thing possible. This is for all the unsung heroes.”
Many thanks to Roger and Pete for all their years of dedication and hard work to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust!
And a huge shout out to everyone who contributed photos, videos and reviews for the TCT shows, with special thanks to Irish Jack for sending us a lovely writeup for this article!
Check out the full concert pages for The Who's TCT shows at the Royal Albert Hall night 1 and night 2.
Photo by Sean Duke Cassidy
Photo by Ron Grosser
Photo by Mark Fintz
Photo by Chris Elkins
Photo by Melissa and Gary Hurley
Photo by Stefani Cushing
Photo by Sean Duke Cassidy
Video by 71lox
Photo by Melissa and Gary Hurley
Photo by Ron Grosser
Photo by Melissa and Gary Hurley
Photo by Sheva Golkow
Photo by Melissa and Gary Hurley
Photo by Melissa and Gary Hurley
Photo by Seth Davidson
Photo by Melissa and Gary Hurley
Photo by Melissa and Gary Hurley
A few words from Irish Jack
"HELLO... I'M JACK FROM SHEPHERD'S BUSH!"
By Irish Jack
Many years ago I read an unforgettable by-line in a music magazine : 'From the Shepherd's Bush mods of My Generation to the time machine mystical travellers of TOMMY, the Who played longer, harder and straighter for the people than anyone else..' This was a mouthful that any band would be pleased with. And however good that tribute was / is, it now requires a timely update....'From the Shepherd's Bush mods of My Generation to the time machine mystical travellers of TOMMY and back to the Shepherd's Bush mods of Quadrophenia...the Who played longer, harder and straighter for the people than anyone else.'
At the Royal Albert Hall last Wednesday night my vantage point in Row 7, Seat 115 of the Stalls where our tour manager Rex King had placed me, this wonderful up-dated by-line tribute occurred to me as I stared down upon the ageing bonces of Townshend and Daltrey - two men, I have through the many long years managed to love and yes, anger from time to time.
It's been a very long journey, a bumpy ride which started 7 years before anyone heard...'Captain Walker didn't come home, his unborn child will never know him....' And 11 years before 'I went back to the doctor to get another shrink...' I can never actually remember buying a ticket to see the Who - but because last Monday night (I didn't go) and Wednesday night was for Roger's Teenage Cancer Trust well, like everyone else I was more than happy to pay for my £250 ticket. I'm thinking now as I write this for dearest Carrie and if memory serves me right -which it sometimes does- I paid three shillings and sixpence (you American guys will have to defrost the calculator to work out the monetary conversion !) I paid three shillings and sixpence way back in June 1962 to see a small unknown band called The Detours at a little dance hall in Shepherd's Bush called Boseleys. My unorthodox presence that Saturday night swelled the attendance to 32.
The singer turned out to be a chap called Colin Dawson who looked a dead ringer for Cliff Richard; the lead guitarist was a tough fiery geezer Roger Daltrey who also doubled on trombone; the only real and genuine musician in the band was a tax officer called John Entwistle who played bass. The drummer played a single bass drum with the letters D.S. embossed on the skin and Doug Sandom was a quiet unassuming man whose real job was bricklaying. And of course there was this tall, lanky guy with a nose like Rembrandt's beret, a real trowel. He was six feet, straight hair with a fringe and a jumbo guitar strapped around his neck, and I remember thinking 'he's probably even got a girl friend...' So as I beamed through the ray of mystical light on The Detours and like a man who isn't sure if he can walk on water I walked across the floor with my baggage of 19 year old quadfold complexes : my height, my hair, my see-saw Irish accent and my name, the band were taking away their 20-watt amps off tubular steel chairs and I approached this owner of the Rembrant beret and almost like a mission statement stuck my hand out and said : "Hello. I'm Jack from Shepherd's Bush. He looked at me amused and replied : 'Hello, Jack from Shepherd's Bush. I'm Pete from Ealing...'
And now in that wonderful photo which Mark Wilkerson had the presence of mind to capture in the dressing room of the Royal Albert Hall last Wednesday night those are the very words I playfully approached Pete Townshend with. There was a hiatus of 62 years in between and a few wet weekends. Yes, it was a long and bumpy journey but thank God we got home.
The nights are hot and black as ink, oh God I need a drink, I wish there was another gig tonight !
Irish Jack and Pete Townshend backstage. Photo by Mark Wilkerson
Photo by Tina Freeman
Encore at the Ovation night show. Photo by Sean Duke Cassidy
Robert Plant and Roger Daltrey at Ovation night show. Photo by Melissa and Gary Hurley
Encore at the Ovation night show. Photo by Melissa and Gary Hurley
Video by Room of Mirrors
Video by Room of Mirrors
Video by Room of Mirrors
Video by Room of Mirrors
Video by Room of Mirrors
