Pete Townshend

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

English musician (born 1945)

For other people with similar names, see Peter Townsend and Peter Townend.

div:not(.notheme) style]{background:#1f1f23!important;color:#f8f9fa}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data:not(.notheme) div:not(.notheme){background:#1f1f23!important;color:#f8f9fa}}@media(min-width:640px){body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table{display:table!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table>caption{display:table-caption!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table>tbody{display:table-row-group}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table tr{display:table-row!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table th,body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table td{padding-left:inherit;padding-right:inherit}}]]>

Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (/ˈtaʊnzənd/; born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is the co-founder, guitarist, second lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s. 2] 3] His aggressive playing style and poetic songwriting techniques, with the Who and in other projects, have earned him critical acclaim.

Townshend has written more than 100 songs for 12 of the Who`s studio albums. These include concept albums, the rock operas Tommy (1969) and Quadrophenia (1973), plus popular rock radio staples such as Who`s Next (1971); as well as dozens more that appeared as non-album singles, bonus tracks on reissues, and tracks on rarities compilation albums such as Odds & Sods (1974). He has also written more than 100 songs that have appeared on his solo albums, as well as radio jingles and television theme songs.

While known primarily as a guitarist, Townshend also plays keyboards, banjo, accordion, harmonica, ukulele, mandolin, violin, synthesiser, bass guitar, and drums; he is self-taught on all of these instruments and plays on his own solo albums, several Who albums, and as a guest contributor to an array of other artists` recordings. Townshend has also contributed to and authored many newspaper and magazine articles, book reviews, essays, books, and scripts, and he has collaborated as a lyricist and composer for many other musical acts.

In 1983, Townshend received the Brit Award for Lifetime Achievement and in 1990 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Who. Townshend was ranked No. 3 in Dave Marsh`s 1994 list of Best Guitarists in The New Book of Rock Lists. 4] In 2001, he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as a member of the Who; and in 2008 he received Kennedy Center Honors. He was ranked No. 10 in Gibson.com`s 2011 list of the top 50 guitarists, 5] and No. 37 on Rolling Stone`s 2023 list of 250 greatest guitarists of all time. 6] He and Roger Daltrey received The George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement at UCLA on 21 May 2016. 7] 8]

Early life and education

Townshend was born in Chiswick, West London, at the Chiswick Hospital, Netheravon Road, in the UK. He came from a musical family: his father, Cliff Townshend, was a professional alto saxophonist in the Royal Air Force`s dance band the Squadronaires and his mother, Betty (née Dennis), was a singer with the Sidney Torch and Les Douglass Orchestras. 9]

The Townshends had a volatile marriage. Both drank heavily and had fiery tempers. Cliff Townshend was often away from his family touring with his band while Betty carried on affairs with other men. The two split when Townshend was a toddler and he was sent to live with his maternal grandmother Emma Dennis, whom Pete later described as "clinically insane", later citing this experience as having unknowingly influenced the plot of Tommy. 10] The two-year separation ended when Cliff and Betty purchased a house together on Woodgrange Avenue in middle-class Acton, and the young Pete was happily reunited with his parents. 11] His neighbourhood was one-third Polish, and a devout Jewish family upstairs shared their housing with them and cooking with them—many of his father`s closest friends were Jewish. 12]

Townshend says he did not have many friends growing up, so he spent much of his boyhood reading adventure novels like Gulliver`s Travels and Treasure Island. He enjoyed his family`s frequent excursions to the seaside and the Isle of Man. It was on one of these trips in the summer of 1956 that he repeatedly watched the 1956 film Rock Around the Clock, sparking his fascination with American rock and roll. 13]

Not long thereafter, he went to see Bill Haley perform in London, Townshend`s first concert. 14] At the time, he did not see himself pursuing a career as a professional musician; instead, he wanted to become a journalist. 15]

