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UNCOVERED: Pete townshend | History Defined

Pat Kane: Have we hit the early stages of humanmaxxing?

LIVING well, dying well. Both are on my mind this week. I just discovered humanmaxxing as a phenomenon – the latest term for the ancient human…

The National (Scotland)

“I found him at the studio. I said, ‘You never called me back. I got nothing going on my career, you left me in the lurch’”: Pete Townshend offered Peter Frampton his place in the Who – then blanked him

Frampton was at an all-time low and Townshend wanted to quit touring, but it didn't quite work out

Guitar World

"I walked through it all and felt like spitting on the lot of them". How Pete Townshend's disgust with the hippies inspired The Who's most epic song

Warning: Contain's rock's most epic scream

Louder

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"We were the first heavy metal band." Roger Daltrey says The Who pioneered the genre of music we all love so much

The Who frontman says they pushed the boundaries of volume and onstage antics before anyone else

Metal Hammer

"We've been a rock band, we've been pop stars, and then we became dinosaurs. But if you can live through the dinosaur period you become a legend..." The epic story of Nazareth

Axl is a huge fan. Robert Plant owes them money. They were almost on that plane with Skynyrd. Nazareth: the full crazy story

Louder

Gibson brings back the legendary pickup used by Angus Young, BB King, Pete Townshend and more – and it just might suit your guitar down to a T

The signs were there that the T-Top was making a return when Michael Schenker's Murphy Lab Flying V shipped with a pair. Now it's officially available from the Gibson Pickup Shop

MusicRadar

Pete Townshend sells out: Primary Wave group acquires rights to Who guitarist’s music, image, likeness and name

“I know we will have a lot of fun working together” says guitarist

MusicRadar

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"I think people who were fans of grunge like Soundgarden would be floored by Swervedriver." Sugar and Hüsker Dü man Bob Mould picks the soundtrack of his life

Hüsker Dü, Sugar and solo songwriter and musician Bob Mould picks his records,artists and gigs of lasting significance

Louder

“The guitar players barely holding onto control as they go into the corners at top speed are my favorite players”: How the Dirty Nil’s sound runs on vintage Marshall power and a healthy serving of the Rat pedal

Weaned on the Stooges, Luke Bentham developed a taste early on for any player who could “peel paint” from the walls. Here, he walks through the high-volume approach behind the Dirty Nil's latest, which originally provoked a cease-and-desist from the Holy See...

Guitar World

“That song ended up being my homage to Jimmy Page... There’s this Celtic thing that we were tapping into. Like the Bert Jansch recording of Blackwaterside”: Rich Robinson on The Black Crowes’ triumphant second act

“It's the season of brotherly love,” says Robinson, as the once volatile Atlanta, Georgia rock legends return – but the ’Crowes are still flying by the seat of their pants

Guitar World

“I can't walk away, so I've come back to do the thing I know how to do best, which is play”: Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival announces 2026 lineup

Now in its seventh edition, the festival is set to take place in Austin, Texas – and features Buddy Guy, Joe Bonamassa, and John Mayer, while Trey Anastasio, Tommy Emmanuel, Julian Lage and Pete Townshend are all making their Crossroads debut

Guitar World

"It was like something from Mad Max, with all the fires and steaming bodies." Meet the rock'n'roll Forrest Gump, who turned down Jimi Hendrix, butted heads with Lemmy, and was saved from a bad trip by Pete Townshend

As Ten Years After release an expanded version of their Ssssh album, founding bassist Leo Lyons recalls a live packed with rock'n'roll flashpoints

Louder

“We thought it was throwaway and argued against it being released. It's incredible to me that it was a single. I was just trying to do my best Pete Townshend!” How bassist Andy Fraser electrified a Free classic

When Andy Fraser joined Free in 1968, he arrived as a teenage guitarist, but his melodic bass style became essential to the band’s success

Guitar World

Alfie Boe reveals the 80-year-old rocker who taught him to songwrite

As he prepares to release his first album of original material in two decades, Alfie Boe has credited Pete Townshend with helping him unlock his songwriting voice.

BANG Premier

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Louder

"We have no use for a standalone singer who doesn't play an instrument, preening themselves like a rock god": Atomic Rooster guitarist Steve Bolton on reviving the band, changing frontmen, and John Entwistle's phallic number plate

On the back of their first album in 42 years, Atomic Rooster are about to hit the road

Louder

"Eric Clapton wrote Wonderful Tonight at ours, sitting on a wheelbarrow": What happened when the bassist with one of the UK's biggest bands quit rock'n'roll for life on the farm and a travelling musical carnival

Swapping champagne and private jets for a rundown farmhouse on the Welsh border

MusicRadar

“I think Roger just got lost. Roger’s finding it difficult. I have to be careful what I say about Roger because he gets angry if I say anything about him at all": Pete Townshend has his say on Zak Starkey’s protracted dismissal from The Who

“He’ll be sacking me next,” quips the guitarist, “but that’s not to say that he sacked Zak”

Guitar World

Master the 12-string guitar: restringing, tuning and strumming made simple

Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, the Eagles, and Richie Sambora swear by 12-string guitars for sonic sparkle – after this guide, you will too

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Louder

"His performance was so far out of time, out of tune": The shambolic story of The Rolling Stones' star-studded Rock And Roll Circus

With Brian Jones falling apart on set, the Rock And Roll Circus went so badly that the planned film wasn’t released until 28 years later

Guitar World

“There is a lot of fun to be had by putting random alternative bass notes under a chord”: Pete Townshend, RayDavies and David Bowie all used thirdinversionchords – here’s why (and how) you should, too

If the idea of third inversions seems all upside down, fear not: these five examples show how easy they are to put together – and how musical they are when you apply them in a song

MusicRadar

“I'm quite interested in AI... getting some of my songs that didn’t quite work and putting them up onto Suno... there might be hits”: Why Pete Townshend is interested in using AI

But then the Who guitarist has never been afraid of tech

MusicRadar

“I was smashing a guitar at every show. I had to use this special glue called Cascamite – it’s a powdered glue and I managed to string them back together. I got very good at putting guitars together”: Pete Townshend remembers The Who’s first US tour

"I was just making sure I left my mark"

Louder

"I was bullied in 72 by a bunch of hippies": Pete Townshend names his five favourite Pete Townshend songs

Pete Townshend revealed the best songs he's written on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Guitar World

“Jeff Beck would pick up my fretless and play the craziest licks. I was in awe”: Pino Palladino’s adventures with The Who, John Mayer, Eric Clapton and his Music Man fretless bass

One of the most identifiable bass players on the planet on why he shifted back to fretted, embracing flatwounds even though they were unfashionable, and how he’s still topping the charts with the likes of Miley Cyrus, Beyoncé and Ed Sheeran

Guitar World

“These guitars are not just for blues lawyers – you can rock with one of these”: Joe Bonamassa on the vintage Gibson that makes a great power chord guitar

What makes the Gibson ES-350 so good for rock? Bonamassa says they are a real live wire, with “a lot of pop” and no shortage of low-end

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