Another Pete interview

[Brian Cady]

>From The Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts)
http://tinyurl.com/q75mv

Who's next 
Sunday, September 10, 2006
By KEVIN O'HARE
Music writer 
Part 1 of a two-part interview, which will conclude
Thursday in Weekend. 

With a new tour and their first new studio album in 24
years, the Who's Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey are
in the midst of an unexpected career renaissance 

They have launched their first world tour in decades
in support of "Endless Wire," which arrives in stores
Oct. 31. 

As he was about to embark on the U.S. leg of the tour,
which stops in Boston Saturday, Townshend, the
legendary band's chief songwriter, offered some
typically provocative responses to questions about the
band's past, present and future. 

Q: Tell me about what you're hoping to play on this
U.S. tour and how much of a challenge is it to balance
new and older material? 

A: Our first mission was to rehearse a lot of what Who
fans call "rarities," the songs that get played rarely
if ever. Roger got a throat infection during the
recording of his vocals for the new CD and so we lost
our small rehearsal studio-based sessions and had to
go straight into the big room to plan the lighting and
projection rig for the U.S. part of the tour. We did
squeeze in some good new tracks. "Cry If You Want" is
one we played a few times in Europe and it is a strong
survivor from our very last Who album, "It's Hard." We
also rehearsed a condensed version of the new
mini-opera, "Wire and Glass." On the U.S. tour, we
will sometimes play the complete 10-song version. 

Q: How have the new songs been going over on stage? 

A: Pretty well, but we've mainly been doing festivals
before very young audiences, (so) we've tended to play
it safe and stick to the songs they would (have) heard
their parents make love to. 

Q: What's been the biggest change in the concert
experience for you on stage from the Who's early days
up until the present time? 

A: There have been a number of phases in the Who's
long career. This phase is the most extreme move away
from everything that has gone before. We still play
the old Who classics, and some of them - like "Won't
Get Fooled Again" and "Baba O'Riley" - have such
strong musical backbones that they sound very much the
same today as they did 35 years ago. But the Who's
sound today is less heavy-metal, less power-chords and
thundering drums and bass. Today the sound is possibly
more conventional, I try to play more single-line lead
guitar, and I'm still learning how to do it. Our
supporting musicians are all superb players, on the
edge of genius. On the rare occasions we are able to
give them their head, they take off like a rocket. 

Q: You've said this is not the old Who, but that it's
something different. How different is it and what are
you hoping to achieve? 

A: When John Entwistle died in 2002 we had to face the
truth - two Who do not make the Who. It helps that the
two surviving original Who members happen to be the
"front men," but John and Keith Moon were not backline
players as any fan of the band will know. But Roger
and I can play the old catalogue, and handle it better
than anyone else on earth. We know we are not who we
used to be, and we do not pretend to be, but we do
attempt to honor our old music, and the fans who have
listened to it all their lives. 

Q: You seemed to get frustrated with the press
reaction to some entries on your Web site diaries
pertaining to whether you and Roger were at "war"
concerning free webcasting of shows on this tour. What
exactly happened with that situation? 

A: I get annoyed when journalists take a single
sentence from a diary entry and twist it into a story.
But that's the Internet for you. Roger and I were not
at war, but I did act to webcast the Who in Europe
quite independently, and when it came to the future
U.S. tour, and Roger committing to investment at the
same level as I was willing, he demurred. It was
frustrating for me, and Roger and I do not always
agree on everything. This is something we remain
divided over. 

Q: And do you feel you've been treated fairly -
particularly by the British tabloids - during the past
several years? 

A: Yes. I have no complaints. I am a public figure and
I use newspapers whenever I can to help sell records
and concert tickets. I know there is a price on that
deal - I have many great friends in the British
newspaper world and if I wasn't a musician I would
certainly have spent time writing reviews, I feel sure
of that. 

Q: Please describe your relationship with Roger.
Business partners? Old friends? Survivors? 

A: All three of those things. You missed one, though.
We go all the way back to high school, so we are both
from the same "hood." When I stand (next to) Roger on
the stage I don't pretend he's my best friend, or that
he likes me as much as he respects my songs, but we
love each other, and we support each other. So we are
more than friends in some ways. 

Q: The new music. Tell us what you can about the new
album. How exciting is this for you? 

A: There is a lot to say. Roger probably wanted a new
CD long before I did. I remember him announcing one at
a New York press conference as early as 2000. He said
that he and John had songs written, and all they
needed was me to commit. But for me the problem was
not one I could solve simply by force of will. What
worked for me was writing a novella, "The Boy Who
Heard Music," and publishing it on the Internet as a
serial. As the story unfolded, a group of about 400
people gave me feedback. By the time it was over I
knew I had the backbone for a new collection. Twelve
of the songs relate to this story. The others
certainly fit well in the collection even though they
are much more recent. The album is recorded in a
simple way. I made it in my home studio that is
arranged around an old vintage mixing desk and an
old-fashioned eight-track tape machine. We went on to
add certain things in a big studio, but all the tracks
have a simple audio backbone, nothing too fancy,
nothing too self-indulgent. No experiments really -
there is a song called "Fragments" that is rather
electronic sounding, but this is just another chapter
in the ongoing work I always do around my lifetime
"Lifehouse Method" project.

I am most excited about tracks that are "unplugged,"
like "A Man in a Purple Dress," and "In the Ether."
The first could be an old Bob Dylan song, the second
from an arch off-Broadway show by Stephen Sondheim. 

