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Shakespeare & Beyond

Excerpt -- 'Thanks a Lot Mr. Kibblewhite' by Roger Daltrey

Roger Daltrey, Thanks a Lot Mr. Kibblewhite (2018). Book cover.
Roger Daltrey, Thanks a Lot Mr. Kibblewhite (2018). Book cover.

Roger Daltrey, the lead vocalist of The Who, is also the author of a recent memoir, Thanks a Lot Mr. Kibblewhite: My Story, billed on the group’s website as “as much a story of survival as it is of success.”

The title recalls the moment when his headmaster, Mr. Kibblewhite, expelled him from grammar school at 15 with the crushing comment, “You’ll never make anything of your life, Daltrey.” The book, happily, tells the opposite story: how he became one of the top rock stars in the world. One passage, excerpted below, includes a Shakespearean tale: what it was like for Daltrey to act in one of the BBC’s TV movies of the plays, The Comedy of Errors (1983).

This excerpt begins with a description of Daltrey in other parts, including the leading role of career criminal John McVicar in the movie McVicar (1980); Heather, who is mentioned, is Daltrey’s wife.