No, this isn’t a Who appreciation thread, even though I’m a huge fan. But, this set has 3 things I’ve never seen before:
*The anti-piracy warning screen starts off with “A Friendly Warning From The FBI”, and there’s an image of J. Edgar Hoover that gets some animated graffiti on it.
*The commentary track isn’t just audio–you see Pete and Roger superimposed,on either side of the screen, over the running video. (And Pete has a hard time sitting still!)
*Gary Glitter is digitally edited out of the songs where he appeared.
I’ll leave the reviews and Who bashing to the rest of you lot…
Gary Glitter was arrested on child pornography charges, and Pete Townshend takes great issue with child sex abuse, apparently having been a victim in his childhood. I have no cite for it, but if you say he was removed from the film after the fact, I’d wager a guess that Pete isn’t willing to give the guy any money or support him in any way, now that his secret is out.
It should be noted that Pete’s only evidence is that he thinks he was molested as a child. False memories being what they are, I’m sure his brain can fill in the blanks where needed. Ironically, it was this obsession that lead to his own arrest after registering with an illegal pedophile website…“research”, he called it. The charges were dropped when no other incriminating evidence was found on his computer, but UK laws being what they are, he’s currently on the list of “suspected sex offenders” due solely to this little tangle with the law.
I don’t know what beef Pete has with Gary Glitter, but during Pete’s legal scandal, some reporter dug up a photo of Pete & Gary together and spread it around the Internet. So perhaps Pete doesn’t want to be associated with any convicted offender, since the scandal’s so fresh in the minds of everyone.
What part did Gary play? (Was it Uncle Ernie, by any chance?) I’m thinking of buying this DVD, but if the change is a substantial one, I’ll probably pass. Censorship always bugs me, no matter who it involves.