Upon passing the eleven-plus exam, Townshend was enrolled at Acton County Grammar School. 16] At Acton County, he was frequently bullied because he had a large nose, an experience that profoundly affected him. His grandmother Emma purchased his first guitar for Christmas in 1956, an inexpensive Spanish model. 17] Though his father taught him a couple of chords, Townshend was largely self-taught on the instrument and never learned to read music. 18] Townshend and school friend John Entwistle formed a short-lived trad jazz group, the Confederates, featuring Townshend on banjo and Entwistle on horns. 19] The Confederates played gigs at the Congo Club, a youth club run by the Acton Congregational Church, and covered Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball, and Lonnie Donegan. 20] However, both became influenced by the increasing popularity of rock `n` roll, with Townshend particularly admiring Cliff Richard`s debut single, "Move It". 21] Townshend left the Confederates after getting into a fight with the group`s drummer, Chris Sherwin, and purchased a "reasonably good Czechoslovakian guitar" at his mother`s antique shop. 22]

Townshend`s brothers Paul and Simon were born in 1957 and 1960, respectively. 23] Lacking the requisite grades to attend university, Townshend was faced with the decision of art school, music school, or getting a job. 24] He ultimately chose to study graphic design at Ealing Art College, enrolling in 1961. At Ealing, Townshend studied alongside future Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood. Townshend dropped out in 1964 to focus on music full-time. 25]

Musical career

1961–1964: the Detours

In late 1961, Entwistle joined the Detours, a skiffle/rock and roll band, led by Roger Daltrey. The new bass player then suggested Townshend join as an additional guitarist. 26] In the early days of the Detours, the band`s repertoire consisted of instrumentals by the Shadows and the Ventures, as well as pop and trad jazz covers. Their lineup coalesced around Roger Daltrey on rhythm guitar, Townshend on lead guitar, Entwistle on bass, Doug Sandom on drums, and Colin Dawson as vocalist. 27] Daltrey was considered the leader of the group and, according to Townshend, "ran things the way he wanted them." 28]

Dawson quit in 1962 after arguing too much with Daltrey, who subsequently moved to lead vocalist. As a result, Townshend, with Entwistle`s encouragement, became the sole guitarist. Through Townshend`s mother, the group obtained a management contract with local promoter Robert Druce, who started booking the band as a support act for bands including Screaming Lord Sutch, Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, Shane Fenton and the Fentones, and Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. 29] In 1963, Townshend`s father arranged an amateur recording of "It Was You", the first song his son ever wrote. 30] The Detours became aware of a group of the same name in February 1964, forcing them to change their name. 31] Townshend`s roommate Richard Barnes came up with "The Who", and Daltrey decided it was the best choice. 32]

1964–1982: The Who

Main article: The Who

Townshend (with Moon, rear right) backstage before a gig at Friedrich-Ebert-Halle in Ludwigshafen, Germany on 12 April 1967

Not long after the name change, drummer Doug Sandom was replaced by Keith Moon, who had been drumming semi-professionally with the Beachcombers for several years. 33] The band was soon taken on by a mod publicist named Peter Meaden who convinced them to change their name to the High Numbers to give the band more of a mod feel. After bringing out one failed single ("I`m the Face/Zoot Suit"), they dropped Meaden and were signed on by two new managers, Chris Stamp and Kit Lambert, who had paired up with the intention of finding new talent and creating a documentary about them. 34] The band anguished over a name that all felt represented the band best, and dropped the High Numbers name, reverting to the Who. 35] In June 1964, during a performance at the Railway Tavern, Townshend accidentally broke the top of his guitar on the low ceiling and proceeded to destroy the entire instrument. The on-stage destruction of instruments soon became a regular part of the Who`s live shows. 36]

With the assistance of Lambert, the Who caught the ear of American record producer Shel Talmy, who had the band signed to a record contract. Townshend wrote a song, "I Can`t Explain", as a deliberate sound-alike of the Kinks, another group Talmy produced. Released as a single in January 1965, "I Can`t Explain" was the Who`s first hit, reaching number eight on the British charts. 37] A follow-up single ("Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere"), credited to both Townshend and Daltrey, also reached the top 10 in the UK. 38] However, it was the release of the Who`s third single, "My Generation", in November that, according to Who biographer Mark Wilkerson, "cemented their reputation as a hard-nosed band who reflected the feelings of thousands of pissed-off adolescents at the time." 39] The Townshend-penned single reached number two on the UK charts, becoming the Who`s biggest hit. The song and its famous line "I hope I die before I get old" was "very much about trying to find a place in society", Townshend stated in an interview with David Fricke. 40]

