Pete Townshend: the art school kid who wrote Tommy | Ultimate Guitarist Reunion

Why fans still care

PETE TOWNSHEND smashed his first guitar by accident. It happened at the Railway Tavern in Harrow in 1964, and then he kept doing it on purpose.

He wrote the songs, too. My Generation, Baba O’Riley and Won’t Get Fooled Again are his, and so are two whole rock operas, Tommy and Quadrophenia. Who’s Next, the album built from the wreckage of a project he abandoned, is the only album the Who ever took to number 1 in Britain.

Then there’s the windmill, that big overarm swing at the strings. By his own account, he pinched it from Keith Richards, Who’s Who number 31.

Early life and training

He was born in Chiswick, West London, on 19 May 1945, into a musical house. His father, Cliff, played alto sax in the Squadronaires, the RAF’s dance band, and his mother, Betty, was a professional singer. Seeing Rock Around the Clock in 1956 turned him on to rock ’n’ roll.

At Acton County Grammar School he met John Entwistle and Roger Daltrey, Who’s Who number 13 in · Ultimate Queen Reunion (story coming soon). He played banjo in a trad jazz band, then guitar in a group called the Scorpions, before he joined Daltrey’s band, the Detours.

He also went to art school in Ealing to study graphic design. One of his teachers there was Roy Ascott, and Ealing is where he came across auto-destructive art. His biography on the Who’s own site links that idea to the guitars he went on to wreck.

In 1964 Keith Moon, Who’s Who number 10 in · Ultimate Queen Reunion (story coming soon) joined on drums, Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp took over as managers, and for a short time the band went out as the High Numbers. Then they became the Who.

Career chapters

1. 1964First guitar smash, Railway Tavern, Harrow; Keith Moon, Who’s Who number 10 in · Ultimate Queen Reunion (story coming soon) joins
2. 1965My Generation
3. 1967Monterey Pop Festival
4. 1969Tommy
5. 1971Who’s Next, the Who’s only UK number 1 album
6. 1973Quadrophenia; organises Eric Clapton’s, Who’s Who number 3 Rainbow Concert
7. 1990Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
8. 2025The Song Is Over farewell tour

The first smash 1964

The first one wasn’t planned. At the Railway Tavern in Harrow in 1964, the guitar broke by accident. After that, smashing it was part of the show. Sources disagree on whether it was June or September, but they agree on the pub.

My Generation to Monterey 1965 to 1967

My Generation came out in 1965 and reached number 2 in Britain. Substitute followed, and I Can See for Miles in 1967.

In June 1967 the Who played the Monterey International Pop Festival, on the same bill as Jimi Hendrix, Who’s Who number 6. The two acts had to sort out the running order, and Townshend says it was Hendrix, Who’s Who number 6 who suggested a coin toss. The Who won it. “It was just Jimi on a chair playing at me,” Townshend said.

It was just Jimi on a chair playing at me.

Tommy, Who’s Next and Quadrophenia 1969 to 1975

Tommy came out in 1969. Next he started a project called Lifehouse. He abandoned it, and its songs went onto Who’s Next in 1971. That record went to number 1 in Britain, the only Who album ever to do it, and to number 4 on the Billboard 200.

He played a lot of it on a Gretsch 6120 that Joe Walsh, Who’s Who number 25 had given him in 1970. Quadrophenia followed in 1973.

In 1975 Ken Russell turned Tommy into a film, with Townshend’s music. Roger Daltrey, Who’s Who number 13 in · Ultimate Queen Reunion (story coming soon) played Tommy, Keith Moon, Who’s Who number 10 in · Ultimate Queen Reunion (story coming soon) was Uncle Ernie, Eric Clapton, Who’s Who number 3 played the Preacher, Elton John, Who’s Who number 4 in · The Ultimate Reunion (story coming soon) was the Pinball Wizard and Tina Turner, Who’s Who number 1 in · The Ultimate Reunion (story coming soon) was the Acid Queen. The film picked up two Oscar nominations, one of them for Townshend’s music.

Solo records 1972 to 1993

Alongside the Who he made records of his own: Who Came First in 1972, Rough Mix in 1977, Empty Glass in 1980, All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes in 1982, White City in 1985, The Iron Man in 1988 and Psychoderelict in 1993.

The later Who 2006 to 2026

Endless Wire, in 2006, was the first Who studio album in 24 years. Another, called simply WHO, followed in 2019. In between he wrote a memoir, Who I Am (2012), and later a novel, The Age of Anxiety (2019).

In 2017 he played the 100th performance of Tommy at the Royal Albert Hall, for the Teenage Cancer Trust. A 14-CD live box set came out in 2024, and in 2025 an 8-CD box of his solo studio work and Quadrophenia: A Mod Ballet, made with his wife, Rachel Fuller.

