There are too many things demanding Pete Townshend's time right now. He's been awake since 6am today, busy working on the next stage of The Age Of Anxiety, a multi-mediaproject, based around his hallucinatory 2019 novel, that also involves an opera and art installation.
"I'm finishing off the music," he explains to RC over Zoom from his home studio in Oxfordshire. "It's taken a long time, but I've just been listening to it now and it sounds really good."
There's also the recent announcement of Quadrophenia: A Mod Ballet, an ambitious dance production of Townshend's classic study of teenage rebellion, set to an orchestral score co-written by his partner, Rachel Fuller. Due to tour the UK next year, it promises to place The Who's 1973 epic in a whole other context.
There's the unseen stuff, too, what Townshend calls creative play. "I make art all the time," he says. "Some of it's quite political or sociological. I make wooden installations, I do drawings. I'm a big fan of abstract art. I write poetry, I write fiction. I don't throw it all at the public, because when I do, I get sneered at. I think a lot of people think, 'You've got a great job. You should be happy with it.""
But we're here, ostensibly, to discuss Pete Townshend Live In Concert 1985-2001, a 14-disc boxset of in-concert recordings that reach deep into his solo career. Initially released separately and online through his Eel Pie label, these shows have been out of print for over 20 years. Highlights include two nights at Brixton Academy in 1985, fronting Deep End - a band featuring David Gilmour and others and a full rendition of 1993's multihanded conceptual piece, Psychoderelict, from New York.
Bu hikaye Record Collector dergisinin September 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Record Collector dergisinin September 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
WINDOWS ON THE WORLD
At the peak of their powers in the early 70s, by 1975 there were signs that Led Zeppelin were burning out, and their legendary appetite for excess, not to mention stadium-straddling, mythically charged, epically inclined hard rock, might be waning.
HI-FIDELITY?
Running a record shop is a dream for many music aficionados. Steve Burniston investigates how to run a successful one
THE ENGINE ROOM
The unsung heroes who helped forge modern music
UNDER THE RADAR
Artists, bands, and labels meriting more attention
45 SHEFFIELD 45s
Continuing our celebrations of RC's 45th birthday and following on from our look at the best 45s to come out of Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol and Glasgow, we focus on the urbanisation formerly known as Steel City: Sheffield. Close to the (Nether) Edge: Jeremy Allen
Finished Symphonies
In the late 80s, Shelleyan Orphan made rarefied, ravishing, precious (both meanings) baroque pop, all chamber quartet accompaniment and literary reference points, like an 18th century Cocteau Twins.
"BLACK BRITISH PEOPLE HAD SOMETHING TO SHOUT ABOUT"
Breaking new ground for black music in Britain from his teenage years in Matumbi in the early 70s, Dennis Bovell went on to become one of reggae's most highly regarded producers, helping popularise lovers rock. He also played a pivotal role in post-punk's experimental incorporation of dub influences on records like The Slits' Cut and The Pop Group's Y. As new compilation, Sufferer Sounds, reaches back to his early days to compile some of his best early dub plates, Lois Wilson gets the full backstory from one of British music's most enduring forces.
FRENZY REUNITED
Swindon's finest musical export, XTC were also one of the most quietly influential British bands, setting a template for Britpop while pioneering a brand of left-field guitar pop – from herky-jerky invention to consummate craftsmanship – that has spawned many imitators.
Paperback Blighters - The books every record collector should read.
The books every record collector should read. Vinyl, you may have heard, has made a big comeback. In 2022, sales of vinyl albums surpassed compact discs (CDs) for the first time in more than three decades in terms of global revenue, racking up more than $1.2bn.
"Beware the Savage Lure/of 1984..." - David Bowie is one of the most venerated musicians ever. But even he had his bad periods.
David Bowie is one of the most venerated musicians ever. But even he had his bad periods. For many, 1984 remains the nadir of his Phil Collins” phase; an artistic/sartonial/tonsorial disaster area. But was it really that awful? Forty years on, Matt Phillips explores Bowie's so-called annus horribilis.
