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Sunday October 17 5:07 PM ET 
The Who board magic bus again
By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Dust off the earplugs. The Who, once declared the
loudest band in rock 'n' roll, are in the early stages of making their
first studio album since 1982, according to singer Roger Daltrey.

MTV was just 13 months old when the British rock legends released ``It's
Hard'' and promoted the album with a ''farewell'' tour of North America.
Since then, Daltrey, 55, guitarist Pete Townshend, 54, and bass player John
Entwistle, 55, have reunited and toured a few times, but never laid down
new tracks.

Perhaps best known for the nihilistic 1965 anthem ``My Generation'' with
its ``hope I die before I get old'' line, The Who are now rehearsing for
five charity concerts in the United States, beginning Oct. 29 in Las Vegas.

It is envisaged that these shows will be the springboard for a new album
and a full-scale tour, their first since they played the United States and
Europe in 1996 and 1997 to perform Townshend's ``Quadrophenia'' rock opera.

``We're attempting to make a new album,'' Daltrey told Reuters in a recent
interview. ``We can't say we're definitely going to make a new album
because if it turns out to be rubbish we won't release it.''

Townshend, the group's musical force, is busy writing songs, while Daltrey
is working on new material with an outside collaborator, Gerard McMahon.
Daltrey said it was too early to talk about the sound or content of the
putative album.

``We just don't know what it's going to be like now. Until we get in a
studio ... it's very difficult to talk about it because music's not like
that. It's whatever happens in a studio on a day,'' he said.

``We're very excited about it and we're all up for it.''

Daltrey hoped it could be finished by April 2000, released in May and
supported with a summer tour of arenas, theaters and even small clubs.

For fans who cannot wait that long, there is good news on two fronts. The
group's MCA Records label, which will get first option on the new songs, is
scheduled to issue an album of previously unreleased live BBC recordings
around Christmas, Daltrey said.

And then there are the shows, where The Who will roll out classic hits,
going all the way back to the debut single ``I Can't Explain,'' the first
of many songs dealing in youthful defiance.

The Las Vegas music festival The Who will headline later this month is
being promoted by Internet company Pixelon Corp., which is donating
proceeds to charity.

The Who's hefty fee, which Daltrey declined to disclose, will help
subsidize the expenses the band will incur playing sold-out charity shows
in Mountain View, California, Oct. 30 and 31, and in Chicago Nov. 12 and
13.

The California shows, in aid of rocker Neil Young's Bridge School charity
for handicapped children, will see The Who perform brief acoustic sets --
an odd turn of events given their 1976 entry in the Guinness Book of
Records for reaching 120 decibels, the same intensity as a jet engine.

The $300 per-ticket Chicago concerts, featuring Pearl Jam front man and Who
devotee Eddie Vedder, will benefit the Maryville Academy residential
facility for troubled youths.

The Who have had their own troubles since forming in London in 1964,
including a combative relationship between Daltrey and Townshend, and
losing original drummer Keith Moon to an accidental overdose of pills in
1978. But Daltrey says everyone has learned to get along.

``We've still got our different opinions, but we can now articulate them to
each other rather than beat each other up,'' he said with a laugh. ``It's
still as creatively effervescent as ever.''

Reuters/Variety