In early 1964, a London-based R&B club band called the Detours – rhythm guitarist Roger Daltrey, lead guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle, drummer Doug Sandom and singer Colin Dawson – were struggling to take things to the next level. They were fairly successful on the local pub and dancehall circuit, and, having seamlessly incorporated American style R&B (think Motown) into their act, started making inroads into the burgeoning mod scene, a 1960s subculture that incorporated cutting-edge fashion, Vespa scooters and such music genres such as rhythm and blues, soul and Merseybeat (think the Beatles, Gerry & the Pacemakers et. al.).

After Dawson left for a number of reasons (not least of which was Daltrey’s rough-and-tumble personality and bandleader status), Daltrey became the singer, leaving all guitar duties to the more-than-capable Townshend. They then changed their name to the Who, after discovering a band also sporting the Detours moniker. When a failed audition for Fontana Records precipitated the departure of the less-than-convinced Sandom and the arrival of Keith Moon, the lineup that would help change rock history was in place.

Around this time, they were “discovered” by Pete Meaden, himself a mod, with all the baggage participation in that scene implies: drugs (mostly amphetamine and other uppers), fashionista-like spending habits, and a generally overdriven lifestyle that was as untrustworthy as it was energizing. Totally enamored of the mod subculture, Meaden wanted to remake the former Detours as a mod magnet band. First order of business as their manager/publicist? Changing their name…again. Meaden rebranded them the High Numbers, a reference to the numbered T-shirts favored by mods at the time (ie, that month, or that week). Second order of business? A hit single calculated to appeal to their notoriously fickle audience, and to entrench the High Numbers as the mod band. (more…)