The Kids Are Grown Up

In the bad old days of rock hedonism, a hotel maid would have approached any room occupied by a member of the Who only with armed backup.

But when a housekeeper’s knock last weekend took the venerable British band’s bassist, John Entwistle, away from a phone interview briefly, he politely turned her away, explaining that there was nothing in his West Hollywood hotel room in need of “Hoovering”--what we Yanks call vacuuming.

Yes, the Who on tour in 2000 is in many ways a far different story than it was 25 or 35 years ago.

The big constant is the music, especially on the new “Greatest Hits” tour, which opened Monday at the Hollywood Bowl and continues tonight at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine. (Review, F?).

The fact that the Who--consisting now of founding members Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and Entwistle, along with touring drummer Zak Starkey (Ringo Starr’s son) and keyboardist John Bundrick--is still performing at all is partly the result of technology that didn’t exist in its halcyon days, when the Who created such rock standards as “My Generation,” “Magic Bus,” “I Can See for Miles,” “Pinball Wizard” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”

As recently as four years ago, in fact, Entwistle had said there was “no chance in hell of a reunion” of the celebrated group that produced the most famous rock opera of all, “Tommy.” But later that year came the tour on which the group performed its 1974 rock opera “Quadrophenia,” and now this outing that spans the Who’s long, albeit off-and-on, career.

So what happened?

“I think Pete’s thinking sort of changed,” Entwistle, 55, says. “In one of the interviews we did together, he said, ‘Now I can scale my equipment down to make it quieter and get the same sound.’ We’re using smaller amps and getting the same huge sound. Obviously it’s a lot quieter, but we use the P.A. system a lot, too.” That makes it possible to have less volume onstage, near the musicians, but more going out to the fans.

Townshend, of course, is one of the most famous victims of high-decibel rock, and at times had said he’d never play the electric guitar again because of the damage his hearing suffered from years of cranking the volume to 11.

Entwistle’s hearing has deteriorated as well. “The muscles close to my ears are dead” is how he put it in one interview.

Besides the ability to ease back a bit on the volume is another impetus for this year’s tour.

“We found a couple of times at the end of the ‘Quadrophenia’ shows, when we played a bunch of our hits in the encore, we were really enjoying ourselves,” Entwistle says. “Pete got back into playing electric [guitar], and we found we really enjoyed playing with each other again.”

The group has taken some hits for ticket prices that run as high as $150, but Daltrey and Entwistle say it’s merely part of the trend of escalating concert ticket prices. They also point out that the Who’s most expensive ticket is less than half that charged on the most recent tour by the other great surviving ‘60s British rock group, the Rolling Stones.

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For Entwistle, this trip to the States isn’t only for revisiting the Who’s past. He’ll also be stopping at several art galleries for exhibitions of some of the drawings he’s been doing for the last couple of decades.

His most recognizable work is the one he did for the cover of 1975’s “Who by Numbers” album. That effort reawakened an early interest in art that was shunted aside when the Who’s career started to take off during the mid-’60s British Invasion.

Now he devotes time to improving his art skills “whenever I’m not going fishing in Mexico or working with the Who. I’ve got several cottages on my estate, and I’ll set one up, shut myself off and scribble.”

“Everybody wants to be a better musician, or a better artist--you’re never quite satisfied with where you are. I have the same attitude with drawing as with bass playing: I want to keep finding out new things and improving. I hate standing still.”

He has drawn caricatures of his Who bandmates and other famous rockers. He gave copies to Townshend and Daltrey and thinks they must have liked them because “they didn’t give them back to me.”

He’s represented in the U.S. by Walnut Street Gallery Ltd. of Fort Collins, Colo., and he’ll be having an exhibition in Denver in conjunction with the Who’s Aug. 24 concert there. No Southern California showings are scheduled.

“It’s a departure for me,” Entwistle says. “It’s weird going from a Who show and then becoming an artist, where I have to act kind of wind-swept and interesting.”

Because of the long breaks between Who albums and tours historically, Entwistle also has maintained a solo career, which began with his 1971 album “Smash Your Head Against the Wall” and has continued most recently with “Left for Live,” a 1999 album documenting his quasi-disastrous U.S. solo tour the previous year.

“It was a bit of an ordeal,” he says. “We had agent problems in the middle of it--they didn’t come through with a lot of the dates they’d promised. So because there were a lot of holes to fill, we got the idea to play in tiny little places just to keep playing, so we wouldn’t get cold. That kind of thing costs money, but it was worth it.”

The album includes Entwistle’s versions of such Who staples as “The Real Me,” “Shakin’ All Over” and “Young Man Blues,” along with such Entwistle compositions as “905,” “Had Enough” and “Too Late the Hero,” plus several he wrote with his John Entwistle Band collaborator Steve Luongo.

The solo efforts aren’t simply to keep him from twiddling his thumbs between Who projects.

“I needed to play my own music,” says Entwistle, who also wrote Who favorites including, “My Wife” from “Who’s Next” and “Boris the Spider” from “Happy Jack.”

“The Who only play one or two of my songs [per concert or album]. I’ve discovered a lot of people out there want to hear me, and there are a lot of Entwistle solo fans who don’t even like the Who. I’m playing for them for that reason,” he says, adding with a chuckle, “I’m certainly not playing [solo shows] for the money.”

* The Who, Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, 8808 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine. 8 tonight. $31.50-$146.50. (949) 855-6111. Also Thursday, San Diego Sports Arena, 3500 Sports Arena Blvd. 7:30 p.m. $25 to $150. (619) 224-4171.