The Who 'Endless Wire' album

Universal Republic Records will release new music from the legendary rock band The Who, it was announced today by Mel Lewinter, Chairman and CEO of the Universal Motown Records Group, and Monte Lipman, President of Universal Republic Records. The historic signing with Universal Republic will include the first studio album by the band in 25 years, Endless Wire, scheduled to hit stores October 31, 2006.

“We are thrilled beyond words to welcome The Who to Universal Republic,” stated Mr. Lewinter. “They are truly one of the quintessential rock bands of all time. Larger than life, never compromising – The Who’s profound insight and willingness to push the musical envelope embodies everything vital about the indispensable music culture they helped spawn.”

Stated Mr. Lipman: “The Who not only defined their generation, but every generation of artists that followed with their genre-defying mixture of rock, R&B, and conceptual breakthroughs. We’re honored they’ve chosen Universal Republic and are certain their new album is poised to reinvigorate the music world all over again.”

Commented Doug Morris, Chairman and CEO of the Universal Music Group: “I join Mel and Monte in welcoming The Who to the Universal Republic family, and look forward to the next great chapter in one of the most indomitable and innovative legacies in the history of rock n’ roll.”

Universal Republic will inaugurate the new pact with the release of the first new Who studio album since 1982. The disc will include all new songs, as well as music culled from a 29 minute operatic work, described by The Who’s co-founder Pete Townshend as “A Mini-Opera inspired by his Novella The Boy Who Heard Music.” Townshend has made the book available online at www.petetownshend.co.uk/projects/tbwhim/.

A recent EP, Wire & Glass, (available only on import in the U.S.), which includes music from the mini-opera, and one full length song, “Mirror Door”, all of which will be available on the new studio album, has garnered rave reviews, proving the venerable band has not lost their magic touch.

The multi-talented Townshend, who along with vocalist Roger Daltrey has been the long-standing dynamic force behind The Who (drummer Keith Moon died in 1978 and bassist John Entwistle died in 2002) indicates that the new material is definitely on par with what Who fans have come to expect from the legendary band.

The formidable duo also recently described themselves as “fit and ready to rock”, as they announced their first world tour in almost 20 years. The Who will embark on a whirlwind trek that will find them hitting the U.S. in September, kicking off in Philadelphia on September 12th, with more shows to follow in U.S. and Canada in October and November, as well as South America, East Asia, Europe and Australia in 2007. The band’s touring lineup is also to include Zak Starkey, Ringo Starr’s son on drums, and Simon Townshend, Pete Townshend’s brother on guitar, Pino Palladino on bass guitar, John Bundrick on keyboards.

Few bands have had a more lasting impact on the rock era than The Who. Inducted into the Rock n’ roll Hall of Fame in 1990, their incendiary style garnered them one of rock’s most loyal fan bases, with the brash foursome bursting onto the scene in the mid-1960’s armed with a searing new template for rock, punk and everything after. Their 1965 coming of age anthem “My Generation,” also heralded the arrival of Pete Townshend as one of rock’s most prescient songwriters, with the prolific icon going on to pen one of the most influential and recognizable canon’s in rock, an evocative musical repertoire that has endured for more than 4 decades. The Who have sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, including ferocious and diverse classics such as the 1969 groundbreaking rock opera Tommy (which won 5 Tony awards for its Broadway adaptation in 1993), 1971’s pummeling Live At Leeds which has recently voted best live album of all time in the UK, 1973’s Quadrophenia, 1978’s Who Are You, and their final studio album 1982’s It’s Hard. Known for their combustible live shows as much as their conceptual and innovative album and song structures, their electrifying presence onstage and off has garnered comparisons with the Rolling Stones for the title of ‘world’s greatest rock n’ roll band.’

Most recently, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey reunited for the 2005 Live 8 Concert in London’s Hyde Park, as well as the 9/11 Benefit concert at Madison Square Garden, receiving glowing reviews for both shows. This summer, The Who offered a glimpse of their upcoming U.S. live show with a string of well received, sold-out concerts in Europe.

