19 Jan 2018
A Fortnight of Furore – January 1968
Fifty years ago today a Qantas plane touched down at Mascot Airport in Sydney, Australia after a 36-hour flight from London via Cairo, Bombay, Karachi and Singapore. On board, extremely jet lagged from such a long flight, were members of The Who and their tour crew including Bob Pridden and John ‘Wiggy’ Wolff. Said Wiggy, “I think it all started when we rolled off the plane and weren’t very co-operative with the press. They herded us into a room and the boys were all shattered from the long flight and just didn’t want to know.”
What followed was a ten-day tour of Australia and New Zealand with The Small Faces and Paul Jones – a tour beset by problems from grievous authorities, an unkindly press, overzealous police and hostile airline crews.
Over the next five decades, tales of the bands’ exploits and the way they were treated have gone down in the annals of rock ’n’ roll lore. Australian and New Zealand newspaper headlines screamed, “Ban These Scruffy Urchins Once and For All . . .” and “Kiwi Kids Fell Sucker to a Mob of Scruffs”.
Thirty years later in 1998, rock writer Andy Neill, co-author of celebrated tome, Anyway Anyhow Anywhere, The Complete Chronicles of The Who 1958-1978, wrote a 48-page anniversary booklet entitled A Fortnight of Furore which regales in intimate and exact detail what went down in those all-too-brief ten days in Australasia. The book is crammed with press cuttings, concert adverts, press photos and photos of the groups by fans themselves. Plus, the centre 16 pages include a full facsimile of the 1968 tour programme with plenty of photos and interviews with The Who, The Small Faces and Paul Jones.
Andy is offering for sale some of his last remaining copies of A Fortnight of Furore which he will also personally sign for you if requested.
At £6.99 plus postage per copy this has got to be a really great deal for any Who fan and collector.
To purchase your own copy please click here.
Arriving at Wellington Airport, New Zealand, January 30, 1968 (left to right) Bob Pridden, John Entwistle, Steve Marriott, Keith Moon, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Wolff and Ronnie Lane.
The Who onstage in Wellington, New Zealand at the second show (8:30pm) on January 31, 1968. On the far side of the stage are Bob Pridden and Ronnie Lane. Photo © Rowan Grieg.
I was there at the hotel when the bands were holding press conferences then accompanied the small faces in their taxi for a sound check at the stadium. I was 18 that was a great concert
I saw The Who at Sydney Stadium early 1968. The overblown media reporting did not distract my generation from knowing viscerally that My Generation and Substitute with guitar moved up front with the stuttering lead vocals had redefined rock and roll forever.