Roger planning the next one

["L. Bird" <pkeets@hotmail.com>]

Ha.  Found the interview where Roger says they should do a university tour.  
There was a question about this a while back.  Courtesy of Brian Cady, of 
course.

keets


http://www.ae.boston.com/news/daily/06/30/rock_notes.html

They know Who they are
Reunited for good, band adds classics and reaches 'new level'
By Steve Morse, Globe Staff, 6/30/2000

There's no talk of a farewell tour this time. Instead, the members of
The Who are not only back, but talking about a real future together. The 
British rockers hope to make another album and keep going the same way as 
their '60s peers, the Rolling Stones, have vowed to play until fans stop 
coming.
''This is an ongoing band now. We're definitely back as a working 
band,''says Who singer Roger Daltrey, who joins Who mates Pete Townshend and 
John Entwistle at the Tweeter Center on Monday, augmented by drummer Zak 
Starkey(Ringo Starr's son) and keyboardist John ''Rabbit'' Bundrick.
''We're back to a five-piece now, with Pete on electric guitar, and that's 
the way the band works best,'' says Daltrey. ''That also gives us room to 
experiment and do free-form stuff, which hopefully will give us more  ideas 
for our next album. And Pete is playing like a man possessed. He's 
reallycome alive.''
Formerly known for fragile relations that led to a seven-year hiatus
after one farewell tour in the 1980s, The Who is now rocking with nightly 
sets that span its catalog, rather than focusing on the ''Quadrophenia'' 
album, which the last tour did.
The band is now hitting classics like ''My Generation,'' ''I Can't
Explain,'' and ''Pinball Wizard,'' but also adding songs not often
played, such as ''Pure and Easy,'' ''After the Fire'' (''it wasn't really a 
Who song, but Pete wrote it for me,'' says Daltrey), and ''Don't Even Know 
Myself.''
''I'm just having a really good time now,'' says Daltrey. ''I used to
be a worrier - and would always be pushing, pushing, pushing - but now I 
just accept what's there and enjoy it. And I think we all realized how much 
we bloody missed each other. We feel that whatever time we've got left, we 
want to make the most of it. It's as simple as that.
''I especially missed Pete,'' he adds. ''We go back such a long way and have 
been through so much together. I think Pete feels the same way now. And I've 
always had a feeling in my gut that with the kind of writing that Pete does, 
and with the kind of audience we have, we could possibly do our best work at 
our ages now.'' (Daltrey is 56, Townshend, 55, and Entwistle, 54.)
''I feel like we're at a whole new level,'' says Daltrey. ''And I don't 
think I've lost any of the edge off my voice. It's still there and, if 
anything, has developed into other areas. I'm really looking forward to 
trying to make a new album. If we come up with 15 songs of rubbish, we won't 
put it out. But there's something wonderful about being the ages we are 
now.''
The return to a five-piece band (''this is much more rock 'n' roll and
is like the old Who shows,'' says Daltrey) was prompted by a short charity 
touras a five-piece last year. That included Who benefits for the Bridge 
School (organized by Neil Young) and for Maryville Academy, a Chicago 
orphanage.
This summer, the band is mainly playing for-profit shows, but also
mixing in some benefits, such as a recent one in New York for the Robin Hood 
Foundation, which raised a startling $10 million.
''I think it's going into the Guinness Book of Records as the highest
amount of money raised in one night for one foundation by one band,'' says 
Daltrey. ''I think if you're in a position where you can do it, I think you 
should.''
The Who, however, has been attacked by some critics for high ticket
prices on this mostly for-profit tour. At the Tweeter Center, the prices go 
up to $150 a seat.
''Everybody is taking knocks for high ticket prices,'' says Daltrey.
''But we're still a lot cheaper than the Stones. And we have to be 
realistic. Many of our hard-core fans, the people who grew up with us, are 
now CEOs of companies and can afford it.''
There are two more reasons for the high prices. One is that SFX, the
entertainment conglomerate, bought the entire 25-city tour and paid the band 
huge guarantees, and thus must try to recoup them. Second is that The Who's 
''Quadrophenia'' tour did not make any money, Daltrey says, because it was 
so expensive to produce. ''It was the most expensive tour we ever did,'' he 
says.
The group is keeping expenses down now, not only with fewer band
members but with a minimal stage set that ''is really funky and 
stripped-down, almost as though we're playing in a club.''
Next year, he hopes the band will undertake another tour, possibly of
universities (undoubtedly with cheaper tickets). ''We want to show
young people what they've been missing,'' he says. ''When we were in our 
20s, all our idols were Chicago blues guys who were in their 60s. The age 
difference didn't matter. So my feeling is, why not play universities?''


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