The Who to Honor Unused 1979 Tickets at 2013 Show in Rhode Island

Anyone out there still holding onto their ticket for the Who at the Providence Civic Center in 1979 is in for an amazing surprise. The Rhode Island venue (now called the Dunkin Donuts Center) will be honoring the tickets when the Who return on February 26th, 2013, during their Quadrophenia tour.

The Seventies show was cancelled in the aftermath of the tragic stampede before a show in Cincinnati that same year. Citing safety concerns, Providence mayor Buddy Cianci yanked the show and the Who haven't been to the city in their many tours since. (The town did get four John Entwistle solo shows in the 1980s and 1990s, though.) 

It's unlikely that very many fans still have the tickets. Many of them handed them in for refunds back in 1979, and most of the others are probably lost to the mists of time. It's unclear whether 1979 ticket-holders will get to sit in their exact same seats, too.

If you have 1979 tickets to the Who and haven't paid any attention to the band since then, here's a quick update: they put out two more albums in the early 1980s, landed hits with "You Better You Bet" and "Eminence Front," went on a farewell tour in 1982, reunited in 1989, broke up again, reformed for a Quadrophenia tour in 1996/97, broke up for a year, reformed in 1999, toured in 2002 despite John Entwistle dying the day before the tour was set to begin, cut a new album in 2006 and went on another world tour, did a few more tiny tours, and now are doing another Quadrophenia tour – but all this barely matters. You should know every song they play. With the horrible exception of John dying, nothing huge has really changed.