Posts Tagged ‘pete townshend’

Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend will take their classic rock opera ‘Quadrophenia‘ out on a massive tour of North America beginning this coming November.

Indie Bands Struggle to get a Piece of the Pie

- In November 1965, a young up-starting group from West London, calling themselves ‘The Who’, would release their third single, “My Generation” – one of the first songs to define 60’s youth culture and a spark a new revolt against authority. It was tracks like these and bands like this once-raucous four-piece that played a significant part in the youth uprising of the 1960’s, with the song’s most quoted line , “I hope I die before I get old” an adopted maxim for pre-adult rebellion.

If Child AbuseWatch.net get their way English rock group The Who will not be performing at this year’s Super Bowl half time show, taking place in Miami on February 7th. The organization is trying to persuade the NFL to cancel the band’s appearance because of Pete Townshend‘s arrest by British Police back in 2003 on suspicion of possessing child pornography.

The group’s guitarist and chief songwriter was eventually cleared of the charges but British law required him to be put on a sex offenders register for the duration of 5 years because he had accessed a website containing images of child abuse.

The Pompano Beach child abuse watch group’s founder and CEO Evin Daly told the South Florida Sun Sentinel newspaper: “I’m a fan of the band, I grew up with The Who. Pete Townshend is the only issue,” Mr Daly said. “The issue is, it sends the wrong message to American families.”

An NFL spokesman told the Associated Press that Townshend and The Who will go ahead and perform at the halftime show at LandShark Stadium. The League was aware of his prior arrest but they also noted his charity work. “UK police cleared him since he was doing research for a project on child abuse,” they added.

Veteran Who guitarist Pete Townshend as revealed he is working on a new rock opera, with some of the songs set for inclusion on a new Who record.

Writing on his blog which features on the band’s official website, Townshend said: “I am writing a new musical. Floss is an ambitious new project for me, in the style of Tommy and Quadrophenia. In this case the songs are interspersed with surround-sound ‘soundscapes’ featuring complex sound effects and musical montages.”

“When Walter (a pub rock musician) tries to return to music after a 15-year hiatus,” Townshend said of the musical’s story, “he finds that what he hears and what he composes evoke the ecologically rooted, apocalyptic mindset of his generation. Shaken by this and torn by personal difficulties, he and Floss (Walter’s wife) become estranged.”

After writing the youth anthem ‘My Generation’ in his early twenties, Townshend went on to describe the new approach to music in his later years: “”At 64,” said, “I now want to take on ageing and mortality, using the powerfully angry context of rock’n'roll.”