1990's

1990s

[ ] Partial reunions
In 1990, their first year of eligibility, The Who were inducted into the by, saying, "More than any other band, The Who are our role models." The Who's display at the Rock Hall describes them as prime contenders for the title of "World's Greatest Rock Band". Only and receive a similar accolade at the Rock Hall.

In 1991 The Who recorded a cover of 's "" for a tribute album. This was the last time they released any studio work with Entwistle. Townshend toured in 1993 to promote his Psychoderelict album. One night Entwistle guested at the end of the show. In 1994 there were rumours of a 30th anniversary tour. These never happened but Daltrey turned 50 and celebrated with two concerts at. These included guest spots by Entwistle and Townshend. Although original members of The Who attended, they did not appear on stage together except for the finale, "Join Together", with the other guests. Daltrey toured that year with Entwistle and with on keyboards, on drums and filling in for his brother. Pete Townshend allowed Daltrey to call this band The Who, but Daltrey declined. Daltrey Sings Townshend was not a commercial success.

[ ] Quadrophenia revival
In 1996 Townshend joined the lineup for a concert at. He intended to perform Quadrophenia as a solo acoustic piece using parts of the film on screens. Entwistle and Daltrey agreed a one-off performance. The band was augmented by Starkey, Rabbit on keyboards and Simon Townshend and Geoff Whitehorn on guitars. was an additional keyboard player, a horn section was added alongside backing vocalists and guests played characters from the album. These included, , newsreader and. The performance was narrated by who played Jimmy the Mod in the film. Despite technical difficulties the show was a success and led to a six-night residency at. These shows were not billed as The Who.

The success of the Quadrophenia shows led to a US and European tour. Rabbit, Starkey, Simon and Carin remained for the shows. The show was reworked for the tour and included three Who standards as encore. The show was billed under the members' names but later as The Who to aid ticket sales. Among the worst attendances were 7,432 in the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, WA; 7,346 in Dayton, OH and 6,210 for a show in Las Vegas. Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit drew sellouts or close to it. Idol and Glitter played these dates.

After Quadrophenia, The Who toured in the summer of 1997 in "greatest hits" shows, although they were reprises of the Quadrophenia tour with five Who classics as encore instead of three. P.J. Proby and Ben Waters replaced Glitter and Idol. The European dates ranged from 23 April to 18 May, the US from 19 July until 16 August.

Townshend performed many acoustic shows, Entwistle mounted shows with and Daltrey toured with the performing Who and other rock songs. In 1998, ranked The Who ninth in the.

In late 1999 The Who reformed as a five-piece with Rabbit on keyboards and Starkey on drums and performed seven shows, all but one for charity. Many songs were from Who's Next; others had not been performed for 30 years. The first show took place 29 October 1999 in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Garden. From there, they performed acoustic shows at Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA on 30 and 31 October. Next, they played on 12 and 13 November at the House of Blues in Chicago, as a benefit for the Maryville Academy. The first Chicago show was the first of the shows to be booked. Finally, two Christmas charity shows on 22 and 23 December at the Shepherds Bush Empire in London. For these Townshend was again playing electric guitar for the full show and The Who were a five-piece. The October 29 show in Las Vegas was partially on TV as well as the internet and would later see release as the DVD The Vegas Job.