Q: Roger has said that if you two did not come up with
something strong enough you wouldn't release it. At
what point did you realize that "this is working," and
that it was well worth releasing? Was there a certain
moment or song that brought it all together? 

A: For me it was when I came up with the songs for the
mini-opera, "Wire & Glass." I think for Roger it was
when "A Man in a Purple Dress" and "Two Thousand
Years" were added to his solid favorites of "Mike Post
Theme" and "Black Widow's Eyes." 

Q: Tell me about "The Glass Household," which I
believe is at the core of the "Who2" album. 

A: The "Who2" album now has a proper title. We are
going to call it "Endless Wire." "The Glass Household"
is the name of the young band in "The Boy Who Heard
Music," who decide to try to revive some lost visions
and ambitions of their aging and decadent rock hero,
Ray High. 

"The Glass Household" started life as a full-length
novel in 1990. I had published a set of short stories,
"Horse's Neck," with Faber & Faber in 1986 and I was
keen to (put) out another book. Before I had quite
finished it I had a cycling accident in which I broke
my right wrist. With a lot of recovery time ahead of
me, and no guarantee I would play guitar again, I
decided to pursue some music theater projects. I began
in 1991 with "Tommy" at La Jolla Playhouse in San
Diego. This got to Broadway in 1993 and that
encouraged me to create "Psychoderelict," a rock music
play based on "The Glass Household." I also did a new
version of "The Iron Man" at the Young Vic theater in
London in late 1993. 

Since that year, I have been struggling to come up
with a new dramatic music piece. I have been drawn in
a number of different directions. I always come back
to the same themes over and over again: the problems
of young people growing up in post-war British
society, and the echoes of denial and rebellion that
generates. In 1996 I started work on my autobiography
and very quickly realized that I still had a great
music story to tell, based on what had not been
touched on in "Psychoderelict." So I went back to my
novel of "The Glass Household" and found three kids
from different religions who form a band and go and
watch an older band blow themselves to pieces, that
band looking quite a bit like the Who. 

The story of "Wire & Glass" is rooted in this
continuing thesis of mine. I don't think I will ever
grow away from believing that music, my kind of music
of course, and congregation (people gathering to enjoy
live music), can solve all of our deep-seated
emotional and spiritual problems - or at least set us
on the pathway to a solution. 

Q: The song "Sound Round" reportedly dates back to
1971. Are there other songs that will be on the new
album that existed in previous forms for the Who or
your solo projects? 

A: "Pick Up The Peace" is also from a note I made for
the Who's "Lifehouse" project (as with "Sound Round").
My solo song on the record called "God Speaks" has
been released as an instrumental guitar piece on one
of my solo "Scoop" collections. The rest is entirely
new, if anything I do can ever be described as
entirely new after the answer to question 10 above. 

Q: On the new song "They Made My Dreams Come true,"
you sing "People died where I performed." Obviously,
those are very strong memories. Please tell me about
that line and writing that song. 

A: In this part of the story the aging narrator who is
singing refers to two tragedies. One is an incident a
little like the Stones' Altamont or the Who's
Cincinnati, where audience members die. The other
incident is the possible death of a member of the
young band, maybe murdered by one of his band mates;
it isn't entirely clear. The dream he sings about is
that they bring computerized tailor-made music to the
Internet, something I myself will be doing shortly
through my Lifehouse Method Web site. 

Q: After John's death, you continued to tour and there
were some who questioned whether the Who should close
the book on this wonderful career. Were you ever in
doubt as to whether to carry this through and what
convinced you to continue the tour? 

A: We had no choice. John died the day before the tour
was supposed to begin. Roger and I were both very
torn. Roger would have gone either way. I am always
looking for an excuse to go sailing - this was a good
one. But I had to do my duty to the people who work
with us, who bought tickets, and to John and his
family so that they could deal with his death and
their loss and not some great Who saga of the
financial disaster that would have surrounded his
burial had we canceled. 

Q: What songs of yours from the Who's early days do
you feel have held up the best with time? 

A: "Behind Blue Eyes" is the strongest. It seems to
grow in stature and meaning as the years pass. But
with the finale of "Tommy," "Won't Get Fooled Again"
and "My Generation," we have no shortage of
spectacular ways to close a Who show. 

Q: All your solo albums are being re-released with
bonus tracks and other added features this fall.
Listening to them, or looking back on them now, which
are your favorite solo works? And why should people be
especially interested in the reissues? If someone
could buy just one or two of them, which ones would
you recommend? 

A: My favourite is "Chinese Eyes." Fans who already
own these albums don't need to chase after them for
extra tracks they may already have. But anyone who is
interested in the complete Who legacy really needs to
listen to my solo stuff, and Roger's and John's. 

Q: This past July, you returned to play Leeds
University, the site of one of your most famous
albums, "Live at Leeds." What are your memories of
that show from 1970, and how did it differ this time
around? 

A: We were quite cool about it all back in 1970: We
set out to make a live album in a single weekend, and
that's what we did. I mixed it in my home studio. It
was covered in audio crackles and clicks. We put it
out in a cardboard sleeve. This time was an exciting
event, with Roger and I feted like returning scholars.
It was a complete joy. But the temperature reached 40
degrees (Celsius) for a moment, it was really hot. And
it was our first show of the tour, so we were a bit
clunky. But I loved it. On Thursday, Pete Townshend
talks about the loss of bandmates Keith Moon and John
Entwistle, writing songs for the new Who album and
using the Internet to reach out to fans. 


-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
http://www.thewhothismonth.com

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