By BRIAN COSTELLO
April 6, 2008
As both New York baseball stadiums prepare to close, The Post looks back at the 25 most memorable moments in the history of Shea. This week, No. 25.
Oct. 12-13, 1982
Shea Stadium has been the site of some legendary concerts and this two-night stint by two major bands makes the list. The concerts were part of The Who's first "farewell" tour, and it was the first concert in six years at Shea. The shows sold out in hours and the crowds were estimated around 70,000 because there was festival seating on the infield for the first time at Shea.
For The Clash, this was the peak of its career. The concerts occurred while the band was at the height of its popularity. The album "Combat Rock" was selling rapidly and by some accounts, Shea had as many Clash fans on those nights as Who fans. The band was selected by The Who as an opener because it was viewed as the future, but the band disintegrated in the two years following these concerts.
"It was one of their farewell tours," Clash member Mick Jones said years later. "It was a great honor for us to be asked to do it. It was brilliant, actually. We were very excited about it. It helped us immensely."
The Who went into the shows saying this tour was its last. In a video shot by the BBC (now on YouTube) before one of the Shea concerts, Who guitarist Pete Townshend talks with disdain for playing big baseball stadiums like Shea and seems fed up with playing 20-year-old songs.
Even so, the band did not disappoint the crowd and played most of its hits during the two shows.
In an interview two months after the shows, Townshend sounded like he had mixed emotions about the shows.
"It was the archetypal out-of-hand monstrous show, but it had all the people-energy you could want," he said. "I think it will be a historical one, but I wouldn't want to see (Bruce) Springsteen, or The Clash, or for that matter The Who there myself."
There were reports of violence at the shows with people getting trampled and some suffering injuries from firecrackers that were set off in the crowd.
The Who would reunite just three years later and launch a reunion tour four years after that. There have been several more tours since then.
