Fact #148816
When:
Short story:
Pete Townshend of The Who is arrested and briefly incarcerated after kicking New York undercover cop Daniel Mulhearn on stage at the Fillmore East, New York City, USA. Also on the bill are Sweetwater and It's A Beautiful Day.Full article:
PETE TOWNSHEND ARRESTED FOR KICKING A COP
by Johnny Black
Way before Pete Townshend kicked the plain clothes cop off the stage at The Fillmore East, it had been quite a month for The Who.
They'd opened May with a Top Of The Pops appearance to plug Pinball Wizard and, the following day, premiered their much-trumpeted rock opera, Tommy, at a special media-only show in Ronnie Scott's Club. Within a week they were breaking attendance records on a marathon US tour. By the time they rolled into New York for their Fillmore gig, the band was riding high and audience anticipation was reaching fever pitch.
Movie director Alan Arkush was there. "I got to Fillmore East and everyone was really psyched. Because we loved The Who and we had heard Pinball Wizard and we knew we were going to see Tommy. They launched into it, and it was awe-inspiring."
Naturally, towards the end of the explosively pyrotechnic show, when smoke started to drift across the auditorium, most of the audience assumed it was all part of the entertainment. It wasn't. The grocery store next door was on fire. "Someone threw a Molotov cocktail in there," was how promoter Bill Graham remembered it, "because the owner refused to pay protection money."
Clad in black rubber coats, firemen brandishing axes began striding down the aisles, heading for the front. Still the audience showed little sign of anxiety. As far as they were concerned, The Who had pulled out all the stops to deliver a stunningly theatrical end to the show. Graham decided that there was no option now but to bring the show to a close and was heading towards the stage when he noticed another figure already pounding across the boards towards Townshend.
"They had all these special policemen down there that night," recalls rock agent Frank Barsalona. "Ones who looked like hippies with beards and earrings." Plainclothes officer Daniel Mulhearn of the Tactical Police Force was one of those, and he took it upon himself to seize control of the situation, racing fearlessly towards the mike at centre stage.
Pete Townshend, as blissfully ignorant as the audience about the reasons for the smoke in the hall, caught sight of Mulhearn, and assumed he was an over-excited fan claiming a moment of glory at the band's expense. "Without missing a lick," says Barsalona, "Townshend squared off and kicked this guy right off the stage."
"That drove the audience wild," recalls Arkush. "They were standing up by now because it was after Tommy and Summertime Blues. When the guy got kicked off the stage, it was as high as an audience could ever possibly get. They were all standing on the seats screaming and we were thinking, 'How the hell are we going to get all these people out of a building that's on fire?'"
To make matters worse, this was the early show and there were already over 2,000 people outside waiting to come in for the second house. Graham pushed his way into the wings and frantically signalled to the band, making them understand that the Fillmore was burning around their ears.
Inclined to be excitable, Graham showed remarkable restraint as he took centre stage and calmly lied to the crowd that there was a fire in a building across the street, "because I didn't want them to know that it was right next door."
To his astonishment, years of school fire drills clicked in. The two thousand who had been bouncing, baying and screaming moments earlier, instantly simmered down and walked calmly out into the streets in double file. No-one was injured.
Meanwhile, inside, New York's finest were searching high and low for the beak-nosed limey who'd booted their boy in the bollocks. Once again, Bill Graham came to the rescue, sneaking the band out of a side door and secreting them in his apartment at 71 East Seventh. When things had calmed down a little the next day, Townshend and Daltrey turned themselves in at the Ninth Precinct.
Daltrey was unconditionally freed, but despite the best efforts of management, Townshend was charged with third degree assault, and bail was granted. Townshend, however, didn't have to dig deep into his wallet. "We had to find money to bail Townshend and Daltrey out," recalls Fillmore financial controller Jane Geraghty. "We had to take all our little concession money and count our ones and fives and pennies and nickels."
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by Johnny Black
Way before Pete Townshend kicked the plain clothes cop off the stage at The Fillmore East, it had been quite a month for The Who.
They'd opened May with a Top Of The Pops appearance to plug Pinball Wizard and, the following day, premiered their much-trumpeted rock opera, Tommy, at a special media-only show in Ronnie Scott's Club. Within a week they were breaking attendance records on a marathon US tour. By the time they rolled into New York for their Fillmore gig, the band was riding high and audience anticipation was reaching fever pitch.
Movie director Alan Arkush was there. "I got to Fillmore East and everyone was really psyched. Because we loved The Who and we had heard Pinball Wizard and we knew we were going to see Tommy. They launched into it, and it was awe-inspiring."
Naturally, towards the end of the explosively pyrotechnic show, when smoke started to drift across the auditorium, most of the audience assumed it was all part of the entertainment. It wasn't. The grocery store next door was on fire. "Someone threw a Molotov cocktail in there," was how promoter Bill Graham remembered it, "because the owner refused to pay protection money."
Clad in black rubber coats, firemen brandishing axes began striding down the aisles, heading for the front. Still the audience showed little sign of anxiety. As far as they were concerned, The Who had pulled out all the stops to deliver a stunningly theatrical end to the show. Graham decided that there was no option now but to bring the show to a close and was heading towards the stage when he noticed another figure already pounding across the boards towards Townshend.
"They had all these special policemen down there that night," recalls rock agent Frank Barsalona. "Ones who looked like hippies with beards and earrings." Plainclothes officer Daniel Mulhearn of the Tactical Police Force was one of those, and he took it upon himself to seize control of the situation, racing fearlessly towards the mike at centre stage.
Pete Townshend, as blissfully ignorant as the audience about the reasons for the smoke in the hall, caught sight of Mulhearn, and assumed he was an over-excited fan claiming a moment of glory at the band's expense. "Without missing a lick," says Barsalona, "Townshend squared off and kicked this guy right off the stage."
"That drove the audience wild," recalls Arkush. "They were standing up by now because it was after Tommy and Summertime Blues. When the guy got kicked off the stage, it was as high as an audience could ever possibly get. They were all standing on the seats screaming and we were thinking, 'How the hell are we going to get all these people out of a building that's on fire?'"
To make matters worse, this was the early show and there were already over 2,000 people outside waiting to come in for the second house. Graham pushed his way into the wings and frantically signalled to the band, making them understand that the Fillmore was burning around their ears.
Inclined to be excitable, Graham showed remarkable restraint as he took centre stage and calmly lied to the crowd that there was a fire in a building across the street, "because I didn't want them to know that it was right next door."
To his astonishment, years of school fire drills clicked in. The two thousand who had been bouncing, baying and screaming moments earlier, instantly simmered down and walked calmly out into the streets in double file. No-one was injured.
Meanwhile, inside, New York's finest were searching high and low for the beak-nosed limey who'd booted their boy in the bollocks. Once again, Bill Graham came to the rescue, sneaking the band out of a side door and secreting them in his apartment at 71 East Seventh. When things had calmed down a little the next day, Townshend and Daltrey turned themselves in at the Ninth Precinct.
Daltrey was unconditionally freed, but despite the best efforts of management, Townshend was charged with third degree assault, and bail was granted. Townshend, however, didn't have to dig deep into his wallet. "We had to find money to bail Townshend and Daltrey out," recalls Fillmore financial controller Jane Geraghty. "We had to take all our little concession money and count our ones and fives and pennies and nickels."