ENTWISTLE’S OX – Academy of Music, New York, March 8, 1975

John Entwistle became the first member of The Who to tour outside of the band when he took his own group, Ox, on the road in the UK towards the end of 1974 and in the US the following March. I saw shows on both tours, in Newcastle in the UK, and at the Academy of Music in New York, which was fifty years ago this month. After the Ox show in New York there was a reception where among the guests was Mick Jagger, so I sidled up to him to inquire who might be replacing Mick Taylor in the Stones but he told me to bugger off. I think he was drunk. 

Here’s my review of John’s band from Melody Maker dated March 22, 1975. I found the poster above on the internet.

It must have been galling for John Entwistle to look out and see the empty seats at the Academy of Music on Saturday evening and think back to just less than a year ago when The Who sold out the 20,000 seater Madison Square Garden for four nights in five days. 

        The audience gave him a hero’s welcome but reserved their biggest cheers for the songs he’s contributed to The Who’s catalogue over the years. Opening up with ‘My Wife’ and closing the show with ‘Heaven And Hell’ as an encore was a shrewd move. 

        The Ox have improved immeasurably since their first live gig in Newcastle last December. The band is tighter and better rehearsed, and mercifully the volume level has been drastically reduced though it’s still pretty loud. 

        Still, John remains the star. His unique bass playing stands head and shoulders above the musicianship of the other members of the band and the fast, rippling bass lines are the only feature that prevents The Ox from being just another competent group. Unfortunately, a bass player can’t carry a band, and no matter how stunning the bass lines become, the overall effect is disappointing. 

    Robert Johnson, on guitar, can’t match John; he often resorts to crashing chords during his solos in a vaguely Townshend fashion, which only reveals his apparent inability to match lick for lick with Entwistle. It also encourages unfair comparisons with The Who which I won’t go into.

        John, of course, is an old greaser at heart, and on the simple 12-bar based numbers The Ox are a fine rock’n’roll band, without frills but with plenty of sledgehammer drive. The drummer managed to hold his own against Entwistle’s bass but towards the end the horn player appeared to give up the ghost and use his instrument to demolish part of the drum kit, an odd but peculiarly Who-like ending.