AT THE FUTURIST
Author looking to hear from fans for people’s history book
An author is searching for people who may have seen legendary rock band The Who play the Futurist Theatre back in 1970.
The Who – Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle and Keith Moon – were famed for headline-grabbing off stage antics that including wrecking hotel rooms and crashing a Rolls Royce car into a swimming pool.
Richard Houghton is trying to trace fans that may have witnessed their show at the Scarborough theatre in 1970 to help him write a people’s history of the group.
Mr Houghton said: “The Who have been performing for over 50 years and lots of books have been written about them. But I want to tell their story in the words of the people who saw The Who when they were starting out and use those teenage memories to help capture a little piece of music history.
“The Who played the Futurist Theatre in December 1970, when they were well established as one of the top rock acts in the world, having performed at the Monterey and Woodstock festivals as well as two Isle of Wight festivals, where they appeared alongside such luminaries at Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan.
“For the Futurist Theatre to book The Who at this stage in their career was quite phenomenal, considering the size of venue they were able to fill in the USA.
“Sadly, this was their only live appearance in Scarborough but fans who witnessed that show can say that they saw one of the biggest live draws in the world at the time in really rather intimate surroundings.
“It was quite rare for The Who to play such a small venue given their audience pulling power.”
The Who have performed over 1,000 shows and Mr Houghton is calling on fans of the band to help him build up a picture of the group’s evolution as a live act.
He said: “I’m hoping some of your readers may have witnessed one or more of these shows or another concert by The Who and, if they did, I’m really interested to hear from them. People who were teenagers in the 60s will have some great memories of these evenings which I’d like to capture in order to preserve the history of a golden age of pop.”
‘For the Futurist to book The Who at this stage was phenomenal’ Richard Houghton