Maximum Who power into Chichester Festival
A balmy summer’s evening, a big audience at the Assembly Rooms and the Chichester Festival welcomed a high energy, blistering, relentless near two hours of a musical romp through the history of The Who, the mod gods of the 1960s and 70s, still performing with Messrs Daltrey and Townshend in the mid-2020s. Musical royalty.
So if The Who are not possible, who better than the Maximum Who, who faithfully represent their heroes playing well known classics and lesser heard songs; I went with friend Pete, a very big Who fan, and he, like me, didn’t remember much of the Quadrophenia era but we were delighted to hear more than “just the hits”.
Maximum Who are Anthony (vocals/Roger), Justin (lead guitar and vocals/Pete), Vernon (bass and vocals/John) and Andy (drums and vocals/Keith), four massive fans of the mod era, especially The Who. They have only done about 25 gigs so far, but what they produced was straight up and down mod rock at its finest and loudest.
As Pete put it “the group are very tight”, indeed, a sentiment I agree with, you can tell they love the music and enjoy performing with each other, the relaxed interaction (and with the audience), laughter but never getting in the way of the music, grabbing the audience from the off.
Although the audience sat at trestle tables, that did not stop the dancing or the enjoyment, far from it, meant easier to put down your glass of whatever you fancied safely.
The band are well known to their heroes, having played at Roger Daltrey’s son’s wedding, that must have been something!
The band introduced “hydration breaks”, which will raise a smile with every football fan; there were one or two sound issues at the start, quickly rectified.
The instruments and speakers are all of that era, a clever touch, whilst they did dress as their heroes: Andy, with all the controlled frenzy of Keith Moon, Vernon, suitably statuesque and poker-faced as was John Entwistle, but proving a very good bass player, Justin, with the windmill action and movement of Pete Townshend, but, again, a very good guitarist in his own right, and finally Anthony, blonde perm and white t-shirt, all the action of Roger Daltrey including twirling microphone but a very good voice, very clear vocals with all the associated mannerisms.
All the favourite songs were there; my standout songs were I Can See For Miles, The Seeker, Summertime Blues, 5:15, Squeeze Box, a great version (encore) of Won’t Get Fooled Again and my favourite Who song of all, Behind Blue Eyes, beautifully sung.
If you get chance, go and see; they are due at the Lens (Portsmouth Guildhall) on Friday 11 September for a one-off show raising awareness of prostate cancer, a case very close to the band’s heart, details will appear on Facebook etc. A real delight.
Ken Ebbens
The Flash radio presenter