The Who / Squeeze

Royal Albert Hall, March 18^th and 20^th

Stage view: right down the front

After 24 years Roger Daltrey has retired as the curator of the annual Teenage Cancer Trust fundraiser and his parting gift was this brace of sold-out rock’n’roll shows. A suited and booted Squeeze delivered a solid hour of hits, from the opening Take Me I’m Yours to a closing Cool For Cats. Everything revolved around the songs and singing of front men Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, from the countryish Labelled With Love, through a delicate rendition of Tempted to the faux-Motown of Another Nail In My Heart.

Monday night only saw The Who opening with a crisp I Can’t Explain. Both nights enjoyed a lengthy selection from Tommy where the orchestral backing really came into its own, early highlights being the synchronised guitar strumming of Pete Townshend and his brother Simon on Pinball Wizard and a moving Roger Daltrey vocal on See Me, Feel Me. A handful of singles without the orchestra included Substitute and The Kids Are Alright, performed as tightly as the original recordings. The orchestra returned for a selection from Quadrophenia, their performance of The Rock instrumental track being especially powerful. On the Wednesday night Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam helped deliver The Punk And The Godfather. Daltrey and Townshend wore the same clothes both nights, suggesting the gigs were being filmed.

Throughout Zak Starkey embodied Keith Moon’s manic glee on drums, Jon Button made no attempt to emulate John Entwistle on bass, Billy Nichols provided vocal support and keyboard player Loren Gold provided the synthetic pulse of Won’t Get Fooled Again and the romantic piano intro to Love, Reign O’er Me. These last two numbers were a remarkable demonstration of Daltrey’s enduring vocal power and range. The closing Baba O’Riley ended with the band being lead a merry dance by first violinist Katie Jacoby culminating in a standing ovation from all present.

Review written for Record Collector magazine

Photography: Dave Alexander / Simon Wright