Biography

The Who stands alone in rock music. The most explosive live act ever to appear on stage, propelled by the most staggeringly brilliant rhythm section in all popular music, layered with deafening power chords and thunderous vocal fury, the Who transcended its original billing as "Maximum R&B" to become the most musically inventive and structurally innovative band of all. Alone among the great bands, the Who has found itself at the center of every major rock event -- Monterey, Woodstock, the Isle of Wight, the Concert for Kampuchea, Live Aid, the Concert for NYC. In any era, the Who is a touchstone for rock-and-roll greatness. They have sold over 100m albums and won every award including Grammys/Brit Awards/Lifetime Acheivement. They have been inducted into both the US and UK Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. Their charitable work is legendary with millions of dollars being raised over the years for a variety of causes. This work was recognized by the award of a CBE to Roger Daltrey in 2005.
Together, the four divergent personalities of the Who produced a hurricane. Each of them was a pioneer. Wildman drummer Keith Moon beat his kit with a chaotic elegance; stoic bassist John Entwistle held down the center with the melodic virtuosity of a solo guitarist; raging intellectual Pete Townshend punctuated the epic universality of his songs with the windmill slamming of his fingers across his guitar strings; and Roger Daltrey roared above it all with an impossibly virile macho swagger. They exploded conventional rhythm and blues structures, challenged pop music conventions, and redefined what was possible on stage, in the recording studio, and on vinyl. Never before or since has spiritual and intellectual brilliance sounded so gloriously furious.
Townshend and Entwistle grew up in the Shepherd's Bush area of London and formed a jazz band together as teenagers. When Daltrey invited Entwistle to join his skiffle and R&B band, the Detours, the bassist suggested bringing Townshend on board as a rhythm guitarist. Soon afterwards, the group added the sixteen-year-old Moon, who had been drumming with the Beachcombers. By 1964, the Detours had changed their name to the Who.
As the group accumulated a local following, Townshend attended the Ealing Art School, where he became exposed to Gustav Metzger's notions of auto-destructive art. Townshend would soon put these ideas into practice at the Marquee club in London, where he inadvertently smashed his guitar into ceiling and then bashed it into the stage in frustration. Moon later followed suit, and the furious sacrifice of the band's equipment became a performing signature. Manager Pete Meaden changed the group's name to the High Numbers in order to appeal to the local Mod audience, but after one single ("I'm the Face"/"Zoot Suit"), the band changed management and reclaimed its prior name. New managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp encouraged the group's explosive approach to soul and rhythm and blues, a style they dubbed "Maximum R&B." Townshend's original composition, "I Can't Explain" became the Who's first single and quickly reached the British Top Ten. In the fall of 1965, "My Generation" with its refrain of "I hope I die before I get old" became the cry of entire generation.
With Lambert's encouragement, Townshend began to explore narrative alternatives to the conventional three-minute pop song. The title track to A Quick One (While He's Away), a ten-minute mini-opera, proved an immediate success. 1967's concept album The Who Sell Out, a mock radio broadcast complete with commercials, represents a triumph of musical innovation, satire, and searing rock and roll. The brilliant single "I Can See for Miles," took the band to the Top Ten in America for the first time. Combined with a blistering appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival earlier that year, the album cemented the Who's status as pop's most innovative ensemble.
The Who soared beyond even the greatest expectations with the double concept album Tommy, the first successful rock opera. An allegorical tale of a "deaf, dumb, and blind" boy traumatized by the murder and cover-up of his mother's lover, the album constitutes a triumph for all: Daltrey's vocal characterizations give life to Townshend's innovative narrative, and the soulfulness of Moon and Entwistle's rhythm work validates the high art as authentic rock and roll. The band's stunning live presentation of the songs at Woodstock that year firmly established the Who as the world's greatest live act.
Momentarily clearing the decks with a teeth-rattling set of older singles and covers, the Who released the staggering Live at Leeds the following year. Still regarded as the greatest live recording ever made, the set documented the evolution of the band's playing: The Who weren't simply becoming more cerebral, they were growing rhythmically and sonically as well. Influenced by the teachings of his guru, Meher Baba, Townshend began work on Lifehouse, a futuristic science fiction rock opera that anticipated spiritual decline in a computerized world of virtual reality. Decades ahead of its time, the project stalled, but the resulting songs were reassembled on Who's Next, critically regarded as the band's best work yet, a grand and sophisticated collection of tracks featuring a remarkably tasteful mixture of electronics, synthesizers and pounding rock.
Townshend returned to rock opera with Quadrophenia in 1973. Eschewing fantasy and choosing to look backwards into the past instead, Townshend crafted a portrait of a '60s mod, a lad with a personality divided into four equal parts, each represented by one of the bandmembers. Taking advantage of the recent advent of quadraphonic sound, the band left its contemporaries behind once and for all, charting musical territory that has still yet to be fully explored three decades later.
As the band members began to pursue their own individual projects, the Who recorded with less frequency. The surprisingly personal The Who By Numbers appeared in 1975, with Townshend revealing more about his own struggles than ever before, and Daltrey finding the vocal subtlety to match it. After a three-year hiatus, the Who reemerged in 1978 with the stunning Who Are You, an unapologetic sweeping away of any suggestions that the band might no longer belong at the top of the heap. But in the midst of this triumphant comeback, tragedy struck when Keith Moon died in his sleep of an Heminevrin overdose on September 7, 1978. The band continued on with former member of the Small Faces, Kenny Jones, taking over on drums and John "Rabbit" Bundrick on keyboards, In 1981 the Who released Face Dances, featuring the hit, "You Better, You Bet," and followed with It's Hard and a farewell tour in 1982. The live Who's Last (1984) documented what were then thought to be the final Who shows. The group reunited to play Live Aid in 1985, and in 1989, the Who embarked on a massively successful 25th anniversary tour of America.
The band reunited again in 1996 to perform the Quadrophenia at the Prince's Trust concert in Hyde Park and stayed together to tour their spiritual home the United States the following summer. In October 2001, the Who delivered a rousing performance at the Concert for NYC benefit, providing a joyful, cathartic release for the grieving families of the victims of the September 11 attacks. But tragedy for the band struck again in June, 2002, when, on the eve a North American tour, John Entwistle passed away at the age of 57 in Las Vegas' Hard Rock Hotel. They completed the tour triumphantly with stand in bassist Pino Palladino and went back to the US in 2004 and followed up with a first ever tour of Japan and Australia
In spite of the loss of Moon and Entwistle, the Who remains the standard-bearer for great live rock and roll and are still one of the most in demand live acts in the business Their music still forms the backdrop to 21st Century life and is all over television in such shows as CSI and in many movies. The 21st century has sparked a resurgence in the creative collaboration between Townshend and Daltrey. The 2004 greatest hits collection, Then and Now features two excellent new songs, "Real Good Looking Boy" and "Old Red Wine. After a stunning sold out tour of Europe in June and July 06 , their first new studio album since 1982, Endless Wire is scheduled for release in October ’06, shortly after the band start a 41 date US Tour to be followed by dates in the Far East, Australia South America and Europe in ‘07. A career spanning documentary on the band produced by Spitfire Pictures is also nearing completion.

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The Who - Endless Wire