TOM WRIGHT (photographs), ANDY NEILL (contributor) & PETE TOWNSHEND (foreword) – Their Generation: The Who in American 1967-69

RELEASE YEAR: 2025
BAND URL: https://omnibuspress.com/products/their-generation-the-who-in-america-1967-69-available-to-pre-order

What a delightful piece of music literature this is! A beautiful and aesthetically appealing large hardback book that visually documents the Who’s conquest and capture of the US and its audiences back in the late sixties – what more could a proper fan of 60s rock music ask for?! Compiling hundreds of evocative and moving photos by Tom Wright accompanied by bits of texts and quotes from author Andy Neill and none other than Pete Townshend that put them all into perspective and place them in their relevant context, Their Generation: The Who in America 1967-69 is both a travelogue and a documentary that serves to highlight the astronomical rise of one of the most phenomenal acts of all time.

In many ways, Their Generation is as much about Tom Wright and his story as it is The Who; he was a near-constant presence within the band’s orbit during those years, a spectator and a chronicler with a keen eye for detail and a firm grasp of what it meant to capture the emotional turmoil associated with long, grueling tours across vast distances in a foreign land. The loneliness and longing for home, the sense of wonder and adventure, the inside jokes and backstage shenanigans, the unadulterated mayhem on and off stage, the rapturous audiences and adulation, the powerful and angst-ridden songs, and the pure thrill of getting up on stage and delivering an inspiring and inspired set that would move the listeners and leave them wanting for more. It also serves as a testament to what is unarguably one of the most formidable rhythm sections to have existed and the one half of the Who that is sadly no longer here, namely the genius combo of drummer extraordinaire Keith Moon and dexterous bass-wizard John “The Ox” Entwistle.  

Perhaps the best and most memorable part of the book is the opening chapter (“Ealing Art Blues”) in which a young and creatively restless Pete Townshend enlists at the Ealing Technical College & School of Art and encounters the American-born Tom Wright and his circle of like-minded friends, thereby forming a bond that always existed on some subtle level until the latter’s passing in 2022. We can thank that fateful meeting for this gorgeous book.  

As I was reading the last couple of pages of this great and noteworthy gem, I kept thinking back to something that Roger Daltrey said as their majestic performance at Wembley back in 2019 had reached its climactic denouement, and I am paraphrasing from memory here, but it went somewhere along the lines of “Our youth is gone, but the music still sounds fucking brilliant.” That certainly holds true, but what Their Generation succeeds in doing is to embody and thematize that long-gone youth and also the vigor with which The Who conquered American nearly sixty years ago. You can actually absorb a wee bit of it through Wright’s photos.

Do you feel like embarking on a trip to a bygone age when giants really did walk the earth?