What do you think?
Rate this book
Anyway Anyhow Anywhere (Revised Edition): The Complete Chronicle of The Who 1958-1978
The Who redefined rock--and these day-to-day diaries brim with authentic details about the band's career, right up until drummer Keith Moon's tragic death. The authors gained rare access to official archives, many not viewed before; to friends and associates (some who had never spoken publicly about the group); and to Pete, Roger, and John themselves. Three hundred photos capture the historic band, and the diaries recount club dates, TV appearances, auditions, and recordings. Every Who fan will cherish this!
304 pages, Paperback
First published June 15, 2002
4 people are currently reading
112 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 21, 2014
This book gets three stars instead of two ONLY because of all the great pictures, concert fliers, and hand written notes included on its pages. The chapters are organized by year, which is nice, but the chapters themselves have a lot of duplicate and unnecessary information. They begin w/ a 2 page summary of what took place that year, then list specific (chronological) dates and events - many of which are also included in the summary. Every concert they ever played is listed with the city, name of the venue, address of the venue, and what time they went on stage. Every TV show is listed in the same fashion, including "pre-recorded at 11:00-11:50am, aired in the evening at 6:30-6:47." That may not sound so bad, but when you consider the number of concerts & TV appearances they did, you can see how it would get annoying. Even radio interviews are listed w/ the same abundance of information. It's complete overkill. But you can't simply skip over those listings either, because other information is included (such as what was SAID during those interviews, which is more entertaining than what time they arrived at the radio station!) However, there are also plenty of interesting facts and stories about the band's experiences and individual personalities as well. I really enjoyed reading about the early years when they were playing weddings & bingo halls. It was also cool to read about the other musicians they worked with in the later years. I especially liked the story about Pete seeing Jimi Hendrix for the first time, and John having a drink w/ "a piano player who was angry w/ his band because they would not let him sing" who turned out to be Elton John. Any Who fan will enjoy the book, but probably get a little annoyed with it at times.
March 18, 2013
QWell, you'd have to be an outrageous fan of The Who to want to read every word of this chronicle of all of their live performances and other activities.
Of course my favorite is November 22, 1967, the day The Who came to play at my high school!
True story. I was there. Second row.
Of course my favorite is November 22, 1967, the day The Who came to play at my high school!
True story. I was there. Second row.
June 1, 2015
Review from here.
'Essential reading for the fan' as they say.
Anyway Anyhow Anywhere: The Complete Chronicle of the Who by Andy Neill and Matt Kent. Virgin Books, 2007. 485 pages.
This is a tome, but in a good way. On putting it down I was left with the feeling that little was left to be said. The people who were there can write what they saw and thought and felt, but as a record of what's on the record -- what the band did, where they went, what they recorded, who they played with, that kind of stuff -- this is unlikely to be replaced, except perhaps by a later edition of itself.
Whether you want to know all that, well...
The main feeling I was left with on putting it down was sadness at what happened to Moon. This is partly because the book takes his death, roughly coinciding with the release of Who Are You, as the end of the chronicle, but it is also because his escapades take up a disproportionate amount of the book. The authors are not unduly fascinated by the escapades; they just take a lot of pages to outline. Moon clearly desperately needed to be loved, watched, laughed at. And the times when that was not happening were so unbearable that nothing could fill the gap, not even horse tranquillisers. His anxiety and insecurity must have been towering. They killed him at 32, overweight, worn down by his own excess. An overdose of a drug designed to fight the craving for alcohol killed him. He would have lasted longer had he just kept drinking (even if he was taking champagne, brandy and amphetamines for breakfast). He was supposed to take one, to a maximum of three per day, to still his cravings for alcohol. When they found him six had dissolved in his stomach at once, killing him. There were more than twenty others still undissolved...
The book deals with all these big stories by being plain. It lays out the facts pretty baldly. A few opinions are put forward here and there, but rarely. If you're interested in the band, or in 'classic' rock of the 60s and 70s, it is an interesting read, encyclopaedic. In a quite way it fights the glory that is stupidly heaped upon the likes of Moon, Winehouse and Cobain and so many others. Just by telling it plainly.
'Essential reading for the fan' as they say.
Anyway Anyhow Anywhere: The Complete Chronicle of the Who by Andy Neill and Matt Kent. Virgin Books, 2007. 485 pages.
This is a tome, but in a good way. On putting it down I was left with the feeling that little was left to be said. The people who were there can write what they saw and thought and felt, but as a record of what's on the record -- what the band did, where they went, what they recorded, who they played with, that kind of stuff -- this is unlikely to be replaced, except perhaps by a later edition of itself.
Whether you want to know all that, well...
The main feeling I was left with on putting it down was sadness at what happened to Moon. This is partly because the book takes his death, roughly coinciding with the release of Who Are You, as the end of the chronicle, but it is also because his escapades take up a disproportionate amount of the book. The authors are not unduly fascinated by the escapades; they just take a lot of pages to outline. Moon clearly desperately needed to be loved, watched, laughed at. And the times when that was not happening were so unbearable that nothing could fill the gap, not even horse tranquillisers. His anxiety and insecurity must have been towering. They killed him at 32, overweight, worn down by his own excess. An overdose of a drug designed to fight the craving for alcohol killed him. He would have lasted longer had he just kept drinking (even if he was taking champagne, brandy and amphetamines for breakfast). He was supposed to take one, to a maximum of three per day, to still his cravings for alcohol. When they found him six had dissolved in his stomach at once, killing him. There were more than twenty others still undissolved...
The book deals with all these big stories by being plain. It lays out the facts pretty baldly. A few opinions are put forward here and there, but rarely. If you're interested in the band, or in 'classic' rock of the 60s and 70s, it is an interesting read, encyclopaedic. In a quite way it fights the glory that is stupidly heaped upon the likes of Moon, Winehouse and Cobain and so many others. Just by telling it plainly.
December 9, 2007
I remember seeing this one in Barnes and Noble and oooing and ahhhing over it until I got it for my birthday. It is a huge book, which is currently sitting on the bottom of a stack in my bookshelf. Much like the concert file book, it isn't really a cover to cover read.
July 27, 2012
Andrew pretty much got it down, a lot of biographies are hard to trust. But nothing in here sounded the alarms for "wut the... to the internet!". Because some biographies have made me prove them wrong before.
August 3, 2007
Had to replace my hardcover after it got wrecked in a damp basement
May 11, 2009
Awesome history piece on one of the greatest Rock "N" Roll bands.
May 23, 2012
One of my favorite books about one of my favorite bands. Very comprehensive, well written, and full of great pictures.
January 17, 2013
A complete, almost day-by-day, account of The Who's career from the early days to the death of Keith Moon.
January 27, 2016
If like me you love the Who then this book is for you.
July 9, 2016
brilliant chronicle of the bands concerts , basically written in a diary format.
October 18, 2021
Excellently organized and full of lots of information for the 20-year era of this book and The Who.
December 1, 2025
I ♥️ The WHO
September 19, 2021
I think you have to be a Who “nut” just to get through the sheer volume of concert/show and appearance data in this book, but I really went on the journey. No it’s not purely about Keith Moon!!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews