BrianinAtlanta's blog

Pete's Autobiography - Fragments 1, 2, 3

2007-05-25T21:18:00.000-04:00

Fragment 1 - Pete Meaden

1st Fontana session (1964). Pete Meaden decides to write songs. Persuades Who to change name to High Numbers. Thought Who was a "tacky, gimmicky name." Meaden gets unreleased R&B records from Scene Club d.j. Guy Stevens, steals music, writes his own lyrics. Pete learns to be a "relay" of the Mod scene; picking up new trends and dance moves from his vantage point on stage, then copying the best and getting the credit. High Numbers live mostly cover "growling R&B songs. Guitar feedback absent on High Numbers' record. Pete plays "weedy" jazz guitar on "Zoot Suit" showing how far he still had to go. Record did not break, selling "about 400 copies." Meaden misses the innovation in the band's sound. Mods, however, do get it finding The Who's "effeminate" Mod clothing combined with their aggressive sound an example of "the cult of the elegant, disciplined, well-to-do, sharply-dressed and sexually indeterminate and dangerously androgynous yobbo."

In replies Pete adds that Roger's older sister and her boyfriend were, in 1962, the only Mods he knew. Roger still dressed like Elvis. Older homosexuals were attracted to the young, well-dressed Mod boys while lesbians were attracted to the short-haired Mod girls. Pete also found the Mod girl look "extremely erotic." When an analyst suggested it was because they looked like boys, Pete dismissed the answer as "a little too obvious." His father's generation got the same thrill getting women out of their masculine army uniforms. By late 1964 Mod spread throughout London and the famous Mod-Rocker battles started. Some Mod boys went with Who manager Kit Lambert to Paris, tried out gay sex and came back more experienced in the world.

Fragment 2 - I Can't Explain

Pete and Nick's ex-girlfriend spend a weekend traveling around Brighton in late summer 1964; sleep together "platonically", did speed, shared a compartment on the milk train back to London. Basis for romantic images in Quadrophenia.
High Numbers fail audition at Decca. Would have passed if they had original material. Kit and Chris encourage Pete to come up with songs. Pete listens over and over to The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan and You Better Get It In Your Soul by Charlie Mingus. Searches for words about how the music made him feel but found "I can't explain." The phrase forms the basis of his second song. Records demo on "clunky old domestic tape recorder". Barney [Richard Barnes] compares it to Dylan with a hint of Mose Allison. Kit and Chris make contact with Kinks' producer Shel Talmy. Pete reconstructs song around "You Really Got Me" and changes words about music to love. Play tape for Shel at 2 'I's Club in Soho. Pete already wrote title "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere" on a piece of paper about listening to Charlie Parker. "I Can't Explain" recorded at Pye. Jimmy Page brought in as second guitar. Shel brings in replacement drummer; Keith tells him to 'scarper.' Shel brings in background singers to replace demo's harmonies ruined by Keith joining in. Shel gets good commercial sound. Page's "laughably weedy" guitar on the B-side cause Pete to not take him seriously for years.

Fragment 3 - Trapped

October 1964 - Kit and Chris gets Tuesday residency for band at Marquee Club in Soho. Took Who logo with arrow from Pete's notebooks. He adapted it from older Detours logo. Aubrey Dewar takes solo picture of Pete windmilling. Pete thinks he looks unattractive in photo. Graphic designer from Ealing makes the "Maximum R&B" poster. Central London covered with posters. Had out membership cards to "The 100 Faces" with free entry to club. No women got the card. Attendance 90% male. Pete looked forward to shows "beyond all measure." Pete then designing 'Pop Art' target t-shirts in his notebooks. R&B songs perfect medium for guitar feedback. Press begins to notice. Sexy blonde dances in front of group during all-nighter at Club Noreik. Sends letter to Pete; Pete brings her to flat, goes with her to Marquee date. Worries Mods will find her clothing uncool. Leaving her at bar while performing causes paranoid panic attack. Same thing happens at another show. Cannot deal with it and leaves without her. Feels "trapped" on stage, fearful partner will betray him during performance. Echo of mother's affair while father away performing.

In reply to my question, Pete says he was not on speed during the Marquee run, so it was not the source of any paranoia. Says he still feels "trapped" on stage today.

Pete's Autobiography - Twenty-One through Twenty-Eight

2007-05-15T06:56:00.001-04:00

Twenty-One

1959 a blank...playing guitar, restringing mandolin banjos, spending a few summer weeks, sans Jimpy at the Isle Of Man...Entwistle and others move on to Alf Maynard's jazz band...Since Alf played banjo, no part for Pete...delivered newspapers to make enough for guitar...bought Czech guitar from father for £3...Chris Sherwin takes Pete to first X Certificate film, 'Peeping Tom'...gets Pete two paper routes...Pete sleeps late, gets fired, Chris gets mad, starts sneering at Pete...go to see Acker Bilk...Pete tells Chris he can play banjo just as well.

Twenty-Two

1959-1960 looking after Paul Townshend...parents spend a lot of time at the local pub...brother Simon born at home October 1960...Chris' sneering leads Pete to challenge him to a fight...Pete hits him over the head with his school bag...Chris: 'You knew I had concussion,'...Pete didn't know...Chris tells schoolmates Pete is a coward and a liar...John Entwistle one of few who didn't join in...Pete starts hanging around with bad crowd...gets pinched while near similarly dressed vandals...names names to police...spends his time alone, miserable, practicing his guitar.

Twenty-Three

Spring term concluded...extra money from another paper route and baby sitting, buys first amplifier...practice with John who made his own bass...Denny yells 'Turn that bloody row down!'...Pete yells 'Fuck off!' and smashes amp against wall...'And yet I felt very calm'...John smiling.

Twenty-Four

John joins Shadows cover band started by Pete Wilson...invite Pete to play with them...drummer Mick Brown has tape recorder. records Pete playing 'Man of Mystery' on the Czech guitar...part-time art student, taking introductory lessons at Ealing Art College during last term at Acton County in 1961...make money working in Miscellanea, parents' junk shop...moving furniture makes Pete 'very strong and wiry'...Alf Maynard's Dixieland Band plays at Acton County but Alf is not a student and cannot attend...Pete steps in on banjo and shows he has progressed in musical ability past his peers...Pete feels a part of school for the first time.

Twenty-Five

Noticed by Roger Daltrey who had been expelled for smoking but still hung out at school to speak to his cronies...has exotic white electric guitar...Roger swaggers up to Pete during his last term at Acton, says John Entwistle recommended him and asks him to join his band...Roger heard Elvis and learned 'that there was no future in conforming anymore'...large numbers of Baby Boom meant this generation could get away with not conforming...honour through warfare impossible because of The Bomb.

Twenty-Six

Did OK in GCE examinations...one good teacher made Pete excel in Technical Draughtsmanship...rest of teachers 'tired, dissolute and sometimes brutal men'...Start Art School Autumn 1961...could barely listen to teacher for looking at beautiful Mod girl in class...rather keen on becoming a sculptor...before drawing skills had thought of being a journalist...thought of connecting visual arts and music in some way...trendiest were fashion, photography and graphic design departments...first year Foundation Course to strip students of preconceptions about art...old guard teachers tweedy and rather old...new guard young, denim-clad, bohemian...Draw A Line classes...old guard insist on precise, uniform line...new guard appalled by such conformity...sculptor Brian Wall cuts finger with penknife, draws line in blood.

Twenty-Seven

Equally stimulated by art school, The Detours...formerly shy and awkward, now life 'had suddenly come good'...musical taste more balanced than other students...impressed by new wave of rock 'n' roll but not overcome...Elvis OK but no Sinatra...meets girl that likes Ella Fitzgerald and also seems to like him...attend lunchtime clubs to listen to bebop jazz, Dixieland, orchestral music and opera...revives ability to create 'alpha-state music in my head'...early exposure to 'Third Programme' on BBC brings acquaintance of best of classical music...at ten, sees Disney's "Fantasia" at least ten times...multi-channel sound presentation of that film inspires Pete to become 'student and advocate of recording technology'...enhanced music inspires alcoholic-like thirst for music; a 'dreamlike sound from the ether'...new musical technology with spiritual or mind-bending potential investigated 'deeply and ruthlessly'.

