The Who: The Who By Numbers

THE SUNDAY TIMES' recent 'Rock Report' has been useful just for gathering together in one place all the clichés of the supercilious school of rock criticism. I wanted to know the current word on the Who and sure enough: "Pete Townshend's tragedy is that he said everything he has to say in his first half-dozen songs, and has struggled ever since to accept that fact. His career has embraced both the most basic and honest side of rock and its most emptily pretentious and decadent."