The Who 'sabotaged' at Glastonbury

In a blog post on their website, The Who have described how last month's Glastonbury performance was far from smooth sailing.

The wide-ranging 'show report' is a fascinating insight into the backstage goings-on at the festival, including the admission that they weren't originally on the bill: "__Not many know that we were a last-months addition to the show, replacing Prince who decided not to come this year"

Still more peculiar is the apparent 'sabotaging' of their stage rig. After loading their equipment at 6am, the band then left their gear set up backstage, as is the norm for a festival stage. The blog then states: "As we began to prepare our coming changeover, we found someone had sabotaged the carefully-tested audio connections for much of our gear." As befits a band that have been on the road for 50 years though, they just got on with it, "we’re good at plugging things in, so all damage was repaired in time."

The drama didn't stop there, however, as once on stage the band noticed that something wasn't quite right with the sound: "It just sounded weird up there, and there were odd echoes making the timings sound off much of the time – leading the musicians all over the place." 

Not exactly known for their patient demeanours, this led to Pete and Roger engaging in some... stage feng shui with Zak's drum screens: "Pete decided the clear sound screens in front of Zak’s drums were in the way, and violently pulled them over onto his amps... Late in the show, Roger decided he wanted ALL the screens off the drums... then Rog decided he didn’t want them taken down! And within a song, he walked right over and then pulled them off himself. Go figure!"

Not surprisingly "After the show, Pete felt it was one of the very worst the band had ever played", but apologised for his behaviour. It's reassuring to know that one of the biggest rock bands ever still feels that Glasto is a special occasion: The Who's lighting director Tom Kenny said “I watched as I lit up the audience and Pete was taken back. I’ve witnessed the Glastonbury crowds five times before – and this was ridiculous!”