Twenty-Eight

Falls in love with Mod girl but too immature to do anything about it...tells her he plays jazz guitar...actually only with pop bands that use jazz to drive the audience out...she is keen to hear him play...she has tiff with boyfriend, invites Pete to kiss her; he doesn't know what to do...she takes up with another boy; Pete shooed away by boy...Pete later realizes he would have become suicidal if he'd become involved with her and lost her...circa February 1962 John says Pete can audition for The Detours...on arrival runs into crying girl leaving... 'you can tell him from me it’s either me or that bloody guitar of his'...expects Roger to go running after her when told...'Sod her' Roger's reaction...Roger nicknamed 'Perce' because he lived on Percy Road, Hammersmith...moves to Bedford Park, Chiswick near Dot and Horry...John lived with separated-from-husband mother Queenie in Avenue Road within steps of Roger's house...first show with Detours at hall next to Chiswick Swimming Baths...replaces Reg Bowen who becomes road manager...Roger cannot play guitar first gig; cut fingers at day job as sheet metal worker...at one show learns The Twist...first dance that didn't need girl to perform...drummer Harry Wilson did arrangements...Harry's father's van takes them to gigs...Pete plays single-pickup Harmony solid-body Stratocruiser...Roger spray-paints it red...do Shadows-style coordinated moves on stage; John good at it, Roger bad...play wedding parties, company balls, birthdays and pubs...receive £50 tip from bride's father; think about buying own van...Detours Roger's band but Colin Dawson singer...lots of fights break out but Roger protects Pete...play 'utterly naff' songs but Pete has yet to become cynical...everyone in band drinks heavily...have parties where people pretend to be drunk so they can snog with girls...Pete uncomfortable around 'bossy' working class women...stands aloof from snogging.

Pete's Autobiography - Eleven through Twenty

2007-05-13T18:55:00.000-04:00

Sorry this is taking so long.

- Brian

Eleven

First six months of 1952, U.S. jets from nearby base roaring overhead constantly...imagines parents out having glamorous fun...mother still talks about Christian school Pete was attending while with Denny as a way to keep him safe from wild London...by Summer 1952, parents realize Denny mentally ill.

In note, Pete says he has not told his mother about what happened at Denny's because "I do not remember what happened there, apart from what I share here."

Twelve

While Pete with Denny, mother has affair...mother later recounts she rarely saw father in early years of marriage...neighbor in Kent tells mother of Denny's deteriorating state...July 1952, mother and lover pick up Pete and return him to home in Acton...Denny comes as well so mother can look after her...spend summer with father and mother during his band's residency on Isle of Man...parents squabble but reconcile...Jimpy Pete's closest childhood friend comes to stay for several weeks...they use leaves and petals to play war games...biggest treat was to see Squadronaires shows at the ballroom...on Sundays band plays with visiting artists like "young Shirley Bassey, Lita Rosa, Eartha Kitt, Frankie Vaughan, Dickie Henderson, The Morton Fraser Harmonica Gang and a string of comedians"...Jimpy and Pete look for girls to ogle...after summer Pete left under Denny's care for short time while mother breaks off affair with lover.

In note, Pete says his mother admitted to him her affair and the admission was "the one single gift she gave me that made me truly love her today."

Thirteen

Mother and Father try to restore marriage and have another child in Autumn 1952..."Unstable reproductive system" in mother reason brother Paul not born for five more years...abortions may have been to blame...mother gets taste of Denny's craziness...Sept. 1952 attend Berrymede Junior School in Osborne Road, South Acton...back with gang and feeling safe...Denny moves to Willesden...parents buy TV to watch Coronation of Elizabeth II...TV allowed parents to go out without babysitter.

Fourteen

Sept. 1953, second year of junior school...mannish teacher Miss Caitlin provides first positive image of woman for Pete...Pete makes friends with Uxbridge Road Gang...Pete becomes "something of a dreamer"...Miss Caitlin steers Pete toward using humour as way of being accepted...Pete blames same-sex school for some hang-ups about women...mother demands Pete's friends have good looks before acceptance...father preferred misfits...Pete learns from father that, unlike business, all you need to make friends is unconditional love.

Fifteen

Father's record released 31 July 1956...Pete enjoys seeing father's face on ads in local record store...dreams of becoming famous and marrying beautiful girl...that summer on Isle of Man two teenage girls tease Pete before deciding which member of The Squadronaires they fancy. One picks Cliff causing Pete to exclaim, "That's My Dad!"...parents think Pete has little musical talent other than a 'thin, nasal, soprano voice.'...practices on harmonica...denied access to father's musical instruments.

Sixteen

Friend encourages Pete to join Sea Scouts...signs up for 'bunkhouse weekend'...father suspicious...outboard motor sound on river trip sparks musical and vocal hallucinations in Pete...arrive at hut...made to take cold shower in front of adult men as part of 'initiation ceremony'..."What followed needs no description."...Pete never returns to Sea Scouts...experience on river "fundamental to the way I listen to music, indeed to the way I exist as an artist and experience all art."

In note, Pete adds that what happened in the Sea Scouts "could never be described in today's terms as 'sexual abuse'."

Seventeen

Pete attends museums and draws fantasy pictures "to enliven my mind"...concocts wild inventions...sings in church choir...parents still doubt musical talent...visiting grandparetns, allowed to play Aunt Trilby's piano...Trilby gives Pete palm and tarot card readings...says he will live a 'large life.'...Pete finds chords on piano that cause the same musical ecstasy as on the boat...Trilby becomes first person to praise Pete's musical ability.

Eighteen

Miss Caitlin invites Pete to tell stories to class...performing for audience feels natural...passes Eleven-Plus exam, proceeds to Acton County Grammar...Summer 1957 on Isle of Man Pete and friend Jimpy are taken by father to see 'Rock Around The Clock'...Pete and Jimpy mesmerized, father says it "had some swing."...Jimpy, Pete and Manx girl Eileen hang out singing Elvis...both boys in love with her...Pete doesn't get Elvis...'Love Me Tender' made him want to vomit although it was partly jealousy over Jimpy and Elaine singing it to each other...only likes Bill Haley "about three months"...Brother Paul born during second year at Acton County Grammar...move to flat above shop on Uxbridge Road...own room if not perfect privacy...bunk beds with Paul...Jimpy and Pete see Bill Haley...in back with older teenagers...rickety building scary with teens jumping up and down.

Nineteen

At twelve start riding underground to London...Jimpy's father makes a very primitive guitar...Pete manages to play it, surprising Jimpy and his dad...Pete's father not convinced, won't buy guitar for Pete...Denny buys him guitar used for decoration on an Italian restaurant's wall...Pete manages to get something out of it before it collapses...Pete's father still unconvinced.

Twenty

1958, Pete hears his first skiffle song, 'Freight Train' sung by Nancy Whiskey on BBC television...learns that with a guitar and a few chords you could have a hit record...Pete realizes skiffle and other youth music will replace his dad's style and hence career...Pete delays joining the other side by playing banjo in an after-school Dixieland jazz band, The Confederates...John Entwistle on trumpet...Pete attracted to militarism of C.S. Forester's book 'The Ship' and contrarily to the CND ('Ban The Bomb') movement...first gig with Confederates at Congregational Church in Acton 6 Dec. 1958...rest of band "jive" with girls...Pete too poor with social skills to try...Bertrand Russell's apocalyptic speeches in Leicester Square...Aldermaston anti-nuke march passes Pete's home...Pete feels too young to join in, practices his banjo.

Pete's Autobiography - Beginning thru Ch. 10

2007-05-10T06:24:00.000-04:00

Since Pete has taken a large part of his autobiography down, I thought I'd put up at least a precis of what he had published. Here's from the beginning through chapter Ten:

Pitch

Decide to write autobiography in 1995...Deal struck by Michael Pietsch at Little, Brown in 1996...Pays back advance in 1997...Phillips Harrison edits chapters until 2003...Attention shifts to The Boy Who Heard Music...Return to autobio early 2005. Hearing Roger perform "Real Good Looking Boy"...inspires writing of Endless Wire album...Autobio will cover childhood to the launch of Tommy.

Prologue

Fifteen months old watching parents ride horses at a Butlin's Holiday Camp...Six year old tortured by adult with head dunking in bathtub...1969, walk to Ronnie Scott's jazz club to premiere Tommy for the press...Run into "bombastic music journalist" and his drunk friends.

