Daltrey rides again Montreal Gazette

["Rod & Stephanie Porter" <broncos@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The band's singer takes the opportunity to sound off against Pete Townshend's
detractors
      BERNARD PERUSSE
      The Gazette


Saturday, June 14, 2003











Roger Daltrey speaks in a passionate, sometimes angry, tone that quickly
evokes the 21-year-old go-for-broke rocker who sang the Who's 1965
in-your-face anthem My Generation. His answers, punctuated by profanity and
infectious guffaws, are still the stuff of punk idealism - not jaded superstar
soundbites.

These days, Daltrey's ire is directed at the unnamed forces condemning his
bandmate Pete Townshend, the Who's heart and soul, to snide whispers and
one-liners.

Townshend was arrested in January for accessing a Web site containing child
pornography four years earlier. The guitarist maintained that he might have
been abused as a child and was doing research for an autobiography and an
anti-abuse campaign. Cleared of possessing pornographic images in May,
Townshend was nonetheless placed on a national register of sex offenders for
five years.

"He did something incredibly naive, but he didn't do anything criminal, and to
end up with any kind of a criminal record - even for a small period of time -
is a disgrace," Daltrey said.

"He told the truth from the very beginning, from Day One. They went through
his computers with an almost military precision. None have been doctored. None
have been tampered with. He never had one image. The whole thing was a scam."

Next up: the media. "If this was the '60s, there'd be 100 or 200 journalists
around the world screaming about (Townshend's plight). There'd be a huge
campaign to get him cleared - like Lennon, when they got the FBI on him. Now
there's nothing. They're all asleep. They're all dead," Daltrey said. "I don't
want a society where we're judged and ruled by the newspapers, and the police
are judge, jury and hangman. It's a f---in' disgrace. It makes me wonder what
kind of society we're living in where this can happen and nobody even blinks a
f---in' eye.

"I've never met anyone in my life who's done anything more for abused people
than Pete Townshend - and, mate, I'm so f---in' angry," he said.

The two surviving Who members have put time and money on the line to make sure
the kids are - at the very least - alright. There was an unplugged Who reunion
in 1999 to support Neil Young's Bridge School for children with severe
physical and speech impairments, and Daltrey and Townshend continue to
champion the Teenage Cancer Trust, which creates special teenage units in
state hospitals for young people with cancer.

The Who Live At the Royal Albert Hall, due out on CD July 1, documents a Who
benefit for the trust. The concert, recorded on Nov. 27, 2000, featured
special guests like Bryan Adams, Noel Gallagher, Eddie Vedder and Paul Weller.
The double disc includes two tracks that were not on the DVD version, released
in 2001 - Getting In Tune, with Vedder, and Mary Anne With the Shaky Hands.

Every penny from that show, including profits from the DVD and CD, is for the
cancer trust, Daltrey said.

And the show features Daltrey, Townshend and the late bassist John Entwistle
gleefully ripping into classics from the Who catalogue. "There was an elated
feeling going around that night," Daltrey said. "I think that was the night
that rekindled Pete's love of being back in the band."

Daltrey said he was particularly delighted by the guests putting their own
stamp on some Who favourites. "They are classic songs. When I look at the
writers in the last century of rock 'n' roll, I have to put Townshend probably
No. 1. Not only did he lyrically write rock 'n' roll, he musically moved it."

While he waits to record a new Who album with Townshend in September, Daltrey
is working on a history series that will literally take him in the footsteps
of explorers like Lewis and Clarke and John Wesley Powell. He's also preparing
to play Alfie Doolittle in a one-nighter of My Fair Lady with John Lithgow,
scheduled for August. The Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame beckons, too: "I'm
getting a musical achievement award for people who have played the Bowl in the
past 40 years. It means you're a registered antique," he said. The Smothers
Brothers, whose weekly show helped break the Who in the United States, are
being honoured the same night - a coincidence that seems to delight Daltrey.
""It'll be great to see Tommy and (Dickie) again," he said.

Purists might question the prospect of a Who disc without original drummer
Keith Moon, who died in 1978, or Entwistle, who died last year - but Daltrey
said the idea has full credibility, even though things can never be the same
without Entwistle.

"Of course we'd have John back in a second if we could, but the driving force
of the band was always Pete and I," he said. He heaped praise on one of the
mooted tracks - Good Looking Boy, a 1996 Townshend composition about Elvis
Presley. "We have one great one. We only need another 11 and it'll probably be
the best album we ever made," he said, again bursting into laughter.

For Daltrey, the creative tension between him and Townshend will carry any
project. "I'm a great dramatist of his songs. If I feel that this or that
isn't quite right, I'll fight and fight with him. I'm one of the few people
who will stand up to him intellectually and demand that I put my piece on it -
and that turns it from a Pete Townshend song into a Who song," he said.

-------

Daltrey Speaks Out

On Keith Moon: "When you start playing the music, Keith Moon - for me - on
stage is alive. You can never replace his humour, the jokes he used to pull
between the songs, but musically, it feels the same."

On John Entwistle: "I knew John wasn't well for five years. It was apparent in
his demeanour. I loved him dearly and I made a point of telling him I loved
him every time I left him. I thought I might not see him again. I came to
terms with John's death very quickly."

On The Who Sell Out (1967): "It's probably one of my favourites, Tattoo and
things like that wonderful humour that just shows a side of the Who (that) was
always two fingers up at the establishment."

On Quadrophenia (1973): "I like the work. I've never liked the record. The
engineer put echo on my vocals when he recorded it - and it can never be taken
off."

On American Idol: "Pete wouldn't look at this show on TV. A lot of people in
the rock business go, 'Oh, what a load of sh--.' It is a load of sh--, but it
serves a very good purpose. From that kind of dross, there's always an
antidote. Turns out to be something like the Sex Pistols."

On the Who's legacy: "We remained of the people. We've been honest and
remained true to our values. I don't think we ever sold out. I really don't."