Roger Daltrey – Piece Hall, Halifax: Live Review

By Mike Ainscoe on 1st August 2025 • ( 1 Comment )

Roger Daltrey – Piece Hall, Halifax – Wednesday 30th July 2025

Tagged as ‘Alive and kicking…and having fun’ and at the grand age of 81, who’s to deny Roger Daltrey a bit of a swansong. Granted, he’s often been portrayed as a bit of a grumpy old s*d – the saga/fall out over the latest The Who drummer and his (admittedly amusing) rants over Brexit at the hands of hapless Sky reporters as sufficient evidence. He might have even held a candle to the other grumpy Rog (Waters of ex-Floyd). However, there might be a mellowing in evidence as the Roger Daltrey who showed up in Halifax was most definitely not grumpy and an infinitely more Jolly Roger.

JOLLY ROGER

As one of a series of shows at the venue with ‘courtyard seating’, a most civilised evening was to be had with the man who Dave Grohl once called “an actual Godlike genius.” Like most visitors to the Piece Hall, he’s impressed by the surroundings. A little cooler than the heat of Italy where he’s recently done some shows with another band, and he seems in a playful mood, joshing with his guitar tech as he donned a rather splendid acoustic Gibson, poking fun at his age and stature and grinning at the front rows as he fulfills the promise, reeling off the promise of Who hits, rarities, solo hits and stories.

So – a set that went a little like what Greg Lakes used to call his ‘two for you one for me’ philosophy. The hits were there of course – The Who’s Substitute, Won’t Get Fooled Again and Baba O’Reilly. The Kids Are Alright and Who Are You, the latter landing a blow second song in with the backing vox from the band inducing the sort of looks and grins that conjured up images of John Entwistle doing the same in the promo video.

TALES AND CROWD PLEASERS

Peppering those crowd pleasers were dips into his solo work – a couple of selections from the McVicar soundtrack and the magnificent After The Fire. Days Of Light saw Rog reminiscing of his formative years working in the factories as a fifteen year old alongside the war heroes returned form all those wars of the times – the best of times. It may be that time of life, but we had our hero getting a tad nostalgic, paying tribute to his band that included some old pals from The Who big band and of course there’s another Townsend playing guitar by his side. Their formation in the bad old pandemic days creating the long standing outcome of the necessity to earn their crusts by playing live.

The cover versions in the set had him back in the days of hearing Taj Mahal singing Freedom Ride (a personal highlight) and sharing his admiration of the boldness and ambition of Paul Simon in his South African experiments of the mid Eighties (earning a round of applause for his mention of Simon’s ‘f**k the politicians’ comment and the equal share for his musical compadres). Nods to Garnett Mimms and Creedence and a finale that surely saw many a lump in the throat and the soft drip of poignancy as he says farewell for now and sings the words of Ray Davies – “thank you for the days.” And no matter at the age of 81, how strongly and impressively he’s sung during the set, there’s a fragility and emotion in his voice. Not many could disagree with Dave Grohl.