How Roger Daltrey proved himself to Pete Townshend: “This guy knows this business”
While most rock bands aren’t quite as engineered as The Monkees, many successful outfits evolve to a professional level that transcends the friendships they were founded on. Even The Beatles, who exuded fraternal harmony, had to overlook their early drummer, Pete Best, in order to hire the more capable Ringo Starr. Later, bureaucracy lodged itself between the four members, foreshadowing an acrimonious split. The Who operated in a similar way.
Pete Townshend – the creative centre of The Who – formed his first significant musical bond with school friend John Entwistle. The pair were initially energised by the intricate yet repetitive rhythms of jazz but soon fell under the spell of rock ‘n’ roll. In 1962, they joined Roger Daltrey in his early band, The Detours. With drummer Doug Sandom, the trio formed the earliest incarnation of The Who.
Sandom was a bricklayer by day, and with a 15-year age gap between him and his bandmates, a chasm began to form. Additionally, his wife objected to his staying out late to perform with the band. The final nail landed flush when, during an audition at Fontana Records in early 1964, producer Chris Parmentier conveyed his disapproval of Sandom, leading to the band’s decision to oust him. Following a period of playing with a temporary replacement, The Who stumbled upon Keith Moon at a gig.
As the band’s de facto leader, Pete Townshend carried the most weight when tackling important decisions. It appears that Sandom, in his early 30s, didn’t fit in with the “I hope I die before I get old” motif. “I didn’t get on well with Peter Townshend,” Sandom recalled in Moon: Life and Death of a Rock Legend. “I was a few years older than he was, and he thought I should pack it in more or less because of that. I thought I was doing all right with the band, we never got slung out of nowhere, we always passed our auditions.”
Although initially managed by Peter Meaden, Townshend was and is a highly attuned individual and usually had the firmest hand on the helm. The Who’s onstage chemistry and the band’s virtuosic, often riotous displays may have presented an air of friendly cohesion, but for the most part, the group operated as a business. Daltrey and Townshend saw one another more as co-workers than close pals and clashed horns frequently due to personal and creative differences.
Infamously, the eventually abandoned Lifehouse rock opera, which was planned as a follow-up to Tommy in 1970, saw The Who at the brink. As Daltrey reflected in Anyway Anyhow Anywhere – The Complete Chronicle of The Who, they “were never nearer to breaking up”.
Fortunately, the band persevered, creating Who’s Next? from some of the left-over Lifehouse material. The album became the band’s biggest success to date, offering firm foundations for a prosperous decade ahead.
Through thick and thin, Townshend and Daltrey have cast aside their differences for the greater good. They realise they are stronger together, as one of the greatest singing and songwriting pairings of all time. Speaking to Uncut in 2015, Townshend remembered being hesitant to trust Daltrey’s judgement while touring with musicians they hadn’t played with before. Following a successful tour, he admitted, “Fuck, this guy knows this business”.
Later in the conversation, the guitarist revealed that he sometimes feels inclined to do a “crap” show before chiding demanding and indignant Who fans. “[I want to] go out in front of a bunch of devoted Who fans and say, ‘Listen, you bunch of fucking cunts. Fuck off. Don’t come back. This is the last time I’m ever going to fucking say anything that’s even slightly nice to you,'” he said jovially. Townshend then revealed that Daltrey had done a few “walk-offs” in his time, seemingly showing some respect for the singer’s unyielding personality. It seems that the fire that fuels acrimony between Daltrey and Townshend also keeps them together in mutual respect.
