Randy Bachman Interview On The Guess Who vs The Who

Feature Photo by Christie Goodwin

By the late ‘60s, The Guess Who, led by Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings, were riding high. They had a few hits and were making their way over to the U.K. to bring their brand of hot-blooded, Les Paul-driven rock to the masses.

Of course, the British Invasion had already taken place, meaning American groups like The Guess Who were, more or less, bringing up the rear, not that they cared. “We were very unaware at the time,” Bachman tells ClassicRockHistory.com.

“I mean, I spent my money reading about The Beatles, The Stones, and The Shadows from England, but I was much more enchanted by what was going on at the Brill Building,” Bachman says.

All this is to say that by the time The Guess Who visited England, they weren’t afraid of what they were up against, like The Who, for example. “I wasn’t that intrigued by that stuff,” Bachman says. “The average person [in America] wasn’t aware of what was going on in England with The Who.”

Bachman attributes this to people not being “bombarded 24/7 via the Internet” like we are today, and perhaps that’s true. But regardless, when Bachman and company arrived on U.K. soil, not only were they not fearful of The Who, but they also wanted them to change their name, since it was so similar to The Guess Who’s.

“We were walking down in SoHo, and we heard this noise,” Bachman recalls of his first run-in with The Who. “We heard this noise—and it was like two in the afternoon—which was coming from the Marquee Club.”

Curious, Bachman looked to his bandmates and said, “Well, let’s go in there. It’s a famous club…” And once The Guess Who entered The Marquee Club, they were greeted with confines “the size of a closet,” filled with people “standing shoulder-to-shoulder.”

“The Who were there on this little stage,” Bachman recalls. “It was maybe a foot high, and they were being recorded for German television. There were no video cameras, so it was all film, and the guy kept saying, ‘You’re too loud. You’re vibrating the film,” which just made Pete and John turn up, and it got worse. [laughs]

Bachman says The Who’s refusal to co-operate led to the shoot being aborted, and the two bands sitting down at a table soon after. Bachman tells us, “I said to them, ‘Hi, we’re The Guess Who from Winnipeg. We want you to stop using your name…’”

He continues, “John Entwistle and Pete Townsend looked at me, and said, ‘I think there’s a band called The Byrds, and a band called The Yardbirds, so there could be The Who and The Guess Who. Why don’t you guys just bugger off…”

That sounds unceremonious, but according to Bachman, as time went on, the occurrence became a joke between him and The Who. “We’d be flying from L.A. to London,” Bachman says. “We’d be doing Top of the Pops because ‘American Woman’ was number one, and we’d find out The Who were at the same hotel…”

It was at this point that the “joke” started. “I’d ask what room John was in,” Bachman says. “I’d phone him at like two in the morning while he was asleep, and I’d say, ‘John, this is Randy from The Guess Who… bugger off!’ Then I’d hang up. [laughs] It became like a Monty Python-type joke after that.

Over the years, Bachman and Entwistle became friends. “John and I played with Ringo [Starr] in ’95 with his All-Starr Band, who were opening a Hard Rock Café in Vancouver,” Bachman says. “We went down there, I sang, and he played, and we joked about it and had a great time.”

Years after that, Bachman and Townsend—who had no memory of the interaction—had a laugh, too. “About ten years ago,” Bachman says. “I got a call to go to the Stratford Film Festival in Ontario to see Tommy digitally.”

“So, I go, and I was sitting right behind Pete Townsend,” Bachman laughs. “I said to him, ‘Hey, I’m Randy Bachman from The Guess Who…” We ended up having dinner, and I said, ‘Do you remember the meeting we had at The Marquee Club in 1967?’”

Not only did Townsend not remember the meeting, but he’d lost about three years of time. “Pete said, ‘I don’t be to be blunt, rude, or frank, but I don’t remember anything from 1966 to 1969,’” Bachman laughs.

Bachman continues, “Pete said, ‘We were in a haze and a daze, like monkeys trained to play and break our stuff. We were in the hold of debt, and we just kept doing it and doing it and doing it, and finally, we made it. So, Pete didn’t remember it at all. [laughs]”

At the end of the day, Entwistle and Townsend were right in that both bands could exist as they were. They did just that, though Bachman still doesn’t think the initial request was such a big deal. “Oh, I don’t know,” he says. “They had just changed their name from The Detours, so we thought it would be no big deal! [laughs]”

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