{"id":64909,"date":"2025-07-14T13:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T13:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/64909\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T13:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T13:01:10","slug":"pete-townshend-explained-the-strange-fanaticism-around-the-who-in-1980-history-starts-to-accumulate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/64909\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Townshend Explained the Strange Fanaticism Around The Who in 1980: \u201cHistory Starts To Accumulate\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

While speaking with legendary rock critic Greil Marcus for Rolling Stone<\/a> in 1980, The Who<\/a>\u2018s Pete Townshend attempted to explain the strange fanaticism surrounding the band. At this time, The Who had embarked on a North American tour, two years out from Keith Moon\u2019s death, and one year since the death of eleven people at a show in Cincinnati. <\/p>\n

The incident in Cincinnati in 1979 propelled The Who to a new level of fame worldwide. It also created a disconnect between the band and their fans. What Marcus and Townshend described as a \u201cgulf.\u201d In this gulf, fans thought they knew everything about The Who, while the band became increasingly separated from them. <\/p>\n

In the interview, Marcus brought up the aftermath of the stage rush in Cincinnati, which caused the death of eleven people. Both Townshend and Roger Daltrey released statements, but Marcus brought up the fact that Daltrey described the victims as just \u201cthe kids.\u201d There, they brought up the concept of the \u201cgulf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pete Townshend Explained the \u201cGulf\u201d Between The Who and Their Fans as They Became More Famous<\/p>\n

\u201cThe audience had become faceless, physically present but also somehow invisible,\u201d said Marcus when explaining the concept. \u201cWhoever was in the audience, they were \u2018the kids.\u2019 It was as if there were an enormous gulf separating the band from its audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pete Townshend agreed that there was a kind of gulf between The Who and its audience. \u201cWhen I think back to the days at the Marquee,\u201d he said, mentioning The Who\u2019s first residency, \u201cThe first night, there were maybe fifty people, the next night, two hundred, and after that we were packing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were a cult within a cult\u2014our whole audience was nineteen years old, as we were\u2014and there\u2019s a great feeling of affirmation when the audience knows they\u2019re sharing in the success,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey\u2019re making the success happen as well. So you become\u00a0incredibly\u00a0close. The two or three thousand people who regularly attended the Marquee residency\u2014I think I know them all by their first names.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Band\u2019s History Starts to Accumulate\u201d<\/p>\n

Pete Townshend explained that the gulf was mostly created by The Who\u2019s growth, but also by projects that surrounded them. Specifically, he named the Tommy film, which had come out in 1975. Still, while Townshend felt that these things didn\u2019t have much to do with \u201cfront-line\u00a0rock & roll,\u201d they still colored the way people viewed The Who. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut there is also the fact that the band\u2019s history starts to accumulate,\u201d he continued. \u201cTo be in existence for fifteen years, and still be working, still be appearing on a stage \u2026 People can actually pay money and go and see this band who have got\u2014not so much a wonderful backlog of material behind them, but who have actually got a history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Townshend described it as getting into a really old author. Eventually, you run out of books to read because they\u2019ve been long-dead. \u201cAnd you get pissed off when you run out,\u201d he said. \u201cThis often happens to you when you\u2019re quite young.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he said, \u201cWhat\u2019s a big kick for a lot of young kids who get into The Who is the discovery that there\u2019s so\u00a0much\u00a0to get into. We do exist now, we are putting out product, but there\u2019s a lot more they can find.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the gulf, Townshend said that, while it definitely exists, there are moments where fans attempt to cross it, to bring themselves closer to The Who. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo although there is a gulf,\u201d he said, \u201cI think there is also a fascination in the fact that people might feel that gulf to start with, but also feel there\u2019s an opportunity, by a kind of investigative listening, and studying, and reading books about the band or going to see the films\u2014there\u2019s a chance they can get closer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo by Tom Hill\/WireImage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While speaking with legendary rock critic Greil Marcus for Rolling Stone in 1980, The Who\u2018s Pete Townshend attempted…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":64910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[171,975,35300,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-64909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-the-who","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114851721030278730","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}