When the Who's Pete Townshend wrote it in the early 1970s, he wanted to release a record that would reconnect the band with its mod fanbase, who had drifted away from the group and were still obsessed with soul music, sharp fashion and scooters.
More than 50 years later, he's reviving it again - not as a rock opera but as a ballet in collaboration with Sadler's Wells and Universal Music, which is set to tour the UK.
"I wanted to remind the band where we came from; we came from west London and the mods were our people," says Townshend, who thinks that in 2024 there are echoes of the mid-60s, when mod culture emerged as a youthful rejection of conservative British norms.
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