Generation Terrorists

It seemed like it was all over for the Who. But solo projects and trout fishing will only get you so far.

The Observer, September 2006

About three years ago, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey had a conversation that went something like this.
Daltrey: ‘Whatever you do, Pete, I’ll support you!’
Townshend: ‘Great, because I’ve got this idea that I want to do this musical in Las Vegas called The Boy Who Heard Music.’
Daltrey: ‘Where?’
Townshend: ‘Las Vegas.’
Daltrey: ‘I’m not going there.’
Townshend: ‘But you said you would support me in whatever I want to do.’
Daltrey: ‘Except Las Vegas.’
Townshend: ‘But it’s only in Las Vegas that we’d get the 200 million dollars that I’d need to make my exploding Mirror Door moment.’
Daltrey: ‘Yes, but whatever else you want to do, I will completely support you.’
A short while later, Townshend gave him some early chapters of his novella about three kids in a band.
Townshend: ‘Well, could you read the story, because I want to write some songs about it?’
Daltrey (after reading it): ‘It’s the same old shit, isn’t it? Come up with something new!’
Townshend: ‘But this is it. This is me. I only have one story, one thesis. I’m a cracked record, and it’s going to go round and round and round until I die.’

Such, at least, is Townshend’s recollection of the conversation. He had endured these sorts of dispiriting exchanges with Daltrey before, and decided to press on regardless. One of the first songs he wrote was called ‘In the Ether’, which, like many of his compositions, appears to be about spiritual awakening and the expiation of pain. Townshend considers it, without question, one of the best things he has ever done, proclaiming, ‘I am writing better Stephen Sondheim songs than even Stephen Sondheim is writing!’ Initially, Daltrey was less convinced. ‘I played it to Roger,’ Townshend recalls, ‘and about a month passed. In the end, I got on the phone and said, “So, what did you think?”‘

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