Maximum Who

Maximum Who
2002, Genesis

A book I haven’t read but a few reviews.

Images from Genesis site with more reviews


Mark Blake, Q, 4 stars
(Reviewed with Anyway Anyhow Anywhere and Maximum RnB)


Avoiding the grimness of their later years by contrast Maximum Who occupies itself with their earlier heyday. A companion to editor Ross Halfin’s previous book a collection of 70s era Who pictures titled The Greatest Live Rock N Roll Band In The World, this comprises the work of six photographers from the 60s. Here the group preen against a back drop of shabby post war Britain, looking like dandy aliens beamed in from another galaxy and drawing baffled glances from the old men in trilbys, wondering if this is really what they fought a war for.

The photographers commentary runs alongside their work, with droll asides from Townshend, Daltrey and Entwistle themselves (“where was I taken when this was taken? Probably out shagging”). Prohibitively pricey, but if you can afford it, a book to treasure - and hefty enough to fend of any ageing mod burglars. But if you buy only one of these make it Richard Barnes’s.



Andy Davis, Record Collector


As a visual history of The Who in the 1960’s Maximum Who is without equal. Compiler Ross Halfin, best known as photographer for venerable rock organs such as Sounds and Kerrang compliments his previous book for Genesis Publications, The Who Live, with a photographic feast concentrating on the years 1965 to 1969. The book begins with the young buttoned down, high fringed mods at home and ends with perms and beginnings of mad moustaches as the band raised its game recording the rock opera Tommy.

Genesis high end production values is the obvious selling point here. The mostly black and white photographs - about 75% previously unpublished - shimmer off the gilt edged pages, displaying a depth of quality unseen outside exhibitions and art galleries. As editor, Halfin�s choice of photographers is second to none. Here is the cream of what survives from that period, as taken by Chris Morphet, Dominique Tarle, Tony Gale, Baron Wolman, Colin Jones and the late in house Decca photographer David Wedgbury. Each displays a style of its own. Worphet’s images are intimate and unobstrusive, Jones is iconic, capturing the zeitgeist of mod-infiltrated 60’s London. Gale’s selection speaks of high fashion as pop-art gave way to Carnaby Street frills. Wolman’s of in studio intensity and Tarle’s of the end of the 60s, the coming of age of pop as it bristles into hirsute rock. David Wedgebury, meanwhile renowned for cover shoots such as John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers famous beano album, manages to capture four young men in the centre of London at the dawn of their career, looking every inch like one of the most incendiary and indespensable rock acts of all time. Which of course is exactly what The Who became.

But the photographers only tell part of the story. Full credit must go to publisher Brian Roylance whose uncanny knack of getting the cream of Britains rockbroker belt to do his bidding has once again yielded impressive dividends. Here Pete townshend, Roger Daltrey and the late great John Entwistle all provide commentary. Other contributors include Who associates Glyn Johns, Bobby Pridden plus fine artist Peter Blake.

Weighing in, quite literally at over three kilos, Maximum Who is a heavyweight rock book in both senses of the word. Its meaty beaty big and bouncy and worth every penny of the £234 Genesis are asking for it.



Mick Wall, Classic Rock
5 star review


Compiled by Classic Rock photographer Ross Halfin with text from Pete Townshend, Roger daltrey and John Entwistle, Maximum Who is the follow up to Halfin’s last stupendous picture book, Who Live.

Not available in shops, but only as a strictly limited edition of 1,500 numbered copies, signed by Ross, Maximum Who features rare and never before seen pictures by the likes of Colin Jones, Dominique Tarle, David Wedgebury, Tony Gale, Chris Morphet and Baron Wolman (the six photographers most closely asociated with the band throughout the 1960s).

Presented in a large format book, it covers the period up to and including the recording of Tommy - the album that effectively metamorphosised the group from British hit single makers to internationally succesful album orientated superstars.

As Ross explains, the pictures in the book “graphically define the image of The Who in the 1960s in a way that has never been done before”

With wonderfully intimate portraits (Entwistle practising while his mum looks on; Daltrey as a teenager playing records in his bedroom with a huge Union Jack on the wall), Halfin’s inspired image selection successfully evoke the era in all its sepia tones, from the arrival of drummer Keith Moon in 1964 to 1969 and the success of Tommy.

As ever with The Who its not just their staggering energy that comes across, but all the little inconsistencies too, the barely concealed tensions as Townshend, Daltrey and Entwistle re-live the creative rivalry, often violent recording sessions and gigs, the freezing photo shoots, hot girls, and multitude of brilliant highs and desperate lows that went into being The Who back then, just as the ball really started rolling.

As Daltrey recalls in the book “It was just really exciting times with the mod thing coming up. Most of my time was spent being the singer and the placater of many fights that were going to happen in the audience! A lot of my mates were into all sorts of mischief in those days”