Pete Townshend - Acid Queen

Last song from the Prince's Trust Concert on November23. Pete Townshend plays "Acid Queen" from the Tommy album. If you want to see the rest of Townshend's set click the "Prince's Trust Concert" tab below.

Pete Townshend - I'm One

"I'm One" is another great song from Quadrophenia, which Pete Townshend plays really well by himself.

Pete Townshend - Drowned

Probably my favorite song that Pete Townshend plays live is "Drowned," which is off of the Quadrophenia album.

Pete Townshend - Corrina, Corrina

Pete Townshend covers Bob Dylan's "Corrina, Corrina."

Pete Townshend at Prince's Trust

The audio is a little bit low, but Pete Townshend talks to the crowd at the Prince's Trust in the above video.

Pete Townshend - Won't Get Fooled Again

A solo performance of "Won't Get Fooled Again" by Pete Townshend at the Prince's Trust Concert at the Royal Albert Hall on November 23.

Pete Townshend Interview

Pete Townshend gives his thoughts about his performance and talks about some other issues backstage at the Royal Albert Hall.

The Who News Roundup

Plenty of news about The Who the last couple of days.

First up, Keith Moon was remembered yesterday on what would have been his 65th birthday. Click here for an article at mlive.com and then another story on UltimateClassicRock.com here.

Meanwhile, part 1 of an interview that aired last night with Pete Townshend on BBC2 can be found by clicking this. Pete goes over the early days of The Who in an hour-long discussion. Part 2 will be put up on the website next week.

Gibson.com takes a look at the Pete Townshend J-200 Signature Artist Series acoustic guitar at this link.

Pete Townshend's Quadrophenia Guitar Sold for $50,000

I'm way behind on this but Pete Townshend's Les Paul guitar that he played on the band's 1972-73 Quadrophenia tour has been sold at an auction for $50,000, according to Gibson.com. If you want more information on the guitar (pictured above) click the Christies' link here.

Pete Townshend Inducts The Rolling Stones into the Rock Hall of Fame

Great speech by Pete Townshend (pictured second from left with the band) inducting the Rolling Stones into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

Pete is Stone Deaf.....or Maybe Not?

Roger Daltrey told the Daily Mail that Pete Townshend is "almost stone deaf" in an interview published on July 15. Townshend responded on TheWho.com a couple of days later and wrote that he isn't stone deaf and is planning on joining Roger next year for a tour of Quadrophenia. The entire post is below:

Pete is Stone Deaf...... or maybe not?

My hearing is actually better than ever because after a feedback scare at the O2 Indigo in December 2008 I am taking good care of it. I have computer systems in my studio that have helped me do my engineering work on the forthcoming Quadrophenia release. I have had assistance from younger forensic engineers and mastering engineers to help me clean up the high frequencies that are out of my range. The same computer systems work wonderfully well on stage, proving to be perfect for me when The Who performed at the Super Bowl and doing Quadrophenia for TCT at the Royal Albert Hall in 2010. I'm 66, I don't have perfect hearing, and if I listen to loud music or go to gigs I do tend to get tinnitus. DON'T WE ALL????

The reason I am not on the road with Roger is that this is entirely Roger's adventure, one that is bringing him great joy. I don't belong on this Tommy tour. I wish him well, sincerely, and I look forward to playing with Roger again doing Quadrophenia next year.

Pete Townshend On The Windmill

Pete Townshend says in the above interview that he started doing the windmill after watching Keith Richards warm up before a Rolling Stones concert. Richards, though, was not doing a windmill but some stretching.

Pete Townshend and The Rolling Stones

Pete Townshend has often spoke of his love for the Rolling Stones. Townshend joined them for "Slave" which is off of the Rolling Stones' 1981 album Tattoo You.

