Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the lead guitarist, backing vocalist, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Who. His career with the Who spans over 50 years, during which time the band grew to be considered one of the most influential bands of the 20th century.
Background
Townshend was born on 19 May 1945, at Chiswick Hospital, Middlesex (now west London). He came from a musical family: his father, Cliff Townshend, was a professional alto saxophonist in the Royal Air Force's dance band The Squadronaires and his mother, Betty (née Dennis), was a singer with the Sydney Torch and Les Douglass Orchestras. The Townshends had a volatile marriage, as both drank heavily and possessed fiery tempers. Cliff Townshend was often away from his family touring with his band while Betty carried on affairs with other men. The two split when Townshend was a toddler and he was sent to live with his maternal grandmother Emma Dennis, whom Pete later described as "clinically insane". The two-year separation ended when Cliff and Betty purchased a house together on Woodgrange Avenue in middle-class Acton, and the young Pete was happily reunited with his parents.
Education
Upon passing the eleven-plus exam, Townshend was enrolled at Acton County Grammar School. At Acton County, he was frequently bullied because he had a large nose, an experience that profoundly affected him. His grandmother Emma purchased his first guitar for Christmas in 1956, an inexpensive Spanish model. Though his father taught him a couple of chords, Townshend was largely self-taught on the instrument and never learned to read music. Townshend and school friend John Entwistle formed a short-lived trad jazz group, the Confederates, featuring Townshend on banjo and Entwistle on horns. The Confederates played gigs at the Congo Club, a youth club run by the Acton Congregational Church, and covered Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball, and Lonnie Donegan. However, both became influenced by the increasing popularity of rock 'n' roll, with Townshend particularly admiring Cliff Richard's debut single, "Move It". Townshend left the Confederates after getting into a fight with the group's drummer, Chris Sherwin, and purchased a "reasonably good Czechoslovakian guitar" at his mother's antique shop.
Lacking the requisite test scores to attend university, Pete was faced with the decision of art school, music school, or getting a job. He ultimately chose to study graphic design at Ealing Art College, enrolling in 1961. At Ealing, Townshend studied alongside future Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood and future Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury. Notable artists and designers gave lectures at the college such as auto-destructive art pioneer Gustav Metzger. Townshend dropped out in 1964 to focus on music full-time.
Soon after graduating from high school, Townshend, Entwistle, and Daltrey formed a band called the Detours. They held daytime jobs while performing in small London clubs at night.
England's youth scene in the early 1960s featured sometimes bloody clashes between "mods," dandyish middle-class teens, and the rowdier "rockers" or "skinheads." The manager of Townshend's group decided to direct his musicians toward the mod audience. Soon the Detours were known as the High Numbers and were playing in Soho's Wardour Street clubs. During this time the group picked up its fourth member, drummer Keith Moon. Fortunately for the High Numbers, their contract was bought out by new management, Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp. Townshend in particular benefited from the management transition; Lambert introduced the young artist to traditional musical forms and state-of-the-art recording techniques. Lambert also allowed the group to change its name to the Who, and he promoted his charges tirelessly. By 1965 the band had an enormous following in England, especially among mods. The Who also broke through in America with two songs, "Can't Explain" and "My Generation."
Following the drug-overdose death of drummer Keith Moon in 1978, the band soldiered on with replacement drummer Kenney Jones. In 1984 Townshend officially disbanded the Who, although the three original members of the band periodically reunited for highly successful tours, including a 1988 venture that showcased the 1969 rock opera Tommy and a 1996-97 tour that showcased the 1973 rock opera Quadrophenia. In 2003 the band was on the verge of another monster tour when Entwistle died in a Las Vegas hotel room.
Townshend's solo albums never generated the sales that his Who albums did, but critics have praised them as significant steps in the evolution of a mature artist. By many critic's standards, Townshend's initial solo release, Who Came First, is a tentative affair, featuring demo recordings of songs that he wrote for the Who, songs inspired by his devotion to Meher Baba, and a collaboration with fellow Baba acolyte Ronnie Lane. Like the songs that appeared on the Who's landmark Who's Next, many of the songs on Who Came First were written for Townshend's aborted follow-up to his 1969 rock opera Tommy, which Townshend titled Lifehouse.
