Pete Townshend
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Pete Townshend: Genius of the Simple
Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, December 1971
Pete Townshend is a little worried about the advancement that is being made with musical equipment and recording studios. "The technology is beginning to overtake ...
Pete Townshend: The Lifehouse Chronicles
Review and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, MOJO, December 1999
Some day all music will be made this way. In 1970 it seemed so barking mad the band asked him to drop it. Now, Pete’s ...
Audio interviews
Interview by Steven Rosen, Rock's Backpages audio, Winter 1979
Steven Rosen talks to Pete Townshend about developing his solo style after listening to Jimi Hendrix (1979).
File format: MP3 File size: 842kb<br> Interview length: 1 minute 11 seconds Sound quality: ***
The Who's Pete Townshend (1989)
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, 1989
Mr Townshend talks at length about what drives him creatively; the ossification of US classic rock radio; his resentment that songs like 'Won't Get Fooled Again' overshadow more personal work; his belief in the status of rock as art, and the death of the Who as a creative force.
File format: mp3; file size: 50.8mb, interview length: 55' 27" sound quality: ***
The Who's Pete Townshend (1993)
Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, June 1993
Framed around his just-released solo album Psychoderelict and the recent stage production of Tommy, Townshend riffs on the nature of rockers growing old; on touring with the Who and his hearing loss; on re-examining his childhood and finding an ending for Tommy; on Who's Next, Ken Russell's Tommy movie... and Keith Moon's four nipples!
File format: mp3; total file size: 55.5mb, total interview length: 57' 49" sound quality: ****
The Who's Pete Townshend (1994)
Interview by Simon Witter, Rock's Backpages audio, 1994
The man with the windmill arm goes way back to the early days of the Who, the band's politics and personalities, the Madness of Moon, the awfulness of Woodstock, Kit Lambert and Mods, and rock as art and the rock opera.
File format: mp3; file size: 52.7mb, interview length: 57' 35" sound quality: *****
List of articles in the library
Interview by Danny Fields, Datebook, November 1966
THE ELABORATE lunch for Herman's Hermits was just about over, and the hotel ballroom was a dismal vista of plastic décor and messy, empty tables. ...
Peter Townshend of the Who Talks! We Listen!
Interview by Paul Nelson, Hullabaloo, June 1968
"I mean, everyone seems to be arguing who invented feedback. I mean, I did — without a doubt." The whole truth on feedback, Eric Clapton, ...
"I'm gonna make you a star" said Pete Townshend to Thunderclap Newman... and he meant it!
Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 28 June 1969
NOBODY REALLY expects anything connected with the Who to be quite normal, but with Thunderclap Newman, Pete Townshend has come up with a gem. Apart ...
Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, 13 February 1971
WHITHER the Who? you might ask, for despite their Live At Leeds album and Pete Townshend's recently announced plans for "musically computerised character analysis" we ...
Peter Townshend Who Came First (Decca/Track)
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, December 1972
HERE WE HAVE the debut album of Peter Baba. Believe it or not, in his youth Baba fronted an incorrigible reds-popping teenage quartet responsible for ...
Eric Clapton & Pete Townshend: Go Get 'Em Eric
Interview by Bill Phillips, New Musical Express, 13 January 1973
BILL PHILLIPS previews the CLAPTON comeback concert – and talks to PETE TOWNSHEND ...
Peter Townshend: Who Came First; John Entwistle: Whistle Rhymes
Review by Jim Esposito, Zoo World, 3 February 1973
PERHAPS THE farthest-reaching cultural upheaval of our era is the formation of subcultures on every plane of society as an escape from the total immensity ...
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 3 November 1973
IN THE SECOND LEG OF THE TOWNSHEND-MURRAY TALKABOUT, PETE TELLS ALL...AND MORE. ...
Pete Townshend: March Of The Mod
Profile by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 18 May 1974
IT MAY WELL have been pure chance that produced the most visually exciting guitarist in rock. If Peter Townshend hadn't been born with a big ...
Can You Believe It? Chatting with Pete Townshend
Interview by John Tobler, ZigZag, June 1974
I bet you'd given up all hope of seeing the second part of this little epic, eh? How many of you even remember the first ...
The Return of You Know Who: Pete Townshend and Ronnie Lane
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 17 September 1977
PETE TOWNSHEND is back — with a new album accompanied by his old mate Ronnie Lane, and with trenchant views on punk. ...