Chapter 1-1 Excerpts

19 May 1945 - Pete is born...End of 1947 - ride on top deck of tram car down Acton High Street...Summer 1947 - sitting on beach watching glamourous parents ride horses...Paternal Grandfather William Townshend, born 1859, tailor's cutter in Chiswick...Third child Horace Arthur Townshend, Pete's grandfather, born 1882...prize-winning window dresser, semi-professional musician and composer...marries Dorothy Blandford (Dot), Pete's grandmother around 1908...they were buskers on Brighton Pier...child Jack (Pete's uncle) born one month after parents' marriage...Dorothy a snob...couple moves to middle-class dwelling in Turnham Green just before World War I.

Chapter 1-2 Excerpts

Pete's father Cliff born 18 January 1917...joins band age 15 in 1932 while at school...he and friend join British Fascists for the glamorous uniforms...by sixteen playing "bottle parties"...gets in trouble for it, may not have finished school...joins Billy Wiltshire and his 'Picadilly Band'...1935 endorsing instruments in ads...plays what could be described as 'Music For Smoking'...enlists in RAF 1940...future mother, 16, falsifies age to join RAF in 1941...father in important RAF orchestra...future mother vocalist...orchestra later redubbed The Squadronaires...first true British swing band...parents lifestyle 'sexy'.

Preceding two chapters compressed into much shorter selection called "One".

Two

Maternal grandmother Emma doesn't like Christian name; settles on 'Denny.'...Pete's mother, named Betty, born 3 Nov. 1923...Denny child of gypsy who stole someone's husband...Denny leaves husband Maurice in 1934...Maurice and child Betty move in with his Irish mother...mother's cousin Michael Collins.

Three

Rehash of elements from Chapter 1-2 above...Cliff and Betty marry 16 April 1944 in Pontypool, South Wales where they were stationed...Pete born Nazareth House, West London...move to Horace and Dot's flat in Ealing Common...Cliff performing in Germany when told of birth.

Four

Move to Acton in war-damaged house when Pete was baby...mother has to stop singing to raise Pete...Pete accompanies parents on Squadronaire's tour bus...Pete makes friends with musicians handing out beers.

Five

Squadronaires get long engagements at Butlin's...happy summers after war...Squadronaires develop secret whistle to recall members from festivities...Pete sides with entertainers; sees audiences as 'customers'.

Six

I am London; I am British; born in West London right after World War II...grandparents and parents shaped by horrors of war...music to counter depression...music center of Pete's universe.

Seven

Sept. 1949 attend Silverdale Nursery in Birch Grove Acton...mother snappy dresser after clothes rationing ends in 1949...Pete joins gang in nursery school; gets into mischief...older children tell young ones about horrors of war-time bombings...war abuse leads to child abuse.

Eight

1950 Pete kept in private school...misses school buddies from neighborhood...hates school

Nine

Summer 1951 mother reunites with grandmother Denny who is acting strangely...Pete sent to live with her to 'level her up'...Denny acts like 'perfect Wicked Witch'...punishes Pete by denying food.

Ten

New school St. Saviours...reading ability test puts Pete at bottom of class; finishes at top...Denny has 'Uncle' with Hitler mustache over all night...Pete has night sweats, terrified because door unlocked; feels exposed and alone...wishes for sibling...Denny traumatizes Pete by pretending to drown him...Pete develops fear of women who can damage him; take control over him.

In note, Pete says unlocked door opened to a landing open to the public.

Recording

2007-04-30T06:52:00.000-04:00

Pete has a new blog post up about Recording:

Here's a quote:

What is the thesis? It is that the quality of the equipment used in the old days, and the limited scope for modification of sound, placed the focus entirely on the music itself, and of course on the sound of the room in which the recording was made. So many wonderful recording rooms have been lost in the last twenty years, all around the world. Rooms that had either been 'found' to sound good, or 'helped' to sound good, or 'designed' to sound good are now serving duty as Loft-style apartments.

I've been thinking about this a lot listening to modern rock 'n' roll recording. My big problem with it is that it all sounds so flat, like the instrument has no resonance in the air around it; just the flat sound of the instrument. "Room sound" is very important to the quality of what is known as "classic rock" and accounts for one of the important reasons why music of that era sounded so good.

My friend and fellow Who historian Joe McMichael lived in Los Angeles the day they tore down Gold Star Studio, where The Who recorded their vocals for "I Can See For Miles" and "Magic Bus". Here's Pete from 1971 on Gold Star:

The real production masterpiece in the Who/Lambert coalition was, of course, "I Can See For Miles." The version here is not the mono, which is a pity because the mono makes the stereo sound like the Carpenters. We cut the track in London at CBS studios and brought the tapes to Gold Star studios in Hollywood to mix and master them. Gold Star has the nicest sounding echo in the world. And there is just a little of that on the mono. Plus, a touch of home-made compressor in Gold Star's cutting room. I swoon when I hear the sound.

Anyway, Joe got to Gold Star just as they were demolishing it. After a quick word with the construction foreman, he was allowed to step into the studio before they brought it down. He looked around in the darkness and clapped his hands, listening to the reverberating beats that brought artists from around the world. He was the last human to hear it.

Pete Townshend (who he?) - Ch. 19-20

2007-04-25T16:33:00.000-04:00

So Jimpy was the guy who inspired the first half of "Real Good-Looking Boy." Wonder who Jimpy was and if he comes up later in some part of the Pete/Who story?

Talking about Pete's childhood friends brings up a point from this era that I've always wondered about: were Pete and John childhood "friends"? John makes his entrance in Ch. 20 with the extremely understated

We called the group ‘The Confederates’. In the spring of 1958 when we began I was still only twelve years old. They were all teenagers at thirteen. I had already met John Entwistle and greatly enjoyed his sense of humour.

Did you have "working" friends when you were 12 or 13? Pete seems to have had them. Although they will be together so much over the next few years (John is present when Pete trashes his first amp in his bedroom), I don't get the sense that they would ever have hung out together just to have fun. It's nothing like the Lennon/McCartney teen dynamic. Wonder why that is? I hope Pete goes into that relationship more.

Also John's afterschool band "The Confederates" was so dubbed because the main Acton afterschool band was "The Union."

I thought I read in one of his old interviews that Pete claimed to have marched in the CND protest march. Perhaps this story is meant to correct that. Anti-nuclear proliferation will come up later of course in the justification for "My Generation"'s infamous line "Hope I die before I get old" (Pete thought he'd die in a fireball anyway), the CHINESE EYES and IT'S HARD albums and the current Pete obsession with terrorists getting the bomb.

While on the subject, DO DO DO get the new DVD of Peter Watkins' 1965 masterpiece THE WAR GAME. Made for the BBC, the film recreates in horrifying, stunning detail a nuclear attack on the English city of Kent. It will immediately put you back into that mindframe of the 1960's when annihilation seemed just around the corner.

Excerpt from new Ian Rankin mystery

2007-04-23T07:35:00.000-04:00

From NPR

Excerpt: 'The Naming of the Dead'

Chapter 1

In place of a closing hymn, there was music. The Who, "Love Reign o'er Me." Rebus recognized it the moment it started, thunderclaps and teeming rain filling the chapel...

...The song was only a little more than halfway through. It was the closing track on Quadrophenia. Michael had been the big Who fan, Rebus himself preferring the Stones. Had to admit, though, albums like Tommy and Quadrophenia did things the Stones never could. Daltrey was whooping now that he could use a drink. Rebus had to agree, but there was the drive back to Edinburgh to consider...

A "criminal" investigation

2007-04-20T07:00:00.000-04:00

I'll get to Pete's new chapters soon but first I really have to get this off my chest:

Operation Ore flawed by fraud

New evidence I have gathered for my work as an expert witness in defence cases shows that thousands of cases under Operation Ore have been built on the shakiest of foundations - the use of credit card details to sign up for pornography websites. In many cases, the card details were stolen; the sites contained nothing or legal material only; and the people who allegedly signed up to visit the sites never went there...

...In all, 7,272 British residents were on its target lists, more than 2,000 of whom have never been investigated; and 39 men have killed themselves under the pressure of the investigations.

I've been hearing this for years and the article doesn't even cover the fact that the list of names barely made it to the U.K. before someone in Scotland Yard gave (sold?) it to The Times. Pete may have been the most famous victim but he certainly wasn't the most damaged as you can see above. A criminal investigation designed to help innocent victims was turned by the British police into an investigation that was criminal and created more innocent victims. Disgusting.

And don't give me that crap about "Pete admitted he went there so that doesn't count." He only had to come forward because the press was just about to tell everyone it was him, his story checked out completely, he never downloaded any porn to his computers and now his reputation has been tainted in the eyes of many people. Had a private investigation been properly handled, no one would have ever known his name was on the list. Bastards!