On 8 May 2025 the Who announced The Song Is Over, a North American farewell tour of 16 shows from 16 August to 28 September. “Well, all good things must come to an end,” Townshend said. He promised it would be “about fond memories, love and laughter”.

Craft, sound and style

Two things come to mind first: the windmill and the smash. He has explained the first himself. He assumed the windmill was part of Keith Richards, Who’s Who number 31’ act, and he kept it. “I thought it was part of his ’thing,’” Townshend said.

The second goes back to Ealing, and the auto-destructive art he came across at art school.

The rest is songwriting. He wrote big, whole-album stories when most bands were still thinking in singles, and Tommy and Quadrophenia are the proof.

Harmony, Rickenbacker, SG

His first electric, in 1962, was “a simple, single-pickup Harmony”. He “wasn’t happy until” he got his first Rickenbacker in 1964. Later in the 60s he came across the Gibson SG Special with P-90 pickups “by accident”, and the Live at Leeds guitars in early 1970 were cherry SG Specials from 1968 and 1969. Around Who’s Next he played the 1959 Gretsch 6120 from Joe Walsh, Who’s Who number 25. Since 1989 he’s mostly played Stratocasters. Finding the Fender Strat made for Eric Clapton, Who’s Who number 3 gave him “the best of two worlds”, he said, a clean Fender sound with a boost for the dirt. His Fender Custom Shop model from 2016 adds a piezo bridge, which he says picks up the sound of the body being thumped.

The Leeds sound

Before he had a Marshall he played through a Fender Bassman and a Fender Pro, and he calls the first Marshall “almost a dead copy” of the Bassman head. Mixing Sound City, later Hiwatt, with Marshall stacks is how he says he “landed the Live at Leeds sound”. At Leeds in 1970 that meant a pair of modified Hiwatt heads, a Shaftesbury Duo fuzz and a WEM tape echo. His 2010 board, built by Pete Cornish, had a T-Rex delay “for color”, a Boss OD-1 “for sustain and distortion” and a Demeter compressor.

Rhythm, palm and feedback

He named Keith Richards, Who’s Who number 31 as his biggest influence on rhythm, and said rhythm is physical, “like a dancing thing”. He gets his attack from “banging the bridge and back pickup with the palm and wrist”. “The sound I wanted was Steve Cropper, but very loud,” he said. In solos he admires players who use “very few notes”, naming Miles Davis, Wes Montgomery and John Coltrane. The semi-acoustic bodies and big speaker stacks “allowed me to refine tuneful feedback”. Bert Jansch, whom he met at art school, showed him folk players had tricks with tunings. The smashing he owns outright: “this entire guitar-smashing thing is my fault, my thing, my idea.” The first was at the Railway Tavern in Harrow in 1964.

Keyboards under the guitars

On Baba O’Riley in 1971 the pulse is a Lowrey organ on its “Marimba Repeat” setting, and on the Won’t Get Fooled Again demo a Lowrey goes through an EMS VCS3 synthesiser. He recorded the demos at home on 8 track. Producer Glyn Johns called the 1971 recordings “revolutionary in rock and roll” and Townshend “an extraordinary engineer”. Townshend also says Jimi Hendrix, Who’s Who number 6 set up his amp rig on his advice, though that’s his account only.

Stories people still tell

1. The windmill.

   By Townshend’s account, he copied it from Keith Richards, Who’s Who number 31, thinking it was part of Richards, Who’s Who number 31’ act.

2. The coin toss.

   At Monterey in 1967, by Townshend’s account, Hendrix, Who’s Who number 6 suggested tossing a coin for the running order. The Who won.

3. A guitar from Joe Walsh, Who’s Who number 25.

   In 1970 Walsh, Who’s Who number 25 gave him a Gretsch 6120, and it ended up all over Who’s Next.

4. Getting Clapton, Who’s Who number 3 back on stage.

   On 13 January 1973 he organised Eric Clapton’s, Who’s Who number 3 comeback show, the Rainbow Concert. Ronnie Wood, Who’s Who number 19 played that night too.

Legacy

The Who went into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990: Daltrey, Who’s Who number 13 in · Ultimate Queen Reunion (story coming soon), Entwistle, Moon, Who’s Who number 10 in · Ultimate Queen Reunion (story coming soon) and Townshend. U2 inducted them, and that band’s guitarist, The Edge, Who’s Who number 7, hangs in this painting too. The Hall puts the Who alongside the Beatles and the Rolling Stones among the British bands that changed rock.

The Grammys gave the Who a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. In 2008 Townshend and Daltrey, Who’s Who number 13 in · Ultimate Queen Reunion (story coming soon) were Kennedy Center honorees.

In September 2026 he had to pull out of Eric Clapton’s, Who’s Who number 3 Crossroads Guitar Festival in Austin because of injury. He pledged US$50,000 through his Double O charity to the Crossroads Centre in Antigua anyway.

A documentary, Pete Townshend: Behind Blue Eyes, premiered at film festivals in 2026.