When I went to the States in the late 80s, I was in a town that was hosting The Who in a show the following week. I chuckled in a "are they still going?"-type way. Yet the local teenagers I met were genuinely very, very excited about them coming.

The average American has been able to listen to The Who on mainstream radio for the last 40 years.

Thanks for sharing this Simon. After a shaky start (Pinball Wizard is awful) they really click in and do a good 10 minutes of largely 'CSI' tracks (which indeed is probably where most of the audience knew them from). The interview is well worth a listen too. I always thought they were good at Live Aid (although many disagree) and they are good at getting a lot of energy into a 10 minutes slot.

If only for the stage lighting - utterly bloody marvellous. Rog's voice a bit ropey to start but they soon get going by playing the theme tunes to all 3 CSI programmes. That's why the audience loved 'em. I believe CSI is one of the most watched series in the world.

Just how in the earth do they set all that up at half-time. Does it last longer than our 15 minutes? Was that Bongo Jnr on drums? Great cymbals.

I Am The Walrus? He sure as hell sounds like one!

Great show. Has any one else noticed that if you shut your eyes Rog sounds uncannily like the Spurs legend Alan Mullery? I'm not sure how relevant this is.

Jeepers, his 'mod target' cymbals look great. Never saw anything like that before. Wonder if Zildjian will be rolling them out?

Yet again I attempted to stay up long enough (and not spend the night shouting "get on with it" during every break in 'play') to catch the half-time show and it was only alright. Looked like they were all miming the Pinball Wizard bit, but the sing-a-long to the rest of it was a pleasant surprise, and Pete seemed to be enjoying himself, which is always nice. Pity he didn't smash the fuck out of his guitar at the end of the set.

They're still not really the same without The Ox though...

I can accept Zak as a part of the Who - he seems to be able to emody the spirit and style of Moon without trying to do just that.

However, Pino Palladino is no John Entwistle and the band suffer because of that. I saw them in 2000, not long before he carked it and they were tremendous. Went again post-Ox and it just wasn't the same.

'Meet the new boss, same as the old boss' always works one year into a presidential term (although with less justification this time).

at least the HD TV version we got down here. Even though it was partially strangled by my TV, it seemed to be as clear and powerful as they were when I saw them live at the Melbourne Grand Prix. And that is how you reproduce your hits - with astonishing clarity, power and accuracy. Unlike the Stones (to pick a completely random example), who came over like a bad sound check in Shine A Light.