In Memorium: Sue Bundrick

2007-04-19T11:20:00.000-04:00

A moment's silence for Sue Bundrick. The wife of John "Rabbit" Bundrick, keyboardist for The Who since 1977, has succumbed after a long battle with cancer. Thoughts and prayers go out to John and his family.

Return of the Rock Opera

2007-04-15T08:21:00.000-04:00

The Scotsman on Sunday reports that:

Former Blur frontman Damon Albarn is working on an opera, and rock band Kasabian announced last week they would produce a rock opera.

Meanwhile in Rochester, NY, The Democratic & Chronicle reports on a new work:

The title of Bartlett's piano quartet, Teratography, translates as "Writing About Monstrosities," which gives you some idea of its offbeat flavor. So should the two British rock songs that the Philadelphia composer quotes in her work: The Who's Pinball Wizard and King Crimson's FraKctured.

Could this finally mark the end of the 30-year reign of the punk orthodoxy?

Okay, back in the mid-Seventies, it was a challenge when punk appeared with its championing of three-chord rock and instrumentalists who could thrash out a tune without filigree. I got no problem with that and it led to some truly great music.

However, it settled into the music critic establishment and became the "new boss, same as the old boss." Anyone who ventured beyond the punk template was shot down immediately and branded with that most heinous of epithets, "pretentious."

But there is only so much you can do with three chords. Three decades after punk, you can turn on to hear the latest great (almost always white) hope and, unless you're very young, your immediate response is: been there, done that, heard it before.

Finally rock may be shaking off those restrictions. How long until music critics notice that they are being left in the dust of history?

Zimmers "My Generation" to be single release

2007-04-14T07:59:00.001-04:00

The Daily Mail has an article today about The Zimmer's hit YouTube video of "My Generation":

Brought together for a TV documentary, they have attracted a cult following after recording a version of The Who's My Generation and are destined for chart stardom.

The group, who are 40 in number and call themselves The Zimmers, pulled in an audience of 20,000 within a couple days of posting their video on the websites YouTube and MySpace.

They now plan a round of personal appearances, the release of the single in May then perhaps an album, which if the current interest is anything to go by, should be a chart-topper.

The group, which is fronted by bingo devotee Alfie Carretta, 90, were handpicked by BBC documentary-maker Tim Samuels who was shooting a hard-hitting series on the isolation of the elderly in Britain.

As the programme evolved, Samuels decided as a finale to gather his elderly subjects to make a memorable musical statement about their situation.
The project snowballed. U2's producer Mike Hedges and Band Aid video director Geoff Wonfor became involved, and recording time was secured at the famous Abbey Road recording studios.

They were given training by Fame Academy's voice coaches. They were then coached from around the country to the North London studios, where the single was painstakingly recorded between band members having to sit out sections due to treatment for various medical problems. One fainted in over-excitement before she even reached the studios.

Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and John Entwhistle they were not - in fact fans postings on MySpace talk of the band 'making The Rolling Stones look like teenagers'.

But with Alfie snarling 'Hope I die before I get old' and kicking over a drumkit, Winifred Warburton, 99, thrashing at the keyboard and Buster Martin, 100, the oldest working man in Britain, flicking a middle-finger at the cameras, they were a force to behold.

Indeed, they smashed up their instruments with just as much gusto as The Who used to do in the 1960s.

The Zimmers even recruited their own elderly marketing expert as a band member. Peter Oakley, 79, is an Internet star in his own right, with his own YouTube link, where he keeps a video diary. Producers linked the My Generation video to his already popular YouTube site, immediately attracting thousands of hits.
Profits from the single will go to Age Concern. Samuels told the Daily Mail: 'The series is all about finding those middle Englanders who suffer in silence. We are doing three programmes where those who have been disfranchised fight back with a bit of guerilla action and chutzpah.

'We collected a group of old people and take them through a rock and roll journey to bring them back to life a bit.

'We decided to get them recording a single to highlight the way they are mistreated in this country by challenging the misconceptions we have about them. And as it turns out, it has really taken off. We are negotiating a personal appearance at a nightclub in Haymarket, London, banking on plenty of radio play, and the single is out in May.'

He added: 'They are all enjoying the rock and roll ride in a very understated way. Some of them might not be able to stand for too long as their knees might give them a bit of gyp, but they are all sprightly enough.' The documentary, part three of BBC2's Power To The People series, goes out in May.

Lisztomania II ?

2007-04-10T08:07:00.000-04:00

Madman Ken Russell is at it again, this time in book form

The famously provocative and controversial British filmmaker, who evidently enjoys airing the dirty laundry of legendary artistic icons, has published new books exploring the seedier sides of Brahms, Beethoven, Elgar and (the syphilitic) Delius..."Read my books under the covers, flashlight at the ready. But if they're not just about the sex lives of these beloved composers, don't say I didn't warn you."

I've got to admit I'm a guilty fan of Lisztomania and think it's way overdue for a DVD release, but I am tickled by this final quote from the article:

His notorious staging of Madama Butterfly at the 1983 Spoleto Festival U.S.A. protrayed Cio-Cio-San as a prostitute in a sleazy brothel under the control of Goro, a pimp. Donal Henahan, reviewing the production for The New York Times, wrote that "Perhaps because he lacked Ken Russell's feverish imagination, Puccini never wrote an opera called The Best Little Whorehouse in Nagasaki."

The one and only Bobby Pridden

2007-04-02T06:58:00.000-04:00

While I wait (and wait) for Scott to get the servers turned back on so I can get this month's The Who This Month back up, I applaud Pete's recent blog celebrating the wonderful Bobby Pridden.

Pete Townshend (who he?)

What a delight it is, while boogie-ing to the beat during a Who show, to glance over at Bobby behind his mixing board boogie-ing along as well to what must be the 4 millionth time he's heard that song.

In celebration, here's some photos of Bobby (sure would like to see the one Pete talks about!).

Top 25 Classic Rock albums

2007-03-31T08:43:00.000-04:00

IGN.com picks their Top 25 Classic Rock albums of all time:

IGN.com

Usually I ignore such things, but who am I to argue with their #1 choice?

1. The Who - Quadrophenia (MCA, 1973)
Where Tommy laid out the definitive blueprint for the rock opera, Quadrophenia improved upon it by leaps and bounds. This is, without a question, doubt, or any argument whatsoever, The Who's crowning achievement as a band. Every single song bristles with emotion, both raw and introspective. Pete Townshend's songwriting is at its peak, as is his guitar playing and singing. Roger Daltry steps up to the plate and slams out some searing vocal emotion. Meanwhile both John Entwistle and Keith Moon prove that they were one of the best rhythm duos of their (or anybody's) day. There's no need to list all the songs here, since each and every one is a classic. If you don't own this album it causes one to query "What's wrong with you?" Seriously.

A History of The Who

2007-03-27T21:28:00.000-04:00

I'll be premiering this on the first of April but for you, my loyal readers, a chance to read it in advance.

Scott Smith asked me to add to my old History of the Who at thewho.net but, after looking it over, I decided to completely re-write it from scratch. The idea was to tell the story in as concise a form as possible; basically being what you needed to know: who did what that led to what, why they were different and important and touch on the major controversies.

I hope you enjoy it. As always, my door is open if you feel I've cocked the whole thing up. Stop on by.

Go to:
A History of The Who

Pete Townshend - (who he?) - 13 through 17

2007-03-27T21:17:00.000-04:00

So we get to the part where it becomes clear how much of the early chapters of The Boy Who Heard Music were based on Pete's personal life. Rather a lot, as it turns out. No wonder he is obsessed with combating child abuse. And I think of the monster moralists out there with whom I and others have to do battle over his 2003 hardships and it makes me sick.

The Sea Scouts business does obscure a very important part of Pete's musical development, the discovery of the "drone." Pete's love for repeated musical notes comes up in so much of his work from "Circles" to the instrumental at the core of "Rael" and "Sparks" and the swirling synthesized notes of "Baba O'Riley" and so many others of the Lifehouse song cycle. You can actually hear the specific drone at the beginning of "The Rock."

And whatever became of all those childhood drawings? I hope once Pete gets back home, he can scan and post a few of them.

The End of The Who in America?

2007-03-25T18:44:00.000-04:00

This question arises after Pete's blog about cancelling a planned Who leg for North America in August. You can read it here:

Pete's Blog

Does this mean that The Who show for March 26 will be The Who's last in the U.S.? If Pete's concerned enough about Roger's health to cancel shows five months from now, who knows if he'll ever feel secure enough for The Two to take to the road again? We shall see.

Odd that it might end at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. Oddest of all, however, that it will be FORTY YEARS AND ONE DAY PRECISELY since they first performed in the U.S., at the R.K.O. Theatre in New York as part of Murray The K's Easter bash.

Roger around the corner

2007-03-24T09:01:00.001-04:00

Wouldn't it be great to have Roger around the corner ready to go "Yeeeeeaaahhey!" whenever you said anything momentous? Dennis Volkert at Sturgis Journal talks about how great that would be:

Sturgis Journal

and what would a blog be with a YouTube to illustrate what that would be like?

Ron Nevison interview

2007-03-20T11:11:00.000-04:00

Ziggy over at THE WHO FORUM has posted a Q&A with Ron Nevison who worked with Pete engineering the Quadrophenia album, which Pete just called his best work at SxSW. Do read it if you're interested in the album (and who isn't?).

Apparently Pete recorded his synths and acoustic guitar at his home studio while John recorded the horns at his home studio, both using a click track. It was then Nevison's job to sync the lot up. It's a wonder it took only eight months to do it. It's a wonder it could have been done at all. One flaw you can hear even in the remastered version is a tape deck starting up during the beginning of "5:15".

Pete Townshend - (who he?) - 6 through 12

2007-03-20T10:51:00.000-04:00

These chapters take us from September 1951 through the summer of the following year and detail, as much as Pete could discover, of his time with his mad Grandmother Denny.

Denny seems like a character from Dickens or Charlotte Bronte. Who would have played her in the 1940's movie version? Margaret Hamilton? Judith Anderson? Agnes Moorehead?

As I noted in a reply on Pete's site, there also is an echo of Chaplin's My Autobiography here. Chaplin's mother went insane (tertiary syphilis as it turns out). Of course Pete didn't end up in a Victorian orphanage as Charlie did. Otherwise we would have "that tramp sure plays a mean pinball."

After the Denny incident Pete goes into his mother's affair at that time. He doesn't talk about how it affected his own view of marriage. Pete, by his own account, fought hard for his marriage and it was probably the primary reason for retiring from The Who in 1983. The ending of the Tommy musical has Tommy rejected because he quits the rock star game to spend more time with his family; a re-write of the ending that was meant to reflect Pete's last attempt to maintain his marriage with Karen. Did he see himself in his father, inviting infidelity by remaining on the road? Did he feel that his children would be threatened by his absence as he had been by his father's?

Pete Townshend - (who he?) - 2 through 5

2007-03-08T06:22:00.000-05:00

Pete got this a bit rearranged before I could get to the post last night, breaking what was a segment of Chapter One into four additional chapters.

Two through Five deals with Pete's parents Cliff and Betty Townshend.

A history and photos of The Squadronaires:
http://www.maybole.org/Notables/mcquater/squadronaires.htm

Click here to watch The Squadronaires performing in 1951 (good close-up of Cliff!). Click on the Download Video link. There is an option to download a free preview.
http://tinyurl.com/yrzbla

An ex-Squadronaire recalling Cliff complaining about Pete and his friends: http://www.jazzprofessional.com/ronspages/squads.htm

There's a guy with a website where he collects Cliff, but I can't find it right now. If I do, I'll post it here.

Funny that Cliff was in Owsley's British fascist movement and the reason was the "Uniforms." Link to Modism? Wonder if there was any problem about that when Cliff joined the RAF? Is that why he didn't fly? Probably for the best, of course. Wouldn't want him to go missing, only to return years later and shoot Betty's lover right in front of Pete! A "deaf, dumb and blind" Pete is hard to imagine. Hell, a non-talking Pete is hard to imagine!

Turns out Billy Nicholls' dad, also named Billy Nicholls, was in Cliff's band. Here's an interview where Billy Nicholls fils mentions his dad:
http://www.geocities.com/mikegriffiths6/Billy_Nicholls_Email_Interview_1.html

Chapter 1 - 1 Excerpt

2007-03-01T22:31:00.000-05:00

I got to visit the area in the first two paragraphs during the 1998 Who convention. Here's a picture of the White Hart Hotel I took then:

Look closely and you can see some of the detail Pete talks about seeing from the bus.

We then meet his grandfather Horace. A slightly odd fellow for a slightly odd family. Do not forget that England was a terrifically class-conscious society at that time. Very pregnant brides were simply not done and one didn't touch musical instruments unless it was a little piano playing for a good sing-a-long on occassion. A bit of the non-conformist in this family.

And why wasn't Pete confirmed? Look at this passage I snagged from an Anglican website:

...you have to be confirmed before you are able to take Communion. Being confirmed means that you accept the promises made for you when you were baptized - to love God and obey his commandments. Normally you are confirmed as a teenager, but there isn't a set age - you can decide when you are ready...

Did Pete just never decide to go through with it? Did he not believe? Interesting question considering the giant role religion will play in his later life.

Also don't miss the business with the busking on Brighton Pier (the one Ken Russell would burn down filming Tommy?). His grandmother's response that they were performing to raise money 'for ourselves' is more than slightly ironic considering the hot water her grandson will get into by daring to link his music and money later in life. The Townshends Sell Out!

Pete Townshend (who he?) – Prologue

2007-02-26T20:05:00.000-05:00

Well, it has been a while, hasn't it! But Pete's back to sharing his writing with us and, as he has nowhere to post comments, I thought I'd volunteer. After all, with the autobiography, we get to delve into actual history and not literary criticism as was the case with "The Boy Who Heard Music."

I hope this blog can turn into a meeting place for those of us who've studied the history of this author and spent many a day trying to untangle The Story of The Who from all the mistakes, press agency, and long-lost information. So let's begin!

Pete starts with a memory that forms a key image in the last story in Pete's book Horse's Neck (1985), "Laguna, Valentine's Day, 1982." Here as there the memory relates to his parent's abandonment of Pete to the not-so-tender care of his grandmother that follows in the next paragraph. So this is, at long last, a non-fictionalized version of the "suppressed memory" he recovered when he first began researching this autobio after his Sept. 1991 bicycle accident. An incident much like this occurs in "The Boy Who Heard Music," somewhat sexualized. Wonder if that part was created for the novella or actually occurred? Pete has long spoken of the "abuse" he suffered at the hands of his grandmother and I've wondered whether he meant straight-up physical hurting or something that involved molestation.

The first thing I think most armchair psychologists would say is, "no wonder he had problems with the older generation!" That may be a bit too pat a conclusion but what about the connection to water that runs through Pete's work, from "Water" to "Drowned" to "The Sea Refuses No River"? Most might see a connection to Tommy but there's also a strong link to Quadrophenia, both with the incipient madness and the submersion in liquid. This is really where the need for a scholarly journal on Townshendania would be of use.

And what must he, a supporter of the Iraq invasion, thought when he heard about the use of waterboarding?

We then leap to the early evening of May 1, 1969 as Pete grabs his guitar and walks to Ronnie Scott's to premiere Tommy. Pete spoke a long time ago about the meaning of his "boiler suit" attire, about feeling like a worker putting on his work clothes and heading off to his job. Also hinted at here is the "tour armour" of his infamous 1980 Rolling Stone interview as he cloaks himself in it during his walk. Preparation for going through his "Dr. Jimmy and Mr. Jim" transformation from "this rational person sitting here talking to you" to the windmilling Yippie-basher.

And who might the bombastic music journalist be? Charles Shaar Murray, Chris Welch? Hmmmm.

The Boy Who Heard Music - Chapter 23 - Thumbnail

2006-02-18T12:21:00.000-05:00

"The Black Hole"

In the final chapter, Ray sort of straightens everything out. Josh went insane and murdered his best friend Gabriel at the long ago Concert in New York. The version Ray talks about happening at the asylum in Isleworth is a re-creation at the site of the original production of "Trilby's Piano." Leila and Ray's fellow inmate Josh attend. The steps from the original production now lead to a bar called "The Black Hole." Ray says that if you go in the bar, you can no longer returns to The Ether. Ray signs off leaving Leila and Josh chatting. Josh imagines Gabriel in The Black Hole ..."Piecing together the fragments with the help of a whiskey." Leila then leaves Josh to his asylum cell and his thoughts.

Pete's comment site may be closed but it is open here for anyone that wants to use it.