To capitalise on their recent single success, the Who`s debut album My Generation (The Who Sings My Generation in the US) was released in late 1965, containing original material written by Townshend and several James Brown covers that Daltrey favoured. 41] Townshend continued to write several successful singles for the band, including "Pictures of Lily", "Substitute", "I`m a Boy", and "Happy Jack". 42] Lambert encouraged Townshend to write longer pieces of music for the next album, which became "A Quick One, While He`s Away". The album was subsequently titled A Quick One 43] and reached No. 4 in the charts upon its release in December 1966. 44] In their stage shows, Townshend developed a guitar stunt in which he would swing his right arm against the guitar strings in a style reminiscent of the vanes of a windmill. 45] He developed this style after watching Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards warm up before a show. 46]

Townshend`s "windmill" technique

The Who commenced their first US tour on 22 March 1967. 47] Townshend took to trashing his hotel suites, though not to the extent of his bandmate Moon. 48] He also began experimenting with LSD, though stopped taking the drug after receiving a potent hit after the Monterey Pop Festival on 18 June. 49] Released in December, their next album was The Who Sell Out—a concept album based on pirate radio, which had been instrumental in raising the Who`s popularity. It included several humorous jingles and mock commercials between songs, 50] and the Who`s biggest US single, "I Can See for Miles". 51] Despite the success of "I Can See for Miles", which reached No. 9 on the American charts, Townshend was surprised it was not an even bigger hit, as he considered it the best song he had written up to that point. 52]

By 1968, Townshend became interested in the teachings of Meher Baba. 53] He began to develop a musical piece about a deaf, dumb, and blind boy who would experience sensations musically. 54] The piece would explore the tenets of Baba`s philosophy. 55] The result was the rock opera Tommy, released on 23 May 1969 to critical and commercial success. In support of Tommy, the Who launched a tour that included a memorable appearance at the Woodstock Festival on 17 August. While the Who were playing, Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman jumped the stage to complain about the arrest of John Sinclair. Townshend promptly knocked him offstage with his guitar, shouting, "Fuck off my fucking stage!" 56]

In 1970, the Who released Live at Leeds, which several music critics cite as the best live album of all time. 57] Townshend began writing material for another rock opera. Dubbed Lifehouse, it was designed to be a multi-media project that symbolised the relationship between a musician and his audience. 58] The rest of the band were confused by its convoluted plot and simply wanted another album. Townshend began to feel alienated, and the project was abandoned after he suffered a nervous breakdown. 59] Much of the material intended for Lifehouse was released as a traditional studio album, Who`s Next. It became a commercial smash, reaching number one in the UK, and spawned two successful hit singles, "Baba O`Riley" and "Won`t Get Fooled Again", that featured pioneering use of the synthesizer. 60] "Baba O`Riley" in particular was written as Townshend`s ode to his two heroes at the time, Meher Baba and composer Terry Riley. 61]

Townshend performing in Hamburg, Germany in August 1972

Townshend began writing songs for another rock opera in 1973. He decided it would explore the mod subculture and its clashes with rockers in the early 1960s in the UK. 62] Entitled Quadrophenia, it was the only Who album written entirely by Townshend, and he produced the album as well due to the souring of relations with Lambert. 63] It was released in November, and became their highest charting cross-Atlantic success, reaching No. 2 in the UK and US. 64]NME reviewer Charles Shaar Murray called it "prime cut Who" and "the most rewarding musical experience of the year." 65] On tour, the band played the album along to pre-recorded backing tapes, causing much friction. The tapes malfunctioned during a performance in Newcastle, prompting Townshend to drag soundman Bob Pridden onstage, scream at him and kick over all the amplifiers, partially destroying the malfunctioning tapes. 66] On 14 April 1974, Townshend played his first solo concert, a benefit to raise funds for a London community centre. 67]

A film version of Tommy was directed by Ken Russell, and starred Roger Daltrey in the title role, Ann-Margret as his mother, and Oliver Reed as his step-father, with cameos by Tina Turner, Elton John, Eric Clapton, and other rock notables; the film premiered on 18 March 1975. 68] 69] Townshend was nominated for an Academy Award for scoring and adapting the music in the film. 70]The Who by Numbers came out in November of that year and peaked at No. 7 in the UK and 8 in the US. It featured introspective songs, often with a negative slant. The album spawned one hit single, "Squeeze Box", that was written after Townshend learned how to play the accordion. 71] After a 1976 tour, Townshend took a year-long break from the band to focus on spending time with his family. 72]

