Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who

Released against a backdrop of spurious reunion tours and a flurry of music biopics, ‘Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who’ could raise a few cynical eyebrows. But Oscar winning musical documentarian Murray Lerner’s vision and singular story is anything but bandwagon-esque and instead provides an incredibly authoritative insight into arguably the most influential rock group in the world. Billed by Technicolor as one of the most complex music documentaries ever to be produced, ‘Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who’ is an accessible and in depth analysis of the rise, fall and continuation of one of the greatest bands the world has ever seen.

Set in the context of post war Britain’s fast changing cultural landscape, the film is presented as an album, complete with sleeve notes, paying homage to a group renowned as an album band. ‘Amazing Journey’ combines contributions from the likes of Sting, The Edge, Noel Gallagher and Eddie Vedder, alongside an abundance of rare and never seen before footage; the result of an extensive and exhaustive search via the Internet. In particular, the emergence of footage of the band playing live at The Railway Hotel, Harrow in the early 1960’s shocked the film-makers just as much as it did Roger Daltrey, as he explained at the film premieres post screening Q&A session; “Someone found it allegedly in a skip. It was this incredibly valuable old footage of the first ever film shot of The Who as they became. We were called The High Numbers and it was shot by Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp and it went missing when we moved offices, presumably forever. Then we received a letter saying you can buy this back for a rather extortionate sum and I bought it back.” It’s precisely this kind of footage that sets ‘Amazing Journey’ apart from its peers and previous attempts to document the band.

The Who have been extremely well documented throughout the years, but Lerner effectively brings together the individual stories of all four band members, who under close and candid examination had very little in common with each other. ‘Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who’ successfully conveys (through the disparity of Daltrey’s nostalgia fuelled memories and Pete Townshend’s down to earth realism) how important each unique personality was to the success of the group and how their collective relationships changed and moulded the future of the band into an exclusive gang. Townshend’s creative genius is pushed firmly to the fore, whilst at the same time acknowledging Daltrey’s part in releasing and bringing this genius to life in spite of a longstanding forced isolation imposed by his band-mates, from the band. John Entwistle’s raw talent and aggressive, hugely influential ability is fully and justifiably celebrated. And the illusion that the drummer is just someone who hangs around with musicians is well and truly shattered with Keith Moon’s story and perhaps best summed up by Daltrey; “The band was never complete without Keith. When he joined, fantastic, last piece of the jigsaw.” The film also respectfully deals with the saddening deaths of both Moon and Entwistle, the results of which still visibly effect Daltrey and Townshend to this day. But perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the film is the reflection of an extraordinary friendship that has grown and evolved between the two remaining original members, a friendship that at times seemed extremely unlikely.

Compulsive viewing for anyone remotely familiar with the bands music and simply compulsory for those who consider themselves a true fan, ‘Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who’ is a complete history and celebration of one of Britain’s best loved bands. Expertly produced and edited, the fascinating insight it provides, through an acute knowledge of the group and understanding of the music, brought to life through a staggering volume of archive and over 43 years of history, is quite simply untouchable.