The Boy Who Heard Music - Chapter 22

2006-02-13T08:05:00.000-05:00

"The Colegno"

The title confuse you? It won't be the only thing in the novel's penultimate chapter.

The Concert For New York takes place in Central Park with many guest bands participating in the realization of Ray's Grid dream. Audience members have their music played for them as it all coalesces into the sound of the ocean. Ray is there to take his bows and yet he is simultaneously watching a representation of the event on the stage at his old studio in Isleworth.

Then Josh grabs a gun from a security guard and shoots Gabriel. Victoria announces that, if Gabriel dies, all the people connected to him through the music will die as well. In this instance, maybe yelling "Fire!" would be safer. In any case, a massive staircase appears, a full-scale version of the staircase from "Trilby's Piano" where Trilby ascended to meet her dead love Hymie. Leila and Josh help Gabriel to the stairs and he ascends, apparently dying.

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2006-02-06T15:50:00.000-05:00

"A Concert For New York"

In the world of Ray, his old Grid dream is starting to invade his institutional reality as everyone in the nuthouse but him leaves to participate in Gabriel and Josh's world concert. Turns out local developers have agreed not to tear down the sanitarium and Damoo's connected studio until the last inmate dies, and Ray is it. Nice developers they have in his world. I could use some with that degree of respect in my neighborhood.

Meanwhile, in New York, there have been a series of terrorist attacks, bombings ala London, not plane crashes as in 9/11. Good guess, 'though, as it turns out Our Author wrote this in 2000. The rocking Nostradamus strikes again, unfortunately in this case. A touch far-fetched, but Josh and Gabriel's concert is still going on despite the chaos in the city. Josh has brought Victoria to sing Gabriel's song. Leila arrives at the last minute to stop everything but decides to let it continue as a tribute to the city's victims.

The Boy Who Heard Music - Chapter 20 - Thumbnail

2006-01-30T09:58:00.000-05:00

"I♥U2"

In the preantepenultimate chapter, things look rough for our trio but Leila is apparently looking fine as Our Author goes into rapturous overdrive describing the state of her body in 2002 and puts himself into line for a Literary Review award.

Everyone else is in New York for the coming Grid-A-Thon. Josh is there with Victoria, although it's not clear whether it's the real Victoria or Leila's cybernetic imposter.

Gabriel, meanwhile, has taken his neo-Psychoderelict lifestyle to New York's Ritz Carlton where he has hooked up with a hooker with a more than passing resemblance to Leila. He is now hearing voices, specifically the screaming children image out of The Iron Man. He opens a window for more air and hears the tragedies of New York (Lennon's shooting, 9/11) echoing through the streets before his reverie is cut short when he suddenly gets a mouthful of pigeon.

Update: Pete says the girl with Gabriel is NOT a prostitute although she does seem like one. I thought she was. Must have been a Trick of the Light.

The Boy Who Heard Music - Chapter 19 - Thumbnail

2006-01-24T20:08:00.000-05:00

"Men Called Uncle"

...And if you're thinking more Uncle Ernie than Napoleon Solo, you'd be right. It's 2002 and Gabriel is an aging reclusive drunk living in Ray's old house living Ray's old lifestyle. Josh shows up on his doorstep with the present of a massive guilt trip. He's run out of money (cough, cough...John Entwistle...cough, cough), so he needs Gabriel to release the rights to their joint music so he can hack Lelia's computer and stage the Gridlife concert. He also tells Gabriel that the "Victoria" he has been communicating with on the Internet is an artificial person created by Leila.

With enough of that plot, we soar into the ether with Ray High as he recalls being abused as a child in some way (Our Author cut back exactly what happened. Probably best). It involves a woman holding his head underwater in a bathtup and a man dressed a bit like...Cousin Kevin?

The Boy Who Heard Music - Chapter 18 - Thumbnail

2006-01-15T14:33:00.000-05:00

"Birthday Treat"

Ray is a little more lucid on his 90th birthday in 2035 and, while wandering around the old neighborhood in his pajamas, sets himself to the task of tying up loose ends.

Turns out Leila's remark about the efficacy of Gabriel's sperm referred to her finding out about his love child with Angie. Leila leaves Gabriel and turns to Josh, getting into S&M games with him in a parallel with Rastus and Ruth Streeting's similar activities in Psychoderelict. And, as if to make this even more of a repeat of the earlier work, Gabriel becomes involved with the Glass fan Victoria who sends him a naughty e-mail and seeks his help in becoming a star. Gabriel ends up, not in a scandal, but having a solo hit with "Only One Hymie," a song about his son who died in a car accident along with Angie who was doing cocaine Gabriel had given her at the time. Gabriel's grief is used as the public reason why Gabriel refuses to participate in the big Glass reunion concert in New York. Privately, Gabriel has put the kibosh on the concert by denying Leila and John access to the songs he co-wrote.

Meanwhile in 2035, Ray says he is a purely voluntary resident in the asylum and that he and Damoo built the first Vox-Box at the studio and it was hooked up to the early Internet.

Keith Moon died of heroin overdose?

2006-01-08T16:28:00.000-05:00

In the cover story of the Feb. 2006 issue of Mojo, Pete Townshend says this:

...I'm not sure it was the heroin overdose that killed him or the steak he ate first thing in the morning. (p.73)

Now, as you fellow Whostorians know, the medical examiner stated the cause of Keith's death was from an overdose of Hemineverin tablets, 26 undissolved ones in his stomach out of 32 and a test of his bloodstream showed a "minimal" amount of alcohol present.

So I would be inclined to think that Pete or the interviewer made a mistake except that I was talking to a Who insider just two days before who also insisted he was told several years ago that Keith was known to have been on heroin the last six months of his life.

Why would this have only come out now? Why would the test of his bloodstream not shown the presence of opiates (tell me a rock star dies young and the medical examiner doesn't test for opiates). Could the official result been suppressed but why? And, if Pete knew about this, why would he sit on the information throughout his anti-heroin campaign of the mid-1980's?

I've got feelers out to those in the know to see if they've heard anything but this makes no sense to me at all.

The Boy Who Heard Music - Chapter 17 - Thumbnail

2006-01-08T09:52:00.000-05:00

"An Answer to Job"

The chapter begins with our trio again watching the footage of the tragedy that occurred at a long-ago Ray High concert. Ray's comments are seemingly exact copies of what Pete did after the similar tragedy at a Who concert in Cincinnati in 1979.

Photo: Jack Klumphe

Leila begins to use the images of the tragedy to make the face of Ray's teacher Silverman. Over at Television Without Pity they would start talking about anvils dropping at this point.

Ray then discusses the book of Job and seems to confuse it with Genesis, the Bible chapter, not the prog-rock band.

Leila, while reveling in her successful technological baby of the realized Grid, drops a heavy hint that she may or may have been pregnant. But who is it? Is it donor number one, donor number two or donor number three?

The Boy Who Heard Music - Chapter 16 - Thumbnail

2006-01-01T12:29:00.000-05:00

"Alcohol and Pregnancy"

The first difficult chapter in a while but with some action and more than a little punning.

Josh and Leila begin the theme of pessimism vs. optimism with a debate about children she could bear with either Josh or Gabriel. Gabriel describes her as "broody" in the first of the puns. The theme, of course, is also echoed in the latest Message From Our Author.

Then we jump to Leila getting all drunk in Brixton, getting wrapped in plastic and later found in the skip, not dead like Laura Palmer
but raped. Hmm, put a speedball injection in place of Saran Wrap and heart stoppage in place of rape and the whole scene seems rather familiar.

Meanwhile Gabriel does his least to satisfy a girl he thinks he is love with (leading to his introductory remark while driving, "Too fast for you?" Tut-tut, P.T.). Meanwhile Glass' success has led to the inevitable backlash in the British press, thanks to a well-timed radio message.

However, a good half of the chapter is taken up with a heady confrontation between Ray and his art school professor who belittles his pessimistic view of "The Grid" and says he has abandoned his "art" by becoming a rock star. Most of it sounds like the most sobbish professor-speak you can imagine. I wonder whether Our Author is being satirical or means us to swallow the professor's swill? Guess it depends on whether you take his remarks as half-full or half-empty.

The Boy Who Heard Music - Chapter 15 - Thumbnail

2005-12-29T19:58:00.000-05:00

"Driving"

Gabriel looks at Glass fan Victoria through what must be some really good spyware, then wacks off his guitar in the studio in a bit of sublimation. The next day Josh demonstrates the new computer program that allows Gabriel, Leila and Josh's pictures and "personal sounds" to run into each other creating a merged image and musical noise. Ray mentions Leila's image, for instance, looking like the cat drawings of Louis Wain:

Meanwhile, in the land of rock stardom, Leila has become the world's sexiest Muslim, with popular pictures of her wearing a white T-shirt with no bra going around the world. Gabriel's childhood abuse picture is also going around the world and he tries to deny he is gay, a denial so poorly worded, it seems to confirm what he is denying. Must have talked to Timothy White...

Townshend Bio

2005-12-26T20:02:00.000-05:00

Sorry to be late putting in the synopsis of Pete's latest chapter but I've been at the beach on Christmas vacation and just got back on Monday evening.

For a good beach read, I took Mark Wilkerson's new biography of Pete. Amazing Journey: The Life Of Pete Townshend.

A lot of you have already read it online at Mark's site but this was my first time catching up with it (lazy, I know...) and it was very interesting to go through Pete's entire life to date as an artist without the artificial cutoff dates of Keith's death, the Farewell Tour, etc. The underlining themes in his work become a bit clearer and what he's doing now as a writer and guitarist make more sense. Get the book (here) or read it online but try to read it as all of one piece and you'll be amazed all the elements in Pete's work to which he returns again and again. For those of you following The Boy Who Heard Music check out this 1973 note from Pete about his part of Jimmy's character in Quadrophenia

I'm the good part of the character needless to say - the choir boy who doesn't make good, the sea scout who gets assaulted by the scout master.

By the way, as I'm typing this, I'm listening to the new album by the Japanese Mod band The Collectors Biff Bang Pow

It has Japanese-language versions of Mod classics of the 1960's including "Pictures of Lily." Check it out if you get a chance.

The Boy Who Heard Music - Chapter 14 - Thumbnail

2005-12-17T14:34:00.000-05:00

"The Method"

A lot of plot and theory in this chapter. Gabriel, Leila and Josh's group "The Glass Household" becomes a huge hit under the management of Rastus, Ray's old manager from Psychoderelict. Rastus now runs PlusBond, a multimedia company that is dubbed the "Grid" exactly as in Ray's unfinished rock work from the 1970's. The group's contract puts Leila in control of the Grid's pop-music content and she uses it to begin to make Ray's old "Grid" dream come true.

Meanwhile, Gabriel beats out Josh for Leila's hand but finds it difficult to keep up with her sexually and becomes an alcoholic and a web voyeur. While "Googling" his name, Gabriel discovers the pictures of himself being sexually abused as a child by the Sea Scouts, pictures that have spread all over the world via the Internet.

The Boy Who Heard Music - Chapter 13 - Thumbnail

2005-12-12T06:51:00.000-05:00

"The Glass Household"

It's a year after the premiere of Josh, Leila and Gabriel's musical group at Myrna's birthday party. Hymie has died and now past antagonists Myrna and Trilby are close friends. Meanwhile our threesome's musical group is beginning to take off under the name "The Glass Household," based on Ray's autobiography. Their fans have shortened it to "Glass."

Meanwhile, Josh, Leila and Gabriel's Jules and Jim-type relationship is beginning to start. Hope no one ends up driving a car off a pier!

The Boy Who Heard Music - Chapter 12 - Thumbnail

2005-12-03T14:31:00.000-05:00

"Fragments"

In the best chapter so far, Ray tells the story of the latter years of his band, a band whose history is an alternate-universe version of The Who's, including a reunion concert in 1983 and a Cincinnati-type stampede in which 17 fans died.

A year after the events in the previous chapter (1982) Gabriel, Josh, Leila have become interested in Ray and the rockers that came before them after attending a reunion concert of Ray's band. They watch news footage of the concert crush and discuss the meaning of rock in the universe. Josh compares the rock of Ray's era to the Big Bang that created the universe and says the purpose of the rock music of their generation is to bring all the fragments back together as it all collapses back in on itself.

So far, the chapter I would choose for anthologies.

The U2 Business Model

2005-11-28T07:16:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry this is linked to the New York Times so it won't be available long after I post this, but it's an important buisness article about how the group U2 manages its brand that certainly makes you think of how The Who brand has been so badly mis-managed. Some highlights:

APOLOGIZE, THEN MOVE ON With the Vertigo tour, it became apparent that some of those fans who had paid good money to join U2's Web site had been elbowed aside by scalpers in the scrum for tickets. The band's response was to apologize immediately and promise to do better.

DON'T EMBARRASS YOUR FANS Sure, U2 has recorded some clunkers (1997's "Pop" comes to mind) but the band works and reworks material until it has a whole album's worth of songs, no filler. Last Tuesday, the band played at least four of the songs from the current album, giving the songs a shot at entering the pantheon and affirming U2's status as a contemporary band, not a guilty pleasure or retro musical act that covers their own earlier greatness.

BE CAREFUL HOW YOU SELL OUT U2 has been offered as much as $25 million to allow a song to be used in a car commercial. No dice. They traded brands, not money, with Apple. Bob Dylan may wander around in a Victoria's Secret ad and The Who will rent "My Generation" to anybody with the wherewithal, but the only thing U2's music sells is U2. Just because it will fold and go in someone's pocket - The New Yorker publishing ads illustrated by its cartoonists comes to mind - does not mean it will be beneficial over the long haul.

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2005-11-27T16:29:00.000-05:00

"Only One Hymie"

Continuing from the last chapter, our three heroes are putting on their first public performance. Their production is a sort of opera to fulfill Leila's stated desire at the end of Chapter 9 to marry Hymie and Trilby. Rather a cheeky move as this is all done in front of Josh's mom Myrna who doesn't want the marriage to take place and is supposed to be there celebrating her birthday. In any case, after their piece makes the point that, if Hymie and Trilby were to die, they'd reunite in heaven, Gabriel, Josh and Leila succeed in getting a tearful Myrna to agree to the union.

In a side note, we are more strongly introduced to the trio's schoolmate Phil (see Chapter 6) who introduced Gabriel to Uncle Ernie...er, I mean the Sea Scouts and who seems poised to become their lead guitarist and Leila's friend Dotty (also Chapter 6) who may end up being the group's violinist.

The Boy Who Heard Music - Chapter 10 - Thumbnail

2005-11-20T07:20:00.000-05:00

"Trilby's Piano"

In this chapter Ray High is confirmed to be committed to a mental institution (the same one from which Josh is released in Chapter One). So we are left with the old The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari question, "is this for real or the ravings of a madman?" Anyway our madman Ray reveals he sold his "glass house" to Gabriel around 2004.

Back in 1976, Josh's dad dies, killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber in Tel Aviv while he was visiting his mistress (Josh's dad, not the bomber). Then, to top that, Josh's uncle Hymie gets engaged to Gabriel's Aunt Trilby. Myrna is intent on breaking it up but consents to attend her 34th birthday party held by Damoo at BBZee Studios. She doesn't know it but she is about to witness the first performance by the group formed by Gabriel, Josh and Leila, an opera called "Trilby's Piano."

The Boy Who Heard Music - Chapter 9 - Thumbnail

2005-11-13T09:05:00.000-05:00

"Chapter 9 - The 36 Dramatic Situations"

Ray confirms that Damoo was his partner as Damoo continues our three heroes' tour of the studio. Damoo puts forth the theory of the "New Ether" involving communication across parallel universes, a theory it seems he stole from Ray.

Meanwhile in the future, Gabriel reveals that the "Vox-Box" from which he is speaking is located in the same studio.

Back in 1975, Leila begins and the others flesh out the plot of Lifehouse or whatever it is called in Ray's universe (The Grid?). To help out, Leila gets her dad's copy of the real world 1868 book The 36 Dramatic Situations by George Polti. Click here for more information about that book.

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2005-11-05T18:03:00.000-05:00

"The Mirror Door"

Well, what we've all been dreading since the end of Chapter 6 finally gets spelled out at the beginning of this chapter; i.e., what happens with Gabriel and the Sea Scouts. It isn't salacious but it is pretty graphic. Gee, Pete, for some reason your friends were hesitant to have you publish this? You don't say.

With that over, we're back to the story of Gabriel, Josh and Leila as the pre-teen burqa queen kisses both the boys and makes them hear music...or voices depending on which it is. She then informs them she can fly although she never has outside her house. With that they all head to her dad's workshop, a studio he and his partner dubbed "BBZee Studios." This partner, it is strongly implied, is Ray.

