Fact #101854

Pete Townshend (guitarist, the Who) : Just after Woodstock, The Who had a big revival of interest in Tommy. A lot of people used to come and see us and in Britain it was, 'You are our favourite group with Deep Purple,' and I used to go, "Huh?' And over here it used to be, 'You are out favourite group with Ten Years After.' And both groups I hate! I admit that all the people in the bands are very good friends of mine but I hated their music. And it was very hard to live with, in a way, that we were being lumped in with these very heavy metal bands. I think it was because Ritchie Blackmore used to sort of bash his guitar on his head and smoke a cigarette through his teeth and play a mouth organ back to front. And of course with The Who it was smashing up, pyrotechnics, and with Ten Years After it was that backwards-tape Chinese guitar playing.