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Originally Posted by Susan Foreman  April 5th, 1969 - Mod no more! Melody Maker groups The Who with Led Zeppelin and Free as one of 'The heavy mob.' The article describes their sound under the new label 'heavy' rock, a label that will eventually mutate to 'heavy metal'
If you are unable to read the relevant text, the entry runs: " The heavy mob tend to stun their audiences with volume, violence and mass moodiness" "THINKING back, it becomes apparent the Who were years ahead of their time. I can recall when it was the craze for bands like the Spencer Davis Group or Zoot Money's Big Roll Band to devote one number of their act as a kind of friendly send-up of the Who's violence-personified act. Their approach was a revolution that took the competition several moons to catch up and equal. Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle and Keith Moon between them set the nation back on its ears with a style that eschewed the normal group methods of creating excitement. Not for them an off-beat and solos in neat and orderly turn. Keith hammered his bass drums non-stop on all beats to the bar, and if occasionally the rest couldn't be heard above the noise, it wasn't for want of trying" |
Chris Welch, who wrote that piece, went on to write for Kerrang! and later became the editor of Metal Hammer. Also related to this piece , Welch wrote several books including
The Who: Teenage Wasteland (1995) and
John Bonham: A Thunder of Drums (with Geoff Nicholls) in 2001.