Forums dot lukpac.org

The Who needs your help
Townshend, Daltrey looking for footage from fans

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- The two surviving members of The Who are producing a documentary about the British rock band's turbulent history, an ongoing 40-year saga of death, drugs and timeless tunes.

Guitarist/songwriter Pete Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey have joined forces on the feature-length project with Murray Lerner, an Oscar-winning documentary director who first filmed the band during the 1970 Isle of Wight festival.

Tentatively titled "My Generation: Who's Still Who" -- a reference to their breakthrough 1965 hit "My Generation" -- the film is scheduled to come out next year. Lerner said there are plans for a theatrical release, a CD and a multi-disc DVD set.

"There will be very unusual stuff, hopefully, that never was seen before," Lerner told Reuters. "We're looking for material like fights between them, on and off the stage, unruly fans that make it difficult, weird incidents on the stage, interviews with ex-wives and girlfriends."

To that end, the filmmakers have set up a Web site, http://www.thewhomovie.com, seeking material from fans.

The Who previously released a documentary, "The Kids Are Alright," in 1979. While "Kids" featured vintage and new performance clips, and amusing TV interviews, the new film will be more ambitious.

"I'm going to try and put you in another world that almost smacks of ... science fiction," Lerner said. "I'm doing something like an opera. ... I'm going to play around with stylizing interview voices that change into music and back."

Half of the original band will not be able to participate: drummer Keith Moon died of a drug overdose in 1978, while bassist John Entwistle succumbed to a cocaine-related heart attack in 2002.

The Who formed in the early 1960s, winning attention for their costly habit of smashing their equipment at each show. When Townshend and Daltrey weren't pummeling each other and Moon wasn't causing drunken mayhem, the band recorded hit singles, innovative rock operas, and classic albums like "Tommy" and "Who's Next."

"They brought important ideas to music in a way that they felt was different from anybody else, and also they participated with their audience in a way that was different from other rock groups," Lerner said. "They were part of their audience."

The Who plan to renew that bond by touring next year, Lerner said. They also have been working for years on a follow-up to their last studio album, 1982's "It's Hard."

At the behest of the Who's managers, Lerner will examine the tragic concert at Cincinnati in 1979, when 11 people were trampled to death before the Who took the stage.

Lerner is developing his final script and design concepts, and will then undertake the interviews. He won an Academy Award in 1981 for his documentary "From Mao To Mozart: Isaac Stern In China," and has just finished a film study of late jazz icon Miles Davis, "Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue."

Also on board as producers of the Who film are Nigel Sinclair and Guy East of independent movie company Spitfire Pictures, and Who managers Bill Curbishley and Robert Rosenberg.

Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

There was a blurb about this on the petetownshend.co.uk site, too.

Ideally, this'll be something that complements "Kids" instead of rehashes it.

Ryan

There was some talk on Odds and Sods about the film producer using footage from the '69 London Coliseum show (YMB on from the Kids film is from this show) and the '77 Kilburn show. I hope they turn up some better stuff than that. Of course, the London Coliseum is great but it's really dark. I hope they uncover a pro shot '71 show or '73 Quad tour show. IIRC the VH1 Legends Who edisode had some clips of a pro shot '71 show...

BTW, wasn't footage of the '69 Isle of Wight show recently discovered?

More of Tanglewood '70 would be nice.

Anyone know if there is film or video of the two San Francisco shows in '71?

Hell...more Woodstock.

And no more '89 tour, please.

Comment from Pete:

A current press release by Spitfire Films and Murray Lerner, the director of this film project, may lead to some misunderstanding. I (Pete Townshend) am not a producer. I do not regard myself as a driving force behind the project as was intimated in the press release. Roger Daltrey with Nigel Sinclair, and the Who's managers, have driven this project from its inception and are all producers.

I have just read two quotes from Murray Lerner about the Film Anthology.

"There will be very unusual stuff, hopefully, that never was seen before," Lerner told Reuters. "We're looking for material like fights between them, on and off the stage, unruly fans that make it difficult, weird incidents on the stage, interviews with ex-wives and girlfriends."

"I'm going to try and put you in another world that almost smacks of ... science fiction," Lerner said. "I'm doing something like an opera. ... I'm going to play around with stylizing interview voices that change into music and back."

Sounds as if he's trying to create some controversy.

I am the one in the Who family who writes science fiction musicals and operas, and my music – Who music – is not a commodity I will make unconditionally available to film-makers. My entire mission is to preserve the integrity of Who music, and I'd rather offer it to sell soap than have it turned into a 'Soap' by Lerner.

lukpac wrote:More of Tanglewood '70 would be nice.

Anyone know if there is film or video of the two San Francisco shows in '71?

Hell...more Woodstock.

And no more '89 tour, please.

I remember reading somewhere that at least one of the 12/71 SH shows were filmed but the footage was possibly lost in a fire or something. No idea where I read that or if it's at all accurate.

I did read a a Daltrey interview where he said he recently purchased some very early Who/High Numbers footage. I assume this is the video of the fall '64 show that does the rounds.

I wonder if any of the Young Vic shows were filmed? I know the VH1 Legends show had some fantastic footage of what looked like a '71 show. IIRC it was a show where the TV crew were only allowed to film the first 2 or 3 songs or something similar....