The Who 1973 Cow Palace, S.F. Emergency-Drummer Concert Poster Graded 10 Gem Mint (AOR-4.42). ...

Description

ONE OF THE MOST UNUSUAL NIGHTS OF THE WHO'S 60-YEAR CAREER

The Who 1973 Cow Palace, S.F. Emergency-Drummer Concert Poster Graded 10 Gem Mint (AOR-4.42). An original first-printing concert poster for The Who, on tour supporting Quadrophenia, playing at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, CA on Tuesday night, November 20, 1973. This show is legendary for the fact that drummer Keith Moon collapsed midway through "Won't Get Fooled Again" and was unable to finish the show. So what happened? A lucky young man from the audience took to the stool and helped the band finish out their set. Definitely the stuff of legend.

Produced by Bill Graham and designed by David Singer, this poster blows the roof off the place with a grade of 10 Gem Mint by CGC (the Certified Guaranty Company). Measures 18 7/8" x 25 1/2". From the David Swartz Concert Poster Collection. COA from Heritage Auctions.

Literature: See Grushkin, Paul, The Art of Rock: Posters from Presley to Punk, Abbeville Press, New York, 1987, p.345 (illus.).

More Information:
Prior to the show, Keith Moon had ingested several horse tranquilizers, collapsed and was carried off by his drum tech and one of the Heil PA crew members. That left Pete Townshend to call out to the audience, "Can anybody play the drums, I mean somebody good?" Nineteen-year-old Scott Halpin of Muscatine, Iowa made his way to the front and joined them onstage. Halpin had actually bought a scalper's ticket for the show and now found himself as drummer for one of the world's greatest rock bands, imagine that. He provided the backbeat for the show's final four numbers, becoming a folk hero for the rest of his life. As fate would have it, promoter Bill Graham recorded the whole concert on his video system and the incident can be seen in The Who's video 30 Years of Maximum R&B Live.

Adding even more to the poster's cache, this was the opening night of the Who's 1973 North American Quadrophenia tour with Lynyrd Skynyrd as the support band. The Cow Palace's 13,500 seats had sold out in just four hours, three weeks prior to the show.

The night's set list consisted of "I Can't Explain," "Summertime Blues," "My Generation," "I Am the Sea," "The Real Me," 'The Punk & the Godfather," "I'm One," "Helpless," "Dancer," "5:15," "Sea and Sand," "Drowned," "Bell Boy," "Dr. Jimmy," "Love Reign O'er Me," "Won't Get Fooled Again," "Magic Bus" with an improvised "See Me, Feel Me," "Smokestack Lightning" and "Spoonful," and "Naked Eye."


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