The Who by Numbers Tour

[1] Prior to this, the Who had not performed live since playing four shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City the previous June, having spent much of 1974 working on the film adaptation of their rock opera Tommy and its soundtrack.

A laser lighting display was introduced at the concerts at Leicester's Granby Halls shortly into the European leg, which would become a fixture of most of the tour's shows.

[4] Following the end of the North American leg, the band returned to the UK to play three Christmas concerts at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, due to high ticket demand for the earlier British dates.

The tour had a disastrous start when Moon collapsed on stage just two songs into the Boston concert, causing the show to be postponed until 1 April.

The day after the aborted concert, Moon kicked the glass out of a framed painting in his hotel room and seriously injured his heel in the process.

[7] In his book Before I Get Old: The Story of the Who, music critic Dave Marsh suggested that at this point the Who's singer Roger Daltrey and bassist John Entwistle seriously considered firing Moon, but decided that doing so would make his life worse.

Biographers Andrew Neill and Matt Kent wrote in their book Anyway Anyhow Anywhere: The Complete Chronicle of The Who 1958–1978 that the tour had become a "greatest hits" celebration of the band's decade-long career by 1976.

Instead, the band opted to perform a mini-set of Tommy material in the middle of the set, thanks to the success of the film generating more interest in the rock opera.

Meanwhile, less and less Quadrophenia material was performed compared to the Who's previous tour, with only "Drowned" occasionally finding its way into the set during early dates, before eventually being dropped.

[1] Authors Joe McMichael and "Irish" Jack Lyons considers the following songs representative of the tour's set list.