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  2. The accusation is of overdrumming? Wasn’t Keith Moon in The Who?

    I saw that Quadrophrenia tour in 1996 (Jesus! That long ago? Really?). Zak was rather good, far more Moon than Ringo.

    • Well Ringo was a better time keeper than Moon, he learnt from both of them as a child. I thought he was excellent live but he played on hardly any Who studio recordings made since he joined the touring band.

  3. Who is gonna sack Daltrey for his Godawful voice these days?
    His voice had gone when I saw them at Hyde Park about 10 years ago.
    Perhaps he couldn’t hear the key then either.

      • Roger doesn’t come out of that well. Pete seems to be doing his best to ignore it. The keyboard player is definitely amused by the antics.

        I’d kick Roger out for not using a coaster under that mug.

        • The keyboard man points to his ears at one point, I think either suggesting that Toger should have IEMs (not sure he does?) or that the IEMs are not working.

          My alternative view here is, this is a hard song to sing, and they were trying to do something special for the fans and both of them are overreaching a bit to get there (Pete is struggling as well, has to sit down.) – I also wonder why Zak was live-streaming rehearsals, that seems like a very ‘off’ thing for a session musician to do when his bosses are possibly not at their best.

          They were probably road-testing ‘The Song is Over’ as a last song to play at their last show, which I guess is coming…?

  7. One of the best tantrums I’ve ever seen on a big stage. And it seems that it was mostly about Roger’s screw up so he blamed the drummer. There should be a whole thread about on stage tantrums.
    Wow. Roger sounds truly terrible.

  8. I have no ability in playing any musical instruments or any understanding of music theory, so can someone explain how the “correct key” comes from the drums ? I thought they just provided the rhythm/tempo/groove etc etc.

    If all Rog can hear is boom boom boom from the drums, isn’t that a mixing desk issue not a drummer issue ?

    • No drum screen that I can see, which would have helped and as everyone seems to use In Ear Monitors these days, I’d have thought that hearing himself would be less of an issue than with floor monitors. Maybe have a word with the monitor engineer…..

    • He meant he couldn’t hear the music over the drums too pitch against, so it’s a monitoring problem. Anyone who has played pubs knows this one but you’d think a band like the Who would have it sorted. Not the drummer’s fault anyway.

      • Certainly not the drummer’s fault on a large-scale gig like that one. Quite often the drummer’s fault on small-space pub gigs. There are a lot of drummers who can only play LOUD.

  10. Don’t you all mean The Baba O’Reilly Hitmakers (as I’ve now heard them referred to at least once in every article)? The BO’RH?

    I found the first few minutes difficult enough with Townshend’s knackered gait over to his guitar tech to change axes.

    It’s definitely a monitoring rather than a drum issue.

    Besides, and keener eyes than mine might know better, but the last few live vids I’ve seen show Zak playing a full sized shelled – but, crucially, fully electric – drum kit. Potentially, there’d be very little acoustic noise on that stage.

    • On looking at the clip again, that’d definitely an electric kit.
      Also, I just remembered reading about Townshend’s knee replacements, hence the knackered gait I suppose.

  11. Old man yells at clouds.
    He was really struggling through that series of key modulations and getting flustered. There did seem to be a totally out of whack key change right where he lost it, and I don’t remember that from the album track. The drumming is positively tame compared to the original.

    They shouldn’t be playing that anyway. Worst song off their best album.

  13. Zak was playing electronic drums with shells to make them look real, and if Toger was having difficulty with his IEMs then all he’d likely hear is plastic-y thuds. Using v-drums in The Who is surely a sackable offence.

  16. PETE PACT WITH WHACK SACKED ZAK AS CODGER ROGER DUBBED TOGER AND DUMB V-DRUM THWAK according to sources in the WHO’s HR department.

    Now we know how many a-holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.

  17. I heard that Zak has already recorded with an 80s Brit-funk act planning a comeback with a cover of Dave, Dee, Dozy, B &T material sponsored by a leading Brandy producer…

    SACKED ZAK BACKED SHAKATAK ZABADAK ARMAGNAC PACT

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