Credit: Far Out / Alamy
October 24th, 2026 · 8:00am BST
While it’s often easy to pin down exactly where certain bands fit in within a wider scene, one of the hardest groups of all time to find a decent settling place for is The Who.
When they first emerged in the mid-1960s, their image suggested that they were best placed alongside the Mod acts who had been making a splash in the UK charts, but their sound was far richer than simply being a copy of what their contemporaries had to offer.
Yes, there were elements of the straightforward pop structures that proved to be a hit with their Mod-sympathetic audience, but they were also prone to raucous outbursts of garage rock inspiration, similar to the sound that The Kinks demonstrated on early hits of theirs. The Who weren’t making it easy for people to figure out exactly what to expect of them, but that wasn’t their problem; it was the listeners’ problem.
However, this dichotomous existence would soon branch off in myriad directions, making pigeonholing the act even more tough to achieve. Their noisier moments suddenly morphed into arena-rock anthems, but at the same time, they were also capable of creating moments of undeniable pomp and circumstance, inspired equally by musical theatre, progressive rock and glam rock. The band that they started out as halfway through the ‘60s were a completely different beast by the end of the decade, and they proudly took this approach into the future with them.
It’s this element of glam rock admiration that arguably made The Who stand out from a number of their contemporaries, with this association being far more pop-coded than most other rock bands would dream of being painted as. As far as they were concerned, it didn’t matter if they were exploring these territories, because in all truth, they were among the best at doing it.
However, as far as conquering the glam rock world goes, frontman Roger Daltrey proclaimed that there was one band that stood out as having far exceeded all others in terms of their scope and songwriting capabilities.
In a 2021 interview with BBC Radio, the singer hailed Slade as being one of his favourite bands of the era, citing their song ‘Far Far Away’ as being their finest moment. “It didn’t seem to me they took anything really seriously – like we did,” Daltrey supposed. “We were performing rock operas and all that sort of stuff.”
Further reading: From The Vault
He continued to praise the Wolverhampton-based band and their frontman, Noddy Holder, for having taken the same approach as his own band, transforming from their early days as a Mod outfit into a noisier prospect with elements of pizzazz thrown in for good measure. “Noddy, what a great character he is, what a great actor,” Daltrey added.
“A really good songwriter, what a fabulous rock ‘n’ roll voice. And boy, did they deliver. They delivered on all fronts.”
While they’re perhaps best known for the perennially popular ‘Merry Xmas Everyone’, annoying the living hell out of Brits across the country for one month per year, it ought to be said that the rest of their discography boasts plenty of anthemic pop songs that still possess a snarling rock edge. While The Who were able to marry these successfully on top of incorporating various other influences, Slade arguably did it in an even more concise manner, preferring to cater more towards the singles charts rather than making sprawling albums, and it has to be said, Daltrey was certainly a fan.
