Pete Townshend has said he hopes the Who returns for farewell dates before they “crawl off and die.” Whether they’d be touring behind a follow-up to 2019’s Who is another matter.
Bandmate Roger Daltrey doesn’t seem interested in a return to the studio – and Townshend isn’t in the mood to argue. “I’m not gonna try to bully Roger to do anything,” Townshend tells the Daily Beast. “I don’t want to have the job that I used to have around the time of Quadrophenia, which is bullying everybody in the Who to do exactly what I want to do.”
Who was a Top 5 international hit, going gold in the U.K. At that point, the Who hadn’t released a new album since 2006’s Endless Wire, which hit the Top 10 in America and the U.K. If they remain apart, the Who’s final performances would date back to a short string of orchestral U.K. shows in 2023. Last year saw the release of The Who With Orchestra Live at Wembley, recorded during a 2019 concert in London.
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Townshend says he’s envisioning another tour but with a smaller, more tightly knit lineup. “I’m hoping Roger and I can find some common ground and find some way to work again, possibly without an orchestra because I think we’ve done that,” Townshend said. “But also, there’s this sense that we’re in the last tour period of our career. Are we just hoping to do what Bob Dylan does and just keep going?”
Daltrey seems to be open to touring in a smaller-scale fashion, after performing a series of his own intimate U.S. shows in June. “I’m encouraged by seeing what Roger’s doing in his solo tour,” Townshend admits. “It seems to me that if we put a small band together and just decided to throw shit at the wall, it might be great.”
The Who’s Breakdown in Communication
The problem: “Roger and I don’t converse. We don’t talk. So, it might be difficult to land on something that we both share an interest in – but it’s there for the taking, I think.”
Of course, back when Townshend was admittedly “bullying” the others, the Who was in the midst of a pretty good run: Quadrophenia arrived in the early ’70s as the group continued a run of six straight albums that went platinum or multi-platinum in the U.S.
“It worked, yeah – but it was no fun,” Townshend added. “And at the end of that, Roger knocked me out. I asked for it, but he knocked me out. Anyway, I’m hopeful. I’m certainly not saying that we won’t do anything, but Roger and I do have a bit of a river to cross. And once we cross that river, we’ll see what happens.”
Famous Final (or Not-So-Final) Concerts
Final concerts aren’t always announced beforehand. Sometimes, they’re not even final at all.
Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
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