The WHO

[ben_brown]

What exactly was the Cincinnati show tragedy (12/3/79). ??

[sloop_john_b]

What exactly was the Cincinnati show tragedy (12/3/79). ??

IIRC, it was general admission, and when the doors opened everyone ran to the front. Several people were trampled to death.

[ben_brown]

AHAA!!!

[cheyenne]

I tried to get tickets to that show but it sold out in less than an hour.

Here's the story as I remember it.

It was very cold that day, people were standing outside in the elements for hours hoping for a front row seat. There was some communications errors, and the organizers were late opening doors. Someone jumped the gun and only opened a couple of doors on one side of colluseum. Imagine if you will the stampede that followed. Glass doors and windows were broken in by the pressure of everyone rushing those few doors.

I think it was 11 people that were killed by suffocation and by being trampled to death, several more were injured. Shortly after that, festival seating was banned at Riverfront Colluseum.

I remember reading that the WHO wasnt informed it had happened til after the show.

The band sent flowers and condolences to each of the victims familys.

[mcxb]

The Cincinatti show was the 2nd night of the US tour...their first tour with Kenney Jones drumming after Keith Moon died. The first night was Pittsburgh and a group of friends and I road-tripped from Penn State to catch the show. Instead of an opening act, there was a 20+ minute preview of the film Quadrophenia which had just been released.

Being the first night of the tour, it seemed the sound took about 45-minutes to settle in just right, and I remember Entwhistle forgot the words to "My Wife" and had to restart the verse. Otherwise a great experience...just sorry I missed seeing Moon live. (Fortunately, "The Kids are Alright" hit big the following year, and it played at the Tower Theater in Philly on a huge screen with full "live venue" sound levels. Saw it quite a few times that summer.)

[rickaddict]

I finally got to finish watching this last night. I had recorded it.

One of John's basses caught my eye. I don't think I remember seeing it before. It was a photo from the 60's. The bass was a Mosrite 2 pickup bass, neck pickup on a slant. Photo was black and white, but the bass looked white with a black pick guard. It was only on the screen for a second or two, but it looked to me like the bass had Rick toaster pickups and a custom pickguard. Pretty cool. Anybody ever remember seeing this bass? I wonder if the pickups came out of one of Pete's destroyed 6 stringers.

[shamustwin]

There was a new (to me) Who anthology on the IFC the other night, very good, very in depth, with Pete and Roger contributing a lot. They discuss the tragedy, as well as the real reason for Entwistle's nickname, "The Ox".