Most older artists shy away from belting out notes like it’s 1970. But not The Who’s Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey.
On Sunday night at the Royal Albert Hall, The Who – still performing in their sixth decade – delivered vocal ranges that would put young whippersnappers of 2025 to shame.
Often heralded as one of rock’s most influential bands of all time, school friends Roger, Pete, John Entwistle and Keith Moon were strumming meaty riffs and shaking hips before Led Zeppelin had even uttered Stairway to Heaven.
In 2025 as Roger turns 81 and Pete is a month shy of 80, they’ve still got it -save a few hearing issues, as the lead singer explained during Thursday night’s concert.
I Can’t Explain kicked off the evening, rippling an excitable vibration through the crowd, and throughout their 22-song set The Who gave it their all.
As Roger and Pete strummed and ooo-ed through their classics including The Kids are Alright, Pinball Wizard and My Generation, there were more than a few flickers of that old rock n’ roll romance.
At points, they could have been anywhere – perhaps at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 or on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury in 2007 – until you pan out and see the polite bobbings of a seated crowd.
Pete now hunches over his guitar, moulded into position with the occasional full-arm helicopter strum, while Roger leans on his microphone catching a break between gravelly, rounded notes which don’t seem to believe in ceilings. At one point Roger even appeared to do some iteration of a booty dip.
The highlights of the evening were not found in their more energetic tracks like The Real Me when Roger couldn’t seem to hear through the noise of the drums.
After a few frustrated arm gestures and comments, on the final track of the evening, the emotional The Song Is Over, Roger had to stop the concert, explaining: ‘To sing that song I do need to hear the key, and I can’t. All I’ve got is drums going boom, boom, boom. I can’t sing to that. I’m sorry guys.’
Seeing Roger looking defeated, the crowd cheered him on. After joking everyone’s got trains to catch, Roger said, ‘It was going so well… I can sing in any f***ing key you want, but I need to hear which one.’
Roger then gave it another go. This time around, drums turned down, it was a masterpiece.
While the crowd didn’t seem to mind – with their historic The Who T-shirts buffed out on many an ageing male chest – the stops did somewhat put a guillotine through the momentum of the evening.
But, honestly, that didn’t matter. Despite these issues, magic was made, especially in their tricky vocal tracks which both Pete and Roger blew out the park.
While the voices of contemporaries including Paul McCartney and Sir Elton John shake when under pressure, The Who are fog horns in comparison. How they manage to muster such might in their senior years beggars belief.
Love, Reign O’er Me was one of the best vocal performances I’ve ever seen, and Roger is – I repeat – 81. Yet gritty, note-perfect bellows erupt out of him like a battle cry.
Like a sturdy shire horse, Pete kept the night going when frontman Roger couldn’t.
Before Eminence Front Pete apologised for his breath work, which he said would likely be under par after a recent knee operation. But he needn’t have said anything at all. He was mesmerising.
Pete clocked out with a salient, ever off-beat, message for fans.
‘There is a lot to be said about what’s been going on in the music business since The Who were a little pub band,’ Pete began.
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‘We call them black swans, when you manage to get a hit and can hang on to it. But there’s another kind of black swan, and that’s the people that manage, partly through not dying, to continue their careers into their geriatric f***ing age.
‘What’s interesting is you can still make the music, you can still pretend to be young. Of course it’s quite clear that you’re not.
‘But what’s amazing is you guys, thank you so much. Some of you have followed us for a long time.
‘Many of you know this is not my chosen career. I would have preferred to be a dustman to be honest. But it’s glorious to be here with people like you tonight.’
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