[no subject]

Can they see the real Pete?

After the initial tabloid trashing of the Who
guitarist over a visit to a child porn Web site,
Britons seem ready to accept his explanation that it
was for research.

By Phil Sutcliffe, Special to The Times 

LONDON -- A week ago, a British fan of the Who giving
a spin to some great old favorites --"My Generation,"
maybe, or "Pinball Wizard" -- might have taken a
moment to imagine Pete Townshend, brilliant songwriter
and whirlwind guitarist, at home in a plush London
suburb enjoying the fruits of a rock 'n' roll life
well spent.

Sure, everyone knows about the wild years, the smashed
guitars, the heroin addiction, the alcoholism, the sad
deaths of Who drummer Keith Moon and bassist John
Entwistle. But Townshend was a rebel for decency, a
champion of peace, love and understanding with fire in
his belly, his career apparently crowned with deep and
fond respect.

Today, though, he sits practically incarcerated in
that handsome house. He is said to be shelling out
$3,000 a day for a team of security guards, his fears
of vigilante attack regularly reinforced by insults
shouted from passing cars. The words are crude, but
they all mean one thing: "Pedophile!"

Yet the wider feeling among his countrymen seems to be
that those verbal abusers are in the minority. With
Townshend, the perception of a rumbustious integrity
is so ingrained that the jaded British actually seem
inclined to invoke that weary old notion of believing
innocence until guilt is proved.

Even the infamous tabloids have restrained their
denunciations.

Certainly, at the start of the week they wielded heavy
innuendoes when Townshend outed himself as the pop
star named on the list of 7,200 Britons who in the
mid-'90s had used Texas-based child-porn Internet
portal Landslide Promotions. (Busted in 1999, its
proprietor was jailed for 1,335 years.)

For instance, on Monday the Daily Star's front page
opened with "revelations that Townshend paid to view
sick images of kiddies" and withheld until the 21st
paragraph his explanation about visiting the site only
once and then for research in connection with a book
he is writing.

But after the initial frenzy, tabloid coverage became
notably less slanted, while the broadsheets began to
reflect the widespread faith that Townshend was
fundamentally OK.

The Independent's Deborah Orr asserted, "His defence
is compelling.... His account is entirely credible."
An unsigned Daily Telegraph editorial even snarled a
little on his behalf: "The police saw fit to send 12
officers to arrest Pete Townshend.... Anyone who has
been burgled recently may wonder where they suddenly
found the manpower ... paedophilia mania is sweeping
the land."

Of late, this "mania" has meant local restrictions in
Edinburgh schools on parents photographing their
children's nativity plays and local papers deciding
not to publish pictures of junior sports teams.

Despite these strange undercurrents, though, most
people here seem to believe Townshend is clean. His
fans want him to be. They need all that music, the
memories, the days of their lives to come through
intact and untainted.

Talk to fans and profound emotions surface
immediately, often relating the Townshend uproar to
memories of Gary Glitter, the '70s glam-popster who
was jailed for four months in 1999 for downloading
child porn and later shown to be a predatory
pedophile.

For Ruth Adams, 42, a stained-glass window maker from
Gloucestershire, the issue took her back to playing
the Who and Gary Glitter with her friends when she was
12: "Looking at Pete Townshend's face in the
newspapers, I see someone who is wounded. I do believe
what he says about research. I think it's part of a
healing process because of the abuse he suffered as a
child.

"But Gary Glitter was my hero, and when I heard he was
a pedophile, although I was in my late 30s by then, it
affected me as if I was a kid again. He broke my
heart, betrayed me. We invest so much in the artists
we love."

A 38-year-old bank worker from Derby found her
feelings ran so deep that when she finished speaking,
she asked not to be named.

"I have faith in Pete Townshend," she said. "Everyone
I know wants to believe he's innocent. But I was a
Gary Glitter fan too, and I was devastated when the
truth about him came out because I realized that when
I was 12, I loved him so much I'd have gone with him
if he'd approached me. I wouldn't have known it was
wrong. Adults have to take responsibility for
protecting children, not abuse their emotions and
their trust."

At least, the faithful millions can take heart from
the music world's reaction. In a business where gossip
is hard currency, even those close to him say they'd
never heard the smallest rumors that Townshend is a
pedophile.

TV director Simon Witter, 40, who has interviewed
Townshend at length, says, "This story really hit me
because the Who meant so much to me while I was
growing up. But the great thing about Townshend is his
painful honesty. He is always looking for truth in the
widest sense. I believe he is completely innocent. For
me, this doesn't undermine his heritage, but it does
cast doubt on these paranoid times."

Keith Altham, 60, the Who's publicist until the
mid-'80s, has known Townshend for 35 years. "The whole
thing is ludicrous," he says. "I constantly saw him
around kids on the road and his behavior was always
impeccable. He was foolish to go to this site even for
research. But that's all. He doesn't deserve this. He
does deserve respect."

Arrested on Tuesday, Townshend was released on bail
until Jan. 28 to allow time for his computers' hard
drives to be checked.

If this backs up his claim that he went to the
Landslide site only once, it would still be an offense
under the U.K.'s Protection of Children Act of 1978,
but he could be released with the minimum punishment,
a formal caution. (The maximum sentence is 10 years
per offense.) However, police often take months to
process these cases, so the verdict could be a long
time coming. 

-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
http://www.thewhothismonth.com
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com