The Lyons share of the rock lore surrounding The Who

It's the stuff of rock lore - Pete Townsend doing his trademark windmill strum and scissors kick and Keith Moon crashing on his drums as Roger Daltrey snarls out Townsend's lyrics of teenage rebellion: "Hope I die before I get old."

Well, only Moon has fulfilled the death wish of My Generation and the rest of The Who - Townsend, Daltrey and bassist John Entwistle - have not only survived the Big Hawaii but they've also lived to see their every gig chronicled, thanks in the main to their good friend, "Irish" Jack Lyons.

The inspiration for Jimmy in Quadrophenia and for their hit single Happy Jack, Jack first met the band in 1962 when, as a young Irish emigrant then known as Jackie Lyons, he saw them play as The Detours in their home area of Shepherd's Bush.

"I had emigrated to London in 1960 when I was 17," he explains, "and I lived with my aunt and uncle in the heart of Shepherd's Bush, just around the corner from the Goldhawk Social Club where they used to play.

"I had never been to a dance with a live band before and I remember going to a dance at a massive ballroom called Boseley's. There were about 30 people and there were five guys in the band.

"Dougie Sandom was the drummer, John Entwistle was on bass, Roger Daltrey was the lead guitarist, Pete Townsend was playing jumbo guitar and the singer was a fellow called Colin Dawson - they played all the standard songs of the time and they were called The Detours."

Jack met the band that night and got to know the members better as they hung out together in an all-night coffee bar in Ealing. It was to prove the start of a friendship which has lasted through the "Swinging Sixties" in London and Jack's return to Cork in 1968.

Jack's faith in the band back then also underpinned his friendship with them - in particular with Townsend.

"I believed in them with a ferocity because I had no belief in myself. I had a lot of complexes: about my name (in London, only girls were called Jackie); about my Cork accent (everybody thought I was Welsh); about my hair, my height.

"The first time I saw Pete Townsend with his guitar, he had everything I wanted - he probably even had a girlfriend. I just wanted to be him. I would confide in him and that's where Quadrophenia came from - Pete took me under his wing.

"Some people have this misconception that I roadied for the band - I never got a penny to roadie for them. I used to travel with them to Oxford or Brighton and, like everyone else in the van, I used to help them set up the gear.

"And I'm not a Who fan. I have never queued for a ticket in my life and I have only once ever bought a Who album, My Gen- eration, in 1965. I'm not a fan, I'm part of The Who family."

It was that membership of The Who family which led to Jack's involvement in The Who Concert File, which he co-wrote with US The Who fan Joe McMichael.

Nine years ago, McMichael wrote to Pete Townsend's office in London and they gave him Jack's name and address in Cork. "I got this letter from this guy, Joe McMichael, a Who fan in Los Angeles," recalls Jack. "He had this idea for a book that would list all The Who dates and he wanted me to help out with some blank dates he had on a list he included.

"I had my mind made up, I was going to say, `Joe, I think, it's a fantastic idea, the best of luck'. I had no intention of getting involved but some of the dates starting gnawing at me and he was way off the mark in others so I found myself filling in and correcting the list - I was being drawn more and more into it."

Although Jack and McMichael are co-authors, Jack reckons he did the bulk of the research - "about 85 per cent of the legwork" - writing over 2,000 letters to libraries, newspapers and others to help fill over 1,000 entries.

Among the many entries which chart The Who's progress from "a wedding and bar mitzvah band" to playing at Monterrey and Woodstock, are three for Ireland when the band played Lisburn, Dublin and Cork in May 1965.

Jack missed the tour, including their appearance at the Arcadia in Cork, where they were billed as "Showband Superb, The Who", but it was the Dublin concert which made headlines, and not because of their destructive on-stage tendencies.

The Who Concert File reveals: "According to a newspaper report, the Irish Republican Army threatened to blow up The Who with bombs planted under the stage if they appeared wearing their Union Jack jackets. Police searched but found no bombs and the band went on to perform for 2,500 fans in jackets made up with colours of the flag of Ireland - green, white and gold."

Jack's research for the book was quite daunting. A postman, he used to spend his holidays in the British Library in Colindale, north London, tracing details of the band's early gigs, including playing support to the Beatles (once), the Rolling Stones (twice) and The Kinks.

In 1996, he flew to Los Angeles to meet McMichael, and at Burgerking in Hollywood he wrote a letter to Pete Townsend asking him to write a foreword for the book. Published by Omnibus and launched in November in the Ship Bar in Water Street, London, the book is due to be launched in the US later this month, with further launches planned for Australia, Hong Kong and Japan.

So was it worth all the effort?

"At times, I despaired. There were a lot of dark dismal Sunday afternoons typing letters to librarians and others, and I didn't always get a reply, but now it feels great to be able to say: `I've done it'.

"And it's worked. It's the official performing biography of The Who - for me the only band that ever mattered."