Pete Townshend

Pete Townshend (born May 19, 1945, Chiswick, London, England) is a British guitarist and singer-songwriter best known as the lead guitarist and principal songwriter for the British rock band the Who. Townshend’s evocative songwriting has earned him a reputation as an inventive and intellectual rock music composer.

Early life

Townshend was the first child of Cliff Townshend, who worked as a professional saxophonist, and Betty (née Dennis) Townshend, who was a singer with the Sidney Torch and Leslie Douglas orchestras. As a youth, he loved reading classic adventure novels, such as Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. In the summer of 1956 he repeatedly watched the musical film Rock Around the Clock, featuring the seminal rock band Bill Haley and His Comets, which inspired Townshend’s interest in rock music. In 1957 his grandmother Emma bought him his first guitar as a Christmas gift. He attended Acton County Grammar School along with musician John Entwhistle, and the two joined several bands together before ending up in a group led by singer Roger Daltrey called the Detours, which eventually evolved into the Who. Townshend enrolled at Ealing School of Art in 1961 to pursue a degree in graphic design, but he dropped out in 1964 to prioritize his musical career.

The Who

Having added drummer Keith Moon in 1964, the Who released multiple singles between 1965 and 1966, including “I Can’t Explain,” “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere,” “My Generation,” and “Substitute.” The band continued to attract attention in Britain with its 1967 album The Who Sell Out, a pioneering concept album devised by Townshend that criticized excessive commercialism.

The double album Tommy (1969) rocketed the Who to stardom, effectively originating the concept of the rock opera and bringing the band’s music to a wider audience. The concept album, which centres on a deaf, blind, and non-speaking protagonist named Tommy who undergoes trauma and founds a new religion, explores subjects that Townshend considered topical in the late 1960s, such as drug culture, sexuality, and the ephemeral nature of public attention. Townshend composed most of the songs on Tommy and sang lead vocals on some of the tracks, including “1921” and “The Acid Queen.” The album was the basis for the 1975 film Tommy and the musical stage production The Who’s Tommy, which premiered on Broadway in 1993.

Townshend has been cited as one of the first rock guitarists to intentionally use guitar amplifier feedback in his music. Though his technique was rudimentary in comparison to the feedback-laden styles of guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix, Townshend’s squealing feedback opened new doors for its use in rock. Performative aspects of Townshend’s music also drew attention. When he accidentally smashed his electric guitar at a 1964 concert, the audience’s enthusiastic response compelled him to repeat the stunt often. In 1967 he shattered more than 35 guitars. The iconic and often-imitated practice provided a visual and auditory symbol for the aggressive and rebellious spirit that fueled some of Townshend’s compositions.

The Who’s performance at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in 1969 launched the band into rock music lore, although Townshend later professed his distaste for the experience. The band continued to achieve success throughout the 1970s, including with the critically acclaimed album Who’s Next (1971), which included the rock anthems “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and “Baba O’Riley,” and the double-album rock opera Quadrophenia (1973), featuring the tracks “The Real Me” and “Love, Reign o’er Me.” Townshend released his first solo album, Who Came First, in 1972, opening with the track “Pure and Easy,” which also appeared on the Who’s 1974 compilation album Odds & Sods. The band continued its run with the albums The Who by Numbers in 1975 and Who Are You in 1978. Moon died of an accidental drug overdose in 1978 and was replaced by drummer Kenney Jones. Although Townshend sought to honour Moon’s memory by remaining in the Who after his death, the band broke up in 1982.

Solo career

After the band’s dissolution, Townshend embarked on a solo career in music and other fields. He released several solo albums, including Empty Glass (1980), All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes (1982), White City: A Novel (1985), Pete Townshend’s Deep End Live! (1986), and The Iron Man: The Musical (1989). He also ventured into the publishing industry, taking a job as an acquisitions editor for the company Faber & Faber in 1983. Townshend released his own writing as well. His published work includes Horse’s Neck (1985), an anthology of short stories; Lifehouse (1999), a screenplay written with dramatist Jeff Young for BBC radio; Who I Am (2012), an autobiography; and The Age of Anxiety (2019), his first novel.

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From 2005 to 2007, he cohosted a musical webcast series called In the Attic along with musician Rachel Fuller. In 2012 he announced that he had sold all the rights to his music to the publishing firm Spirit Music Group.

He reunited with the other members of the Who for occasional performances, such as the Live Aid benefit concert in 1985 and the band’s 25th anniversary tour in 1989. Since Entwistle’s death in 2002, Townshend and Daltrey have toured a number of times as the Who, with other musicians filling out the band. In 2019 the band released the album WHO, which featured material composed mostly by Townshend.

Personal life and honours

In 1968 he married fashion designer Karen Astley. The couple had three children, and they divorced in 2009. Townshend married Rachel Fuller, his In the Attic collaborator, in 2016. Throughout his career, he has amassed a number of awards and honours. In 1983 he earned a BRIT Award for outstanding contributions to music in recognition of his lifetime achievement in rock. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 along with the other members of the Who. He received a Tony Award in 1993 for best original score written for the theatre for the musical The Who’s Tommy. He also shared a Grammy Award in 1994 with music producer George Martin for best musical show album for the soundtrack to The Who’s Tommy.