Pete Townshend Working On New Rock Opera

The Who's guitarist Pete Townshend has revealed he is working on a new rock opera, with some of the songs set for inclusion on a new Who record.

Writing on his blog which features on the band’s official website, Townshend said: “I am writing a new musical. Floss is an ambitious new project for me, in the style of Tommy and Quadrophenia. In this case the songs are interspersed with surround-sound ’soundscapes’ featuring complex sound effects and musical montages.”

“When Walter (a pub rock musician) tries to return to music after a 15-year hiatus,” Townshend said of the musical’s story, “he finds that what he hears and what he composes evoke the ecologically rooted, apocalyptic mindset of his generation. Shaken by this and torn by personal difficulties, he and Floss (Walter’s wife) become estranged.”

After writing the youth anthem "My Generation"in his early twenties, Townshend went on to describe the new approach to music in his later years: “”At 64,” said, “I now want to take on ageing and mortality, using the powerfully angry context of rock’n'roll.”

Townshend, who has already written classic rock operas such as Tommy, in 1969, and Quadrophenia, in 1973, said he hopes to have the project ready by 2011.

The guitarist's announcement comes as a pleasant surprise after a year and a half of depressing interviews in which Townshend said things like "I am no longer a member of a band called the Who". Singer Roger Daltrey made similar comments, saying, "I think [the Who] have done enough already. It would be great to have something new, but it doesn't really matter." The Who's last album was 2006's Endless Wire.