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Re: In his own words
> While he remains a prominent member of the ageing English rock aristoc-
> racy, it is also safe to assume that Townshend's chances of a knighthood
> are now forever linked with the words 'snowball' and 'hell'.
Oh well. That just leaves the door wide open for Daltrey then!
> Over coffee,.....
What?! Pete drinks coffee?!
> He is speaking calmly, though occasionally he will rub his watery eyes,
> or stare silently at the floor, in the manner of someone still convinced
> that those events might yet turn out to be one long bad dream.
Poor Pete. I can just picture him staring at the floor.
> 'I was having a cup of tea,....'
What?! Pete drinks tea?!
> and someone says, "Have you seen the Daily Mail?" I said, "No, I don't
> take it",
<snicker> "Take it."
> and then they said, "It sounds like you, Pete", and I said, "Yeah, it
> sounds like me."'
Outwardly, a rather calm reaction. But just imagine the "Oh, shit"
terror feeling that must've hit him at that precise moment.
> 'I went into deep panic and anxiety. I had sensed, or I knew that there
> was a developing witch hunt in progress, and I thought, "Oh my God, this
> is going to be hung on me."'
Again, just imagine the shock of knowing your life was going to immediat-
ely change for the worse. He must've been weak-kneed.
> The shock and disorientation of those first few hours, he says, are
> still difficult describe. 'I was just spinning.
Ugh. Poor Pete.
> It was a bit like being shot.
Er....bad analogy there, Pete. Shot? What does Pete know about being
shot?
> I very nearly went to the local police station. I was halfway there with
> my girlfriend, then I said, "Maybe I shouldn't do this."'
Another clue which points to Pete's innocence. Seems like right from the
start he was dying to contact the police & clear the matter up. Of course,
it wasn't that simple, but it shows that, in Pete's mind, it was all just
a huge mistake.
> Instead, he later emerged in his dressing gown
(!)
> 'All the trouble I caused,' he says, shaking his head, 'was driven not
> just by curiosity - this wasn't curiosity or, if it was, I promise you
> it was not prurient. I know where my prurience begins and ends. I am not
> a paedophile. I'm not. I'm not sexually attracted to children.
A somewhat confusing statement (he never does get around to telling us
what *did* drive him). But at least he now realizes he did cause a butt-
load of trouble for a buttload of people.
> But I'm certain of my own standing before God, which is the level at
> which I'll be judged.'
Boy, *that* statement had to give Jon a case of tight trousers! "God...."
Oh, Pete, you weak & fragile man.
> Though I had assumed we might tentatively broach the subject of his
> subsequent arrest some way into the interview, Townshend seems remarkably
> willing to talk about it, and in some depth.
This is a very good sign. He's moved way beyond shock & despair & is now
ready to pontificate on the ordeal.
> He is, though, a frustrating interviewee, given to wandering off into
> areas that are only tangentially pertinent to the question at hand.
Ha! Another good sign! That's normal Pete!
> This, I realise about halfway through the interview, is a Townshend
> trait.
Duh.
> Since then, he has, by his own admission, belatedly discovered that
> reflection, rather than instant reaction, might be a more productive
> route.
A lesson learned. Remember how his initial statements irked some of us?
I think Pete realizes he made a few "miscalculations" early on.
> 'What that one act did,' he says, 'was stop me completely in my tracks.
> It paused my life. It made me wait. I've never had to wait ever in my
> life for anything. I've never had to stop and wait while someone else
> made a decision about the future of my life. It was a fucking long wait.'
This statement took me a bit by surprise. I always thought Pete was more
grounded than that. I mean, I knew he could be egotistical, but I didn't
realize the extent of his hubris (!). Another lesson learned by Pete.
> along with all his diaries, DVDs, videos and photographs.
Interesting. We tend to think it was just his computers that were taken
& searched. Man, they took everything! Another clue showing Pete's
innocence. Nothing was found in *all* that stuff! Nothing.
> And who now had admitted to, well, what exactly?
Ah, yes. The big question.
> Townshend, it appears, is still not entirely clear on this point.
Therefore, neither are we.
> Throughout the interview, perhaps unsurprisingly, Townshend does seem
> to have some trouble accepting this.
This isn't good. Why does he keep saying what he did wasn't a crime
when he did it when it *was* a crime? Shouldn't his lawyers have cleared
that up for him?
> I know I broke the law legally,
(!) Excuse me?
> This, in the words of John Carr, internet adviser to the children's
> charity NCH [National Children's Home], is 'the realm of total fantasy'.
Ouch.
> (Carr is actually a life-long fan of the Who, who tells me he has just
> bought the band's retrospective box set for his son for Christmas.)
Ha! Funny they felt the need to include that bit of info.
> Perhaps Townshend, then, is thinking of a case at Southwark Crown Court
> in 1998,
Yeah, but shouldn't his lawyers have cleared all that up for him?
> he might now have been serving a five-year jail sentence. 'He is,'
> says Carr, 'a very lucky man.'
Man, that hits home, doesn't it? Pete truly got lucky. He could've
been royally fucked.