A multimedia science fiction extravaganza that ultimately contributed to Townshend's nervous breakdown, Lifehouse confused producers, rock journalists, and his Who bandmates with the complexity of its plot and thematic elements. Nevertheless, this period remains Townshend's most productive in terms of the amount of commercially and critically successful songs he wrote. Who Came First includes the Lifehouse composition "Pure and Easy," which had appeared in an abbreviated version as a coda to the Who's Next track, "Song Is Over." Discussing the origins of "Pure and Easy," Geoffrey Giuliano quoted Townshend in the biography Behind Blue Eyes : "From the peace of the original note, the single unmultiplied breath of life, the eternal silent singing that pervaded all, came this.… What are we supposed to be doing? Here am I, in suburban Twickenham, skinny, vain, and obsessed with the word 'forward'; how am I equipped to begin to understand Infinite Love?"
In 1973 Townshend helped organize Eric Clapton's return to live performing at the all-star Rainbow Concert, which featured Clapton's former Blind Faith bandmates Steve Winwood and Rick Grech, Traffic drummer Jim Capaldi, and Faces lead guitarist Ron Wood on bass guitar, who collectively called themselves Eric Clapton and the Palpitations. Townshend released the Who's double album rock opera Quadrophenia that same year, which was followed up by 1975's Who By Numbers. His next project apart from the Who, 1977's Rough Mix, began as a request to produce a solo effort by Ronnie Lane. The duo enlisted guest musicians Clapton, Entwistle, Charlie Watts, Bad Company bass guitarist Boz Burrell, keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick, drummer Henry Spinetti, harmonica player Peter Hope Evans, and former Slim Chance band members Graham Lyle, Benny Gallagher, and Charlie Hart.
The three years following the release of Rough Mix were dedicated to the release of the film version of the Who rock opera Quadrophenia, the Who documentary The Kids Are Alright, the release of the Who album Who Are You, and a worldwide Who tour that was delayed a year due to the death of drummer Keith Moon, and was subsequently marred by the deaths of eleven fans who were stampeded in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1979.
In the meantime, Townshend obsessed over middle age, his marriage, his sexuality, spirituality, the punk and New Wave music movements, and media coverage of the death of Moon. These subjects inform the prevalent themes on his 1980 solo release, Empty Glass, which takes its title from the Bible's book of Ecclesiastes.
Townshend sought a cure from his addictions with Dr. Margaret Patterson, the same doctor who had helped cure Eric Clapton's heroin addiction in the early 1970s. Rejuvenated in 1982, Townshend recorded and released the critically lambasted It's Hard with the Who and his solo album, All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes. The latter album is perhaps Townshend in his most self-conscious and pretentious artistic mode. However, the net effect is of an artist experiencing a creative rebirth. Such songs as "The Sea Refuses No River," "Somebody Saved Me," and "Slit Skits" deal with the redemption possible for even the most decadent individual through spiritual and human love. "For all its wordiness, its trad-Townshend sound, its frequent moments of bathos and its return to perennial themes, it remains an astonishing record: painful, awkward and boundlessly courageous," wrote Murray in New Musical Express. "Pete Townshend has compounded all his faults and virtues into one record, made no concessions to stadium rock nor to what's supposedly 'relevant.' He's risked making a fool of himself and provided one of the year's most inspiring albums." Townshend dedicated the album to Dr. Patterson.
In 1983 Townshend announced he would no longer record and tour with the Who. He was appointed assistant editor at the prestigious London publishing house Faber and Faber, where he was able to write and publish his 1985 short story collection, Horse's Neck, which Mick Brown described in the London Sunday Times as "a series of elliptical commentaries on childhood, the tribulations and degradations of fame and the obsessiveness which lies at the heart of the contract between star and fan." In 1985 Townshend scored another hit single with "Face the Face" from the album White City. The album's themes and accompanying gritty short film caused many critics and listeners to infer that the album's main character is a grown-up version of the protagonist Jimmy from the 1973 rock opera Quadrophenia. Other critics have interpreted the estranged relationship depicted on the album to be a metaphor for the repressive system of apartheid in South Africa. The album features guitar work from Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour, who also co-wrote one of the album's several standout tracks, "White City Fighting," and whose own 1984 solo album, About Face featured the song "Murder," which was, in turn, co-written by Townshend.
In 1985 the Who reunited for an appearance at Live Aid. They also regrouped to tour in 1989 and several times in the 1990s. On the 1989 tour the band played Tommy in its entirety while also focusing on songs from Townshend's 1989 solo album The Iron Man, which drew its inspiration from the children's novel by Ted Hughes. The album also featured Daltry and Entwistle performing a remake of the hit single Townshend produced in the 1960s for the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, "Fire," as well as the song "Dig." Other guests on the album include singers John Lee Hooker, Nina Simone, Chyna, and Deborah Conway.
In 1992 Townshend collaborated with director Des McAnuff on a theatrical version of Tommy, which went on to become an enormously successful Tony Award-winning production. In 1993 a stage version of Iron Man debuted in London with Daltry starring. This play, however, was less successful and closed after only a few performances.
Townshend showed no predilection for religious belief in the first years of the Who's career. By the beginning of 1968, however, Townshend had begun to explore spiritual ideas. In January 1968, the Who recorded his song "Faith in Something Bigger" (Odds & Sods). Townshend's art school friend Mike McInnerney gave him a copy of C. B. Purdom's book The God-Man, introducing him to the writings of the Indian "perfect master" Meher Baba, who blended elements of Vedantic, Sufi, and Mystic schools.
Townshend swiftly absorbed all of Baba's writings that he could find; by April 1968, he announced himself Baba's disciple. At about this time, Townshend, who had been searching the past two years for a basis for a rock opera, created a story inspired by the teachings of Baba and other writings and expressing the enlightenment he believed that he had received from them, which ultimately became Tommy. Tommy did more than revitalise the Who's career (which was moderately successful at this point but had reached a plateau); it also marked a renewal of Townshend's songwriting and his spiritual studies infused most of his work from Tommy forward, including the unfinished Who project Lifehouse. The Who song "Baba O'Riley", written for Lifehouse and eventually appearing on the album Who's Next, was named for Meher Baba and minimalist composer Terry Riley. His newfound passion was not shared by his bandmates, whose attitude was tolerant, but who were unwilling to become the spokesmen for a particular religion. Few of the thousands of fans who packed stadiums across Europe and the US to see the Who noticed the religious message in the songs: that "Bargain" and the middle section of "Behind Blue Eyes" from Who's Next and "Listening To You" from Tommy were all originally written as prayers, that "Drowned" from Quadrophenia and "Don't Let Go The Coat" from Face Dances were based on Baba's sayings, that the "who are you, who, who, who, who" chorus from the song "Who Are You" was based on Sufi chants, or that "Let My Love Open The Door" was not a message from a lover but from God.
In interviews Townshend was more open about his beliefs, penning an article on Baba for Rolling Stone in 1970 and stating that following Baba's teachings, he was opposed to the use of all psychedelic drugs, making him one of the first rock stars with counterculture credibility to turn against their use.
His stardom quickly made him the world's most notable follower of Baba. Having missed out on meeting his guru with Baba's death 31 January 1969 (work on Tommy kept him from making the pilgrimage), Townshend made several trips to visit Baba's tomb in India as well as becoming a frequent visitor to the Meher Baba Spiritual Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. At home he recorded and released his most overtly spiritual songs on records assembled, pressed and sold by Baba organizations. When these records became widely bootlegged, Townshend put together a selection of the tracks for release as the solo album Who Came First. In 1976 he opened the Oceanic Centre in London, using it as a haven for English Baba followers and Americans making a pilgrimage to Baba's tomb in Meherabad, India as well as a place for small concerts (recordings of which from 1979 and 1980 were released on CD in 2001 as Pete Townshend & Raphael Rudd - The Oceanic Concerts) and a repository for films made of Baba.
