In February 1964, the Detours became aware of the group Johnny Devlin and the Detours and decided to change their name. Pete Townshend and his roommate Richard Barnes spent a night brainstorming band names, focusing on a theme of joke announcements, including "No One" and "the Group". Townshend liked "the Hair", but Barnes preferred "the Who" because it "had a pop punch." Roger Daltrey chose "the Who" the next morning.

The Who's Tommy is an exhilarating story of hope, healing and the human spirit. The story of the pinball-playing, deaf, dumb and blind boy who triumphs over his adversities has inspired, amazed and puzzled audiences for more than 50 years.

On 23 August 1967, while on tour with the Who, drummer Keith Moon celebrated his 21st birthday (it was actually his 20th birthday) at a Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan. As soon as he reached Flint, Moon started drinking. He started a food fight and knocked out part of his front tooth. At the hospital, doctors removed the remainder of the tooth but couldn't give him an anesthetic due to his inebriation. Back at the hotel, Moon began throwing guests and furniture into the pool and started a fire. A piano was reportedly destroyed. Hotel management was furious, presented Moon with a bill for $24,000, and banned the Who from all Holiday Inn properties for life.

No one knows what it's like
To be the bad man, to be the sad man
Behind blue eyes

Entwistle picked up several nicknames during his career, including "The Ox" because of his strong constitution, "Thunderfingers" for the jet engine blast of his bass playing, and "Big Johnny Twinkle" for his dapper fashion sense.

When Keith Moon supplied illegal drugs to two of his bandmates, John Entwistle and Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey was furious. He flushed the pills and assaulted Keith. So his band mates expelled him from the Who. He was later reinstated on the condition that the group became a democracy without his dominant leadership.

At Alperton Secondary Modern School, Keith Moon took up boxing and surprised even himself when he won his one and only bout. "It looked like a spectacular knockout," he later recalled, "but in fact, my opponent had just tripped, fallen over backwards and knocked himself out." Still, the victory got him his picture in the paper and a reputation as school 'boxing champion'.

"Won't Get Fooled Again" was originally intended for a rock opera Townshend had been working on, which was a multi-media exercise based on his followings of the Indian religious avatar Meher Baba. The song was written for the end of the opera, after the main character is killed and the "universal chord" is sounded. The main characters disappear, leaving behind the government and army, who are left to bully each other.

His art teacher said he was: "Retarded artistically. Idiotic in other respects". However, his music teacher wrote that Moon "has great ability, but must guard against a tendency to show off."

Animal's bushy eyebrows and hair, outrageous behavior, and wild drumming style were inspired by classical hard-partying rock drummers, such as The Who's Keith Moon, Led Zeppelin's John Bonham and Cream's Ginger Baker.