A new box contains long-out-of-print live albums from Pete Townshend’s solo career. In an interview, The Who guitarist reveals why concerts mean little to him and why he rarely performs solo.
When he is on stage with his band The Who, Pete Townshend is celebrated for his captivating stage presence. His “windmill” – playing the guitar with a rotating arm – and the ritual smashing of instruments at the end of the concerts are cult. He was rarely on stage without his The Who partner Roger Daltrey, but the 79-year-old can also look back on an impressive career as a solo artist. A box set with concerts from all phases of his solo career is now being released.
“I had nothing to do with it,” says Townshend, as openly and unfiltered as ever, in an interview with the German Press Agency in London. “I only saw the box set for the first time yesterday. It looks very nice. I’m not sure if CDs are still useful in the modern world, but whatever.”
Retrospective with out-of-print live albums
The retrospective “Live In Concert 1985-2001” contains 14 CDs and is also available digitally. Live albums that the British musician had originally only released in a strictly limited edition on his own website and that had been out of print for years were remastered for this album. Townshend says he was surprised by the project.
He sold his song rights to Universal some time ago. “They insisted on acquiring all my online releases as well,” he says. “It’s a fun collection, but there’s no urgency to it, no time constraint. I don’t have anything to sell. I don’t have any live performances planned. I’m working on solo projects, but I’m in the middle of them and don’t want to talk about it too much.”
Townshend: “I never liked performing”
At least the guitar virtuoso was involved in the liner notes, the accompanying texts. In a bound book, which was created in collaboration with The Who archivist Matt Kent and is included in the box set, Townshend explains his idiosyncratic view of his solo career in an almost philosophical way and surprises with a statement about his live performances.
“I could have spoken about it years ago. But I think that now that I’m old, I have nothing left to lose. I might as well tell the truth,” Townshend said in an interview with dpa. And then this sentence: “I never enjoyed performing. Never. I never felt a single moment of joy or exhilaration while doing it.”
While The Who frontman Daltrey is always enthusiastic about live performances, Townshend says he wants to introduce his music to the audience, but he doesn’t need the concerts as validation. “I just don’t understand what other musicians feel about it. I wish I could. I love music and I love making music. And I’m good at performing, but I don’t know how. It just happens. It’s very, very strange.”
Concerts with David Gilmour
The live box set, which contains some gems, shows how good he is at performing. At the two concerts in London’s Brixton Academy in 1985, for example, Townshend was accompanied by his supergroup Deep End, which included Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. It’s hard to believe today: tickets sold poorly at the time. A third concert was even cancelled as a result.
Townshend is still surprised by this today. “It’s as strange as the fact that nobody wanted Mick Jagger’s solo albums. Maybe people just liked The Who better, I don’t know. I thought Deep End was a really excellent band.” The Brixton setlist also includes many classics by The Who, including “Pinball Wizard” and “Behind Blue Eyes”.
The concerts in the box set – which also include New York 1993, San Francisco 1996, London 1998, London 2000 and San Diego 2001 – contain many The Who songs (eight versions of “Won’t Get Fooled Again alone), rousing versions of classics from Townshend’s solo career (for example “Let My Love Open The Door”), cover versions and a complete live performance of his 1999 concept album “Psychoderelict”.
Solo career as a main job was never an option
His solo career began out of dissatisfaction with The Who. “The truth is that I did have psychological and mental problems,” Townshend says looking back. “But I drank so much alcohol that I never really noticed what was going on.” Managers, agents and friends eventually advised him to become creative as a solo artist because the band was no longer working for him. In 1982, The Who temporarily disbanded.
However, Townshend stresses that a solo career would never have been an option. “If it hadn’t been for The Who, I would have been a writer, painter, installation artist or sculptor. Maybe I would have worked as a businessman,” believes the 79-year-old. As a singer, he always felt more comfortable when Daltrey was standing next to him. Solo performances would have exhausted him. He lacked the physical stamina for an extended tour of his own – he only completed one.
Townshend leaves future open
Pete Townshend has not revealed whether he will tour with The Who again. The versatile musician is currently enjoying working in his studio without any obligations. “I have no deadlines, I have no contract, I don’t need any feedback,” he says in a good mood. “I just love the creative process. I play, it’s fun, it’s enjoyable, and I’m lucky that I earn money. I stopped making music commercially when I was in my early 30s.”
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
