Roger Daltrey looks back on a wild New Year's Eve with the Who, 1965
This was the Ready Steady Go! New year party, The shows were usually recorded live si I think we actually it on New Year's Eve, although I can't be sure. It's a vague area in my memory, party because it was the festival season. In those days I used to push the boat out at that time of year.
We had reason to that year in particular as we had released our first hit records, I Can't Explain, Anyway Anyhow Anywhere and My Generation.
 
 The Who evolved from a skiffle band I formed some years before called the Detours. Our bass player had left and he had the only amplifier, which we all played through, I remembered John Entwistle from school, although he was in the year below me, and I remember thinking it was a very strange-looking guitar that he had. He was a must-have in the group, not least because if he had an electric bass he must have an amp to go with it, John suggested that his friend Pete Townshend join as rhythm guitarist. We played the west London circuit, mainly as we had all grown up around there, and one night this kid called Keith Moon came along and told us that our drummer was no good, and he was going to replace him. Because he said it so forcefully we never even bothered to ask him to join. He just did.

 By the time we played Ready Steady Go! it didn't feel like we had made it, as we weren't making much money. Even thugh we had had three hit records, we were probably four times as much in debt. Back then, musicians used to just sign whatever was put in front of them. Everybody was working for nothing basicallt, but we had a really goof lifestyle. As long as we could feed and clothe ourselves, and have enough to pay the rent, we were happy. We were gigging almost every right in those days and used to go nightclubs like the Scotch of St James and the Speakeasy after a gig, as did bands like the Yardbirds, the Beatles and the Stones

 Pete broke his guitar by accident one night and it got an amazing reaction from the audience. Our manager Kit Lambert said, 'Do it again', not thinking of the consequences, and it became part of our act. In the end we were getting paid GBP50 a night and breaking about GBP200 of equipment. Eventually we started setting off explosives during our set as well. During a performance on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, the big Saturday night show in America at the time, Keith put a bit too much in his bass drum and created a massive explosion at the end of My Generation. Because of the severity of Californian fire laws the snow was almost taken off the air because of it. We knew it was hot and sunny there but we didn't realize it was surrounded by desert.

 Keith was desperate to entertain people at great cost to himself. He was the funniest man I've ever met, but was very difficult to turn off and when he did he seemed incredibly sad. Moony was addicted to anything anybody gave him; he wouldn't take one of anything, he'd take a handful. We were stupid young people and thought it was funny, but of course if you were Keith Moon it was probably very miserable. We were 19years old and very na?ve.
 Something special happens when Pete and I play together now, some kind of sixth sense. I'd always known it was there, but it feels more intense than ever now as there's just two of us left. I miss Keith and John but it's never felt weird because they exist in the music. Keith hasn't been around for 30years but for me he's still there every night we play.
Interviews by Tim Burrows
'Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who' is out now on DVD (in UK, USA, and Australia)

The Who - "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere"
(Ready Steady Go 1965)