The Who Tour 2002

The Who Tour 2002 was a tour by The Who, partially in support of the DVD The Who & Special Guests: Live at the Royal Albert Hall. It was the first tour the band did without original bassist John Entwistle, who died the night before the North American tour was to begin; the group decided to complete the tour with the help of bassist Pino Palladino, who continued playing with them until 2016.

The Who Tour 2002

Tour by The Who
Start date	27 January 2002
End date	28 September 2002
Legs	4
No. of shows	32
The Who concert chronology

History

After a single appearance in 2001 at The Concert for New York City in October, The Who began the new year with a series of shows in England that culminated with two charity dates at the Royal Albert Hall in London. As in 2000, these benefited the Teenage Cancer Trust. A full-scale tour of North America was then planned, with Pete Townshend's brother Simon added to the lineup to help with backing vocals and rhythm guitar.

After rehearsals in England, the group travelled to Las Vegas for the first scheduled date, only to have Entwistle's death from a heart attack the night before (27 June) throw the tour and the band itself into question. Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey concluded that the tour should continue and secured the services of Pino Palladino, a seasoned session and live bassist who had worked with Townshend on past solo projects. They contacted him in Philadelphia just as he was planning to travel back to the United Kingdom.

The first two dates were rescheduled and the tour commenced with an emotional show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on 1 July after only two days of rehearsals. The group eventually played 27 dates over four legs, often wearing black and paying tribute to Entwistle. The tour finished at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on 28 September.

"Because of the power of the shows," Townshend wrote on his website, "and their financial success in a slightly depressed marketplace, there are those who conclude that I will naturally continue to perform with Roger under the Who banner. There are those, who perhaps think they know me a better as a grouch, a spoiler, a self-obsessed creative, an insecure and pretentious, self-styled artist, who conclude that now it is all over."[1] Ultimately, however, the band continued to play with this lineup for several years.

Live Releases

Live material from 2002 has appeared on the following releases:

• Four songs ("I'm Free", "I Don't Even Know Myself", "Summertime Blues", and "Young Man Blues") from the 8 February 2002 show at the Royal Albert Hall in London are included as a bonus disc of the Live at the Royal Albert Hall album, which features the band's 27 November 2000 charity show at the same venue.
• 25 of the group's 27 North American shows were released as The Who Encore Series 2002, a practice that would continue for their 2004 and 2006–2007 tours. Only the first show at the Hollywood Bowl on 1 July and the 1 August date at Madison Square Garden in New York City were omitted from the set.
• The DVD Live in Boston chronicles the 27 September show at the Tweeter Center, in Mansfield, Massachusetts on 27 September (mistakenly listed as 24 September).

Tour band

• Roger Daltrey - lead vocals, harmonica, tambourine, occasional rhythm and acoustic guitar
• Pete Townshend - lead guitar, vocals
• John Entwistle - bass guitar, vocals (through 8 February)

Additional Members

• Zak Starkey - drums
• John Bundrick - piano, keyboards, backing vocals (backing vocals through 8 February)
• Simon Townshend – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (beginning 1 July)
• Pino Palladino – bass guitar (beginning 1 July)

Typical set lists

January–February UK Dates

The set list for the short series of United Kingdom dates early in the year was similar to what was played in 2000, but a longer selection of Tommy material included the first performances of "Amazing Journey", "Sparks", and "I'm Free" since the 1989 tour; the second show in Portsmouth also featured the "Overture" and "It's a Boy". The band also revived cover tunes that had been part of their act years before, namely "Summertime Blues", "Baby Don't You Do It" (not played since 1973), and "Young Man Blues". As these were the last shows the group played with John Entwistle, they were also the last in which they performed "My Wife" and "Boris the Spider".

Here is a fairly typical set list for these shows (all songs written by Pete Townshend unless otherwise specified):

1. "I Can't Explain"
2. "Substitute"
3. "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere"
4. "I Don't Even Know Myself" (Added on 31 January)
5. "Amazing Journey"
6. "Sparks" (replaced with an instrumental jam on 28 January)
7. "Pinball Wizard"
8. "I'm Free"
9. "My Wife" (John Entwistle)
10. "Who Are You"
11. "Getting In Tune" (Added on 31 January)
12. "Behind Blue Eyes"
13. "Drowned" (Townshend solo acoustic)
14. "Baba O'Riley"
15. "You Better You Bet"
16. "5.15"
17. "Won't Get Fooled Again"
18. "The Kids Are Alright"
19. "Summertime Blues" (Eddie Cochran, Jerry Capehart)
20. "Young Man Blues" (Mose Allison) (Added on 31 January)
21. "My Generation"

There were some set list substitutions, variations, and order switches during the tour. Some other songs were played which are not in the above lists:

• "Baby Don't You Do It" (Holland-Dozier-Holland)
  • Performed on 27 and 31 January.
• "Magic Bus"
  • Performed on 28 January.
• "Boris the Spider" (John Entwistle) (Performed on 28 January)
• "Old Red Wine"
  • Performed on 7 and 8 February.
• "The Acid Queen"
  • Performed during "My Generation" on 8 February.
• "The Relay"
  • Performed on 28 January and 8 February.
• "I'm One" (Townshend solo acoustic)
  • Performed on 28 January 7 and 8 February.
• "Overture"
  • Performed on 28 January.
• "It's a Boy"
  • Performed on 28 January.
• "The Real Me"
  • Performed on 31 January.

