The Who, 1976
Photography and commentary by Michael Zagaris

“This shot—this was, arguably, the last great Who tour: the whole ’76 year. They started in January, ended in April, then started up again in late summer and went through to the end. That was actually the last time Keith Moon played drums for them, before he died; and that was the last time the Who played Winterland. They played two shows with a day off in between. They were incredible performances, and they were really on.

“Peter Rudge was their road manager at the time. Moon had gotten pretty out there, and he (Rudge) had taken all of Moon’s money away thinking that would slow down his partying—which, when you think about it, is crazy cause your friends’ll bring you more drugs and booze than you could ever buy. So that’s what happened. I think a friend of his from L.A. came up and had some mescaline. So we did mescaline before the show. I remember shooting part of the show from a television camera position and then started really coming on and shot part of the show from the pit in the front. There was a balcony in the back that was closed off, so I went up there, but by that point I was tripping pretty hard. And you know it was like, ‘wow, oh—what a show…’

“Kristen, who I was living with at the time, said, ‘You know, this would be a great picture.’ I was like ‘Oh yeah.’ And I took a few shots in both black and white and in color. This is right at the end of their encore, and it turned out to be a really iconic image. Pete had thrown his guitar up, and everybody in the whole place was on their feet and they were roaring, and the whole building was just shaking. I remember Moon got up and then collapsed over the drum kit—cymbals fell onto the ground—and Townshend and Entwistle ended up grabbing him, one by each ankle, and dragging him off stage.

“The song they played during this shot might have been ‘Baba O’Riley,’ but you know what’s weird about shooting? I won’t say you don’t hear, you kind of do, but you have no idea what’s been played because you’re so locked in to the movement and the image. I remember sometimes after the show, there’d still be the set list taped to the floor, and I’d take it and go, ‘I don’t remember this song…’”

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