Pete Townshend says he can’t wait for the Who’s on-going Quadrophenia and More tour to return to his native UK, calling the 1973 double-album hit “a quintessentially English piece.”
The Who bring the show to Britain beginning in June. Townshend is joined by co-founding Who frontman Roger Daltrey, as well as a group that includes Zak Starkey on drums, Pino Palladino on bass and Pete’s brother Simon Townshend on additional guitars, among others.
[SOMETHING ELSE! REWIND: Simon Townshend’s terrific new solo album ‘Looking Out, Looking In’ ought to finally drag him out of the lengthy shadows cast by his brother Pete and the Who.]
“I wanted to play in my home country,” Townshend says. “I think Quadrophenia is a quintessentially English piece, a British piece. It’s about life in post-war England, about a young man who comes from our neighborhood. And I wanted to, because it’s so great — I’m loving it.”
Of course, in England — as in the U.S. — fans and media photographers alike wait with baited breath for Townshend’s signature windmill move. That dramatic riff on the guitar has become as iconic, in some ways, as the Who’s music itself.
“The reason is do it is not because it has any function anymore,” Townshend says. “But whenever I do it, it’s a cheap shot. I go like that,” he adds, chucking as he sweeps his arm overhead, “and people go mad. If it’s getting a bit quiet, I just swing my arm. If Roger needs a bit of help, I swing my arm.”
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