North American Tour

The set for the North American tour was modified to include the first performances of "Another Tricky Day" since 1981, along with "Eminence Front" and a Quadrophenia segment now including "Sea and Sand" and "Love, Reign o'er Me". The encore was a Tommy medley, with "See Me, Feel Me" performed regularly for the first time since 1989. The group had rehearsed both "Join Together" and "Music Must Change" before John Entwistle's death, but neither made the set list for the tour. Towards the end of the tour, Townshend further developed the Entwistle tribute song "Old Red Wine" (played at the end of "My Generation"), adding lyrics that would appear when the song was recorded for the Then and Now studio version. There was very little variation in the group's act throughout all four legs of the tour, most likely due to their having a new bass player.

Here is a fairly typical set list for these shows (all songs written by Pete Townshend unless otherwise specified):

1. "I Can't Explain"
2. "Substitute"
3. "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere"
4. "Who Are You"
5. "Another Tricky Day"
6. "The Relay" (not played on 28 August or 23 September)
7. "Bargain"
8. "Baba O'Riley"
9. "Eminence Front"
10. "Sea and Sand"
11. "5.15"
12. "Love, Reign o'er Me" (performed twice on 24 August)
13. "Behind Blue Eyes"
14. "You Better You Bet"
15. "The Kids Are Alright"
16. "My Generation" (including "Old Red Wine")
17. "Won't Get Fooled Again"

Encores:

1. "Pinball Wizard"
2. "Amazing Journey"
3. "Sparks"
4. "See Me, Feel Me"

There were some set list substitutions, variations, and order switches during the tour. Some other songs were played which are not in the above lists:

• "I Can See for Miles"
  • Performed on 26 July.
• "I'm One"
  • Performed on 1, 3, 4, 30 and 31 August; and 14, 15 and 17 September.
• "I Don't Even Know Myself"
  • Performed on 23 September.

Tour dates

Date	City	Country	Venue
Europe
27 January 2002	Portsmouth	England	Portsmouth Guildhall
28 January 2002
31 January 2002	Watford		Watford Colosseum
7 February 2002	London		Royal Albert Hall
8 February 2002
North America – first leg
1 July 2002	Hollywood, California	United States	Hollywood Bowl
3 July 2002	Mountain View, California		Shoreline Amphitheatre
4 July 2002	Wheatland, California		Autowest Amphitheater
6 July 2002	George, Washington		The Gorge
North America – second leg
26 July 2002	Mansfield, Massachusetts	United States	Tweeter Center
27 July 2002	Camden, New Jersey		Tweeter Center
29 July 2002	Hershey, Pennsylvania		Hersheypark Stadium
31 July 2002	New York City		Madison Square Garden
1 August 2002
3 August 2002
4 August 2002
North America – third leg
23 August 2002	Auburn Hills, Michigan	United States	The Palace of Auburn Hills
24 August 2002	Tinley Park, Illinois		Tweeter Center Chicago
25 August 2002	Noblesville, Indiana		Verizon Wireless Music Center
27 August 2002	Grand Rapids, Michigan		Van Andel Arena
28 August 2002	Columbus, Ohio		Polaris Amphitheater
30 August 2002	Holmdel, New Jersey		PNC Bank Arts Center
31 August 2002	Wantagh, New York		Jones Beach Amphitheater
North America – Fourth Leg
14 September 2002	Paradise, Nevada	United States	The Joint
15 September 2002	Irvine, California		Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
17 September 2002	Los Angeles		Greek Theatre
19 September 2002	Greenwood Village, Colorado		Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre
21 September 2002	Dallas, Texas		American Airlines Center
23 September 2002	Chicago		House of Blues
24 September 2002	Saint Paul, Minnesota		Xcel Energy Center
27 September 2002	Mansfield, Massachusetts		Tweeter Center
28 September 2002	Toronto	Canada	Air Canada Centre

See also

• List of The Who tours and performances

References

1. Originally on the now defunct petetownshend.co.uk, quoted in "Who's next?"; Classic Rock #48, Christmas 2002, p7

External links

• The Who Online Concert Guide