The Who taking new approach

Roger Daltrey says that he and Pete Townshend are taking a slightly different approach on the upcoming Who album. Apparently some of the tracks may be the result of recent two-man-band sessions between the pair: "We are doing it in a very different way. All the time that (the late bassist) John (Entwistle) was in the band, we kind of felt we had to go in as a group. Now, it is really only Pete and I, and Pete wants to do all the guitars and some of the bass playing... Whether we will end up going into the studio with a band and recording it all again, I don't know. These are all the kinds of bridges that we need to cross."

The singer added that the still-untitled, new album - the group's first since 1982's It's Hard - still has no firm release date: "It will come out when it is ready. What's the point of trying to give yourself deadlines that aren't really important? I think we have to get it good before we can finish it."

Daltrey told us that there's no reason for rockers to stop being relevant artistically just because they hit the 60-year-old mark: "I've always laughed at people who say, 'Oh, you're too old to rock-and-roll.' I don't... to me, it's got nothing to do with your age or any of that -- it's to do with the music, and what that music itself generates."

For the first time in the group's career, Daltrey is actively contributing material to the sessions, and has so far submitted three songs: "One of them is particularly fantastic in the older Who-type vain... These songs are all about the spirit and the emotion. Whether or not they are successful in today's world, who knows? The business is totally different now."

In the Who's 40-plus year career, the group has only recorded two solo Daltrey compositions -- "See My Way," from 1966's A Quick One album, and "Here For More," which was included as the B-side to the group's 1970 single "The Seeker," and has yet to be issued on CD.

Daltrey has two co-writing credits in the Who's catalogue: 1965's "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" with Townshend, and 1967's "Early Morning Cold Taxi," which he co-wrote with Dave Langston and remained unissued until the group's 1994 Thirty Years Of Maximum R&B box set.

The Who kick off their 14-date European summer tour on June 25th in Leeds, England, at Harewood House. North American gigs are expected for next autumn.

The group's touring ensemble is rounded out by veteran keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick, drummer Zak Starkey, bassist Pino Palladino, and Townshend's brother Simon on rhythm guitar and vocals.
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