Jeff Stein had no right to make The Who's official documentary, The Kids Are Alright (1979)...except one. "I was a fan – the Who were my favorite band – they always were and still are,' he told Ira Robbins in Trouser Press magazine. "I guess I started following them in 1965, and started physically following their tours in '69 and '70. Then I had a collection of photographs that I got published [1973's The Who with Chris Johnston] and I got to know the band better...the next time [Pete Townshend] was in New York [March 1975], I discussed the possibility of doing a film with him. I said that there was a whole new generation of Who fans – there's a hierarchy of Who fans: the people that first followed them, then the people who followed them as of Tommy, and then the younger people who first saw them in '74 or '75. I said, 'I think we should preserve all this. Why don't I put all the old film clips together so that they'll always be there for the younger fans and for the older fans who still want to see the old songs you don't want to play anymore. Even for your kids.' He said he thought it was a good idea. If I could put up with all the hassles with lawyers and management and stuff, he said he would back me all the way."

The next step was convincing the band, which turned out to be easier than expected. "The final thing that convinced them to do it was a 17-minute film that I put together with Ed Rothkowitz, who was, and is, my editor. We strung together whatever Who film I could beg, borrow or steal, and showed it to them. I've never seen such a reaction – Pete was on the floor, banging his head. He and Keith were hysterical. Roger's wife was laughing so hard she knocked over the coffee table in the screening room. Their reaction was unbelievable – they loved it. That's when they were really convinced that the movie was worth doing. It amused them, so they figured there must be an audience for it. They're always their harshest critics."

Stein's first steps took him away from hanging out with rock stars to digging through dusty vaults: "...a lot was from Germany, some from Sweden, France and Australia. I also got footage from Norway and some from Finland that had been shot elsewhere. I had to track people down that had shot film for them at the Fillmore, at the Village Theatre, at Commack, Long Island – stuff like that."

After that was shooting the movie's new footage: "I was just supposed to go in and do cinema verité stuff, just get whatever happens, but when I showed up, it was 'Okay Jeff, what do you want us to play?' I didn't know what to tell them, so I racked my brains for a minute and said, 'How about playing 'Barbara Ann'?' So we have a rendition of them doing 'Barbara Ann' with Keith handling lead vocals. They hadn't played it since 1966, but they went right into it, and it's a great version. The next day, Keith decided he would arrive on a fire truck that was on fire, so we have some of that."

For the movie's conclusion, Stein planned on shooting The Who performing their set closer "Won't Get Fooled Again," but this turned out not to be so simple. "... the Greater London Council wouldn't let us use the lasers inside London, and we couldn't find any suitable venue, so we finally booked a huge movie sound stage at Shepperton, and built their entire stage inside. To make up for it not really being a gig, we turned it into a huge party...We had twelve hundred people drunk out of their skulls, and it was very difficult to film. I didn't have people roped off, and we didn't tell anybody to sit down or anything, and it was crazy. When they hit the stage, there were people all over the place. The Who played great. When we went back the next day to clean up, there were people still there, unconscious."

by Brian Cady

SOURCES:
Jeff Stein interview from Trouser Press magazine (Apr. 1979) conducted by Ira Robbins.