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Remembering the tragic Who concert of 1979

Springfielder Jeff Miller attended the infamous Cincinnati concert 30 years ago

Jeff Miller of Springfield still has his original, untorn ticket from The Who concert in Cincinnati on Dec. 3, 1979, where 11 people were trampled to death.

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Cincinnati police tend to people who were crushed before a performance by The Who on Dec. 3, 1979, at Riverfront Coliseum.

Associated Press photo by Ed Reinke Cincinnati police tend to people who were crushed before a performance by The Who on Dec. 3, 1979, at Riverfront Coliseum.

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The basement of Jeff Miller's Springfield home is decorated with record albums. Miller recalls the events of Dec. 3, 1979, when 11 people were trampled to death at The Who concert in Cincinnati, a concert he attended.

Barbara J. Perenic The basement of Jeff Miller's Springfield home is decorated with record albums. Miller recalls the events of Dec. 3, 1979, when 11 people were trampled to death at The Who concert in Cincinnati, a concert he attended.

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The Who's Roger Daltrey (left) and Pete Townshend circa 1979.

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By Andrew McGinn, Staff Writer 4:43 PM Thursday, November 26, 2009

The passage of time has only allowed cynicism to creep in — why in their right minds would 6,000 people trample each other like bulls in Pamplona to see The Who without Keith Moon?

But in all seriousness, unless the Hell’s Angels are working security, does anybody expect to die at a rock concert?

In the United States of America?

The fact that not one or two, not five or six, but 11 did, is no less unbelievable today than it was almost 30 years ago, on Dec. 3, 1979, when a human tsunami crashed against Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, a desperate surge to get in and as close to The Who and their new drummer, Kenney Jones, as possible.

Three decades later, it remains a well-known chapter in rock history — a tragedy in this part of Ohio, a gruesome piece of trivia everywhere else.

“Someone said, ‘Man, I think I saw someone dead out there,’ ” recalled Jeff Miller, a longtime Springfield resident who was attending his first of 10 Who concerts that cold Monday night as a high school senior from Piqua. “I said, ‘Must’ve been bad drugs.’ That’s what I was thinking. It never occurred to me that something like that could even happen.”

When the tide receded, most of the 6,000 people vying for general admission seats had been swept safely inside and were being treated to, at least for Miller, the best show they’d ever seen, before or since.

“The show was outstanding,” he said. “Entwistle was magnificent. Roger was in his prime. Microphone was really whipping. It was action packed. Pure, simple rock ’n’ roll. No warm-up band. No intermission.”

But unbeknownst to most, 11 people never got to see The Who that night.

Seven men, four women.

The oldest was 24. The youngest, 15.

They died before they got old.

It was the night that, if you can forgive another song reference, Riverfront Coliseum became a teenage wasteland, the place from which the words “festival seating” echoed across the country for years as a synonym for evil, a parental nightmare for a generation to come.

If the drugs and the backward messages didn’t get your sons and daughters, the crowd will.

“One of the news reports said, ‘Inside they’re singing ‘The Kids Are Alright,’ but outside, the kids are not all right,” Miller said. “That just sticks in my head.”

The AP story that cried out from Page 1 of the Springfield Daily News on Dec. 4, 1979, was quick to note that, “Many had been drinking and smoking marijuana.”

At age 46, Miller was privileged to have kids of his own and see them off to college.

“It’s just fate,” he said.

The operations director of the Second Harvest Foodbank was allowed to go bald.

And, 30 years after the fact, he was given the right to look back on this historic tragedy and remain dumbfounded.

“I never fully understood how,” he explained. “I would think that, if I fell, I would get back up. No way did I think you couldn’t.”

A year after losing the seemingly irreplaceable Moon to an overdose, The Who in 1979 was as big as it’d ever been — the concert film “The Kids Are Alright,” released in June of that year, only cemented the band’s reputation as the greatest live act to ever roam the Earth.

On Dec. 3, 1979, more than 18,000 people were on hand to welcome version 2.0 of The Who to Cincinnati, with about 6,000 seats set aside as general admission.

In other words, first in gets the best spot to stand.

Miller and a buddy, affectionately nicknamed Fart, had told their school they were going to spend the day seeing where they could further their education, UC or Miami.

“But really,” Miller said, “we weren’t going to either one. We were going to the concert.”

They arrived at 3:30 in the afternoon for the 8 p.m. show.

“We were there to beat the crowd,” he said.

They soon were engulfed by people.

“As it got dark, it was getting colder,” Miller remembered. “I had a hooded sweatshirt, but it was so hot, I was just dripping with sweat.”

The crowd would shift. They’d shift with it.

“There wasn’t any stopping it,” Miller said. “It was going.”

Within an hour of arriving, the friends were separated and wouldn’t see each other until after the show.

“You couldn’t look down,” Miller said. “You couldn’t see what was below you.”

A few years earlier, in December 1975, South Vienna resident Charlie Miller (no relation) had seen The Who at Riverfront on the “Who By Numbers” tour. It, too, was a general admission show and he can vouch for the raw power of a crowd.

He also arrived early to that show to get as close to the stage as possible.

“I’m 6-foot-2 and about 190,” he recalled, “and the pressure of the crowd was so strong, so forceful, I lifted my feet off the ground and did not slip one bit. An amazing feeling.”

Charlie Miller still isn’t sure how people in 1979 fell.

“You were absolutely shoulder-to-shoulder, stomach-to-stomach,” he said.

But fall they did.

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My husband and I were in Cincinnati that night for a concert as well - but at another venue seeing Harry Chapin perform. At the close of that show news was beginning to filter in about the troubles at the Who concert. We were horrified. But glad to have had such a positive experience with Harry. My parents were freaked, however...they knew we were at a concert in Cincinnati, but didn't know which one. They spent some anxious moments that night, waiting for word that we were ok.

Celtoid
5:48 AM, 12/9/2009

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I remember my Mother calling in a panic, because I told her I might go. I just saw Roger Daltry last night in Florida. Ironic. Can't believe it's been 30 years.

Dane
8:37 PM, 11/28/2009

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Thank you, Winston, for pointing out it was NOT a stampede. It was mainly poor crowd control. The unfortunate ones died of "compressive asphyxia" (i.e., they were crushed to death.)

But from the beginning the press insisted there was a mad dash for the doors and that people fell and were trampled to death. There was no stampede. Period. It was a slow, increasing compression that dealt the fatal blow. To say it was a stampede is simply untrue.

May they rest in peace.

MaryM
6:34 PM, 11/27/2009

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Wow,I can take a joke but these were just kids who died and it wasn't so long ago. Some sensitivity would be nice. I know Andy's not from here but a little respect might be in order.

Tom
4:43 PM, 11/27/2009

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It was not a stampede. As Mr Miller noted, there were too few doors open. I distinctly remember a cop volunteering to open another turnstile. He was told everything was under control. The building manager was later busted for stealing water. Should have been for murder.
FWIW, deaths like this occur at papal visits, too. 7 in Brazil in 1980 & just recently, more in Angola.

Winston
10:42 AM, 11/27/2009

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