The Who by Numbers

Book excerpt: Emerging from the mid-1960s R&B mod scene with furious teenage anthems like 'My Generation', The Who were the wildest, angriest and loudest kids on the block. And in spite of Townshend's most famous line - 'hope I die before I get old' - and unlike so many of their rivals, The Who lived to forge more mature works in the late 1960s and the 1970s with the phenomenal success of their pioneering rock opera, Tommy, their revered song collection Who's Next and Townshend's mod masterpiece Quadrophenia.