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Zak Starkey's with:
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In December of 2000, it was announced that The Who received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Grammy's - to be presented at the 2001 February Awards Ceremony. Though the Who did not perform at, or attend the awards, a special promotional DVD containing highlights of the upcoming Royal Albert Hall Charity Concert release was given out to all audience members. The complete DVD would be released Sept 25th, 2001. [see releases]
All throughout the 2000 Tour, interviews and promotions, one or another Who member (though usually Roger) would make a statement that the band was going "to go", or "to try and go" into the studio, nothing happened that year. Throughout 2001, the hope and the rumors continued.
On June 20th, Roger in a phone interview promoting "WitchBlade" with radio personality Mitch Albom had this to say:
Albom: "...what's the next performance schedule for The Who?"
Roger: "We're starting work in September doing, uh, charity shows and a, a few gigs around Europe and studio work. So That's going to be very interesting ... very experimental"
Albom: "...You're gonna do a new album?"
Roger: "(laughing) We're gonna try."
September came and went and it appeared that the reality would be that 2001 would pass without the band stepping foot into the recording studio, despite any good intentions.
The rumors of live appearances also appeared early in the year. The first was February's highly unlikely rumor of The Who at the summer's V98 Festival. In June, reports came in that there were a number of "reserved" dates in the fall at various venues in Spain. Roger's above quote during his radio interview seemed to give that a bit more credibility.
Then came the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center, NYC.
On Sept 27th, a number of reports concerning Paul McCartney joining up with an already in the planning stage benefit for the World Trade Center victims, families and rescuers, mentioned that he had asked former members of Led Zeppelin and THE WHO to perform. Later in the day, reports were listing the WHO as confirmed. On Sept 28th, Pete Townshend himself confirmed that The Who, with Zak on drums, would take part. [See live for full details]
The
Oct 20th, Madison Square Garden, 5 + hour concert was televised, filmed and
recorded. The Who performed a blistering 4 song set - that was voted by almost
everyone who witnessed it - as THE high point of the evening! The CD [with 3
of the 4 songs] was released Nov 27th, the DVD is due in December. [See releases]
Pete's comments after the event concerning the studio LP rumors seems to squash all hopes:
"We have the chemistry," Townshend told me backstage. "But I don't think we understand each other creatively. We never did. I honor Roger and I love him, and we can certainly do songs from our past. But I just don't see how we could find a way to bring it up to the present." - Mitchell Fink of the NY Daily News
At the same time, on October 23rd, The Sun printed this alleged Zak quote:
WHO drummer Zak Starkey - son of ex-Beatle Ringo - said in New York there may be a new album from the band next year. He said: "Pete Townshend has got lots of ideas. I've played with them live but not really recorded. It would be a dream come true as I believe we are still the best band in the world."
There was still hope of a few more gigs before the end of the year, along with promises for 2002!
In a Sept 24th BBC2 Radio interview, Roger announced that:
"The Who is still around alive and kickin', and we're gonna be doing some more benefits, hopefully this year,definitely next year. We got a whole week of concerts planned at the Albert Hall between the 4th and the 9th of February. We're gonna be doing at least one of those nights, possibly two, depending on what guest stars we can get to do the other nights. ...but it's gonna happen, and again that's for Teenage Cancer Trust."
Pete on Dec 23rd, announced on his official site that The Who would be performing "warm-up" gigs prior to the February benefit, AND that there would be US SUMMER 2002 TOUR DATES as well as UK FALL 2002 dates!!
|See
The Who 2001 - Releases|
|See
The Who 2001 - Live |
Other
Who related sections on Kathy's Zak Starkey Site:
Quad Hyde Park and MSG * Quad
USA '96 * Quad Europe '97 *
Quad USA '97
Who's Serious? * Daltrey
Sings Townshend * Who convention '95
Pete's Olivier Award Party * John
Entwistle's The Rock * Pete's 98 solo
gigs
* Who 1999 shows * The
Who 2000 * Tony Ashton Testimonial Show
* The Who 2001 * The
Who 2002 * The Who 2003 * The
Who 2004 *
* The Who 2005 * The
Who 2006 *The
Who 2007 *
* The
Who 2008 *The
Who 2009 *The
Who 2010 *The Who 2011*
* Kathy's Simon
Townshend Pages *
Related Links:
** Note that the original incarnation of
Pete's Official Website (launched Oct 1999) was shut down by Pete on Jan 28,
2002.His
retail site - Eelpie.com
remained up and running and assumed some of the announcement duties.
www.petetownshend.co.uk (.com) was re-launched on June 10, 2002, with a WHO
section in his "projects" area of the site, and once again became
the official outlet for Who Tour and Release info, stories, pictures, sounds
and video. At this time, most all of the "Pete's official site" content referenced
on my pages for 2000 through early 2002, cannot be viewed at eelpie.com or the
new petetownshend/who
site , although an archive of former pt.com materials was said to have been
in the works.
Last Updated:
Saturday, February 4, 2006
Created: Sunday, February 18, 2001
Copyright © 2001 -
Kathy VanTassell
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