Townshend became a lower-profile follower after 1982, having felt that his former addictions to cocaine and heroin made him a poor candidate for a spokesman. Nevertheless, his discipleship continues to the current day.
Politics
In 1998, Townshend was named in a list of the biggest private financial donors to the UK Labour Party. He refused to let Michael Moore use "Won't Get Fooled Again" in Fahrenheit 9/11, saying that he watched Bowling for Columbine and was not convinced. In 1961 while in art school, Townshend joined the Young Communist League and was a prominent figure in their 1966 "Trend" recruitment campaign. In a 1974 Penthouse interview he stated that in practice he was a capitalist rewarded well for his work, but his ideals were communist.
In a widely reported 2012 interview with ABC, Townshend described himself as being "a bit of a neocon", going further to state that, “I like the idea of America as the world’s police force. Then we don’t have to do it. You guys sort it out.”
Views
Quotations:
"I don't think I even approach being a lead player; I think I'm very much part of a band and a riff-maker. I enjoy backing people up and letting people ride on top...I'm musically happiest when I feel I'm driving everyone else to do good things, when I'm not being the pin man."
"If you steer clear of quality, you're alright."
Personality
In a 1989 interview with radio host Timothy White, Townshend apparently acknowledged his bisexuality, referencing the song "Rough Boys" on his 1980 album, Empty Glass. He called the song a "coming out, an acknowledgment of the fact that I'd had a gay life, and that I understood what gay sex was about." However, in a 1994 interview for Playboy, he said, "I did an interview about it, saying that "Rough Boys" was about being gay, and in the interview I also talked about my "gay life," which - I meant - was actually about the friends I've had who are gay. So the interviewer kind of dotted the t's and crossed the i's and assumed that this was a coming out, which it wasn't at all."Townshend later wrote in his 2012 autobiography Who I Am that he at one point felt as if he was "probably bisexual". Townshend also stated jokingly that he once felt sexually attracted to The Rolling Stones lead singer, Mick Jagger.
Townshend has woven a long history of involvement with various charities and other philanthropic efforts throughout his career, both as a solo artist and with the Who. His first solo concert, for example, was a 1974 benefit show which was organized to raise funds for the Camden Square Community Play Centre.
Although known primarily as a guitarist, he also plays keyboards, banjo, accordion, harmonica, ukulele, mandolin, violin, synthesizer, bass guitar, and drums, on his own solo albums, several Who albums and as a guest contributor to an array of other artists' recordings. He is self-taught on all of the instruments he plays and has never had any formal training.
Quotes from others about the person
Ritchie Blackmore: "Pete Townshend was definitely the first. But not being that good a guitarist, he used to just sort of crash chords and let the guitar feedback. He didn't get into twiddling with the dials on the amplifier until much later. He's overrated in England, but at the same time you find a lot of people like Jeff Beck and Hendrix getting credit for things he started. Townshend was the first to break his guitar, and he was the first to do a lot of things. He's very good at his chord scene, too."
Interests
Music & Bands
R&B and rock & roll artists like Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley, Booker T. & the MGs, Little Walter, and Chuck Berry.
Connections
Townshend met Karen Astley, daughter of film composer Edwin Astley, while in art school. They married on 20 May 1968 and moved into a three-bedroom townhouse in Twickenham in outer south-west London that overlooked the Thames. They have three children: Emma (born 1969), who is a gardening columnist, Aminta (born 1971), who works in film production, and Joseph (born 1990), who studied graphic design at Central St. Martins.
Townshend and his wife separated in 1994 and divorced in 2009. Townshend has been in a relationship with arranger and musician Rachel Fuller for over twenty years. The two were married quietly in December 2016.