The Who in Billboard

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

http://www.billboard.com/billboard/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1242923

The Who Planning Intimate Shows, Summer Tour


The Who will play three U.K. shows in small venues later this month as 
precursors to previously announced charity performances at London's Royal 
Albert Hall in February. A summer North American tour is also in the works. 
Guitarist Pete Townshend reveals on his official Web site that plans call 
for a three-leg tour, likely beginning in Los Angeles in June and wrapping 
in Canada in August. "It could all change though," Townshend warns.

Prior to the Who's Feb. 7-8 London shows, which will benefit the Teenage 
Cancer Trust, the group will play Jan. 27-28 at the 2,000-capacity Guildhall 
in Portsmouth, England. Tickets go on sale tomorrow (Jan. 11); more 
information is available on the venue's official Web site. Details for a 
third warmup gig have yet to be finalized.

Townshend recently told the San Diego Union-Tribune that he'd "made a very 
real commitment now to go into the studio with the Who at the end of October 
of 2002, with a producer and a record deal, and to put out whatever we come 
up with, even if it's rubbish." The group has not recorded together since 
1982's "It's Hard," which featured the No. 28 Hot 100 hit "Athena."

The ever-busy Townshend said he is preparing a new film treatment for "White 
City," his 1985 concept album that was accompanied by a feature-length 
video. "I think reading this treatment will bring new life and meaning to 
the songs I wrote for the film, many of which were unfinished," he says on 
his Web site of the project, which included such tracks as "Give Blood" and 
"Face the Face." He reports that he is also "writing a novel."

As previously reported , Image Entertainment will on Feb. 26 release the 
DVD/VHS home video "Pete Townshend: Music From Lifehouse," which features 16 
songs drawn from Townshend's Feb. 25-26, 2000, performances of his 
unfinished "Lifehouse" rock opera.




_________________________________________________________________
MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: 
http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx