Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Talkin’ ‘bout regeneration..
The Who to tour and record new material
THE Who are getting ready for what could be singer Roger Daltrey’s last tour and working on their first studio album in a more than a decade.
The rockers are starting a string of UK and US dates for promoter Live Nation in May, while the as-yet untitled new album is due to come out later this year.
Daltrey, 74, said: “This will possibly be my last tour. I have to be realistic that this is the age I am and voices start to go after a while. I don’t want to be not as good as I was two years ago.”
Guitarist Pete Townshend,
73, refused to commit to the tour to celebrate the band’s
55th anniversary unless they recorded new material.
He said: “This has nothing to do with wanting a hit album [or] the fact The Who need a new album. It’s purely personal. It’s about my pride, my sense of self-worth and self-dignity as a writer.” The LP will be the band’s first since 2006’s Endless Wire.
Townshend said he has already sketched out 15 new songs including “dark ballads, heavy rock and cliched Who-ish tunes that began with a guitar that goes yangadang”.
But Daltrey is yet to contribute. The pair have not spoken for a year and communicate through their management.
Daltrey said: “There’s at least five or six [songs] I can lay into and I’m sure they’ll come out incredible.”