Holiday Inn & The Who

 

Thanks to Michael Trei for the following:

“When I arrived for AXPONA, I noticed that my hotel was tucked in behind another abandoned hotel. Curious, I did a little research, and found that this shuttered Holiday Inn has an interesting history. 

Opened in 1966, The Who stayed here in June 1967 when they played at a club called The Cellar in nearby Arlington Heights. This was about a month before they were banned for life from all Holiday Inns following Keith Moon's 21st birthday party in Flint Michigan.

The show at The Cellar was cut short to about 15 minutes, due to the band violating some kind of local noise ordinance, so the band smashed their equipment and retired to the hotel earlier than usual. Back at the hotel, Pete Townshend started working on the plot and lyrics for Tommy using stationery from the hotel, nearly two years before the album was completed. Townshend also said in his autobiography that it was here that he had his first spiritual awakening.

The Rolling Meadows Holiday Inn closed in 2018, and is slated for demolition later this year.”

Great insight, Michael 💫🙏💫