Re: The Who Mailing List Digest V6 #112

["Joe Lewinski" <lewinski@icanon.com>]

Keets wrote in a contrasting analysis of Marks recent posts:

>Manic depressive, wouldn't you think?  One minute he's telling us The Who's 
>finished and we'll never see Lifehouse, and the next he's getting all 
>excited.

I believe what Mark is saying is that there are more Who fans alive now
then their were in 1982 (if one where to count them).  The numbers may
trail off and eventually decline (they didn't for Jesus yet!); however
population dynamics are what they are.  Following that assertion, one could
claim that the number of Who fans is directly proportional to popularity.
Unfortunately this is not how popularity is measured in our society.  It is
currently measured by the amount of "demand" or "requests" generated for
an event or a product.  The problem with most of the Who fans is that their
loyalty is not exclusive to the Who.  They are passive fans, not active fans.

The good news is this could change easily for good or bad.  I believe that
if Lifehouse is a hit (i.e. bigger that the Quad tour) we could see an
increase in popularity.  So it could be building up to something.  Mark has
been a victim of the Pete Townshend creativity surge and retreat cycle too
often.  I personally don't think that any material that they resurface can
match the electricity of the Quad tour at their age.  I hope to be proven
wrong.  :)




Joe Lewinski
ICANON Associates, Inc.
215.653.0754 x 115
Fax:  215.653.0829