Instead, more than 10,000 people were switched on by one of the world's greatest rock acts as British outfit The Who took the stage shortly after 8.30pm.

Guitarist Pete Townshend, 63, cheekily welcomed the crowd to a concert of "old people's music" before introducing a song he said he wrote when he was 19.

The song was I Can't Explain, The Who's 1965 debut, an appropriate launch pad for a two-hour flight through the legendary group's hit-packed repertoire.

Meanwhile, the rock god who sang "I hope I die before I get old", singer Roger Daltrey, now 65, may not have hit all the highs of his younger days, but still put on a screaming microphone-swinging show that would shame most performers a third of his age.

With little new material to push, the set was overwhelmingly a greatest hits package that ranged from the raw '60s pop perfection of Substitute and My Generation, to '70s anthems of Baba O'Riley and Won't Get Fooled Again.