For Who fans, the exciting news is that plans are afoot for the group to record new music next spring.
Guitarist Pete Townshend has revealed that he is working on a new production in the tradition of the Who’s “Tommy” and “Quadrophenia” that he calls “Floss.” The guitarist also told Rolling Stone magazine that the more conventional songs from “Floss” will be part of a new Who CD next year.
“The Who are going to be in the studio, and I feel the need to get the pipes lubricated,” Daltrey said. “I really feel like it’s time to get out there.”
Daltrey did a run of headlining shows in the fall and is now opening for Eric Clapton, and he said his shows could vary from night to night.
“There will be Who songs I want to reapproach that we haven’t done for a long while, and they will be different. I won’t do them like the Who does them,” he said. “I will be doing some solo stuff that I’ve never played live. I made an album in ’94 called ‘Rocks in the Head.’ A lot of that stuff will work great live onstage. So I’m not sure what material and I don’t know what’s going to be in the show, and I won’t know until any particular night.”
Solo tours have been rare for Daltrey, whose last of seven solo albums was 1996’s “McVicar.”
The Who has seen several lineup changes over the years. Drummer Keith Moon died in 1978 and bassist John Entwistle died in 2002. Currently the band consists of Daltrey, Townshend, Zak Starkey (on drums) and Pino Palladino (on bass).
To Daltrey, the current edition of the Who feels more like a true band than at any time since Moon was alive. The group made its live debut for 2010 performing a 12-minute medley of hit songs during the halftime of the Super Bowl on Feb. 7.
“With Zak, it feels much more like it did,” Daltrey said. “And even though John’s not there anymore, we’ve got Pino, and I can hear myself singing for the first time. So now it’s a dream. It’s much easier to do a performance now and to give a performance with more color than it ever was when John was onstage. That’s not to say I don’t miss John.
“[But] there were quite a few problems with John onstage in the latter years because he was deaf,” Daltrey said. “He was playing through vibrations, which used to give us some terrible, terrible volume problems.”
If Daltrey has his way, recording and touring with the Who will be a regular part of his life going forward.
“I’d like us to carry on as we are,” Daltrey said. “The last album was really good. I’d like us to be playing more of our back catalog than we do at the moment. For instance, I would like us to be doing ‘Quadrophenia.’ I’d like us to be doing ‘Tommy,’ as well as the show as we’ve got now, and maybe do a ‘Live at Leeds’ show as well. It’s another different side of the Who that hasn’t been there for a long time. But the main thing is to be out there, be in front of people.”
Concert preview
Roger Daltrey, opening for Eric Clapton
7:30 p.m. Tuesday. $55-$95. Gwinnett Center, 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway, Duluth. 770-813-7500, www.ticketmaster.com .