Quad News

[comlib2@hookup.net (Gary Sumpter)]

This may *not* be news to many of you by now, but here's a paraphrase of 
something I gleaned from the alt.gossip.royalty newsgroup:

"Legendary musicians Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend today told of their 
plans to stage one of the largest rock events ever held.  A capacity crowd 
of 150,000 people is expected to watch the MasterCard Masters of Music 
Concert at Hyde Park in London on Saturday June 29.  It will be the biggest 
rock concert of 1996 - headlined by Eric Clapton and supported by Bob Dylan, 
American [Canadian, actually] singer Alanis Morissette and a secret list of 
international stars... It is timed to coincide with the eve of the final in 
Britain of the Euro '96 football championships and is the main event of this 
year's National Music Festival.  Who bass player John Entwistle will join 
Daltrey and Townshend and 20 other musicians to perform the live world 
premiere of Quadrophenia.  Daltrey and Townshend will share the main singing 
roles against a backdrop of video images, scenery, slides and subtitles - 
for fans unfamiliar with the rock opera."

I can't vouch for the accuracy of this information, not having heard or seen 
the press conference myself.  Can anyone elaborate on this?  There's no 
mention of a tour, but "world premiere" almost implies there will be others. 
 And about time, too: Quad never got the live treatment it so richly 
deserves, apart from a handful of shows back in 73/74.  Maybe now, 23 years 
later, technology has finally caught up with Townshend's brilliant opus.

In other news (again, maybe *not* new), Rhino has acquired the rights to 
JE's solo material, 4 or 5 albums, and plans to re-release them soon.  A 
"best of" compilation will be released shortly.

It's shaping up to be an interesting summer, Who-wise.  Let's hope they make 
it to THIS side of the Atlantic - and that there's a live broadcast of the show!

Cheers,

Gary