Mozambique auction

[Michael Berson <msbinla@yahoo.com>]

This is from Reuters today:

Wednesday May 10 12:01 PM ET 
Pete Townshend Auctions Guitars for Africa Aid


 
 
By John O'Callaghan

LONDON (Reuters) - Pete Townshend, famed for his windmill right arm and guitar smashing with The
Who, auctioned some of his favorite instruments and music mementos on Wednesday to benefit relief
efforts in Africa.

The eight-day, on-line sell-off -- at www.auction.eelpie.com -- features the Spanish guitar
Townshend used to compose ''Behind Blue Eyes,'' a 1957 Stratocaster given to him by Eric Clapton,
tour T-shirts and stacks of gold and platinum sales awards.

Proceeds will go to Oxfam to help the aid agency's work in flood-ravaged Mozambique and famine-hit
Ethiopia.

``I have gathered together a number of items I regard as precious. I will miss them when they're
gone and I sincerely hope they mean as much (or more) to you as they have to me while I've been
custodian,'' Townshend said in a statement.

``Please, if you can afford to, bid generously.''

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Townshend is following in the footsteps of Clapton, who raised nearly $5 million for his drug and
alcohol rehabilitation center in Antigua by auctioning off 100 guitars last year.

Oxfam's head of appeals, Simon Collings, called the auction ''an incredibly generous gesture by
Pete Townshend.''

The memorabilia includes letters from Clapton, Arthur Miller, Keith Richards and Paul McCartney as
well as a signed concert poster and a framed ad for the album ``The Who by Numbers.''

Among the more unusual items were his Pashman delivery bike and a sweater he wore on a British
breakfast TV program.

The London-born musician -- who wrote ``I Can't Explain,'' ''My Generation'' and dozens of other
Who anthems -- is still going strong with singer Roger Daltrey and bassist John Entwistle. The
band's original drummer, Keith Moon, died in 1978.

Renowned for ``farewell'' and ``reunion'' concerts over the years, The Who released a set of live
songs on the Internet last month and start a summer tour in Chicago on June 25.

Townshend's ears have paid the price for The Who's reputation as one of the loudest live acts on
the planet with the nasty and persistent ringing of tinnitus.

The guitarist, who celebrates his 55th birthday on May 19, has pursued an on-and-off solo career
since the early 1970s.

In recent years, Townshend has returned to his love of ''rock opera'' with stage adaptations of
The Who's ``Tommy'' and his own ``Lifehouse,'' a work 30 years in the making that premiered in
London in February. 

 


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"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."                                                                        John Lennon

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