New Who Brew To Do You Through

Rspaight · Postby **Rspaight** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 10:46 am

From the Who site (reg req'd):

The band has agreed upon a work plan for the coming year and beyond. At present Pete is involved in setting up a team to do a 5.1 remix of Quadrophenia, which will be released along similar lines to the upcoming Tommy release. An extended version is also planned for the same release, opening the story up for future theatrical and DVD versions.

His main creative work will be songs for a new Who album. These will be based on his story, now complete, The Boy Who Heard Music. He and Roger plan to demo the new material before the end of the year prior to going into record the album in March 04. This of course will be the band's first studio album since 1982 'It's Hard.' The proposed release date for the album is the early Summer and the idea is to follow it up with a US and UK tour, taking in other regions in 2005.

Both Pete and Roger wanted to share this information with you at an early stage. It is hoped that the recording sessions will be filmed for webcasting and that some live, interactive sessions, via the website, will also take place.

To tie in with this period of activity the www.petetownshend.com chatboard will reopen on Oct 2nd.

Here's some stuff Pete has written about this concept:

Rock music is often called a Rite of Passage. Where does it take us? I believe all art - especially dramatic art - offers a mirror-door that reflects darkness, transforming it into light. (Or if you are Irish, reflects light, transforming it into mystical darkness). But the mirror-door I best understand is most effective when opened up by music, and most actual - most visceral and real - when opened up by rock.

My story is called The Boy Who Heard Music. It is about one boy who finds a way to get through the door.

I begin this project as a novel. I have it roughed out and will finish it during the first six months of 2002. When published it will form a creative adjunct to the first part of my completed autobiography. It will interrupt my autobiography. The story is about music, and contains music, and I will produce music as I work every day on the book. The music will be released on a CD or two at the same time as the book. I am going to document the recording sessions on video, some of which should be especially interesting as they will form part of the Lifehouse Method experiment.

Here is the pitch...........

Three British children - two boys and a girl from different religious backgrounds - find each other. Gabriel can hear music. Josh can hear voices. Leyla can fly. They grow up and form a rock band together. They become famous and powerful. They marry, torture, love and fight each other. In the process they show the world the real truth behind rock 'n' roll. Together, they work a miracle.

Pretentious? Self-obsessed? Grandiose? Pompous?

I hope so.

Ryan

mikenycLI · Postby **mikenycLI** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 12:20 pm

I guess some of this stuff, from the new album, was from the songs "confiscated" by UK police, during Pete's investigation ?

Rspaight · Postby **Rspaight** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 1:23 pm

I dunno. The way I read it, the songs don't even exist yet -- just the Boy Who Heard Music story -- and will be demoed up by Pete and Roger later this year. (There's a weird concept in and of itself.)

But I wouldn't be at all surprised if lots of music fragments and such that got caught up in the investigation don't end up being used for this project (assuming it actually happens -- I'm laying about 4-1 odds against right now, which is probably overly optimistic).

Ryan

mikenycLI · Postby **mikenycLI** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 1:44 pm

Well, they shouldn't be used, just for good taste reasons.

But since he hasn't exercised ANY internal censor on his screwed-up psyche, BEFORE, regarding his...for lack of a better term...Art, we can't expect him to start now, can we ?

I feel, that ANY lesson of what he went through recently, I'm sure, is COMPLETELY lost on him, during this MAD scramble to repair his legacy, MAKE MONEY LIKE A MADMAN, and not end up like Entwistle did....on the road, at his age, knowing he couldn't cut it, even not able to walk across a street, let alone tour.

There is some sadness, but it's his life, and past IS prologue with this guy !

Rspaight · Postby **Rspaight** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 1:52 pm

Well, they shouldn't be used, just for good taste reasons.

I can't say I agree. Just because they happened to be on the hard drives that were confiscated in an investigation that had nothing to do with them doesn't make them unusuable, IMHO.

Ryan

mikenycLI · Postby **mikenycLI** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 1:58 pm

But wouldn't you think, ANYONE ELSE, would be a little sensitive about what they release, for future, public consumption ?

Wouldn't ANY OTHER PERSON, be holding back, just "a teeny, tiny bit", and be a little concerned about "the meaning" of what they produce, in the future ?

Any normal person, I guess. But then he isn't "normal", and if he were, we wouldn't like him, as we do.....most of the time, that is.