> 'I know that I caused the most incredible chaos by that one single
> neglectful careless act, the most incredible chaos.
Accepting the blame. Good.
> Unlike the Beatles, who were loveable, and the Stones who were sexual,
> the Who were simply fucked up and angry.
Ha! Now *that* quote's a keeper! Love it!
> 'I remember thinking, "Do they want me to kill myself?"'
Ugh. Poor Pete. Worse than the heroin days. At the complete bottom.
> 'If I had had a gun, I would have shot myself.
Good thing Pete doesn't own a gun.
> if I had shot myself, it would have been fucking awful because it
> would have confirmed what everybody thought.'
Good thinking, Pete.
> When he made his statement to the press, though, the Who's lead singer,
> Roger Daltrey, rang him in a rage. 'He was very angry. He was shouting,
> "Anybody could have used that credit card." And I said, "Roger, I think
> it was me." He's going, "You think? You think? For fuck's sake, you
> couldn't have done it, you're confessing to something you didn't do."
Ha! Daft Daltrey! Doesn't even know what's going on!
> The public, too, seem to have had an incredible faith in Pete Townshend,
> and their attitude was perhaps best summed up by an acquaintance of his
> I spoke to last week. 'He's an artist and an artist with a conscience,
> someone who worries and frets on our behalf about the state of the world.
> He's abstract, and often wrong-headed, and, in this instance, he's been
> a stupid fool. But, no, he's not a paedophile.'
Another good quote which sums up Pete.
> Was his grandmother violent towards him? 'Yes, she was.' And, it was
> around this time that he was abused? 'You know, I don't remember, Sean.
> What I do remember is a sense of disturbed eroticism. She was promiscuous,
> she was crazy, and she was seeing men, and she didn't lock my bedroom. I
> think men came into my room.'
He *thinks* men came into his room. I'm still suspect of these fuzzy
memories Pete may or may not have.
> I shouldn't have associated my real and active ground-based charity
> work with this mission, this white knight mission, to get this infor-
> mation across to the public that there was some correlation between
> the child porn industry and the credit-card companies.'
I agree with this. I know many of you think it was very admirable of
Pete to try to "slay Goliath," as it were, but I think it was just stupid.
> 'I'm not religious,' he says, 'but I am spiritual,
Another round of tight trousers for Jon! ;-o
> What, though, possessed him to access a pay-per-view child pornography
> site, to take such a risk, to do something not accidentally but
> intentionally, not to mention illegally? There are numerous other methods
> of finding out about the subject - contacting organised bodies, the po-
> lice, academic research units?
Ya' gotta admit, this guy is asking the right questions.
> I thought that a 12 Step group would be a good thing to have on these
> user groups,
12 Step group. Bollocks. New Age bollocks.
> "Avoid this site - it's an FBI sting."
(!) Like the interviewer, I'm shocked that it actually said this. The
FBI had a warning *telling* people a sting was going on?
> and yet you took out your credit card and accessed the site?
> 'Yeah. I was really, really curious, and I think that's the mistake I
> made.
Well, there it is. There's the reason. Pete was curious. It's as simple
as that, I guess.
> it didn't promise, contrary to what the police said to me when I was
> interviewed, to lead to child pornography.
Hmmmm.....
> I can't remember my state of mind but, looking back, it was stupid and
> it was wrong. I think I made a terrible mistake.'
Bravo, Pete! Bravo for admitting that!
> 'The whole thing has changed my standing in society substantially.'
Yalp.
> He is 'nervous but confident' about going back out on the road with the
> Who,
Hey! That's good news!
> 'ultimately all I really want to be able to do is wander the streets
> on my own and end up somewhere unfamiliar, and still feel confident.'
Poor Pete. Sounds like he's headed in the right direction, though. Sounds
like he's been humbled.
> What, I ask him, has he learned from all this? 'That this world is all
> about limits and boundaries,' he says, 'and this year I found the end-
> stop.
You know, he's really come a long way. He's taken this horrible event
& learned from it. He's grown as a person. This makes me happy.
> I just thought, I have to look at who I am, and what I did, and get
> through this calmly.
Bravo! That takes strength & courage. Good for Pete!
> Soon after, I realised that the public hadn't bought into it,
Er,....some people have, Pete. Some have. Don't jump into a cocoon.
> 'The fact is I've survived. I've learned a huge amount because I've been
> tested and, more importantly, I've been trusted. I don't know if it's
> even appropriate to say this but in some ways I've had the most incred-
> ible year.'
Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I think Pete has a good grasp
on things & is well beyond any trouble spots in this horrible ordeal. I
just wish he'd abandon the "spirituality" & "12 Step" crutches. He can
walk on his own.
It sounds like he's no longer blaming others. It sounds like he's com-
pletely accepted his responsibility in the matter. It sounds like he's
taken the tragedy & learned from it. And it sounds like he's reached safe
waters mentally.
I can't wait to again give him my support.....and my money! I'll be
toasting to his welfare on New Year's Eve, I can tell you that. My faith
in him is fully restored.
LONG LIVE PETE TOWNSHEND!!
- SCHRADE in Akron
The Council For Secular Humanism
http://www.secularhumanism.org/