{"id":81124,"date":"2025-07-21T17:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T17:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/81124\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T17:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T17:08:10","slug":"the-who-kick-off-song-is-over-tour-in-italy-without-zak-starkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/81124\/","title":{"rendered":"The Who Kick Off Song Is Over’ Tour in Italy Without Zak Starkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Who<\/a> kicked off their Song Is Over farewell tour Sunday night at the Anfiteatro Camerini in Piazzola sul Brenta, Italy. It was their first gig since firing longtime drummer Zak Starkey<\/a> and replacing him with Scott Devours,<\/a> their first regular tour show without an orchestra since 2017, and the official unveiling of new background singer John Hogg after giving him a test run earlier this year at the Royal Albert Hall.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe setlist stuck largely to the standards, but they did break out the Who\u2019s Next deep cut \u201cLove Ain\u2019t For Keepin\u2019.\u201d Prior to the Royal Albert Hall gigs in March, they hadn\u2019t touched it since 2004. Also noteworthy was the inclusion of \u201cI\u2019ve Had Enough\u201d in a segment of Quadrophenia songs that also included \u201cThe Real Me,\u201d \u201c5:15,\u201d and \u201cLove, Reign O\u2019er Me.\u201d It was essentially the first time they\u2019ve ever done \u201cI\u2019ve Had Enough\u201d outside of complete performances of Quadrophenia.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWe say \u201cessentially\u201d because there was a lone \u201cI\u2019ve Had Enough\u201d at the launch of the original Quadrophenia tour on October 28, 1973, at Trentham Gardens in Stoke-on-Trent, England. It\u2019s a show that looms large in Who lore since they attempted to play practically all of Quadrophenia that night, leaving out the title track and \u201cCut My Hair.\u201d They cut \u201cThe Dirty Jobs,\u201d \u201cIs It In My Head,\u201d and \u201cI\u2019ve Had Enough\u201d by the second show so they\u2019d have more time to devote to older material.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen the tour hit Newcastle, England, a week later, the primitive analog tape machine the band used to play the complex Quadrophenia songs malfunctioned. A frustrated Pete Townshend had a meltdown in response, tossing sound man Bobby Pridden to the side and lunging at the board.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTownshend began pulling at the sound board, yanking out wires, demolishing many of the prerecorded tapes it had taken so many weeks\u2019 work to piece together,\u201d Dave Marsh wrote in his 1983 book\u00a0Before I Get Old: The Story of the Who. \u201cThe rest of the band watched in a daze.\u201d (The Who wouldn\u2019t devote a substantial amount of their show to new material again until the start of the Endless Wire tour in 2006.)<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s significantly easier for the Who to play complex songs like \u201cLove, Reign O\u2019er Me\u201d these days since they\u2019ve added a keyboardist to their live band along with several other musicians. On this new tour, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend are joined by Devours, Hogg, guitarist Simon Townshend, bassist Jon Button, and keyboardist Loren Gold.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a new interview with Pollstar,<\/a> Daltrey said this was a \u201cback to basics\u201d tour after all the recent outings with orchestras. \u201cWe are trying to just make it more like what we were in the \u201970s, make it raw,\u201d he said. \u201cLet me explain something: the problem with modern rock concerts is that, in some way or the other, people expect too much in a visual way, which involves screens and lights and all that stuff. And to keep all that stuff on the same page as the music and what the band\u2019s putting out, you have to have a set list.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI fucking hate set lists!\u201d he continued. \u201cI hate them because, to me, the next song should follow the energy of what you\u2019ve created to the previous one. And you don\u2019t know that until you go out there doing it. In the old days, before we had screens, we used to mix the sound from the front of the stage and the lights from the front of the stage, we used to just do it all on the stage. You could make the set list up as you went along, and that was fabulous. It was freedom. But now, of course, it\u2019s impossible, because you\u2019ve got to work with a team. It\u2019s like a military operation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a military operation led by two men in their early eighties. And on opening night in Italy, Daltrey sang \u201cSee Me, Feel Me \u201cwhile kneeling down since he was suffering from leg cramps. \u201cThe Song is Over\u201d was listed as the final song, which makes sense considering that\u2019s the name of the tour, but it was cut, quite possibly due to Daltrey\u2019s leg cramps.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe tour continues Tuesday night at the Parco della Musica di Milano in Segrate, Italy. The U.S. leg begins August 16 in Sunrise, Florida. It wraps up September 28 in Las Vegas, but more shows will likely be added before they wrap this thing up.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Who\u2019s setlist at Anfiteatro Camerini in Piazzola sul Brenta, Italy:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI Can\u2019t Explain\u201d
\u201cSubstitute\u201d
\u201cWho Are You\u201d
\u201cLove Ain\u2019t for Keepin’\u201d
\u201cBargain\u201d
\u201cThe Seeker\u201d
\u201cPinball Wizard\u201d
\u201cBehind Blue Eyes\u201d
\u201cThe Real Me\u201d
\u201c5:15\u201d
\u201cI\u2019m One\u201d
\u201cI\u2019ve Had Enough\u201d
\u201cLove, Reign O\u2019er Me\u201d
\u201cEminence Front\u201d
\u201cMy Generation\u201d
\u201cCry If You Want\u201d (Snippet)
\u201cSee Me, Feel Me\u201d
\u201cYou Better You Bet\u201d
\u201cBaba O\u2019Riley\u201d
\u201cWon\u2019t Get Fooled Again\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Who kicked off their Song Is Over farewell tour Sunday night at the Anfiteatro Camerini in Piazzola…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":81125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[171,975,35300,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-81124","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\/114892328563901573","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81124","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=81124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}