Magic Bus: Roger Daltrey fakes to Mike Fritz's harp playing

From 1994-1998, I was working for a company named Virtual Music. We made music video games that were played with a computer peripheral called the Virtual Guitar.

(This was one of many games produced by the company that spearheaded music games at least 10 years before Guitar Hero. Read more here: http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2008/12/26/the_unsung_stor...)

In 1996, we worked on a game called "The Tour". In a nutshell, the player in the game boarded a magical time-traveling bus that traveled to pivotal moments in rock history: Woodstock, Monterey, Isle of Wight, etc.

Your host and guide on the journey: the very affable Roger Daltrey of the Who.

Throughout the game, the player had to accurately play rock classics to advance through the game and progress from scene to scene. In addition, there were occasions where the player was required to "trade licks" with instrumentalists.

We wrote the game so that the player would get a chance to "trade licks" with Roger Daltrey. Roger would play harmonica, and the player would respond with the Virtual Guitar.

We knew Roger played harmonica in real life, but we were not sure we would be able to record studio-quality harmonica on the film set. So, prior to departure for the shoot(Prague July 1996) I went into the recording studio and played harmonica over "Magic Bus".

When it came time to film the "trading licks" scene in Prague, I told Roger he could either play live or "fake" to my harp playing. He chose the latter, and we filmed the scene.

After the scene was shot, Roger approached me with a wide grin and shook my hand. Then he said the words that I'll never forget, and for which I'll always be grateful:

"I was proud to mime to your harmonica playing. It's fucking brilliant."

Sadly, "The Tour" was never released. But the memory lives on.....thanks Roger!

Peace,

Mike Fritz

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Mike Fritz
• Roger Daltrey
• harmonica
• Magic Bus Harmonica Blues

[SnugglySara]

Make love to me, Roger!