Pete Townshend & Ronnie Lane: Rough Mix
Review by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, October 1977
WHATEVER THE reasons may be for Pete Townshend's self-imposed exile from both recording and commenting on the current music scene, it's a relief to have ...
In Which Pete Townshend Gets Personal
Interview by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, May 1978
"SHADDUP," YELLS Pete Townshend. Then he slaps his leg and Towser the dog comes running over. "Do you want to go out?" Pete asks, getting ...
Pete Townshend: Picking Up The Pieces
Report and Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 14 October 1978
"ROGER AND I have really got to get together and thrash out... not a compromise, but what is really gonna work. And if we can't ...
Pete Townshend: Conversations With Pete
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 19 April 1980
On an up with britain's longest serving honest man of rock ...
Pete Townshend: Empty Glass (Atco)
Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 26 April 1980
WHAT IS the trouble with these song and dance men who have had their day but won't admit it? They get above themselves, as Parsons ...
Pete Townshend: Empty Glass (Atco)
Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 26 April 1980
TO MOST people, it's probably always been obvious that Roger Daltrey was simply Pete Townshend's mouthpiece, the hired vocalist who put the professional gloss on ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 26 June 1980
AS A FUNDAMENTALLY religious artist, Pete Townshend fashions his music from sermons and confessions. Though it's not an easy thing for intellectuals to admit, this ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, August 1980
"Heroin" does not rhyme with "mellowing." ...
Pete Townshend: All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 3 July 1982
HERE IS Pete Townshend: born again. And again, and again, and again, and again... ...
Pete Townshend Stops Hurting People; Stops Hurting Himself
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Creem, November 1982
"PERSONALLY I LIKE the idea of embodying evil in the devil – it doesn't really matter whether you externalize the evil or recognize it as ...
Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, The Guitar Greats (BBC Books), 1983
PETE TOWNSHEND NEEDS little introduction – he is, although he would perhaps reject the term, a celebrity. Pete was born on 19 May 1945, in ...
Pete Townshend: The Unimportance Of Being Townshend
Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 12 March 1983
BEFORE I begin my latest erratic arrangement I must state my position, of which I'm certain. I have never thought that if Peter Townshend cut ...
Pete Townshend: A Musician’s Rocky Road To Bloomsbury
Interview by Mick Brown, The Sunday Times, 1985
THERE IS about Pete Townshend nowadays a sense of balance which is hard to equate with the Pete Townshend the pop music audience came to ...
Pete Townshend: A Charter Member Of The Who Deals With The Paradoxes In His Life
Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 26 November 1985
THE SUBJECT IS drug abuse — heroin, cocaine and alcohol — and the speaker is Pete Townshend, former lead guitarist of The Who. Townshend, 40, ...
Who The Hell Does Pete Townshend Think He Is?
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, July 1989
Doesn't time fly? Seems like only yesterday he was a powerful advertisement for reckless hedonism and passionate irresponsibility. Today he's a bookish publishing consultant, earnest ...
Pete Townshend: Alive and Kicking
Interview by Pippa Lang, What Hi-Fi?, October 1989
Pete Townshend's zest for gigging is as strong as ever. But so is his passion for the digital trickery of computer composing, as he tells ...
What Came Next: Pete Townshend Goes It Alone
Sleeve notes by Ira Robbins, Who Came First, August 1992
As spiritual epiphanies go, Pete Townshend's public acknowledgment of his personal rebirth was made with remarkable understatement for a major celebrity. ...
The Kid's Still Alright: Pete Townshend
Interview by Gerrie Lim, BigO, September 1993
"WHAT A PLEASURE to meet you," Pete Townshend says, hiding nothing behind blue eyes once I'd mentioned the magic mantra (BigO). He quickly extends his ...
The Who's Pete Townshend (1994) [transcript]
Transcript of audio interview by Simon Witter, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 1994
This is a transcript of Simon's audio interview. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Interview by Paul Moody, New Musical Express, 23 July 1994
PETE TOWNSHEND, Broadway hit musical owner and destroyer of 1001 guitars, is lounging in the shade of a Twickenham afternoon like a man who's just ...
Pete Townshend: Cooltalkingsmoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestoking (Atlantic)
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, MOJO, June 1996
DEAR DEAR PETE, ROCK'S leading luvvie: it's been so temptingly easy to take the piss out of him for his earnestness, his artistic ambition and ...
