Pete Townshend from the Who.

We sent our reporter Brian Dawe for the Bootle and Toxteth Times along to The Who's gig at the Echo Arena Liverpool, on Monday 3rd April, 2017.

Here's his report......

"You know what, I think Pete Townshend should be publicly thanked for his humanity and compassion, for his support of Philip Hayes and the people of Liverpool since the 1980’s.

I’m a massive Who Fan since the age of twelve I nearly fell over when Philip said "you will go the ball and meet Pete Townshend".

I love his music, so I was honoured to be invited to attend, in my view Pete is in every sense of the word a legend, a real legend. A pioneer and a uniquely creative person who also puts his money where his mouth is....in the history of British popular music the Who are one of the best bands- no argument from me!

Background.

'At the invitation of Philip the man behind Liverpool's legendary Picket music venue, I accompanied him as a VIP guest to the Who's gig in Liverpool last Monday.

Philip been fortunate to know Pete Townshend the guitarist in the Who since 1983 .

Pete's relationship with Philip has always been honest, he liked what he was doing. So in 1980's poverty stricken Liverpool Pete supported Philip’s efforts to make a real difference to young unemployed people and local bands, including:

Rain, The Hoovers, 25th May, the La's, The Tambourines, Zeb, Tiempo Libre, The Farm, Levi Tafari, The High Five, Boweevil, Black, Ex-Post Facto, Mr.Amir,

The Coral, Ministry of Love, The Icicle Works, Julian Cope, River Niger, The Real People, Jeggsy Dodd, The Preachers, The Paragonz, River City People, The Tambourines, The Vernons,

Shack, Pele, Space, Sense of Sound, The Shakti, Wah, Jah Deeanko, Bullyrag, Small, Smaller, Cast, Proper, AM, C Zero, the Stands, Amsterdam, the Isrites, Zeb, the Bandits, the Real Thing, the Bunnymen, China Crisis, Ooberman,

Plus loads of Liverpool rappers and DJ's, Giro, Loop Garu, International, The Thousand, Mojave Collective, The Quarter, Pure 9, Paul Holden, The Holding Section, Odega, Peter Coyle-The Lotus Eater, Marlowe, Intermajic, the Black Jackals.....etc.etc.

Pete’s patronage also encouraged other famous people in the music industry to support Philip’s work at the Unemployed Centre, including:

PAUL McCARTNEY, JOHN PEEL (RIP), PHIL COLLINS, JOE STRUMMER, (RIP), ELVIS COSTELLO, RINGO STARR,

DEPECHE MODE, SUGGS (MADNESS), PETER GABRIEL, PAUL WELLER, KEITH SLAUGHTER- Pete’s acoustic architect,

THE ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA and NEW ORDER/ROB GRETTON.

He also helped Philip set up Picket 2 music venue in Liverpool's Baltic Cultural District, and when Philip has his second breakdown he helped through his charity Double O to buy him an Apple Mac, which enabled Philip to become a collage artist .

Pete is also a strong supporter of Philip’s efforts to release the Good Samaritans album, part of the campaign to erase the stigma associated with mental health.

He has again been very generous in donating the tracks 'Behind Blue Eyes', and 'Can you see real me' to the album. He supports Philip I believe because he has always spent the money Pete has given him correctly and delivered.

So I went to the gig with Philip who danced through the entire set, while Pete during the performance was as self deprecating as ever a sign I think of his grasp on reality, the band played so many of my favourites, ”The Seeker', "Sparks" from the rock opera Tommy, '5:15' from Quadrophenia and "Won't Get fooled again'!!

The band featured our very own Zak Starkey Ringo's lad, great drummer as you would expect with that lineage, and Pete's brother Simon.

By the end I was elated and Philip was sweating and exhausted.

I met Pete with Philip after the show and we were warmly received by Pete and Nicola Joss Pete’s PA.

The Good Samaritans Album

Released on World Mental Health Day on 10th October 2017, the Good Samaritans website www.thegoodsamaritans.co.uk will go online this week.

Photo attached shows Philip with Pete Townshend backstage after the Echo Arena show.