by Ned McFadden, Sewell, NJ

In December of 1979, I was a senior at the University of Dayton. On December 3, 1979, a friend and I made the hour drive to Cincinnati to attend one of the most highly anticipated concerts to date. “Who Are You” would be the last album on which Keith Moon would perform. He died suddenly just over a year earlier, but The Who were determined to press on, and this would be their triumphant return.

We arrived on the scene just after the first bank of doors opened, and what we witnessed was insanity. Stray shoes, uncontrollable pushing and shoving, and oddly, a number of people struggling to get out of the middle of the pack while others were pushing forward to get to the doors. It was very clear to me that what was being witnessed was not right, but I never thought for a minute that eleven would lose their lives in this mess.

We never saw a second bank of doors open, and decided that if we were to get into the concert any time soon, we would have to find another entrance. We walked about three quarters of the way around the concourse surrounding the arena, and found no other open doors. We were thinking that we would have to make our way back to the mob scene that we saw earlier and wait there until the situation became more manageable, when suddenly, a side service entrance door to the arena sprung open right in front of us. A ticket-taker waved us over, and we were in.

From the time the show opened with a “Quadrophenia” film clip to the final note of the encore (”Won’t Get Fooled Again”?, don’t remember for sure), the crowd never let up, and it was scary. We made our way, somehow, to near the front of the floor, where there were times when I was lifted completely up off the floor by the force of the crowd and then suddenly thrust back down to the ground, smothered by the mob. There was CONSTANT swaying and pushing by the ENTIRE crowd. And The Who played one of the most amazing sets of music that you will ever hear.

We did not learn of the tragedy of the night until we got back to Dayton. We walked into the local campus bar and were shocked to hear the news. I was in Cincinnati last summer and was back at the Coliseum. The bank of doors where the tragedy occured no longer exists, replaced by ticket windows. New entrances have been built. Much too late!