Roger Daltrey ended his 24-year tenure as curator of the Teenage Cancer Trust on Sunday night with a major 'Ovation' concert at London's Royal Albert Hall. The bill included long-time Teenage Cancer Trust supporters Eddie Vedder, Robert Plant, Paul Weller and Kelly Jones of Stereophonics. The Who played two sets of the Teenage Cancer Trust earlier in the week and Pete Townshend was originally on the bill for the 'Ovation' event but had to travel to New York for the opening of the new Tommy on Broadway.
The show ended with Daltrey singing the 1971 Who classic “Baba O'Riley” alongside Eddie Vedder, Robert Plant, Glen Hansard, Kelly Jones, Simon Townshend and members of the Who's touring band. As you can see from this fan video, the guests let Daltrey cover all the vocals himself.
“I'm not leaving the Teenage Cancer Trust,” Daltrey said at the end of the song. “I have completed the work I set out to do. We will ask curators to do one year instead of 20 years. Talk about nervousness. But I have other work to do for the charity which is more important because we live in a day where our NHS [National Health Service] even survival is highly questionable. We are part of this service, although we are a charity. If the NHS goes down, I want to make sure that this charity doesn't collapse.”
Earlier in the evening, Paul Weller brought Daltrey into his set for a duet on the 1966 Who single “So Sad About Us.” Weller's group, the Jam, record the song, and was a regular part of their live show. Weller too he played it with Pete Townshend at the first Teenage Cancer Trust edited by Daltrey in 2000, bringing the event full circle.
Vedder arrived in England a little earlier in the week so he could attend one of the Who's shows and join them for “The Punk and the Godfather.” His solo set at the 'Ovation' finale included Pearl Jam's 'Porch' and 'Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town', Swell Season's 'Falling Slowly' with guest Glen Hansard and the original 'She Asked” by Simon Townshend. He also brought his daughter, Olivia Vedder, to perform their duet “My Father's Daughter”.
Robert Plant's new band Saving Grace stuck largely to traditional songs like “Gospel Plow,” “As I Roved Out” and “And We Bid You Tonight,” though they briefly dipped into Led Zeppelin's catalog for Led Zeppelin III deep cut “Friends”.
In perhaps a small preview of his upcoming American tour, Daltrey played Pete Townshend's 1982 hit “Let My Love Open The Door,” his solo songs “After The Fire” and “Without Your Love,” “Freedom Ride” of the Taj Mahal, by Leo Sayer. 'Giving It All Away', Simon Townsend's 'The Way It Is' (with Simon on vocals) and the Who's 1975 hit 'Squeeze Box'.
Daltrey's tour kicks off on May 6 in San Diego, California and wraps up on June 20 in Highland Park, Illinois. The Who have no dates for the books, but Pete Townshend recently revealed possible future plans for one interview with The New York Times. “It seems to me there's one thing the Who can do,” he said, “and that's one last tour where we play every region of the world and then crawl away to die.”
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/roger-daltrey-baba-oriley-eddie-vedder-robert-plant-1234993756/