A DEATH in the ranks rarely works wonders for a band’s creative morale – and the passing of The Who’s Keith Moon in 1978 proved no exception to the rule. After recording two lacklustre albums in the early 80s, The Who’s dissolution as a creative force was formalised when Pete Townshend announced his departure.

Reformations over the years have been frequent, but a peculiar irony underpins their re-emergence this year with a new album, Endless Wire. While Moon’s demise sent The Who into freefall, Roger Daltrey says that the death of bassist John Entwistle in 2002 had the opposite effect – giving the band “a whole new edge”. It was something of a relief, however, to realise within seconds of the group’s arrival on the concluding night of The BBC’s maiden Electric Proms that this was not a whole new Who.

In a gig billed as a once-only performance of Wire And Glass — the “mini-opera” that takes up the last half of Endless Wire — Townshend, Daltrey and a band featuring Zak Starkey on drums warmed up with a trio of old favourites. Beefed-up versions of I Can’t Explain and The Seeker saw a skull-capped Townshend windmilling like a turbine in a gale.

Marvelling at the newly restored Roundhouse, the guitarist drily remarked that when he had first played there the venue was somewhat dirtier — “Now it’s clean and I’m dirty.” Erupting from a mess of swampy power-chords, the sonic pyrotechnics of Who Are You? had Mods of all generations forsaking their more angular moves for all-out moshing. But whatever it said on the tickets, you feared for the moment when The Who – as promised – got to the mini-opera bit.

Seemingly related to Townshend’s ongoing preoccupation with a “society strangled by wire and communications”, its seven songs hurtled by with a businesslike brevity that sold them short. An exception though was They Made My Dreams Come True, on which Townshend’s Dylanesque vocals and Daltrey’s harmony (enriched by a nearby mug of something warm) typified the new-found empathy between the two surviving members.

Deploying the Mr Angry vocal that has served him so well over the decades, Daltrey did justice to another new song – an anti-religion acoustic polemic entitled Man In A Purple Dress – though a drawn-out My Generation was marked by a mellowness that served to acknowledge the passage of four decades.

Quite whether the world is champing at the bit for another rock opera from Pete Townshend is debatable, but five excerpts from Tommy – among them an incendiary Pinball Wizard – made one wonder just who else would you consider for the job?