Pete Townshend

How are great turning points in history experienced by individuals? As Britain pulls away from Europe great British writers come together to give voice to their innermost feelings. These writers include novelists, writers of books for children, of comic books, humourists, historians, biographers, nature writers, film writers, travel writers, writers young and old and from an extraordinary range of backgrounds. Most are famous perhaps because they have won the Booker or other literary prizes, written bestsellers, changed the face of popular culture or sold millions of records. Others are not yet household names but write with depth of insight and feeling. There is some extraordinary writing in this book. Some of these pieces are expressions of love of particular places in Europe. Some are true stories, some nostalgic, some hopeful. Some are cries of pain. There are hilarious pieces. There are cries of pain and regret. Some pieces are quietly devastating. All are passionate. Conceived as a love letter to Europe, this book may also help reawaken love for Britain. It shows the unique richness and diversity of British cultures, a multitude of voices in harmony. Contributors include:Hugh Aldersey-Williams, Philip Ardagh, Jake Arnott, Patricia Atkinson, Paul Atterbury, Richard Beard, Mary Beard, Don Boyd, Melvyn Bragg, Gyles Brandreth, Kathleen Burke, James Buxton, Philip Carr, Brian Catling, Shami Chakrabarti, Chris Cleave, Mark Cocker, Peter Conradi , Heather Cooper, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Roger Crowley, David Crystal, William Dalrymple, Lindsey Davies, Margaret Drabble, Mark Ellen, Richard Evans, Michel Faber, Sebastian Faulks, Ranulph Fiennes, Robert Fox, James Fox, Neil Gaiman, Evelyn Glennie, James Hanning, Nick Hayes, Alan Hollinghurst, Gabby Hutchinson-Crouch, Will Hutton, Robert Irwin, Holly Johnson , Liane Jones, Ruth Jones, Sam Jordison, Kapka Kassabova, AL Kennedy, Hermione Lee, Prue Leith, Patrick Lenox, Roger Lewis, David Lindo, Penelope Lively, Beth Lync, Richard Mabey, Sue MacGregor, Ian Martin, Frank McDonough, Jonathan Meades, Andrew Miller, Deborah Moggach, Ben Moor, Alan Moore, Paul Morley, Jackie Morris, Charles Nicholl, Richard Overy, Chris Riddell, Adam Roberts, Tony Robinson, Lee Rourke, Sophie Sabbage, Marcus Sedgwick, Richard Shirreff, Paul Stanford, Isy Suttie, Sandi Toksvig, Colin Tudge, Ed Vulliamy, Anna Whitelock, Kate Williams, Michael Wood, Louisa Young

Conceived in 2017 from a conversation with Roger Daltrey, Words of Love by Genesis Publications is the definitive celebration of musician, songwriter and rock and roll trailblazer Buddy Holly. Created in partnership with Maria Elena Holly and the Buddy Holly Educational Foundation, this seminal volume offers an intimate look at Buddy's life, music, and lasting legacy, revealing the man behind the timeless music. Words of Love features over 400 rare and archival items, including photographs, personal letters, handwritten notes, clothing, iconic glasses, guitars, tour posters, recording agreements, and press cuttings, and much more—many of which are previously unpublished. Through these artifacts and an extensive collection of rare and never-before-seen photographs, Words of Love charts the unusual rise of a musical pioneer who defied conventions and shaped the future of rock and roll. With forewords by Maria Elena Holly and Paul McCartney, afterword by Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend and cover art fro Ronnie Wood, Buddy’s legacy is recounted through the voices of those who knew him best. Bandmates Jerry 'JI' Allison and Sonny Curtis, as well as friends like Paul Anka, Dion, Duane Eddy, and Don Everly, share their memories alongside insights from over 80 influential musicians, including David Gilmour, Emmylou Harris, Van Morrison, Dolly Parton, Robert Plant, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, and Brian Wilson. From his Texan roots, to his work with the Crickets, to his final months of innovation preceding his tragic death, Words of Love unravels the complexities of Buddy Holly’s life and celebrates his enduring influence on music history.‘Buddy was playing the lead guitar, which we loved, but he was also singing it, which we loved, and he’d written it, which we loved. So on a number of levels he was very inspirational. He became a hero for us and gave us the idea to go and do it ourselves.’ – PAUL McCARTNEY‘You could learn from Buddy Holly how to write songs, the way he put them together. He was a beautiful writer. The greatest. And I mean that – the greatest.’ – MICK JAGGER‘I’ve worked with so many people in music and I just know we’d have collaborated if things had been different. You can hear Buddy’s musical ideas across the whole spectrum of music. Everybody is inspired by something he did!’ – NILE RODGERS‘I play Buddy Holly every night before I go on. It keeps me honest.’ – BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

