Pete Townshend HITS Abbie Hoffman? The Who, Woodstock 1969: Mystery of Missing Footage
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- Опубліковано 5 сер 2024
- Woodstock 1969. The Who's set is interrupted by founder of The Yippies, Abbie Hoffman. He hijacked Pete Townshend's microphone for an impassioned political speech while Roger Daltrey and Keith Moon watched. What happened next was a mystery... Did Pete Townshend really hit Abbie Hoffman with his guitar? And why wasn't the incident recorded?
The Who's Full Set: • The Who - WOODSTOCK 19...
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#TheWho #Woodstock1969 #AbbieHoffman #petetownshend - Розваги
Do you think Pete hit Abbie? And if so, did he DESERVE it?
Simply wrong time, wrong place.
I can't say if he did or not but Abbie deserves it.
The most credible accounts describe it more as a shove with the guitar and a boot in the ass, sending him off the stage. Douchebag move on the part of Abbie to interrupt a band's set, so he sure as hell deserved it. The best time for that sort of thing.would be between sets, after the band was off the stage, and the crew starting to set up for the following band. But, with everything reportedly spiked, they were lucky worse didn't happen, like that notorious later festival featuring the Stones.
No, but I farted twice at Fartstock.
Yes and yes
In 1969 cameramen had to change their FILM. Not their TAPES.....!
Here's what happened - Pete walked up behind Abbie and held his SG guitar our horizontally in front of him. He pushed Abbie from the back with the top of the headstock of his guitar, pushing him forward off the stage. Not a baseball bat. I mixed the Woodstock shows, and you can hear Pete say "F*** off my f**ing stage" and then pushes him.
I spoke with Grace Slick a while back and a few family friends that were at Woodstock and all said that he lifted his SG over Abbie's head, aimed the strap pin to the back of his neck and did a quick thrust to the back of Abbie's neck, with that maneuver sent his SG out of tune when he held it with one hand at the headstock and the other hand holding the body of the guitar...along with a quick jab kick to his butt which knocked him off balance sending him off the stage. Then after "Do You Think It's Alright?" you can hear Pete trying to tune it back to where it was after he struck Abbie and then gives everyone the stern warning. I honestly believe that the cameras were all changing at this time. The only one that seemed to come back on was the one on Pete's side of the stage with the counter running. It turns right back on with Pete adjusting the mic stand directly after the incident. So it did happen for sure. But like a lot of folks after time goes by, they either over exaggerate or even downplay things like this. Anything to get attention to something that really didn't happen to such extreme or was too embarrassing to recall. Funny how something that lasted maybe less than a minute can get so much attention. Later Pete admitted that he thought Abbie was right and his reaction was rather reflexive than reflective. But the show had to go on and he didn't know who he was at the time. Thought he just simply was a heckler.
Lmao that'd be hilarious if Abby was sent flying off the stage.
@@Keranu - I was there and I saw it. It was exactly as Grace Slick said. A number of people say Pete hit Abbie with the guitar. That may have been true, but Abbie left the stage as a result of Pete kicking him off.
It should be said it's not ok to hit people in the head with blunt objects. An SG is made of solid mahogany... Heckler, activist, fan, whoever, it doesn't matter. Not the reaction of a decent human being, and that's why he won't own up to doing it, even decades after Abbie Hoffman has passed away, other than a half-assed attempt at damage control (this looks bad, I won't admit to doing it but will at least say I didn't mean to now that I'm being called out for it).
Respectfully, the idea that the band and film crew agreed beforehand to a film change at this point is highly unlikely, for a number of reasons:
(A) The band didn’t want to play Woodstock, and didn’t want their set filmed - and the antagonism between Pete and the film crew is evident from the footage (or lack thereof). The Who’s entire set *wasn’t* filmed (by the official film crew; the black-and white footage from the side of the stage was shot by Carl Simring, who wasn’t part of the official film crew), and the long-held explanation for this is that the cameramen were cleared from the stage almost immediately upon The Who taking the stage. Once the camera crew did start filming (at the beginning of “Sparks,” based on the released footage, and the assertion made-if I recall correctly-by Brian Kehew that more-or-less all of the existing footage of The Who’s set has now been released) Pete’s displeasure is evident, culminating in him kicking one of the cameramen at the end of “Sparks”.
(B) The break after “Pinball Wizard” doesn’t sound like a pre-planned tuning break any more than it sounds like Pete briefly checking the tuning of his guitar, as he was (and guitarists since time immemorial are) wont to do.
It’s at least possible that all of the cameramen in the official film crew were simultaneously changing reels immediately after “Pinball Wizard,” either by prior agreement amongst the production crew (based on the fact that “Pinball Wizard” was The Who’s hit at the time, and that catching it on film was considered a priority) or simply as a natural consequence of the fact that they all started filming at the same time. That said, I’ve always found the break in the Simring footage at that same point to be curious, and I’ve always wondered if he elided the footage afterward in the interests of protecting the band, given that the footage could be used as evidence in a prosecution for assault. (Perhaps the producers of the official film did the same, for the same reason.)
It was actually more a case of not wanting to play Woodstock if they were not going to get paid. For some reason they had not been paid in advance, but were however, paid shortly before they went on stage. There's certainly no evidence whatsoever that they gave any kind of lacklustre performance due to not wanting to play.
In the end of The Whos set, you can also hear "F*ck off", then Townsend "Yeah, Im sorry", then Keith Moon "Yeah Abbey!"... There was some 4-5 film cameras around, plus a Sony videocam (one of the first).
