Watch the Who Perform ‘The Punk and the Godfather’ With Surprise Guest Eddie Vedder
The Who performed with the Heart of England Orchestra at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Wednesday night, and surprise guest Eddie Vedder came out near the end to join them on the Quadrophenia classic “The Punk and the Godfather.”
The show was part of a week-long series of events at the Royal Albert Hall designed to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Who frontman Roger Daltrey has curated the concert series since 2000, but is stepping down this year. “The £32 million raised from these concerts has been the foundation for the 28 specialized units within the NHS,” Daltrey said in a statement, “as well as specialist nurses and youth workers to be there for a young person when cancer has turned their world upside down.”
The final Teenage Cancer Trust concert of the year takes place Sunday night. It’s a grand celebration of Daltrey’s work for the charity organization where the singer will be joined by Pete Townshend, Eddie Vedder, Paul Weller, Robert Plant, and Kelly Jones of the Stereophonics.
Vedder has joined the Who at several Teenage Cancer Trust shows throughout the past couple of decades. They are one of his favorite bands. “I was around nine when a baby sitter snuck Who’s Next onto the turntable,” Vedder told Rolling Stone in 2004. “The parents were gone. The windows shook. The shelves were rattling. Rock & roll. That began an exploration into music that had soul, rebellion, aggression, affection. Destruction. And this was all Who music. There was the mid-Sixties maximum-R&B period: mini-operas, Woodstock, solo records. Imagine, as a kid, stumbling upon the locomotive that is Live at Leeds. ‘Hi, my name is Eddie. I’m ten years old and I’m getting my fucking mind blown!'”
Pearl Jam are kicking off a world tour May 4 in Vancouver, Canada. Two days later, Daltrey is beginning a solo tour where he’ll play Who hits and deep cuts along with selections from his solo catalog. There will also be portion of the show where he’ll field questions from the audience. The Who have no additional shows on the books, and this last Teenage Cancer Trust show marked the end of a five-year period where they played with local orchestras.