Interview by Ira Robbins, Cleveland Live, November 1996
SHORTLY BEFORE THE reunited Who began its month-plus Quadrophenia tour of North America in Portland, Oregon on October 13th, guitarist, singer and composer Pete Townshend ...
Interview by Ira Robbins, San Francisco Chronicle, 1997
"Roger [Daltrey] speaks a lot about the magic that happens when the three of us get together to play," says Pete Townshend, who spent two ...
Pete Townshend, Noel Gallagher and friends at the Sound Republic
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, December 1998
WHEN WORLDS kaleid... It’s the second "launch" night at Sound Republic, all chrome and cocktails and biz/media chatterati who won’t shut their yap no matter ...
Pete Townshend: on The Who and Lifehouse
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Los Angeles Times, 1999
The Who on the road in America again, just 18 years after their farewell tour? "It’s a long story and not a particularly nice one," ...
Interview by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 3 December 1999
I'M LAUGHING, BUT Pete Townshend is frightening me. "Yes!!!!!" he shouts, and bangs hard on the table in his Richmond studio, for the second time ...
Pete Townshend: The Lifehouse Chronicles
Review by Gavin Martin, Uncut, January 2000
Legendary follow up to Tommy — abandoned by The Who in 1971 — finally unveiled in a six-CD box set featuring a radio play, original ...
Pete Townshend's Lifehouse: Sadler's Wells, London
Live Review by Keith Cameron, The Guardian, 28 February 2000
PETE TOWNSHEND at Sadler's Wells? The ex-Who star's venue for this performance of the 30-years-in-the-making rock opera Lifehouse was, like its recent broadcast on Radio ...
The Who: Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Chris Roberts, Uncut, March 2000
WELL, YOU can't accuse them of being pompous, of inflating their legend. The Who shuffle distractedly onstage as if they're playing a mate's house party, ...
Interview by Jason Gross, Yahoo! Internet Life, April 2000
2003 NOTE: WHILE IT'S commonplace now for artists to put their material up for fans to preview, it wasn't three years ago, which should show ...
The Soul in the Machine: Whatever Happened to Atlantic Records?
Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, What'd I Say, 2001
"UNFORTUNATELY, we’re running a big business here now," Ahmet Ertegun confessed to author Gerri Hirshey in 1982. "And it sort of ... well, it drives ...
Retrospective and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, April 2004
TRICKY CUSTOMER, Lifehouse. Pete Townshend spent the best part of a year from autumn, 1970, trying to explain it... ...
The iJamming! interview: Fiery Furnaces' Matt Friedberger
Interview by Tony Fletcher, iJamming.net, January 2005
FOR A Q magazine Special Edition on Icons, published in November 2004, I was commissioned to write profiles on Pete Townshend and Joe Strummer. To ...
Pete Townshend: The Deluxe Edition Solo Albums (Universal Music)
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, May 2006
THIS IS IN DEFENSE of Pete Townshend, who'd probably be the first to argue that he doesn't need anyone defending him in public—least of all ...
Profile and Interview by Simon Garfield, Intelligent Life, Summer 2011
ROCK MUSIC in 2011 is not quite what it was in the mid-1960s. For one thing, it is full of challenging coincidences, such as the ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 5 April 2012
The "Father of Loud", he gave his name to the world-famous, ubiquitous amplifier. ...
Pete Townshend: Who I Am – A Memoir (Harper)
Book Review by Robert Dean Lurie, National Review, 20 December 2012
THE INNER FLAP of the dust jacket says it all: "Pete Townshend has some explaining to do." ...
Pete Townshend: "Music has always suffered from being tied to politics or religion"
Report and Interview by Tim Cooper, The Guardian, 2 July 2015
As he releases a version of Quadrophenia performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Who's guitarist explains that his band were never really anti-establishment. ...
Interview by Alan Light, MOJO, August 2015
"I DON'T WANT to tour, I don't want to go on TV, I don't want to go on the radio, I don't want to do ...
Retrospective by Caryn Rose, 68 to 05, May 2021
PETER DENNIS Blandford Townshend tells you everything you need to know about his first real solo album*, Empty Glass, with the (literally) iconic cover image: ...
see also Who, The
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