Roger Daltrey: I Only Hit Pete Once

The latest issue of Uncut Magazine features Roger Daltrey. It's out in the U.K. and should be on newsstands in the U.S. pretty soon. I've read that Roger Daltrey punched Pete Townshend during a rehearsal around the time the band was taking Quadrophenia on the road in 1974. I'm assuming that this is the incident the magazine is referring to. I'm looking forward to reading the article.

Pete's New Blog Post

Pete Townshend has a new blog posted on TheWho.com. He discusses some very interesting plans regarding Quadrophenia. The full text is below:

Pete's Blog

1st June, 2011

WHAT I'M DOING EVERYDAY

I am shut away in my home studio at the moment working to restore the demos of Quadrophenia. Bob Pridden is doing surround-sound mixes of selected tracks. Jon Astley is remastering the original vinyl mix, and evaluating his own 1996 remix (the one where you can properly hear Roger's astonishing vocals). I am sitting in a pile of notes, desk diaries, photos (I took a lot of my own between 1971-1973 when Quadrophenia emerged), original lyrics and writing liner notes.

I am really enjoying this work. Bob's mixes are mind-blowing. My demos are among the best I've ever done, and include some real quirky tracks that didn't make it onto the final album. I still find studio work strange – I have to have the speakers very low in volume, not what I'm used to. This package, due in October if all goes well, is another Live at Leeds and Hull – or even another Lifehouse Chronicles – in the making. You are going to love it. I hope so, because I am missing this summer sunshine to get it completed on time.

In my recent interview with my friend Simon Garfield for INTELLIGENT LIFE, I professed some difficulty in my interaction with fans as I grow older. What is so wonderful about working on Quadrophenia is that back in 1970, all the way through to the recording in 1973, the primary challenge for me was to tell the story of the Who's fans and at the same time address the wayward creative needs of the band as individuals and artists. The Who, and Jimmy as a kind of model for one or all of our fans, really had developed a powerful symbiosis that deserved a project like Quadrophenia both to honour the mechanism and address why it started to fail almost a soon as it had begun

So I am enjoying working with the music, but I'm enjoying writing about it too.

Pete Townshend On Solos

During a 1980 interview with Steve Rosen of Sound International, Pete Townshend was asked if it was important for him to have the technique of a Jeff Beck. Townshend answered by saying that the joy he would get from a solo would never be as great as what he gets from expressing himself through a song.

You can read the full interview here.

Pete Townshend On Feedback

I came across an interview Pete Townshend did in 1980 with Steve Rosen and Sound International. Among the many questions that Pete was answered was if he was the first to use feedback. Pete answered that he had an agreement with Dave Davies and Jeff Beck that they would argue until the day they died over which one came up with feedback. However, Townshend added that it was probably happening in many places at once.

For the entire interview click this.

New Pete Townshend Interview

A new interview was posted over the weekend with Pete Townshend in the blog section of The Economist. Click here if you want to read it. It's a very good and worthwhile read which touches on many subjects, including Pete's book which is due out in 2012.

Pete Townshend on The Beatles

There's nobody in rock that gives better answers than Pete Townshend. Let's go back to 1967 where Pete (in the above video) discusses the British music scene and the impact of The Beatles.

In another interview - which is from 1995 and one that I cannot find on YouTube but was an extra on the 2008 DVD, TCT at the Royal Albert Hall - Pete talks about how he and Eric Clapton were invited over to listen to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band with The Beatles and their manager Brian Epstein. Pete claimed that he and Clapton were the first ones outside of The Beatles to hear the album from start to finish.

Pete Townshend on Led Zeppelin

It wasn't too long ago that I posted this on TheWho.com's message board and what a response it got. The thing is that with Pete Townshend and his thoughts on Led Zeppelin (or anything for that matter), he changes his mind quite often. That's what you get with Pete. I've read comments from him where he does nothing but praise Zeppelin. By the way, his expression at the end of the video is great because he realizes that what he just said is going to get plenty of attention. Townshend, though, has always saved his greatest criticism for himself and has always been The Who's harshest critic, which is something that I'm sure has and still can drive Roger Daltrey a little nuts at times.