IS PETE TOWNSHEND CLUELESS?MORE LIKE CLUED-IN
Pete's Blog
26th April, 2008
Clueless
Rob Lee your webmaster came to see me on Thursday. You people probably don't know what a fabulous man he is, and how much he cares about me, The Who, and you subscribers. One day maybe, he will give you the story about his own background, it is fascinating. Last Tuesday I had a lunch meeting with Roger and the two Who managers Bill Curbishley and Robert Rosenberg. We were trying to come up some kind of decision for the future, mainly - I suppose - for Roger's sake, but also so we could get some positive news to our band members, and our fans. We all feel in the air at the moment.
I sat fairly quietly. I don't want the Who to evaporate before my eyes, but I can't see how to push it forward without some kind of cohesive creative strategy, or Great New Idea to carry me along. That is how I've always worked in the past. Today is no different for me.
Roger and I are very different and have different needs. I find playing Live and touring with the old music very easy, I enjoy it, but it doesn't rock my world. Roger finds playing Live tough, sometimes he has to dig very deep to pull it out, often he seems unhappy or pained while performing, but there is no question - being on stage in The Who rocks Roger's world. He would prefer to do that than almost anything else under the sun. I hope this explains the confusing facial expressions that come from Rog and me sometimes on stage. We certainly try to support each other these days.
What rocks my world? Feeling I am creating something new. That's what I live for. The early work of The Who has become so well known that it's hard to rise above it, but every artist with more than a few hit records has this problem. New material has to be solidly supported because fans want to meld it into what has gone before to create a continuum that the artists themselves might not want to support.
On Tuesday Rob Lee sent me an email reproducing a couple of posts from folks on my Forum page, asking when I was going to say something? It seemed to be amazing timing. There I was, a few hours after a meeting with Roger, unable to give him a single thing that would help him feel better, and Rob Lee was telling me I should speak to the fans.
Instead, I fired out a short noncommittal statement, and on Thursday met with Rob himself. He's always great to hang out with. In the morning on Thursday I had called Rog and told him I wanted to record with the band in September, and do a Pacific tour in the autumn and winter of this year. He was over the moon. He was already worrying about next year, and the year after that, but it was good to make him happy.
When I put the phone down I emailed the band, and our main crew with the good news. We would record in September and tour in October to December.
Today I changed my mind.
I must not commit to studio time or show dates, especially not to long tours, without some kind of creative programme. I don't know whether I can write songs for The Who. I don't know if I can come up with some idea, some story, some angle, that will make me feel good about being the writer for The Who. Most important of all I don't know if I write something whether I should try to force The Who to carry it. With The Boy Who Heard Music squashed into what became Wire & Glass on Endless Wire I was happy with what we did, but sad to lose drive on the bigger story, the bigger idea.
Now that kind of sadness for me as a writer happens whether it was a Great Idea or not. Who knows? Who cares, but me? What I must do is make sure I allow myself to write, make mistakes, and make time to assess whether what I have on my desk makes sense for The Who.
So this morning I emailed everyone to tell them I've changed my mind. I'm not mad. I'm not selfish. I might be a little weak sometimes, to allow myself to make decisions based on factors that have nothing to do with art, music, ideas, change, life, expression or creativity - but I do want to honour our old friendships, play the old music together, honour our desire to see you people, and to meet new fans, play new places and so on. That's what tears me apart. But I really do have to be strong enough to admit that today I really do not have a clue what to do next. Something will come. It always does. But that's where I am today. Clueless.
26th April, 2008
Clueless
Rob Lee your webmaster came to see me on Thursday. You people probably don't know what a fabulous man he is, and how much he cares about me, The Who, and you subscribers. One day maybe, he will give you the story about his own background, it is fascinating. Last Tuesday I had a lunch meeting with Roger and the two Who managers Bill Curbishley and Robert Rosenberg. We were trying to come up some kind of decision for the future, mainly - I suppose - for Roger's sake, but also so we could get some positive news to our band members, and our fans. We all feel in the air at the moment.
I sat fairly quietly. I don't want the Who to evaporate before my eyes, but I can't see how to push it forward without some kind of cohesive creative strategy, or Great New Idea to carry me along. That is how I've always worked in the past. Today is no different for me.
Roger and I are very different and have different needs. I find playing Live and touring with the old music very easy, I enjoy it, but it doesn't rock my world. Roger finds playing Live tough, sometimes he has to dig very deep to pull it out, often he seems unhappy or pained while performing, but there is no question - being on stage in The Who rocks Roger's world. He would prefer to do that than almost anything else under the sun. I hope this explains the confusing facial expressions that come from Rog and me sometimes on stage. We certainly try to support each other these days.
What rocks my world? Feeling I am creating something new. That's what I live for. The early work of The Who has become so well known that it's hard to rise above it, but every artist with more than a few hit records has this problem. New material has to be solidly supported because fans want to meld it into what has gone before to create a continuum that the artists themselves might not want to support.
On Tuesday Rob Lee sent me an email reproducing a couple of posts from folks on my Forum page, asking when I was going to say something? It seemed to be amazing timing. There I was, a few hours after a meeting with Roger, unable to give him a single thing that would help him feel better, and Rob Lee was telling me I should speak to the fans.
Instead, I fired out a short noncommittal statement, and on Thursday met with Rob himself. He's always great to hang out with. In the morning on Thursday I had called Rog and told him I wanted to record with the band in September, and do a Pacific tour in the autumn and winter of this year. He was over the moon. He was already worrying about next year, and the year after that, but it was good to make him happy.
When I put the phone down I emailed the band, and our main crew with the good news. We would record in September and tour in October to December.
Today I changed my mind.
I must not commit to studio time or show dates, especially not to long tours, without some kind of creative programme. I don't know whether I can write songs for The Who. I don't know if I can come up with some idea, some story, some angle, that will make me feel good about being the writer for The Who. Most important of all I don't know if I write something whether I should try to force The Who to carry it. With The Boy Who Heard Music squashed into what became Wire & Glass on Endless Wire I was happy with what we did, but sad to lose drive on the bigger story, the bigger idea.
Now that kind of sadness for me as a writer happens whether it was a Great Idea or not. Who knows? Who cares, but me? What I must do is make sure I allow myself to write, make mistakes, and make time to assess whether what I have on my desk makes sense for The Who.
So this morning I emailed everyone to tell them I've changed my mind. I'm not mad. I'm not selfish. I might be a little weak sometimes, to allow myself to make decisions based on factors that have nothing to do with art, music, ideas, change, life, expression or creativity - but I do want to honour our old friendships, play the old music together, honour our desire to see you people, and to meet new fans, play new places and so on. That's what tears me apart. But I really do have to be strong enough to admit that today I really do not have a clue what to do next. Something will come. It always does. But that's where I am today. Clueless.
posted by Mike S at 8:48 AM
2 comments
