No Tommy Film

No Tommy Film

LONDON — The Who have scrapped plans for the new album they’ve been working on, preferring instead to work towards something that Pete Townshend says others will view as a sequel to Tommy. Four tracks from an album that the band had previously been working on, before producer Kit Lambert came up with the new idea, will probably be out as singles — “Water”, “I Don’t Even Know Myself”, “Postcard” by John Entwhistle and “Now I’m a Farmer”. All four will probably be put out as a “maxi-single”, a diminutive EP concept.

The Who are also looking to build a studio, which Townshend hopes to

build in an old house that the group would have converted.

They’ll not be doing the previously proposed film of Tommy either. “I

think Warner Bros, have the film rights and they can make a film whenever they want, with whoever they want,” Townshend said in Disc, the British teeny-pop paper.

The new album will be a film/album conception, much like the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine project, though the film will not be one with animation. “Basically it’s about someone trying to discover the note that is everything, the essence, if you like, a musical sort of infinity. But, as we are not capable of finding it, he doesn’t find it.” Some of the songs that fit with the idea are “The Note”, “We’re Moving” and “The Two of Us.”

“It’s about a set of musicians, a grdup, who look like the Who and behave remarkably like the Who, and they have a roadie who is desperately interested in ideals for humanity. It’s basically a science fiction fantasy idea. This roadie is wrapped up in electronics and synthesizers. He’s fanatically serious about finding ‘The Note’ and spends all his time converting Egyptian charts and musical mysticisms into electronic circuitry — and discovers all these wonderful and weird oscillations. He’s fantastically serious but the group isn’t.

“Anyway, this group find a note, which basically creates complete devastation. And when everything is destroyed, only the real note, the true note that they have been looking for, is left.

“Of course, there is no one left to hear it, except the audience of course who are in a rather privileged position.”

The Who are also discussing doing an album with four sides, one for each of the group members. That probably won’t happen, as only half the group are hot on the idea and John Entwhistle is already preparing an album of his own tunes anyway.

One thing is for certain though and that is the fact that the Who’s extensive touring days are over, at least for awhile. “We are always very conscious of what we are doing and we are beginning to wonder whether people are bored with it. So we are getting off the road to concentrate on other things.”

In a related event, the Who’s rock opera {Tommy, natch) has been adapted for ballet by the Royal Canadian Ballet Company in Montreal.