The Who planning to celebrate 40th anniversary of "Tommy"

Pete Townshend said that the Who will once again return to their 1969 rock opera, Tommy. On January 24th, Townshend posted on his official website (petetownshend.co.uk) about the band's future plans, writing that, "I had a meeting yesterday with Roger Daltrey and our managers to try to describe a plan for the two years ahead. We all feel that 2009 -- as the 40th anniversary of Tommy -- will be one to celebrate; we may not be around for the 50th."

Townshend went on to write that, "We will soon announce European shows that begin in May, and will end in the Festival season in July. It looks almost certain we will visit Japan, Australia and Hawaii in winter 2007. We also discussed the launch of a dedicated new Who website planned later this year."

He briefly touched upon plans for a follow-up to the band's first album in 24 years, Endless Wire: "There is no schedule set for a new album, but I will probably drift into it using the same process as last time and start work at home."

Townshend said that the long wait for Endless Wire had nothing to do with him not having enough material for the band to record: "You know, of course it hasn't taken 25 years, I could have put material together for what we would have called a Who record at any time. I've made a couple of records of my own in that period, and I've written about 450 songs and produced around 1,400 pieces of music since the Who stopped recording. So, it's not been through lack of material, it's really been about why you would want to put a record out by the Who."

Townshend also made mention of his performance at the tribute concert for Traffic's late drummer Jim Capaldi. Townshend appeared at the tribute on January 21st at the Roundhouse in London and performed a solo acoustic rendition of Traffic's "No Face, No Name, No Number." Townshend had performed the Traffic classic during his debut solo gig at the Roundhouse back in 1974.

Townshend remarked on the evening that, "(It was) good to catch up with Gary Moore, Joe Walsh, Steve Winwood, Simon Kirk, Bill Wyman, John Lord, (and) Yusef Islam."

On Tuesday (January 23rd), the Who were honored at Britain's South Bank Show awards with the lifetime achievement award. The awards recognize British achievement in music, theater, television and the arts.

The Who kick off their next series of dates on February 23rd in Reno, Nevada at the Reno Events Center.
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