The Who continues despite the deaths of two of the original members (Keith Moon in 1978 and John Entwistle in 2002). The band is regarded by many rock critics as one of the best 73] 74] live bands 75] 76] from the 1960s to the 2000s. The Who continues to perform critically acclaimed sets into the 21st century, including highly regarded performances at The Concert for New York City in 2001, 77] the 2004 Isle of Wight Festival, 78]Live 8 in 2005, 79] and the 2007 80] and 2015 Glastonbury Festival. 81]

Townshend remained the primary songwriter and leader of the group, writing over 100 songs which appeared on the band`s eleven studio albums. Among his creations is the rock opera Quadrophenia. Townshend revisited album-length storytelling throughout his career and remains associated with the rock opera form. Many studio recordings also feature Townshend on piano or keyboards, though keyboard-heavy tracks increasingly featured guest artists in the studio, such as Nicky Hopkins, John Bundrick, or Chris Stainton. 82]

Townshend is one of the key figures in the development of feedback in rock guitar. When asked who first used feedback, Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore said:

Pete Townshend was definitely the first. But not being that good a guitarist, he used to just sort of crash chords and let the guitar feedback. He didn`t get into twiddling with the dials on the amplifier until much later. He`s overrated in England, but at the same time you find a lot of people like Jeff Beck and Hendrix getting credit for things he started. Townshend was the first to break his guitar, and he was the first to do a lot of things. He`s very good at his chord scene, too. 83]

Similarly, when Jimmy Page was asked about the development of guitar feedback, he said:

I don`t know who really did feedback first; it just sort of happened. I don`t think anybody consciously nicked it from anybody else. It was just going on. But Pete Townshend obviously was the one, through the music of his group, who made the use of feedback more his style, and so it`s related to him. Whereas the other players like Jeff Beck and myself were playing more single note things than chords. 84]

Many rock guitarists have cited Townshend as an influence, among them Slash, 85]Alex Lifeson, 86] and Steve Jones. 87]

1972–present: solo career

In addition to his work with the Who, Townshend has been sporadically active as a solo recording artist. Between 1969 and 1971 Townshend, along with other devotees to Meher Baba, recorded a trio of albums devoted to his teachings: Happy Birthday, I Am, and With Love. In response to bootlegging of these, he compiled his personal highlights (and "Evolution", a collaboration with Ronnie Lane), and released his first major-label solo title, 1972`s Who Came First. It was a moderate success and featured demos of Who songs as well as a showcase of his acoustic guitar talents. He collaborated with the Faces` bassist and fellow Meher Baba devotee Ronnie Lane on a duet album (1977`s Rough Mix). In 1979 Townshend produced and performed guitar on the novelty single "Peppermint Lump" by Angie on Stiff Records, featuring 11-year-old Angela Porter on lead vocals. 88]

Townshend made several solo appearances during the 1970s, two of which were captured on record: Eric Clapton`s Rainbow Concert 89] in January 1973 (which Townshend organized to revive Clapton`s career after the latter`s heroin addiction), 90] and the Paul McCartney-sponsored Concerts for the People of Kampuchea in December 1979. The commercially available video of the Kampuchea concert shows the two rock icons duelling and clowning 91] through Rockestra mega-band versions of "Lucille", "Let It Be", and "Rockestra Theme"; Townshend closes the proceedings with a characteristic split-legged leap. 92]

Townshend`s solo breakthrough, following the death of Who drummer Keith Moon, was the 1980 release Empty Glass, which included the top-10 single "Let My Love Open the Door", and lesser singles "A Little Is Enough" and "Rough Boys". This release was followed in 1982 by All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes, which included the popular radio track "Slit Skirts". While not a huge commercial success, music critic Timothy Duggan listed it as "Townshend`s most honest and introspective work since Quadrophenia." Through the rest of the 1980s and early 1990s Townshend would again experiment with the rock opera and related formats, releasing several story-based albums including White City: A Novel (1985), The Iron Man: A Musical (1989), and Psychoderelict (1993). Townshend also got the chance to play with his hero Hank Marvin for Paul McCartney`s "Rockestra" sessions, along with other rock musicians such as David Gilmour, John Bonham, and Ronnie Lane. 93]

Townshend in concert, 2008

Townshend recorded several concert albums, including one featuring a supergroup he assembled called Deep End, with David Gilmour on guitar, who performed just three concerts and a television show session for The Tube, to raise money for his Double-O charity, supporting drug addicts. 94] In 1993, he and Des McAnuff wrote and directed the Broadway adaptation of the Who album Tommy, as well as a less successful stage musical based on his solo album The Iron Man, based upon the book by Ted Hughes. McAnuff and Townshend later co-produced the animated film The Iron Giant, also based on the Hughes story.

