From the S&S archives:
The Who: Not pretending to be what they once were

THE WHO'S Pete Townshend isn't about to apologize.

Not for the fact that the band's formerly rough and raw sound is now slick and polished. Or that he no longer delivers ear-crushing power chords or smashes guitars at the end of the shows. Or even that he, singer Roger Daltrey and bass player John Entwistle have added 13 other musicians to the lineup of the legendary group.

"We're not pretending to be the old Who," Townshend said in a press conference at London's Hard Rock Cafe. "This is a band brought together to celebrate some of the music we created, but we can't pretend to actually recreate it as it was."

Townshend, Daltrey and Entwistle — three of the four original members of the '60s and '70s supergroup — were in London recently to promote the British leg of their 25th anniversary tour, dubbed "The Kids Are Alright." After a two-month sell-out tour of the United States last summer, the group was set to perform four shows in Birmingham later that week. Another four shows in London this month are already sold out, as are two full-length performances of the rock opera Tommy.

Moments before the conference, Townshend surprised the horde of press photographers outside the Hard Rock by smashing a guitar on the sidewalk. It would be the only time the guitarist would re-enact what once was his stock in trade and the traditional end to a Who concert. The smashed guitar was to be auctioned and the proceeds donated to a children's fund.

Charity — and money — have been big topics ever since the Who announced its tour in April. Proceeds from the Tommy concerts in London, and those in New York City and Los Angeles, would benefit various children's foundations. The rest — Rolling Stone magazine estimated at least $30 million take-home pay from the U.S. tour alone — would go to the bandmembers.

Townshend doesn't deny that "money was the trigger" for the Who's tour — their first since 1982's "Farewell Tour."

"I think the important thing for me is that money was the first thing," he said. "I thought, if the whole thing would make money for me, ... then I would consider it. And then I started to think about all the other things, try to make sure that. .. we would meet all our individual needs." (One of Townshend's needs was for the tour to end in November so that he would be at home when his wife gives birth. He also mentioned that the band may schedule more shows next year.)

The Who decided against making a new album to coincide with the tour. Townshend said he envies the Rolling Stones for having written new material for their current tour, but for the Who to have done so would have been a "big mistake."

"We were most effective in the creative sector in our first four or five years and so it would just look wrong," he said. "Before, ... things seemed to work, we seemed to have some kind of chemistry. I think the last few years. .. were a struggle."

The media and hard-core Who fans have criticized the band's new polished and professional stage show, claiming it goes against what the Who originally was all about. When the band formed in London in 1964, it came to represent the energy, idealism and doubts of the youth of the time. Songs such as My Generation shouted adolescent rage, and the band's penchant for demolishing instruments after concerts was viewed as an acting-out of teen aggression. That rebelliousness would be lost in the smooth production.

Townshend counters the criticism cynically. "Most of (the people) never heard the sound as it was, so it doesn't really matter," he said.

"If they want to hear a really rough sound, they can go down to Dingwalls (a London club) and listen to a new band," he added. "We're not that anymore. There's no point in pretending to be that anymore. We are older, we're all more mature, to some extent we're more sophisticated, we're lazier, we need more support.

"We haven't got Keith Moon in the band anymore — that's one important element missing in the old Who formula. We soldiered on for a long time without him, and then realized that really we needed to change the formula in order to continue." Drummer Moon died in 1978.

Townshend has acknowledged a hearing loss: tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, sets in when he is exposed to long periods of loud electric guitar. In concerts these days he alternates between electric and acoustic.

He also acknowledges that some of the spark of the Who is gone.

"The fantastic thing about the Who was that. we kind of pushed ourselves into the front margin and we fought with the people that were around at the time, people like the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Kinks," he said.

"I think what made the Who interesting. ... was the danger of what we were trying to do. Occasionally, because we were struggling so hard, we just had great moments. I think people used to like the tension of that.. Some of that tension is gone. But not all of it."