The definitive illustrated companion to the Who's legendary Tommy album. Foreword by Pete Townshend This updated and expanded edition of Tommy at Fifty is the definitive illustrated companion to the album that made the Who one of the greatest and most influential bands of the rock era. Written by two leading experts on, and close associates of, the group—journalist and author Chris Charlesworth and original album cover designer Mike McInnerney—it considers the album from four distinct angles, examining the mood of its creation, the origins of its music, the look of the artwork and its subsequent film adaptation, and its enduring legacy. With a foreword by Pete Townshend and cover art created exclusively for this book by McInnerney, Tommy at Fifty offers an unparalleled window into the Who’s finest hour. With the exception perhaps of My Generation, Tommy remains the work with which the Who are most closely associated. It’s the album that turned Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, and Keith Moon into millionaire superstars, and, like its Messiah figure title character, it casts a long shadow over both their subsequent work together and the canon of 20th-century rock music.

Virginia Astley has been a much admired songwriter and musician since the 1980s, known for her engaging lyrics as well as for her melodious style. Now her other two passions take centre stage in this book: poetry and the River Thames. She grew up by the river's upper reaches, knew the old lock-keepers and was familiar with all aspects of the Thames and its hinterland: both the natural world and the people whose lives are intimately connected with the river. In recent years, she has returned to the Thames, working for a summer as an assistant lock-keeper, and walking its length to record and respond to its landscapes, river life and river folk as a poet and photographer. Her pamphlet The Curative Harp won Ireland's Fool for Poetry chapbook competition in 2015 and was published by Southword. The English River is her first book-length poetry collection, showing many new sides to this multi-talented artist: as poet, nature writer, storyteller and photographer. The foreword is by Peter Townshend. `Virginia's story is about the river and the people who work on it, especially those who man the locks. She captures a view of the upper reaches of the River Thames that is entirely fresh. There are glimpsed moments of the claustrophobic beauty of the wooded parts that contrast with the open expanses of uplifting countryside where the river meanders through woodland and farmland. Focussing on the professionals who work on the river, and who manage the locks and the flood plains around them, Virginia suggests - as she works as a lock-keeper's assistant - that they become almost addicted to the peace and beauty of their place of work. She herself becomes enchanted, that is certain. She makes herself vulnerable in the most romantic way, working and writing and evoking everything she sees and feels as both a storyteller and poet, and as photographer.' - Pete Townshend, musician

"Raw and unsparing...as intimate and as painful as a therapy session, while chronicling the history of the band as it took shape in the Mod scene in 1960s London and became the very embodiment of adolescent rebellion and loud, anarchic rock 'n' roll." -- Michiko Kakutani, New York TimesOne of rock music's most intelligent and literary performers, Pete Townshend--guitarist, songwriter, editor--tells his closest-held stories about the origins of the preeminent twentieth-century band The Who, his own career as an artist and performer, and his restless life in and out of the public eye in this candid autobiography, Who I Am. With eloquence, fierce intelligence, and brutal honesty, Townshend has written a deeply personal book that also stands as a primary source for popular music's greatest epoch. Readers will be confronted by a man laying bare who he is, an artist who has asked for nearly sixty years: Who are you?