A production described as a Townshend rock opera and titled The Boy Who Heard Music debuted as part of Vassar College`s Powerhouse Summer Theater program in July 2007. 95]

On 2 September 2017 at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts, Townshend embarked with fellow singer and musician Billy Idol, tenor Alfie Boe, and an orchestra on a short (5-date) "Classic Quadrophenia" US tour that ended on 16 September 2017 in Los Angeles, California. 96] 97]

1996–present: latest Who work

From the mid-1990s through the present, Townshend has participated in a series of tours with the surviving members of the Who, including a 2002 tour that continued despite Entwistle`s death. 98]

In February 2006, a major world tour by the Who was announced to promote their first new album since 1982. Townshend published a semi-autobiographical story The Boy Who Heard Music as a serial on a blog beginning in September 2005. 99] The blog closed in October 2006, as noted on Townshend`s website. It is now owned by a different user and does not relate to Townshend`s work in any way. On 25 February 2006, he announced the issue of a mini-opera inspired by the novella for June 2006. In October 2006 the Who released their first album in 24 years, Endless Wire.

The Who performed at the Super Bowl XLIV half-time show on 7 February 2010, playing a medley of songs that included "Pinball Wizard", "Who Are You", "Baba O`Riley", "See Me, Feel Me", and "Won`t Get Fooled Again". 100] In 2012, the Who announced they would tour the rock opera Quadrophenia.

The Who were the final performers at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in London, performing a medley of "Baba O`Riley", "See Me, Feel Me", and "My Generation". 101]

On 22 March 2018, Townshend stated that a new Who album should feature original songs by Roger Daltrey as well as him. 102] That album, simply titled Who, was released on 6 December 2019. It was the band`s second album as a duo, and their first in thirteen years. 103]

Unfinished work

The Age of Anxiety, formerly Floss the Musical, 104] is the name given to a work-in-progress by Townshend. 105] The musical has been a work in progress at least since 2009 with an original estimated release of 2011. 106] On 24 January 2012 Townshend sold the rights to all of his back catalog and much of his future work including Floss The Musical if it is ever completed. 107] 108] He summarized the work in an interview with Sirius Satellite Radio published February 2010. 109] In a 2015 interview Townshend stated that the work was intended to be an art installation. 110] In March 2019 it was announced that a work entitled The Age of Anxiety would be published as a novel, with an opera to follow. 111]

Musical influences

Townshend was born ten days after Nazi Germany surrendered in the Second World War and grew up in the shadow of reconstruction in and around London. According to Townshend, postwar trauma was the driving force behind the rock music revolution in the UK. "Trauma is passed from generation to generation", he said, "I`ve unwittingly inherited what my father experienced." 112] Townshend notes that growing up in this period produced the narrative that runs through his music of a boy lost in the stresses and pressures of postwar life. 113] In his autobiography, he wrote:

I wasn`t trying to play beautiful music. I was confronting my audience with the awful, visceral sound of what we all knew was the single absolute of our frail existence—one day an aeroplane would carry the bomb that would destroy us all in a flash. It could happen at any time. 114]

Although he grew up in a household with jazz musicians, Townshend absorbed many of his ideas about performance and rock music themes during art school. Townshend`s roommate at Ealing Art College, Tom Wright, had a large record collection, and Townshend listened to and became influenced by R&B and rock & roll artists like Howlin` Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley, Booker T. & the MGs, Little Walter, and Chuck Berry. 115] He was also strongly influenced by cellist Malcolm Cecil, who often damaged his cello during performances, along with Gustav Metzger, pioneer of auto-destructive art. In light of these influences, guitar smashing became not just an expression of youthful angst, but also a means of conveying ideas through musical performance. "We advanced a new concept", he writes. "Destruction is art when set to music." 114] Townshend also cited Robbie Basho as a significant influence, saying "I`ve totally been influenced by him. You can hear it in my work." 116]

Equipment