The Who and guests - Charlton FC 31/05/76

On this day 49 years ago, The Who entered the Guinness book of world records for the loudest concert ever recorded at a level of 126 dB. Their performance at The Valley was at the first of three mini festivals held at football grounds over a couple of weeks under the banner "The Who Put the Boot In".  There was a very good support bill including the Sensational Alex Harvey Band (my favs at the time), Little Feat and Streetwalkers (featuring Roger Chapman, he of the vibrato vocals, more well known for Family).

It was a Bank Holiday Monday and as usual it rained on and off all day, in stark contrast to what was to follow in that long hot summer. I was desperate to go but, still being at school and skint i couldn't convince my parents to fund the adventure. To be fair they were more concerned about potential trouble than the money side of things and their fears were probably well founded. There were real issues with forged tickets and it lead to loads of people getting in who should not have and lots of valid ticket holders not getting in at all (they were in fairness offered free travel and entry to the Swansea FC gig 2 weeks later) . The official safety limit had been set at 50,000 but estimates put the actual attendees at 75-80,000. It was bedlam and there were plenty of fights breaking out. Pretty much de rigueur for the time ! The early supporting acts went down well enough but it was the diminutive Alex Harvey and his Sensational Band who really got the crowd going, they were renowned as one of the best live acts in rock and didn't disappoint.  Alex would have given a few of the wokerati today an attack of the vapours as he burst through a wall dressed as Hitler during an epic rendition of Framed, the crowd at the time of course loved it, one can only imagine what the reaction of todays Glastonbury festival goers would have been ! And then it was the turn of The Who, performing a blistering set with a ground breaking (at the time) laser display illuminating The Valley, they had the crowd in the palm of their hands from the moment Roger Daltrey ran on to the stage and immediately slipped over, sliding  along full length. RD  considers this one of his favourite ever gigs. Keith Moon was in great form, swapping banter with RD, little did the crowd know that this short tour was the last set of official concerts he would play in , due to his declining health.   

It may not have been as polished as the Glastonburys of today, but what a day it was, warts and all..

I did finally get to see Alex but this was at a low key gig with his new band (SAHB had split in 1977) at Oakwood College in Maidstone, a slightly smaller venue than The Valley ! But he was still great and i was just chuffed to have seen one of my musical heroes.  A few weeks later he died of a heart attack , the day before his 47th birthday.

Two other big names from that concert bill also passed away within a few years of it, the enigmatic Lowell George of Little Feat died of a heat attack in 1979 aged 34, he had become obese weighing 300 pounds. And Keith Moon died aged 32 in 1978 after overdosing on medication designed to control his alcoholism. He was renting a flat owned by Harry Nilsson, the very same one where Mama Cass Elliot had died in 1974, spooky.

The Guinness Book removed the "loudest concert" category a few years later as they didn't want to encourage concerts that could damage peoples hearing....!