He is one of the greatest musical talents Britain has ever produced. But even as the principle songwriter and lead guitarist for The Who, it would be unjust to define Pete Townshendâ??s life simply through his achievements with bandmates Daltrey, Moon and Entwistle.

An original graphic novel based on rock music legend Pete Townshend's 1970 screenplay of the same name, which inspired The Who’s 1971 globally bestselling and universally beloved album, Who’s Next. Set in a Dystopian future where music has been outlawed, Life House follows a small band of rebels who stage an underground concert in an effort to undermine a tyrannical leader... and free Britain and all of humanity. This graphic novelization is co-written by Doom Patrol's James Harvey and Spider-Man Noir's David Hine with art by both Harvey and Australian visual artist Max Prentis, lettering by Michah Myers, and inks by Eisner Award winning artist Mick Gray. It is edited by the former Editor-in-Chief of Bleeding Cool, Hannah Means-Shannon, and features a massive Vinyl LP format (12.25" x 12.25"). This is a must-have for any serious music collectors, rock fans, and pop culture aficionados! Originally envisioned as a sci-fi rock epic to follow-up The Who's chart-topping song, “Tommy,” and put aside 50 years ago—in favor of Who’s Next songs like “Baba O’Riley,” “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” and “Behind Blue Eyes”—Life House will finally take center stage.

An original graphic novel based on rock music legend Pete Townshend's 1970 screenplay of the same name, which inspired The Who’s 1971 globally bestselling and universally beloved album, Who’s Next. Set in a Dystopian future where music has been outlawed, Life House follows a small band of rebels who stage an underground concert in an effort to undermine a tyrannical leader... and free Britain and all of humanity. This graphic novelization is co-written by Doom Patrol's James Harvey and Spider-Man Noir's David Hine with art by both Harvey and Australian visual artist Max Prentis, lettering by Michah Myers, and inks by Eisner Award winning artist Mick Gray. It is edited by the former Editor-in-Chief of Bleeding Cool, Hannah Means-Shannon, and features a massive Vinyl LP format (12.25" x 12.25"). This is a must-have for any serious music collectors, rock fans, and pop culture aficionados! Originally envisioned as a sci-fi rock epic to follow-up The Who's chart-topping song, “Tommy,” and put aside 50 years ago—in favor of Who’s Next songs like “Baba O’Riley,” “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” and “Behind Blue Eyes”—Life House will finally take center stage. Features a Vegan Leather-bound Slipcase

In his debut novel, rock legend Pete Townshend explores the anxiety of modern life and madness in a story that stretches across two generations of a London family, their lovers, collaborators, and friends. A former rock star disappears on the Cumberland moors. When his wife finds him, she discovers he has become a hermit and a painter of apocalyptic visions. An art dealer has drug-induced visions of demonic faces swirling in a bedstead and soon his wife disappears, nowhere to be found. A beautiful Irish girl who has stabbed her father to death is determined to seduce her best friend's husband. A young composer begins to experience aural hallucinations, expressions of the fear and anxiety of the people of London. He constructs a maze in his back garden. Driven by passion and musical ambition, events spiral out of control -- good drugs and bad drugs, loves lost and found, families broken apart and reunited. Conceived jointly as an opera, The Age of Anxiety deals with mythic and operatic themes. Hallucinations and soundscapes haunt this novel in an extended meditation on manic genius and the dark art of creativity.

The debut novel by Pete Townshend, one of the world's greatest rock stars

Kuka olen on aikuisen miehen kirjoittama rock-kirja, se näyttää kloppien romantisoiman rock-elämäntavan pohjimmaisen typeryyden seuraukset arkisen karuina ja toteavasti. Townshend ei tarjoa yhtään väärää syytä tarttua kitaraan. — Helsingin Sanomat Pete Townshend esittelee elämäänsä ja musiikkia raa’an rehellisesti.