
You on the other hand, who are acknowledged as fine musicians, are playing like a bunch of cunts.” No such moments for you or Pete then? These young gentlemen are fine musicians, you’ve got to show them some respect. Ian Gillan tells a great story about the legendary English composer and conductor Sir Malcolm Arnold in rehearsals for Deep Purple's first performance of their Concerto for Group and Orchestra with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, where a furious Arnold slams down his baton, stops the musicians, and says “Ladies and gentlemen of the Royal Philharmonic, we’re here to play some music. Digital just doesn't cut it in the same way, it's crap." It makes the hair on your body stand on end, it's pretty spectacular. It's a really interesting show, and it really moves the audience when they hear that heavy sound of rock mixed with real instruments, it's just a different experience. This show goes down so well with audiences, because The Who don't make any compromises with the sound we make at all, and the orchestra is playing some really complicated arrangements, and it suits the way that Pete Townshend's music works. The show is brilliant, and when we wound up the US dates at the Hollywood Bowl and Las Vegas, we were ready to go again.

Which, obviously, was a long time to wait, so we started looking at going into some alternative, interesting places. And when we tried to reschedule it, the earliest slots we could get with 'normal' venues, because everything was booked up, was 2025, or 2026.

I mean, the truth is, we were planning on bringing this tour to England and Europe in early 2020 but, of course, everything was cancelled. You brought your The Who Hits Back tour to America last year to rave reviews: having had such success with those shows, was there any temptation to think, 'Right, done that, nailed it, let's move on.' instead of bringing it to the UK and Europe?