Postby **lukpac** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 2:09 pm

mikenycLI wrote:Well, they shouldn't be used, just for good taste reasons.

I'm not sure I follow. What connection is there between songs that may have been on Pete's computer and what took place? Who says the songs, if they even exist, deal with material of the nature of the investigation?

I guess I don't see how Pete being singled out in a witch hunt has anything to do with the material that should or shouldn't be on a new album.

mikenycLI · Postby **mikenycLI** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 4:03 pm

I don't think I really have to explain what I stated, to you. I was clear.

It's safe to assume from your statements, that you feel Pete is "being singled out in a witch hunt".

He has now been elevated, out of his previous obscurity, to being the perfect celebrity fodder, for ANY journalist or Tv News show, with a need to fill their space with "stuff", they like to call....."news".

Whatever career he had before all of this happened, he will attempt to reconstruct. But he is wasting his time. He is just a Media Freak Show now.

He better get used to his new found infamous "celebrity", if you want to call what he is, now. Whatever he has to offer as his "craft", has been eclipsed by his infamy. Whatever he utters or writes, is totally meaningless, and secondary to his "crown of thorns", he has to wear in public, for the rest of his natural life. It really is sad, isn't it ?

THAT, I feel, is the reason, for all of the archive releases, of his, lately. He is carefully reconstructing his public personality, backwards. Smart publicist, he has.
Now, whether it will work, who knows.

Postby **lukpac** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 5:07 pm

The reason for all of the archival releases is his "situation"? I don't think so. The stream of reissues has been pretty steady lately. Who's Next:DE and the KAA DVD had been in the pipeline before anything happened. And last year we got the Ultimate Collection and My Generation:DE. There hasn't exactly been some surge in new releases since he got arrested.

As far as being "just a Media Freak Show now", that seems to simply not be the case. Perhaps you'd *like* it to be, but it isn't. A search of http://news.google.com/ for '"Pete Townshend"' currently results in about 140 hits. Of those, I could find no mention of the incident. In addition, a search for '"Pete Townshend" porn' results in 0 hits.

Media Freak Show? I don't think so.

mikenycLI · Postby **mikenycLI** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 5:18 pm

Luke, you think what you think. That's ok. I didn't know that "Google" was the new measure of "Reality" and basic human nature, but that's ok, too.

I prefer to live in the real world, thank you.

Rspaight · Postby **Rspaight** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 5:40 pm

So being wrongly accused of being a pedophile means you're not allowed to ever do anything again?

I've seen a lot of discussion of this new album around the net, and nearly all of it has been centered around the question of whether it's a good idea to make a "Who" album without Keith and John. You're the only one who's mentioned the arrest.

I've also seen a lot of coverage of the Tommy reissue and the Kids are Alright DVD. None of them have mentioned the arrest.

Ryan

Postby **lukpac** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 6:16 pm

mikenycLI wrote:Luke, you think what you think. That's ok. I didn't know that "Google" was the new measure of "Reality" and basic human nature, but that's ok, too.

No, but it's a damn good measure of what's happening in the media, which is what you're talking about.

I prefer to live in the real world, thank you.

Then why is it that little to none of the recent news about Pete mentions the child porn charges?

If you can find examples of the arrest in recent news about Pete or The Who, by all means, share them.

mikenycLI · Postby **mikenycLI** » Tue Sep 23, 2003 2:05 am

Make it all go away, Luke.

Whatever you need to say to yourself, I'm sure you feel better about it, that way !

Postby **lukpac** » Tue Sep 23, 2003 7:44 am

Mike, this isn't about me feeling better. You claimed that Pete is now a "Media Freak Show". But you have shown nothing that substantiates that claim, and my own research seems to indicate that it's not true.

Sure, some people will still remember what happened. That's true for any news story. But you want to believe that this particular story will overshadow anything that Pete does from now on, which, at the moment anyway, is clearly not the case.

If media coverage included "who was arrested earlier this year for possession of child porn" in even *some* stories, I might be inclined to agree with you. But they aren't.

What more is there?

mikenycLI · Postby **mikenycLI** » Tue Sep 23, 2003 11:18 am

I guess we will see, what we, will "see", when he comes out with his, genuinely, new song/music release, won't we ?