Although many regular cruisers are nowadays youngsters, the industry still gets a lot of support from mature travellers. This is the generation of people who are likely to still remember Woodstock, hippies and the Who.

Fortunately there were a sizeable number of them on board Queen Mary 2 when Roger Daltrey of The Who recently gave an impromptu performance to passengers.

Forty two years ago, in 1969, the band gave a performance in front of nearly 500,000 fans at the Woodstock festival. Four years ago they delivered the closing gig at the Glastonbury festival. Last week Roger Daltrey could not contain himself any longer and left passengers open-mouthed with a surprise performance on the Queen Mary 2.

Daltrey, now 67, got a standing ovation from the crowd when he sang some of the band’s biggest hits, including My Generation.

The wrinkled rocker was taking a week-long cruise holiday on board the Queen Mary 2 between Southampton and New York. He was accompanied by ex-Squeeze singer Chris Difford.

Many passengers were not even aware of his presence until the last night, when he unexpectedly appeared on stage in the Golden Lion pub. The Sun interviewed one of the passengers who was privileged enough to be present. Mike Frisbee, 53, said “I’m a big fan – it was fantastic.”

It seems while Daltrey was treating fans to a free performance, his life-long friend Chris Difford was presenting song-writing workshops on board the ship.

During the band’s existence The Who sold more than 100 million records.