BBC Sessions

It seems unimaginable today, given how obsessed bands and their corporate paymasters are with exerting complete control over even the tiniest scrap bearing a marketable trademark, but back when British rock bands were dominating the globe it was common practice for them to head into the BBC studios on a regular basis and lash down a handful of tracks by way of a 'Thank you' to the programmes which had helped propel them into the spotlight.

These sessions offer a valuable insight into the progress made by The Who over a five-year period.

The first for Saturday Club, in 1965 yields 'Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere' and three covers (James Brown's 'Just You And Me, Darling', Holland/Dozier/Holland's exhilarating 'Leaving Here' and The Young Rascals' 'Good Lovin'') which reflect the R'n'B bias of their live act at the time. But even by November of that year they were already sounding light years ahead in terms of arrangement and confidence, as evidenced by the surly 'The Good's Gone' and the amphetamined carnage of 'My Generation'. By '66 the R'n'B roots have all but been erased (although there's a moody, Byrds-like take on 'Dancing In The Street') and Townshend's Pop Art tendencies have taken hold, giving us versions of 'Substitute', 'Disguises' and 'I'm A Boy' which come close to matching their studio incarnations.

Things become more polished towards the end of 1967, by which stage the band had insisted that they be allowed to record their sessions in a 'proper' studio but, good as 'Pictures Of Lily' and 1970's 'Substitute' and 'The Seeker' are, there's a freshness, vitality and spirit of stroppy exuberance about the early Saturday Club sessions which is still apparent and almost absurdly thrilling.