It's unlikely Pete swung his guitar like a baseball bat. More likely that he pushed him in the back or the back of the head with the headstock or with his boot.
Something that isn't talked about as much is that Pete had already pushed film director Michael Wadleigh off the stage with his boot.
You can clearly see him with a kick to what almost seems like Michael's rib cage/waist on the black and white footage. Even as he takes a quick thrust kick to him, you can hear him "Get off!!"
The who were performing on a different show. The theatre caught on fire. The policeman came on the stage to evacuate the theatre. Pete knocked him out cold. Same reason. Sorry directly from Pete’s book.
Don’t get on Pete’s stage.
It has to he brought to the table that The Who didn't want to do Woodstock in the first place. John Morris along with others almost pulled an all nighter trying convince Pete to do it. Tommy was slipping down the charts and they were in serious debt. So out of exhaustion, Pete said if I sign the contract, would you all leave so I can sleep. So in a way, they were forced to do it. They've been pushing Tommy for almost three months at that point and Pete only at the age of 23 to 24 was a new father and hadn't seen Emma all that much since she was born April of 1969. Also take into account that if you have a bootleg audio recording of the whole show they did at Woodstock, you'll hear Chip Monck make the announcement, "a group that came to us especially for this festival..." had to really set them off because it was the dead opposite. So along with what's listed and those details made it a pretty rough show. But in the end it saved them. Right after the festival, Tommy went back up to number one and the a year later after the film came out, it went back up to number again.
Then in 1971 the Who came out with the what might be the greatest rock album of all time. Who’s Next.
BS Tommy was just released and it was climbing the charts
@@bikerguy5829 It was released in May of 1969 and by August it was starting to loose steam. My uncle was a DJ in New York and he was there during this period. After Woodstock, it climbed back up to number one.
Awesome story. Woodstock was a total shitshow everyone was high. And I do mean EVERYONE. Back in the day you didn't get cancelled, you got RAMMED in the head with a guitar. Talk about a boss move from Townshend.
Haha, must have been a wild experience for sure!
For a 3 day festival with little to no violence under very arduous conditions, I'd say they did pretty good. It was the one in the 90s that was the shitshow.
Really good point. Sound footage but no video footage. It was always easy for me to believe Pete did it because I've read a lot about him and he was a lot closer to being a very intellectual punk than a hippy. He had a history of being upset and smashing things offstage. But your point remains, why is there no footage?
Definitely the illuminati...
Any cameras needing to change film were using 16mm film not tape. But I don't think it's plausible that the band and cameramen pre-arranged a change of film at this time - The Who would find that intrusive and wouldn't even remember it during the intensity of a performance. Considering that more than one camera was used to shoot the feature film, it would make sense for the director to ensure that they changed film at different times. Having said that, the 16mm doesn't appear to show the first 3-4 seconds of Pinball Wizard, for some reason.
I think you’re right. And I’m fairly certain the camera crew were staggering the film changes so they wouldn’t miss any of the performances. No one has ever noted that these groups were coordinating in any way with the filmmakers.
Pete thought Woodstock was a complete joke
1. It was 5am it was dark
2. It was 1969 and the cameras had physical tapes
3. You have the audio.
4. It happened.
Calling it “Woodstock 1969” is really annoying. The later concerts were named to capitalize on the legendary status of the original.
Also the camera crew were not in cahoots with the bands. They most likely staggered their film changes so they would never have zero cameras running during a set. Changing over cameras shooting film is not like slapping in a new memory card either. First you have to unload the film you were just shooting on. You have to be careful not to expose it to light and store it, then you can switch to a new magazine of film. It can be messy and it did not happen during the 15 seconds of Abbie Hoffman talking and Pete telling him to get off the stage.
The who were on the edge of bankruptcy this album and this gig HAD to pay out. The concert had stopped taking in the ticket fees and they had to threaten the organizers to pay up as it was. Then comes a tripped out Abby pushing himself into the mix to talks some bs to ppl in the audience too stoned to care. Ever try to make a living as a touring musician. It sucks! Bet yer arse "Get the fuck off my stage!" It's not about the "sanctity" it's about surviving. John Sinclair was guaranteed to eat the next day. And wouldn't lose shite bc he didn't own any shite.
Awesome insight, thanks so much!
Tapes? Film The loads they used could run for appx 10 minutes.
Yes and they would have staggered their starts so they wouldn’t all run out at the same time. You’d have a lot of missing performances if all cameras stopped filming every ten minutes.
On the kids are alright film he says “when I’m in the stage I’m not this rational man, Abbey Hoffman walked on stage and I nearly killed him with my guitar” also kicked a policeman in the balls and sent him off at another show!
When I first read about the incident a few years after it happened, the person who wrote about it said that Pete didn't hit Hoffman, though with the provocation, he probably should have hit him.
Pete more than likely did give Hoffman a whack. Pete had already booted a policeman earlier in May in New York, when both he and Roger manhandled the cop and forced him off the stage when he was attempting to raise a fire alarm because the building next door was on fire. Hoffman might have been a tiresome pest and the stage crew should have hauled him off, but Pete's violence was wholly unecessary and idiotic. Pete never could handle drugs or drink.
I believe Pete's exact words were "FUCK OFF! FUCK OFF MY FUCKING STAGE!"
So a very polite request for the gentleman to leave his stage 🤣
Change their FILM not tapes.
Gee - why would two stoned ego maniacs fight with each other in the middle of shit show concert.
So you wasted six, and a half minutes of my life…
Thanks for the watch time