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The piece de resistance of these uploads, though, transports us back to December 1968.
(And it has.)
But more on that later.
You could barely see Entwistles spiky shirt sleeves!)
Your relationship with the Rolling Stones ran deep prior to this special.
But what was your association with the Who like?I had worked with them since 1965.
That show really broke the Who in a way.
I also directed the videos for My Generation, Substitute, and Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere.
It wasnt like I was listening to the Who; I was actually working with them.
But the relationship with them goes deeper.
We werent exactly friends at school, but we noticed each other.
The Who was its own person.
They were constantly fighting.
I love Pete and still do; we email each other fairly often.
He was brilliant and witty and he still is.
What circumstances led to the creation ofRock and Roll Circus?
Id love to know how a Mick Jagger brainstorm session works.It was my idea.
The Stones really wanted to do their own show.
I started to draw circles, circles, circles.
All of the acts came out of a little address book in the back of [Jaggers] pocket.
The first call went to Pete Townshend and right away he said yes.
The first band that everybody wanted was the Who, and they were the first band that said yes.
Did Mick specifically want them to play A Quick One?
Or was that a Who decision?The latter.
The band chose it specifically and were really excited to perform it live.
They chose it and the rest is history.
We had long delays in the afternoon because of this.
I remember thinking this was a perfect image for the best of rock and roll.
They wanted to be the best and were all competition.
If I had a Polaroid camera, thats an image I wouldve taken and saved.
How was the Who interacting with each other before the cameras started rolling?
They knew what they were doing.
Unusually,everyoneturned up on time.
The Who, Eric Clapton, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, everyone.
They all respected each other and each others time.
But the Who in particular seemed relaxed and excited to be there.
I bet Keith said something funny.
The Who wanted to do really well.
The stakes were high.
Their blood was up like an athlete.
They were in a room with the greatest of greats.
That didnt make them nervous, but excited and ready to get onstage.
As far as I remember, they got onstage about 4 p.m., so they werent tired.
We did one rehearsal for the sake of the cameras and to give them a warm-up.
They knew when it was over that they really rocked and rolled.
They wereveryaware of what they had just done, which was an extraordinary performance.
I was more aware ofhowthey were going to perform each bit.
I wanted to keep everything very intimate.
Same with the Stones later that night, too.
Is there a defining shot for you?
Ive been a Pete superfan for 50 years.
Everybody in the audience knew something sensational had just occurred in those seven minutes.
Is there much truth to that?It wasnt so much that Mick thought the Who was better.
It was that the Rolling Stones werent as good as they usually were.
It was partly because Brian Jones wasnt well.
He couldnt really contribute at all on the guitar, except for a few chords.
They were tired and maybe drugged out.
But ultimately Mick understood they werent as hot as they couldve been and acknowledged the Who wasquitegood.
Everybody had kind of moved on after that day, including Pete, as weird as that may sound.
The Who was on their way to building an enormous career, and thats what they were focused on.
I like to think hes looked back on it privately.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
