To have them both salute The Who’s 50th, with the only interview commemorating this significant birthday, is a rare treat.Ĭontroversially, Townshend claims that the band have only technically been together for 33 years, as they effectively split as a touring and recording unit between 1982-99, but ignore the old grouch – The Who are 50. The pair preferred to be interviewed separately on this occasion to avoid any unseemly squabbling – they don’t want to cause a big sensation – but, as with their music, they complement each other perfectly.ĭaltrey: gutsy, down to earth. Roger Daltrey gives his longest interview in recent memory, the new ‘Chatty Rog’ amazing his management team.Īfter an exhaustive discussion, Pete Townshend offers Event a lift home in order to continue the conversation (‘I’m enjoying this!’) into the night. ‘I had a homoerotic crush on Mick Jagger when he was young and beautiful,' said Pete The Who’s busy main men, who run a £180 million business with a highly profitable two-year projection, have agreed to talk exclusively to Event, and talk they do. I’m hard-working, I don’t stop, but she’d out-run me any day of the week. I can’t understand people thinking she leads a life of luxury. ‘I think the Queen is remarkable,’ Daltrey enthuses. The Queen Mother’s regal reaction to the stuttering sturm und drang smash went unrecorded, but as The Who prepare for their Golden Jubilee jolly-up, singer Roger Daltrey CBE remains a big fan of her daughter’s work. ‘But I got a rather decent song out of it, so, cheers, Ma’am.’ ‘I saw her as a boring old lady who had nothing better to do than go around taking away teenagers’ cars,’ he says now. Whether or not the enigmatic Royal representative ever really existed we’ll never know.īut Townshend resentfully agreed to the dubious deal then, suitably incensed, finished writing My Generation (‘which I’d had brewing’) and dedicated it to the Queen Mum. Recovery would cost an extortionate £250, but the caller offered to pay this fee in exchange for ownership of the majestic motor. A mysterious telephone call informed Townshend that the car had been impounded upon the request of the Queen Mother, as she had to pass it every day and it brought to mind her late husband King George VI’s funeral 12 years earlier. 'The funny thing back then was that you didn’t have to pay for parking, so I plonked it outside my place thinking it looked rather cool.’ I was an angry, cocky young man but I felt pushed around. ‘I wasn’t made to feel particularly welcome in that area,’ he recalls. My Generation came kicking and screaming into the world in late 1964, when Pete Townshend, The Who’s guitarist and principal songwriter, purchased an ancient Packard V12 hearse for £90 and parked it proudly outside his flat in Belgravia.įifty years later, Townshend picks up the story. The Queen Mother, God bless her, can’t claim responsibility for many rock songs.īut she can take considerable credit for The Who’s My Generation, the loudest, snottiest rock ’n’ roll anthem of them all.Ī howl of teenage angst that still reverberates through the music of U2, Oasis, Robbie Williams and even One Direction, the song takes pride of place on their latest release, The Who Hits 50, and is certain to feature in all its live and livid glory when they start their two-year ‘Beginning Of The Long Goodbye’ tour next month, celebrating The Who’s half-century. ‘A longstanding friendship that has turned into a bonded love, founded on a deeper understanding of each other’s limitations,' said Pete Townshend of his relationship with fellow Who bandmate Roger Daltrey
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