r/TheWho

At the movies today and both the trailer for the final season of The Bear and the upcoming Hunger Games movie featured Love Reign O’er Me; final track from The Who’s Quadrophenia.

The Oceanic Centre still exists and not only contains a library of material about Baba but also The Who's tape and film archive. Richard Barnes wrote the following about the opening and keep in mind, this was written by one of Pete's closest friends!

At this time Pete immersed himself completely in running a new Meher Baba centre near Richmond. He had bought the building and dedicated it to Meher Baba. It was named Meher Baba Oceanic, later known as 'Oceanic'. It had a fairly large theatre with a stage and film screen and a small control room at the back. The theatre could be used for plays, films, as a recording studio and so on. He had his own personal office upstairs with his private secretary and there were rooms for guests, two kitchens and a room set aside for Meher Baba meetings. Pete's intentions were highly laudable. He had high hopes for the project and was very ambitious. He even had the cash to back all his grand schemes and was doing so. However, he never really saw things through to the end. He was constantly initiating new ideas and projects but in a few days or weeks, his mind would have raced ahead to something new and he'd be changing everything again. He'd have builders in to alter the place, pull down a wall and then erect another somewhere else. A few weeks after the paint was dry, he'd have the new wall taken down and the place altered again. At first there were facilities for filming and editing, then it was video, then it was recording. Pete was like a rich kid with too many toys. The place was supposed to be an English Baba centre, but apart from Pete's secretary, it was, for the first year or so, full of Americans. Many were very sycophantic and I fully expected one day to see the photographs of Baba on the walls replaced by those of Pete. Pete was only trying to give people the opportunity and the facilities to carry out their own creative Baba projects. He also set up a number of companies under the banner of 'Eel Pie Ltd'. I was staggered at the stupidity of some of the people Pete had given key jobs. By mistake, the tape would be wiped off a day's recording session, or a video film would be ruined because somebody forgot some vital function. The whole place was deadly amateur but with the budgets of professionals. Many people took advantage of his idealistic good nature; not that they were calculating, but. in the main, they were just inept and hopelessly disorganised - someone would quite gladly spend all day in a company car looking for a box of staples. The Baba Centre evolved just like one of Baba's parables. It became far removed from having any real feeling of love surrounding it, as mountains of expensive technology seemed to amass itself. The incongruous combination of recording studio and Baba workshop under one roof was a typical, badly thought-out move by Pete. The whole place seemed to be a reflection of his own confused state of mind at that time. (Barnes, p. 122)

So great to hear these songs not on any major studio album on vinyl! The only other copy was $150, not really sure the difference but still! 🎸Beautiful minus the little clipped corner and plays great!!

On June 30, 1967, The Who paid tribute to their friends the Rolling Stones. They released covers of two Stones songs, fleetingly hoping to help Mick Jagger and Keith Richards make bail, after they were jailed following their infamous drugs bust.
In Spain released on this super rare ep!

Digging this rare Norwegian Polydor 58232 pressing of The Who’s “Magic Bus” b/w “Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand” from 1968!

Powerhouse riffs meet quirky vibes—two gems from their golden era.

A digital painting using Apple Pencil and iPad Pro and Procreate. Lead singer for The Who Roger Daltrey. Prints available.

“Pete Townshend”. 2026 this digital painting of Pete Townshend of The Who was inspired by a sixty year old publicity photo attributed to Philippe Le Tellier / Paris Match. It was probably staged to promote the release of “The WHO sings My Generation” in the US in 1966. I have no idea why he’s wearing a shirt with a large F on it.
I created this using Procreate on an iPad Pro.