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Ox/Luongo interview in Toledo paper



Excerpted from...

Toledo gets mileage from rock legends Rock, Rhythm, and Blues Festival is
heavy on classics
BY DAVID YONKE BLADE STAFF WRITER

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?Avis=TO&Dato=20010520&Kategori=ART10&Lopenr=105200007&Ref=AR

Entwistle, the laconic rocker from Chiswick, England, said he will lead his
group in a mix of Who songs that he wrote as well as tunes from his solo
projects, including such classics as "Boris the Spider," "My Wife," and
"When I Was a Boy."

In a three-way phone interview, with Entwistle in England and his musical
director and drummer Steve Luongo in New York, the 56-year-old rock legend
said he’s been spending more time drawing and painting than songwriting.

"I’ve basically been painting and drawing cartoons and caricatures,"
Entwistle said.

He and Luongo have been working together on non-Who projects since 1987, and
in 1994 began working with guitarist Godfrey Townsend (no relation to the
Who’s Pete Townshend), who continues to tour with them.

In 1999, the John Entwistle Band played the Woodstock Music Festival in
upstate New York, 30 years after the original fest where the Who made a
historic appearance.

Luongo laughed wryly when asked about playing Woodstock.

"I was kind of psyched to be going back there with a member of a band that
played at the original Woodstock," Luongo said. "John had warned me that
festivals were terrible, that it was going to be a nightmare, but I told him
not to bum me out."

"And," Entwistle interjected, "it was exactly as horrible as I said it was
going to be!"

"It was as he had predicted," Luongo acknowledged. "It was as if he had seen
the future. And I guess he had. There was one problem after another. We
played on a side stage. My monitors weren’t working. My mike wasn’t going
on. ..."

"The irritating thing for you," Entwistle told Luongo with a snicker, "was
that my stuff was perfect. I had been in battle before."

"He was happy in his own little bass world," Luongo said. "But we got
through it.  And no matter what, we did Woodstock. It was a piece of
history. It wasn’t until later, after we left, that we turned on the news
and heard all the reports about the problems that happened later that night
- the fires, rapes, pillaging."

Entwistle said the Who only agreed to play the original Woodstock fest
because the Internal Revenue Service was demanding $25,000 and the band was
$250,000 in debt.

"That’s why we insisted on getting paid before we went on. We were just
about bankrupt and we needed that money to keep the Internal Revenue away. I
think we were paid $12,000, which kept the wolves away from the door for a
little bit."

He said the Who has plans for some new projects but he could not yet discuss
them publicly.

In mid-June, Entwistle, Luongo, and Townsend will switch gears and join Todd
Rundgren, Alan Parsons, and Ann Wilson for a five-week U.S. tour titled "A
Walk Down Abbey Road," a tribute to the Beatles and their 1969 rock
masterpiece.  Parsons was the studio engineer when the Fab Four recorded
that album.

Asked if he had any special feelings or memories about "Abbey Road,"
Entwistle replied: "I’ve just been told I have a copy of that album, but I
don’t know where it is. I haven’t played it yet."

He said he is still working on the songs for his own band’s tour and hasn’t
given much thought to the Abbey Road segment yet.

"I’m absolutely bugging out until I learn the songs," he said. "My memory,
when I learn new songs, it dumps other songs. I need more gigabytes in my
brain. My head can only hold about 60 songs."

Last year, Bass Player magazine conducted a readers’ poll in which voters
chose Entwistle as the "bass player of the millennium." The Who bassist said
it was "kind of a surprise" to earn that title and "the good thing is, it
could be another thousand years till they vote again."