"Can you see the Real Me, can you! can you!"

Old traditions die hard. So too, it seems, interviewing techniques.

During that part of the 60's that allegedly swung like the proverbial dog's hind leg, along with enquiries concerning personal tastes in fast cars, fast food and fast women, an artist was invariably asked, how long could he envisage acting out his present role as a (successful) pop star?

The ripe old age of 30 being the absolute maximum suggested by most interviewees.

Almost 15 years on, can you believe that this very same lame-brain question is being dragged out of retirement by a dunderhead foreign newshound and put to Pete Townshend just five days before the guitarist celebrates his 34th birthday?

"I should say," replies Townshend faking a tortured frown, "that the very limit is 26!"

The journalist duly commits this invaluable revelation to paper.

It's four o'clock on a sun-drenched afternoon. The Who are mingling freely amidst the champagne and the cameras, the strawberries and the statements at an informal Euro-press party being hosted on the patio of the picturesque Villa Les Charmettes, on the outskirts of Cannes.