Mason Weinrich writes:

When the Who toured Quadrophenia in 1973, everyone wondered why New York City was skipped. Lots of New York fans made the trip to Philadelphia for the 12/4/73 show, which was later used for the King Biscuit broadcast (later preserved on a variety of boots, most notably "Tales of the Who").

The King Biscuit show was broadcast on a Sunday night in March 1974, starting at 9:00 PM. In the New York region, WNEW announced at the start of the broadcast that during the show they would have a "special announcement for New York Who fans." The announcement of the shows came in the commercial break before the final segment, which consisted of the two Tommy songs. Tickets were set to go on sale the next morning for all four shows at the Garden box office (remember - this is before the days of Ticketmaster). I waited for the end of the broadcast, then headed down to the Garden for an overnight. Approximately 150 people were already there lined up; by the time we were done, over 500 people were there. They opened the ticket window for us by 6 the next morning, and by 8 AM I was on my way home with tickets for the 11th and the 14th.

The shows -

Golden Earring opened the shows all week long and were terrible (IMHO) - almost inaudible in the terrible Garden sound. The crowd, in typical fashion, greeted them with lots of calls for the Who. I remember their set as being about an hour, but that may be my memory of an unending brutal set.

The Who came on with no announcement - just a dimming of the house lights and they came roaring on. Keith and Pete were cart-wheeling as they took the stage. All week long Pete wore a grey shirt and khaki's; Roger wore his tattered leather shirt and jeans; and I really don't remember what Keith or John wore.

Each set was approximately an hour and a half (a little longer on the last night). Set lists were common with just a few changes night by night. Pete, in his drunken state, was often interactive with the crowd, especially on the subject of age (on the 11th, pointing to Roger) - "Over 30? Over 30? Never - he's over thirty. I'm still young" and proceeded to cartwheel across the stage).

While everyone remembers the shows as being terrible, they were certainly great for the audience. There was lots of jamming, and Pete was high energy throughout. The "forced" nature of the show on the 10th that Pete talked about in subsequent interviews was not in evidence in any of the following 3 shows. Frustration did rear its head on the 13th, when Roger's mike quit in the middle of "Punk and the Godfather" as an encore; he just slammed his mike down and walked off, the rest of the band following quickly to end the show. But from this audience members' perspective they were classic Who shows, with all of the unpredictability, energy, and humor that made this the best live rock band of its, and perhaps any, time.

The 6/11 show did not end suddenly - that was the 6/13 show, which ended when Roger's mike died during the encore of "Punk", and they all stomped off. Pete wasn't the only one unhappy during that week - Roger had tons of feedback problems, and kicked over part of the on-stage monitor system and a few amps on 6/10.

Anyway, the 6/11 show ended with a nice smash job from Pete at the end of the regular set, and then a messy and short encore afterwards. The smash job has long been immortalized - if any of you have seen the "This Guitar Has Seconds To Live" ad for TKAA, its from that night. Set list was similar to the other nights, but there was some night to night variation.

Perhaps the best (and most spectacular) of the 4 nights was the last, where four (count them 4) Les Pauls went at the end of the encore - 2 by Pete, one each by Keith and Roger... it was at the end of a long, spectacular encore.

It is true that Pete was drunk at the last 3 shows, but the energy was amazing, and the band was really in its prime.. It was very early in my who-days, but the whole stand really changed my life and musical taste.