Re: Quad on stage diary entry

["Jeff House" <whocasa@hotmail.com>]

From: Bjørn Ciggaar <ciggaar@warande.net>
">http://www.petetownshend.co.uk/pr_media/qworkshop2.pdf
I just deleted my PDF reader for more hardrive space (wasn't using it
anyway); what does this say????????"

I have a feeling you are going to want to get your Acrobat back.  I'll bet 
there are going to be more of these.

Formatted poorly, and without the photos:
Quadrophenia Workshop
Bush Theatre - April 2001
Between Monday 23 April and Friday 27 April a group of musicians and theatre 
people got together to sing through a version of Quadrophenia that had been 
scripted by the British playwright Joe Penhall. Joe is now an award winner 
in the UK for his play BLUE/ORANGE which was specially
commissioned by the National Theatre. It is now showing in the West End of 
London and talks are going on about a production on Broadway.
Joe Penhall – Book Writer
Joe has had a very interesting career thus far.
Plays
BLUE/ORANGE National Theatre Cottesloe 2001
dir Roger Michell
THE BULLET Donmar Warehouse 1998
LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING Bush Theatre 1997(transferred to Long Wharf, New 
Haven in 1998)
PALE HORSE Royal Court 1995
SOME VOICES Royal Court 1994
Film
SOME VOICES Film Four. Dir Simon Cellan Jones – Directors Fortnight, Cannes 
2000
LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING In development with Kismet Films
LAST KING OF SCOTLAND In development with Film Four and Cowboy Films
Joe produced a very striking and original dramatic treatment for the major 
part of the story. With a few clever strokes he solved many of the 
structural and dramatic problems of staging this work.
Then he and I had a couple of creative meetings to establish how to get the 
most out of the music without overloading any future production with over 
ambitious production values. As I played some of the songs to Joe on 
acoustic guitar and keyboard – demonstrating how well some of the
pieces work when played in a simple way - he hit on the phrase ‘The 
Cappuccino Kid version’ of Quadrophenia. We decided it was important to try 
all the songs and music from the piece, however complex they may sound on 
the Who’s album, to test a very simple band line-up. We decided on acoustic 
guitar, acoustic piano and percussion (not drums).
I was certain the music would be wonderful played in this way, but only if 
we could test it with musicians who would play my music really accurately. 
This meant using musicians of the calibre of those who toured the piece with 
the Who for their multi-media stage presentations in the USA and Europe from 
1996 to 1998. I decided to ask John Bundrick (Rabbit) to play keyboards, and 
my brother Simon to play guitar.
Rabbit and Simon will be well known to Who fans. In this workshop their 
knowledge of the piece and their own very powerful music-direction skills 
were immensely valuable.
John Bundrick (Rabbit) Piano and Asssistant Music Director
Simon Townshend – Guitars and Asssistant Music Director
Tom Critchley – Developmental Producer
Tom Critchley, who is an on-line developmental producer working closely with 
me and my company on this project, suggested John O’Hara as a percussionist. 
John has the advantage of being a music-director in residence at the Bristol 
Old Vic and is converse with music theatre issues.
John O’Hara – Percussionist and Music Director
For vocal music direction we turned naturally to Billy Nicholls who gathered 
a small group of singers (including himself) to work through the piece.
Billy Nicholls – Vocal Music Director and singer
Singing the various female roles was Suzi Webb, who toured with The Who on 
their own Quadrophenia shows.
Suzi Webb – singer
For the voice of Jimmy, we needed a younger singer, and Billy found Richard 
Oliver who drove down each day from Birmingham where he was recording, and 
always full of energy did a great job.
Richard Oliver - Singer
The entire workshop was recorded very simply to a DAT machine, purely for 
Joe Penhall’s reference. The recording was supervised by Lincoln Fong who 
runs my large recording studios in Twickenham. He is actually the Technical 
Manager there, but puts his hand to anything and
everything that comes along.
Lincoln Fong – Sound Engineer
I have included a few excerpts from the workshop as mp3s.
It was Billy Nicholl’s idea to use the Bush Theatre. This is a newly 
restored small music hall that is being promoted today as a modern venue for 
live music of all kinds – jazz, folk, classical and acoustic rock and pop. 
At some time in the late ‘60s the hall had been renamed ‘The Carlton Club’ 
and was used as an Irish drinking Club. Later it was turned over to Bingo 
and renamed ‘The New Carlton Club’.
The ‘New’ Carlton Club – as a Bingo Hall in the ‘60s As soon as I walked in 
I remembered that the hall as the one in which The High Numbers (The
Who in 1964) did an audition for one Andrew Loog Oldham, then manager of The 
Rolling Stones.
The New Carlton Club as it was when The High Numbers auditioned for Andrew 
Loog Oldham Andrew was very excited by what he saw as we played R&B songs by 
Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, and a few Tamla Motown songs like Dance To Keep