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The crowd rises from their seats as guitarist Pete Townshend pounds out the riff, after he, singer Roger Daltrey and the rest of the band arrive on stage with Daltrey announcing: “Who the f*** are you?”
They follow it up with another of their classic early singles, Substitute, before reaching for 1978’s Who Are You?, with the crowd chanting along with its “who, who, who, who” chorus.
It’s only when the song finishes that Daltrey and Townshend’s advancing years become apparent, with the 79-year-old guitarist announcing that “four and a half weeks ago, I had my left knee replaced”, later revealing he had done it by dancing in the style of Sir Mick Jagger.
After thanking the crowd for coming to the gig in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust, and telling them “we couldn’t do it without you, well we could, but we wouldn’t raise much money”, the band continue to dig into their goldmine of 1960s singles.
First comes The Kids Are Alright, followed by The Who Sell Out cut I Can See For Miles, which Daltrey dedicates to a 19-year-old girl he visited in hospital, who recently died, telling the audience “early diagnosis is everything”.
During the song 81-year-old Daltrey’s voice cracks, and after its conclusion, he calls it a “senior moment”, before adding: “No apologies, I f***** up.”
He later adds: “The joys of getting old mean you go deaf, I also now have got the joy of going blind, fortunately I still have my voice, because that I’ll have a full Tommy (referring to the main character on the band’s 1969 album).”
Despite the mistakes, in recent times the band has often resorted to playing rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia in full, sometimes even backed by an orchestra, but on Thursday the pretence of any carefully arranged set list was removed, this is The Who at their raw best.
At one point, Townshend even asks the crowd, “do you miss the orchestra?”, “no” they reply at the top of their voices.
Tonight the audience are treated to the sound that, along with the likes of The Rolling Stones, The Pretty Things, and The Kinks, launched a thousand US garage and British freakbeat imitators, which in turn helped to usher in punk rock as we know it today.
The band’s highly praised 1971 hard rock record Who’s Next is also well covered during the evening, with instantly recognisable singles Baba O’ Riley and Won’t Get Fooled Again, joined by album tracks such as Bargain, Love Ain’t For Keepin’ and Behind Blue Eyes.
The Seeker, 5.15 and My Generation also feature in the hits-packed set, which ended with Daltrey telling the crowd “that’s all folks, I’m f*****” after screaming to the heavens at the end of Won’t Get Fooled Again.
He finishes by telling the audience: “People say to me, ‘how the f*** do you still do it’, and I’ve got to tell you I’ve had one dream in life, and got really, really lucky.
“And I look at those youngsters every night that come on the stage here, and I think, ‘if they can deal with their lot, this is a piece of piss’.”
Daltrey also urges the audience to “look after” the NHS, adding: “We can’t let it go, even when I’m gone.”
The gig comes as Daltrey steps back from his role as curator of the Teenage Cancer Trust’s Royal Albert Hall concerts, having launched the series in 2000, however, he will remain an honorary patron of the charity, with The Cure’s Robert Smith taking over curation duties next year.
The Who will return to the Royal Albert Hall for another gig in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust on Sunday.
