Live Review

The Who – Knowlsey Hall Music Festival

• 26th Jun 2007

Overpriced, oversold and overrated. Sound familiar? Welcome to a UK festival. By now you should be used to it so leave your complaints at the gates.

For this reviewer the overriding memory will always be the death of John Anstey, 26, from Blackpool. (It seemed only right at the time to stop the show but the show must go on, as they say.) As The Who played Behind Blue Eyes the paramedics worked to revive Mr. Anstey in front of us.
No one likes to dwell on the sad things so as far as the music went, the festival was massive success.

We were treated to the best of the local music scene in The Coral, The Rascals, The Maybes and The Black Velvets. The legends of The Who and a couple of very popular bands, The Thrills from Dublin and Dundee’s The View.
The weather held out right to the very end, the location and Knowsley Hall itself is a glorious setting. We were lucky to be here. Cream boss James Barton worked wonders to gain the acts, the license and the location. He has been trying to tempt the Earl of Knowsley for a while and managed to succeed this time because in The Who, Barton had a band the Earl had actually heard of.

Whatever you made of it no one has ever assembled a line up this great in Merseyside, unless you count Creamfields (Cheshire), and guess who runs that event?

Our thoughts remain with the friends and family of John Anstey who lost his life watching The Who. These songs were for you.