Roger Daltrey Discusses Last December's Throat Surgery

I came across a very interesting story about Roger Daltrey talking about having surgery around last Christmas to fix a vocal problem. Apparently, it was an issue that could have become cancer. If you want to read the story click this. I'm unable to post any of the videos here, but the story also includes a four-part interview with Roger discussing the surgery, his career, the future, etc. The videos and story are courtesy of CBS Los Angeles.

As usual with Roger, he is lending his efforts, along with Steven Tyler and Julie Andrews who also had the same surgery, to raise money for a charity that helps people that literally have no voice.

Getting Ready for Halftime

This is a pretty cool video of the crew setting up for The Who's Super Bowl halftime show. Approximately 600 people set everything up and then broke it all down. Amazing how they are able to put this type of stuff together and got it all done without any sort of serious panic.

The Who Rock The Super Bowl

The Who delivered a very enjoyable performance at this past Sunday's Super Bowl. I've looked at several reviews such as Rolling Stone and MTV.com which were favorable. But the reviews that matter the most are those of the fans. TheWho.com's message board was favorable and the folks over at the Pete Townshend message board, The Shout, liked it as well. Who fans are the harshest critics of the band, but the majority of comments that I have read found the show enjoyable.

What’s different about this year is that The Who aren’t promoting anything. Past Super Bowl performers have had a new album or tour. The Who may have a tour later in the year and Pete Townshend is writing music which may or may not end up as a Who album, but that also will not be until later in the year or 2011.

I was glad to see drummer Zak Starkey get quite a bit of recognition. Incidentally, his father Ringo Starr got his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame yesterday.

Roger Daltrey was not in love with doing the Super Bowl and said it was weird to play a quick 12 minute set. Pete Townshend on the other hand said he liked it and got an appreciation for how big the Super Bowl is.

So far sales have spiked for The Who on iTunes and the like, which has been the case for past Super Bowl performers, who don't get paid to play at the event.

The Who Interviwed by Rich Eisen

After the Super Bowl press conference, The Who's Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey talked with the NFL Network's Rich Eisen. Although both admitted to not being fans of American football, Roger took the Saints, so Pete naturally took the Colts.

"Won't Get Fooled Again" Super Bowl Press Conference

Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey concluded the Super Bowl press conference with an acoustic version of "Won't Get Fooled Again."

The Who Super Bowl Press Conference "Behind Blue Eyes" and "Pinball Wizard"

Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey took some questions this past Thursday at a Super Bowl press conference and then played three songs. The above YouTube video is of Pete and Roger playing acoustic versions of "Behind Blue Eyes" and "Pinball Wizard."

My Generation Remix

The Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am and fomer Guns N' Roses' guitarist Slash have done a remix of The Who's "My Generation," which will air during the Super Bowl and then go on sale on iTunes. Proceeds will go to Haiti.

Billboard has the story, just click this.

The Who's Super Setlist

The Who's Pete Townshend revealed to Billboard what the band will be playing at the Super Bowl. From Billboard:

"We're kinda doing a mashup of stuff," the guitarist tells Billboard. "A bit of 'Baba O'Riley,' a bit of 'Pinball Wizard,' a bit of the close of 'Tommy,' a bit of 'Who Are You,' and a bit of 'Won't Get Fooled Again.' It works -- it's quite a saga. A lot of the stuff that we do has that kind of celebratory vibe about it -- we've always tried to make music that allows the audience to go a bit wild if they want to. Hopefully it will hit the spot."

The entire story can be read here.

The Who Giveaway

The Barnes & Noble Website has two offers: win a trip to see the SuperBowl and see The Who halftime show and they are also offering a chance to win a Gibson SG Guitar that has been played by the great Pete Townshend. The link is here.

You can also guess the band's setlist at the big game here.

As much as I would like to go the Super Bowl, I would actually prefer winning the guitar!

The Super Bowl Setlist

Twelve minutes is all the halftime act at the Super Bowl gets. “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is over eight minutes, so I wonder what direction the band will go. If Keith Moon and John Entwistle were still alive, I would suggest the same route they took with “My Generation” when they played Live at Leeds in 1970, which is above. Incidentally, the N.F.L. did a nice job on their promotion video for The Who performing at the SuperBowl, which you can watch by clicking this.