Oh, and this time, Rachel Fuller provides the song within the chapter.

Who2 slated to begin recording in February

2005-11-04T06:51:00.000-05:00

Rolling Stone is reporting that The Who are scheduled to begin recording, at very long last, the new album this February.

Daltrey says. "We're at the pinnacle of our decline."

He also says the Mike Myers Moon movie may only cover the final three days of Moon's life which solves the age problem. In fact, they'll probably have to makeup Myers to look older.

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2005-10-29T10:53:00.000-04:00

"What Is Art?"

As Gabriel is being molested off-camera, as it were, Ray changes the subject to himself. He discusses the spiritual quality of the bend in the river Thames near Richmond where he lives and Gabriel was molested. Ray then jumps to his art school days and a class in design where he and a tutor named Harold Silverman argue over newly devised alphabets. From there Ray goes into his rise as a rock star, his early electronic experimentation, and how he ended up in retirement in a glass house on the river side. This segues into the plot of Psychoderelict, of how his manager Rastus Knight and a celebrity journalist named Ruth Streeting conspired to give his career a short bump back into notoriety.

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2005-10-22T16:43:00.000-04:00

"Ikapikapoo"

At age 13 Gabriel finally asks his Aunt Trilby to teach him to play the piano he's been banging on since age five. He quickly learns to play well and joins with his friend Josh to write songs. Playing one of them on a ukulele out in the street, Gabriel attracts the attention of Leila and her friend Dottie.

The second part of the chapter concerns Gabriel's love of the river Thames and how he occasionally witnesses sexual predators prowling its banks. He talks his father, against his father's initial concerns, into letting him go on the river with a group of adult Sea Scouts. The hum of the boat's motor induces an angelic vision with a sexual edge in Gabriel's mind. He begins to pass out as the reader is given the impression that the Scouts may take sexual advantage of him.

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2005-10-19T19:40:00.000-04:00

"I Could Fly"

This chapter starts with Leila. Her dad Damoo wears an outfit made by his mother that he thinks makes him look like Eddie Cochran but everybody else thinks he looks like Elvis. Leila wears fashionable but strict Muslim clothing. Gabriel and Josh begin to notice her.

The story then jumps back for more of Gabriel's history. From four-and-a-half on he is raised mostly by his Aunt Trilby while his parents are away on tour. Aunt Trilby gives Gabriel the love his parents don't and introduces him to music via her upright piano.

What to do?

2005-10-17T07:20:00.000-04:00

What to do if you're a Conservative-leaning newspaper? Make a point about how little is left of a late rock star's money after estate taxes or malign the late rock star's 60's lifestyle by falsely impugning that his girlfriend ran through close to a million pounds on drugs before her death? The Telegraph (U.K.) goes for the latter:

Entwistle's girlfriend leaves only £495,000

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2005-10-09T08:37:00.000-04:00

"I Heard Voices"

In the 1975 wing of the story within a story, Josh, the one who "hears voices," has his Bar Mitzvah. During the service, he sings to God that he will become a poet.

Meanwhile, we learn more about Leila's background. Her mother dies in 1967 when she is three. She worships her father Damoo who lives with his strict Muslim mother in a house on the Hillcrest Road. At an early age, Leila discovers that she can fly.

Ray, meanwhile, revels in his love for Abba's hit song "S.O.S.," recalls his first trip to India to meet his guru Bollo about whom he wrote a Rolling Stone magazine cover story in 1975, discusses reincarnation and the religions that arose in the mountains of Persia and India.

2005-10-02T20:28:00.000-04:00

New Who book...to avoid

Nigel Cawthorne has a new book out in the U.K. called Vinyl Frontier: The Who and the making of Tommy. According to U.K. poster John Hughes who had the misfortune of buying it, the book is full of inaccuracies.

The author is, by the way, best known for his The Sex Lives Of... series.

2005-10-02T12:58:00.000-04:00

The Boy Who Heard Music - Chapter 3 - Thumbnail

Pete has already posted Chapter 3 a week ahead of time.

"I Heard Music"
Ray remembers his childhood in the bombed-out post-war streets of London. Now that he has finished his lunch, he sits in his rocking chair, staring out the Thames outside his window and lets his mind drift into the story...

...In the story a teenage Gabriel is sitting by the Thames in 1975. He gets up and runs down the bank by his friend Josh's house, all the while hearing music emanating from the world around him.

We learn that Gabriel always wears a Yarmulke even though he isn't Jewish as it was a present from his friend Josh. Both live in Acton. Josh's parents are Orthodox Jews, his dad a traveling salesman, his uncle studying to be an accountant.

Gabriel's parents are in showbiz. Known as "Donnie and Connie," they appeared on radio and TV while leaving Gabriel to stay with his aunt when they went on tour or holiday cruises.

Ray, meanwhile, reveals that his own mother, whose name was Rosalynd (the same as the fictional pre-teen girl in Psychoderelict), was a singer who met and fell in love with his dad during World War II while he was performing as a magician.

2005-09-30T13:26:00.000-04:00

Mike Myers to play Keith Moon

Sept. 30 - Variety is reporting after, what, 15 years? Roger has finally gotten a green light to start his Keith Moon biopic. Mike "Austin Powers" Myers is to star. I wonder if the "Pictures of Lily" video was what made Roger think of Mike?

2005-09-26T10:02:00.000-04:00

The Boy Who Heard Music - Chapter 2 - Thumbnail
"In The Ether"

In 2035, Ray High senses a character known as Gabriel and tries to begin his story while also singing a song about the ether and dealing with hunger pains. Gabriel enters a "Voxbox," a device like an amusement park quick-photo booth, and tries to contact Josh. Gabriel holds up photos, taken by Ray in 1969, of himself, Josh and Leila saying that he, Gabriel, "could hear music," Josh "could hear voices" and Leila "could fly." All met in art school, were in a popular pop band in the early 1980's, and are now in their early 60's. The three are also of different religious faiths, Gabriel Christian, John Jewish and Leila Muslim. Meanwhile Leila greets Josh who has evidently just been released from a prison hospital. She wants Josh to stop telling people that Gabriel speaks to him, but Josh says Gabriel still does.

2005-09-26T09:45:00.000-04:00

The Boy Who Heard Music - Chapter 1 - Thumbnail

We are introduced to Spin, a fictional character resembling the young Pete, who has been created by Ray High, the middle-aged rocker from Psychoderelict. Ray remembers/fantasizes an event in 1971 in which Spin pursued his dog into the ocean and encountered a school of jellyfish. After Spin flashes back to his 1962 self he returns to his 1971 present, linking the interconnected jellyfish with a future world of people connected by electronic communications. This leads to a recounting of the plot of Lifehouse followed by a rant about various concerns in 2003, big business, pornography, the media and the Internet. The story then passes 2003 and heads into the "distant future" as Ray prepares to tell us the story.

2005-09-26T06:49:00.000-04:00

Pete performance Sept. 25

Okay, this is the second time in as many months Pete has had to cut a performance short because of the flippin' trains over there! C'mon Brits, straighten this out!

From Kim + Lester:
"Pete played 2 songs, a new one called Into The Ether: 'I hang suspended, I wait for you and know you're near, in this high heaven, my world's upended, I feel no passion, I feel no fear........'.'I use silly voices on this...because I use silly voices, really...............' This is from the Boy Who Heard Music, he followed it with a spirited version of Let's See Action. Very good performances, guitar and vocals. He played the J-200 acoustic, (except on ITE, where Rachel played piano), Alan Rogan bought it out, and also placedRachel's music on the grand piano. Pete also played on her track, Cigarettes and Housework, Around This Table, with Jerry Hall vocalising with Rachel was the other song played. The 'trio' took a collective bow at the end. The show overran - it was supposed to finish at 2225, but was running after 2300, so Pete cut his part short; before LSA, 'if you have a bus or train, I won't be offended if you walk out on me.....!'. The 'POT!' ( note : Poetry Olympics Twenty05!) book on sale, (112 pages), has the full words for Into The Ether, and 'Wake Up And Hear The Music', presumably one of the other songs Pete had intended to play. The Program leaflet ran to just 4 pages."

2005-09-24T16:55:00.000-04:00

Well, now that I've set this up, how about a blog!

Presently I am writing liner notes for Too Late The Hero and The Rock. If you know anything about the recording of these John Entwistle albums, get in touch.