Pete Townshend Explains What’s Next for Who
The Who‘s appearance at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Nov. 27, featuring Eddie Vedder and Noel Gallagher — which will be aired as a Pay Per View in the U.K. on Dec. 3 and 4, and released as a DVD — will not signal the band’s return to retirement no matter what the acerbic Pete Townshend alluded to recently in his online diary at www.petetownshend.com, when he explained that his solo projects take priority to his work with the Who.
That well may be the case, but in a post Wednesday, on the eve of the band’s final show at Wembley, Townshend wrote candidly about his feelings with regards to his once and future compatriots, and he revealed that while the band will not rush out to mount a European tour, he won’t rule it out in the near future.
“As things stand today there will not be a European tour close on the heels of what we have been doing here in the U.K.,” he writes. “I really do need to catch up on some vitally important solo projects and personal work. But I hope we tour in Europe before we pretend to die, perhaps in early 2002?”
Townshend also assures fans that he is not at odds with his old cronies. “Roger, John and I intend to go on seeing each other as often as we can to continue to explore what me might do next as a creative band. The Who brand has never been stronger.”
However, according to Townshend, the band will not release a new studio album next year. “It doesn’t quite seem possible. But there may well be new Who songs, though today I have no idea quite where they will come from . . . What there will not be is an end.”
Closing on an even more upbeat note, the guitarist explains how fulfilling the recent tour has been for him. “I have profited from this tour in more ways than I can explain. There has been money, of course, and there are cynics who say that’s the only reason we got together. It doesn’t matter. What matter is that it was — all in all — wonderful. My heart feels good. It feels like one of those extraordinary days that Keith Moon didn’t die. There were always good days. Rumor has it, nothing dies.”